RMRC Nano Skyhunter + DTFc + dRonin

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RMRC Nano Skyhunter + DTFc + dRonin

LitterBug

@mlyle doing up his Nano goblin has given me the itch. Finally going to throw one of the the DTFcs into this plank.

karl-fpv1.jpeg

Cheers!
LitterBug

LitterBug

Been dragging my feet on this, but finally found my missing DTFcs and have everything wired up for easy insertion into any of my planes. This should blow AS3X away at a fraction of the cost.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4690/38501768585_f7f2d06c17_o.jpg

dtfcx.jpeg

Specs:
FC/PDB: DTFc
Firmware: dRonin
RX: Frsky R-XSR
Power in: XT-60F
Power Out: XT-60M to ESC and JST for FPV
Beeper: YES
LED pinheader: YES
voltage and Current monitoring: YES
OpenTX telemetry: YES
PWM channels out: 6
Weight: 30g

Power rail on the DTFc PWM outputs is not connected to 5V by default. Power from ESC will be feeding the power to the servos through the DTFC PWM power rail. Just need to finish drawing up a case for the FC and 3D print it.

Cheers!
LitterBug

LitterBug

And in actuality, I ended up getting a Nano Goblin, and it's going in there instead....

nanogoblin.jpeg

LitterBug

FINALLY got the Goblin out to the field two nights this week and maiden flight. Had a hard, OK Impossible, time getting it in the air. Had I done a proper pre-flight, I would have noticed that the Roll and Pitch axis were swapped. This was not due to Input config, but rather the left servo needed to be reversed. Thought that had been done and saved a while ago, but appears it didn't save. D'OH. Didn't damage the the goblin one bit. This is one tough puppy. Did manage to knock the lens and holder off the AIO camera/vtx so was unable to do any FPV the first night. Did fix the servo issue and got a quick LOS flight in. Tried to repair the Camera, but unfortunately the sensor must have been damaged as well since it's just black... :-( Threw a different one on and got it out to the field the following night. Managed to get 3-4 flights, of about 40 minutes of total flight time, in full manual control, out of one charge with 30% left on the pack. Got roll and pitch trims set and then adjusted on the inputs tab of GCS. Ready to start playing with Acro/Rate mode next time out. Did some gliding from a few 100' up at 0 throttle, which then I realized that 0 throttle disarm was still enabled at 30 seconds when trying to feed power in close to the ground. D'OH again!. Managed to do a controlled ditch in the high grass at the end of the field. Need to add a beeper, which might have made recovery a tad bit shorter. Weather was not all that great today which gave me time to update to the latest next, fix the 0 throttle disarm, and bump rates up. Looking forward to next trip to the field. Will test rate mode and work on setting up leveling as well.

goblinchair.jpeg

Cheers!
LitterBug

LitterBug

Revisiting my planks this spring. I've tidied up the Nano Goblin and balanced out the CG better. I've also been playing with another DTFc and a R9 Mini. It is going into a new Nano Skyhunter. Starting to get a better handle on manual tuning so I can fly in modes other than manual. I'll be using the TxPID module to play with the PIDs in air to get a better tune so I'll be able to fly with rate and leveling modes. Pics and Vids soon...

Cheers!
LitterBug

raemin_bis

I keep my last seppuku for a cool fixed wing project, but to be honest dedicated airplane controllers are easier to setup. As the processors are slow (Feiyu and Cyclops are F1 based), there is basically no stabilisation, so the controllers do focus on autoleveling and navigation, which is much more easy to dial in. dRonin would need much more TXPIDs outputs in order to properly dial P&I on the three axis. Also you can go airborne even without a GPS-Lock which is a real plus for an airplane: once the plane as reached some altitude the lock is so to say instantaneous. Last but not least waypoint definition can be performed through the OSD.

By contrast,
1) these are worthless with unstable airframe
2) they lack proper tracking (rudder control), which makes me seasick quite fast
3) no customizable OSD layout
4) heavy
5) Programming diff/flaperon/spoileron is impossible without external mixers.

So dRonin is the way to go for lighweight / agile / fast fixed wing but tuning the beast is a challenge.

LitterBug

Yeah, I'm not looking for full autonomy out of these tiny 2 axis planks, just basic stabilization and telemetry. With an R-XSR or R9 mini for an RX, I get battery monitoring back to my X9D+ and the possibility of adding a small GPS for lost model location with a script that YDS has for dRonin. I have a couple F405-wing controllers for my larger wings. I can run iNav or the chibios version of ArduPilot on those FCs.

LB