MicroArduCopter, 3" props, Omnibus Nano, Success!

ArduCopter Copter 3.6
924

I had ordered one directly from Holybro, but they emailed asking if V3 was OK because it had replaced V2. When I responded to cancel, I mentioned that V3 wouldn’t work for Ardupilot. When they confirmed my order cancellation, they also mentioned that they would “keep V2 alive”. I don’t suppose that means many retailers will stock V2, but hopefully ordering direct from Holybro will be an option again in the future. I have responded to ask when they might have V2 in stock again and I’ll post here if I get a response.

It seems V2 stock is indeed very low now. I ended up ordering from Australia as I couldn’t find any US distributors. Even the Ebay listings that specified V2 in China and the one in the US was actually V3 when I asked them to confirm.

–Brad

925

It’s a shame as the v2 was a good improvement and they hardly gave time for people to try it out before killing it.

926

Depending on what they meant by “keep V2 alive”, perhaps there is still hope.

927

Thanks for the detailed post! Wanted to comment days ago, but have been too busy this summer…
Your build looks great. I love the crossfire system, though as you’ve seen its telemetry implementation isn’t perfect. Never had an issue w/ range, though. I’ve got 2.4 video on a couple of my little copters, and can fly for miles. I’ve found the same size gps from MRO performs better for me in my location.

About the gimbal…
Has anyone looked in to building one recently? I built one for a 250mm size copter a couple years ago. The smallest motors I could find are 1806’s. That was perfect for the camera I had at the time, but could definitely get by w/ smaller motors now. The 3 1806’s are about 60 grams together.
Also, I used the storm32 system, which doesn’t appear to have much recent development. The people who offered boards are all sold out w/ no signs of making another run.

I’m curious if anyone has built one recently and knows of any newer, smaller components.
I’m starting a build for a split camera now. Just going to use 1806 motors and big storm32 board I’ve already got for now, but would love to make it smaller. Plan is to mount the split PCB on the yaw motor, and let it rotate w/ the rest of the gimbal. Pitch and roll will be somewhat limited by the camera cable length, but should be good enough.

928

If it helps I finally solved my Split VTX interference issues - it was the battery supply to the Split, caps and TVS diode stopped it blowing up but still a lot of noise. Adding one of these completely killed the noise: https://www.banggood.com/2PCS-LANTIAN-LC-Filter-Module-DC-Power-Video-Signal-Wave-Filter-1S-6S-For-FPV-System-RC-Drone-p-1296811.html

1 Like
929

My flash logging change is merged - should be substantially better than the status quo

1 Like
930

If I’ve been running your small copter branch, I guess I’ve already been using the flash changes?

Which split cam are you using? 1,2,3,4,hybrid?

931

Yes, but I made a fairly significant fix on Friday, so make sure you have the latest.

Split 3s Mini on my 3" which is where I had the interference problems - 1/1.5A rated output on the KakuteF7 Mini was not enough so had to go direct to battery.

932

Thanks. All of mine are direct to battery. I’ve got the interference managed to where it works well enough. But takes 10 minutes to get a solid lock. I’m definitely installing one tonight, assuming I can find the little filter. (I had a couple laying around a year or so ago…)

933

Hi, look this:

2 Likes
934

Thanks! Looks like he rewound his motors, which I assumed would likely be necessary. It’s a shame there aren’t commercial motor options. I rewound motors for the first gimbal I made ~7 years ago, but those were much bigger motors. And I had a lot more time, better vision, and steady hands back then…

1 Like
935

Thanks for the suggestion. I’ve ordered the full size version to test. It will directly fit the mounting posts I already have on the current version of my frame without any adapter. It is only a couple of grams heavier than what I’m using now and the full size ground plane should help a lot.

936

Good news…
Arthur. J at holybro.com responded to my email and said that the “Next batch of Kakute F7 mini v2 is scheduled to be available in 3 weeks.”
Now that they understand that we can’t use the V3, I can’t see why they wouldn’t keep building these as long as they are selling well. On the other hand, Ardupilot may be the only firmware which can’t run on V3 and we may not buy enough V2 to make it worth their trouble in the long run.
–Brad

937

I’ll certainly buy a couple. I only have the v1’s. And, I want to build a new copter for the gimbal I recently posted about.

938

OSD parameter manipulation is merged

939

@andyp1per, can you clarify? I think you are saying the LC filter solved some visual noise on the video feed, which is quite common and seems to be what this filter is intended for. But we were also discussing interference with GPS. Are you saying it helped with this too?
Thanks!
–Brad

940

Just helped the video - I don’t have any GPS interference issues that I am aware of.

941

OH, thanks for the clarification. I’m trying to improve GPS reception.
For video interference, I just use a big cap… Some super low ESR oscon caps… Although the LC filter might be lighter… I should check that.

942

Yeah, big cap made a bit of difference for me but not nearly enough

943

Hi friends, I crashed my tiny 2 "quad because it was rocket into the sky.
It’s probably the vibrations, but the failsafe vibration doesn’t seem to work well. Unfortunately my flight controller has no logs so I can only guess.
I had to disarm the engines in flight.
I have put a few more details here: