I thought some of the original flight controllers had onboard flash memory, but it was taken out in the pixhawk era… So maybe there is code around that could be looked at… (maybe I’m wrong…)
The mobius mini I’m using w/ my small gimbal weighs about 30 grams, so I’m sure that raspberry camera would be no problem. I’ve already given the rest of the details… Not much to it. Storm32 board, 1806 rcx gimbal motors. You can see the frame I built in my post above from Nov28th. I don’t actually know how much it weighs.
I haven’t found smaller gimbal motors yet, but someone else mentioned using DJI gimbal motors which can be found on ebay. I haven’t looked in to them yet, but I think they’re probably smaller than 1806’s.
Yes, you are right, I don’t know what I was thinking. The APM FC only has dataflash memory.
it is so odd, i got 3 ori32 boards. and on one of them the current sensor produces weird reading - it shows 0.1A at loiter, on the bench test max readout from it goes to 3A at full throttle - but as it burns through lipo during flight i can say it is around of 4-5A at loiter, as any other. i have never seen current sensor to lie like that - it usually either worked or did not, at all. so odd.
and i realized i did not post my latest - i finally got rubber posts and finished that 3" gecko, on emax rs1306 400kv motors - it came up rather nice, at 155g weight. draws 4A at loiter - acceptable enough, on 850Mah 4S lipo.
now i am out of parts and frames and it is probably enough. 
just wish softserial was written for nano v6 - it would be nice to have yaapu script working.
huh, and owl - that one i remade using tachyon t1108 5000kv motors on 3s. it got to ok flight time of 7-8 min this way, but still has no lidar, not sure if i want any more weight on it.
indoors it is now not very stable, so i may add it later. will see. inside it is same nano v6 and ori32.
Those are both looking good. I’m going to rebuild mine on a double stack style frame next year… Too busy w/ year end/holiday stuff now to do it.
If you haven’t retuned the owl, it might need it. I’d bet the smaller motors need higher PID’s. That might make it more stable.
Yep, retuned all. I want to try that new i2c lidar that fires up to 6m, it is smaller than esp8266 chip, would be a perfect solution to fly owl indoors. But it will need a driver, i think i can try to handle it.
btw, owl on those motors takes 3A to loiter, using 850mah 3S lipo. i was pleasantly surprised. too bad i cannot see now what 4" gecko consumes on those 4" props. but, i think, it all is in the same ballpark now - from 10 to 8 minutes or calm flying or about of 6 of burning it mad - which is not bad. better than 3 minutes, anyway.
what i liked the best so far was this camera -
pricey, but, impressive progress. Very clear nice image. what they have in it now is the ability to show timer and voltage meter, just from the camera itself. pretty neat for osd-less controllers.
i saw new split cam mini for $69 - a new one on the single board - but did not bulge - not sure i want to spend more now after this building frenzy i had is over, but, would be nice to know if it also interferes with gps in the same bad way as its bigger sibling. i think somebody on the rcgroups wrote that it does same level of interference, so, i am skeptical.
this nice small foxeer has 0 impact - you can see matek sitting right on its head and it takes 12 sats in 20-30 sec time.
a whole collection now:
I got this new mini split V2, so I’ll let you know when my build is done. I’m still waiting for the frame to start my build, all other parts arrived.
I’m still wondering what light parts I could use for telemetry (to mission planner, not to Taranis) with real telemetry downlink (not a wifi ESP8266 which does not work very far apparently). If need, I’ll strip a telemetry unit from all unecessary enclosures and connectors and I’ll make a light 433Mhz dipole antenna myself.
i understand the benefit of having MP connected 100% of the time to the model, but, for small frame ones there is no simple way of getting it done. in 450mm or tarot it does not matter - there i can use a proper old style radio link to pump out full scope duplex telemetry stream but on a small one, not sure what is the point.
esp8266 gives 100m or so distance, allows to load up missions and control model from the cell phone - for me that is good enough. i am not aware of anything else, unfortunately, that would work for a 1+ mile range and would be small enough to fit 5"-6" model.
Have you considered one of the postage stamp modems.
This is the 433 but I know there is a 900mhz version as well.
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This is a great find. Thanks!
post here what factual range you will get from it - they say there 100mA, i kinda doubt if it is indeed true. but, who knows.
i see there a wi-fi module they claim up to 800m, also kinda doubtful…
Nice find too. Unfortunately out of stock as often on, Hobbyking.
looks nice on the picture, but, i suspect it is just a glorified esp8266, so, highly doubt the 800m range. but, who knows.
first radio module has odd antenna on it, i would think if they had an external dipole it could work - but with this soldered on patch one - also doubtful.
talking of other devices - i just other day found something i did not know existed - it is a video receiver that pumps stream into an android tablet or phone
i did not test it yet, but, for me it looks to be somewhat useful.
I have one on order as well as the bigger brother version of it. FUAV also makes the eachine version you can buy from Banggood.
Also here is the other transmitter, this is my preferred version, not sure about range. I think 500m or so, honestly not sure its for a mini quad and I never fly them out that far.
it is an interesting stuff, that OTG. i wonder how well it actually looks in something like google daydream vr on that phone, compared to $400 fatsharks. 
i did not see dual diversity one on amazon, too bad. i have prime there, so it is handy to get it with 2 day free shipping.
Another option is moving to something like this. A number of us have moved in this direction and telemetry is embedded in the system. I can’t speak to the range question but the operational aspects are awesome.
Well, i hope in some future time we should eventually get a 3rd party digital video transmission solution similar to what dji is using, so, i am not really inclined to ditch taranis yet, especially after i got that small xlite one, it is actually pretty neat to use. Will see. But, i do not fly planes and do not really need crazy long range.
Skydroid has an HD system coming.
I have seen a few videos on it. Very cool