Hello everyone,
I am new to the FPV world, and after about 5 years of watching it evolve and playing only with an old-school u818a for years, I decided to make the plunge into FPV with a Tinywhoop in the form of a TinyGo 4k.
I ordered it directly from the chinese headquarters through geprc.com because they were the only folks shipping it with the new GR8 (as of January) transmitter which boasts a USB-C connection on it. I did this because I had hopes that it might interact with a simulator.
I have a number of questions that would apply only to fellow Linux Users, and then some general use questions of the drone.
First and foremost - I am Very satisfied with this purchase.
I owned the drone for 3 days before my first big crash. My work is located inside a gigantic industrial warehouse whose working footprint is only 1/4 of the entire of the warehouse itself. The remaining 3/4 is mostly storage, 34 foot ceilings, and plenty of room - over 250 yards wide and long with wonderfully placed support beams and columns.
Every day at lunch, I fly it in this, just enjoying the space, and the worldbecoming suddenly much smaller at the speed this drone can reach indoors without wind.
My first crash lead to my first rebuild, and learning what goes into building (and rebuilding) a quad. Thankfully the repair only truly required a new motor, but i ordered a new VTX board, and additional motors, as well as other pieces, knowing that I might need them in the future (I did not realize that the vtx antenna was glued, and i thought i'd permanently damaged it in the crash).
Long rambling shortened, Here are the questions which I have:
GEPRC as well as other locations advertize this drone has having up to 6 minutes of flight time.
I average about 3:30, and that is REALLY cutting it close, often leading to the land now warning on my goggles by doing this.
Keeping throttle level low, I can expand it quite a bit, but my flight time is truly small.
1) Will lowering any of the limits, such as the vtx broadcast lengthen the flight time at all? I'm not sure how to make adjustments to the drone from the controller in order to do things like this.
Betaflight boots with the drone, and in doing so, it states something on the goggles for about 10 seconds saying, Enter Menu - Throttle at 50, Yaw <- Pitch ^| How do I go about doing this on the controller? I'm not sure I am doing this correctly. Is there a method in which I am supposed to access the menu using the drone?
The documentation that this drone comes with is sub-par at best, and the support information online is actually worse.
2) What are some additional methods which I can use in order to expand on the amount of flight time? Remember: I am running linux. And while I have downloaded the linux version of betaflight configurator, I cannot seem to get my tinygo nor my GR8 transmitter to interface with my betaflight configurator version. Is there an additional driver which I need to source or download in order to interface my drone and transmitter with betaflight configurator on linux? Clicking connect doesn't seem to do anything when I try to do this.
3) Is there a reliable resource for Linux users to operate betaflight and similar? Is there a subgroup of users located on a particular forum in doing so ?
4) What batteries can I use that are ph2.0 that will work with this drone? Preliminary googling indicates that other PH2.0 batteries will work, but i do not understand what the 90c and 180c means. Are these crucial for the activity and use of the battery in the drone? Will too varied a c rating damage the drone?
I have no problem in velcroing the battery lower on the drone, in some way, or making an additional harness if the larger batteries would not be a good idea because of their size. but if their functionality is good, I have a means around it, like I used to do with my u818a drone which I started on.
If there are any particular sites besides youtube which I could go to for learning more about the TinyGO specifically, I would trully appreciate this.
I am so glad that I finally pulled the trigger with this little tinywhoop, because now that I have, I finally have a better understanding about how these FPV drones work, and am excited to move forward soon into a different design and build and ultimately build my own.
Thank you for your time in reading this request.
I am new to the FPV world, and after about 5 years of watching it evolve and playing only with an old-school u818a for years, I decided to make the plunge into FPV with a Tinywhoop in the form of a TinyGo 4k.
I ordered it directly from the chinese headquarters through geprc.com because they were the only folks shipping it with the new GR8 (as of January) transmitter which boasts a USB-C connection on it. I did this because I had hopes that it might interact with a simulator.
I have a number of questions that would apply only to fellow Linux Users, and then some general use questions of the drone.
First and foremost - I am Very satisfied with this purchase.
I owned the drone for 3 days before my first big crash. My work is located inside a gigantic industrial warehouse whose working footprint is only 1/4 of the entire of the warehouse itself. The remaining 3/4 is mostly storage, 34 foot ceilings, and plenty of room - over 250 yards wide and long with wonderfully placed support beams and columns.
Every day at lunch, I fly it in this, just enjoying the space, and the worldbecoming suddenly much smaller at the speed this drone can reach indoors without wind.
My first crash lead to my first rebuild, and learning what goes into building (and rebuilding) a quad. Thankfully the repair only truly required a new motor, but i ordered a new VTX board, and additional motors, as well as other pieces, knowing that I might need them in the future (I did not realize that the vtx antenna was glued, and i thought i'd permanently damaged it in the crash).
Long rambling shortened, Here are the questions which I have:
GEPRC as well as other locations advertize this drone has having up to 6 minutes of flight time.
I average about 3:30, and that is REALLY cutting it close, often leading to the land now warning on my goggles by doing this.
Keeping throttle level low, I can expand it quite a bit, but my flight time is truly small.
1) Will lowering any of the limits, such as the vtx broadcast lengthen the flight time at all? I'm not sure how to make adjustments to the drone from the controller in order to do things like this.
Betaflight boots with the drone, and in doing so, it states something on the goggles for about 10 seconds saying, Enter Menu - Throttle at 50, Yaw <- Pitch ^| How do I go about doing this on the controller? I'm not sure I am doing this correctly. Is there a method in which I am supposed to access the menu using the drone?
The documentation that this drone comes with is sub-par at best, and the support information online is actually worse.
2) What are some additional methods which I can use in order to expand on the amount of flight time? Remember: I am running linux. And while I have downloaded the linux version of betaflight configurator, I cannot seem to get my tinygo nor my GR8 transmitter to interface with my betaflight configurator version. Is there an additional driver which I need to source or download in order to interface my drone and transmitter with betaflight configurator on linux? Clicking connect doesn't seem to do anything when I try to do this.
3) Is there a reliable resource for Linux users to operate betaflight and similar? Is there a subgroup of users located on a particular forum in doing so ?
4) What batteries can I use that are ph2.0 that will work with this drone? Preliminary googling indicates that other PH2.0 batteries will work, but i do not understand what the 90c and 180c means. Are these crucial for the activity and use of the battery in the drone? Will too varied a c rating damage the drone?
I have no problem in velcroing the battery lower on the drone, in some way, or making an additional harness if the larger batteries would not be a good idea because of their size. but if their functionality is good, I have a means around it, like I used to do with my u818a drone which I started on.
If there are any particular sites besides youtube which I could go to for learning more about the TinyGO specifically, I would trully appreciate this.
I am so glad that I finally pulled the trigger with this little tinywhoop, because now that I have, I finally have a better understanding about how these FPV drones work, and am excited to move forward soon into a different design and build and ultimately build my own.
Thank you for your time in reading this request.
