tevek
Well-Known Member
Hi, the DJI goggles use an xt60 lead that you can plug a 3S/4S battery into. The lead itself is stupid long and I’ll be looking at getting an aftermarket goggle strap to tidy it up.
Newbie asking for help on choosing equipment
- Thread starter bzmot
- Start date
Hey guys!
Got LiftOff, been practicing, it's going well though I crash all the time of course.
Now the charger came in the mail. I read the manual but I still have a silly question I couldn't find an answer online:
The LiPo battery I use for the radio has a normal XT30 plug and the balancing plug. Should I connect only the XT30 to the charger's (Imax)
banana sockets (I have the adapter) or both the XT30 and the balancing plug should be connected while charging?
And bonus question: should I use the balance charging or the normal charging for this LiPo battery? I'm guessing the balance charging but why is there a normal charging option for those batteries?
And the last one: if I did my homework correctly, I should charge my battery at 1C (it doesn't have a rating so I'm assuming that). That means for 3500mAh the maximum amperage I set on the charger should be 3.5A, correct?
Attach both the XT30 and the balance lead and charge it on lipo balance. Normal charging will not do a balance cycle and that is why it is discouraged, but if the battery is very well balanced already and you want to save a little time by skipping the balance cycle you can use the charge option, but I never do and balance charge every time for good measure. Yes you should be charging at 1C though you can charge faster if you choose, but that is easiest on the battery chemistry. I only occasionally will charge at 2 or 3C if I am in a real hurry to get a few packs ready, but I ALWAYS babysit my charger and keep a feel on battery temps and any swelling.
I have learnt so much in the last weeks thanks to some research and you guys! Thank you again!
Now that I am learning to fly I decided to give the tutorial part at LiftOff a try. There is a section when they tell you to just fly in a straight line, clear the gates using only thrust and pitch. In their video the drone flies straight as an arrow. Unfortunately when I try to emulate this the drone drifts heavily to the left even before it takes off the ground. As you can see in the video below it starts to move to the left even though the only stick I touch is the thrust and I am doing it very very gently.
I can try and counter but I am just trying to see if this is normal or maybe I am doing someting wrong? I would hate this to be harder than it needs to be...
I have calibrated everything twice, once in the game and once in the radio itself. I have also tried using trims but they're not much help....
Any ideas?
A couple of things come to mind here, first, this isn't real so it is dependent on the programming characteristics, and second, any time you stay close to the ground you get turbulence from the prop wash hitting the ground and "bouncing" back up and affecting flight, the same happens in real life. Stop being gentle, give it a good blip of throttle and get some altitude away from the ground and give it a try. You also say you calibrated everything but that statement alone really doesn't say that it is calibrated correctly, but it could be, I just don't know.
Hey @bzmot, also try to actually move forward, everything is a little easier with some forward motion, but I think you will need a little yaw or roll to actually do it so I would say there throttle/pitch only approach is unrealistic to say the least.
If you had to increase the dead band then either your not calibrated to 1500 steady on center roll stick or you have a noisy gimbal(s).
Not sure what 1500 steady is. The radio and gimbals are brand new (FX7), but I did take the ratchet off the throttle, maybe I messed something up there.
I doubt you messed something up, and many people never look at or understand what this means, but our quads want to see control inputs between 1000 and 2000 exactly for the endpoints (low and high) and they want a steady non jittery 1500 at dead middle stick (roll/pitch/yaw only, throttle has no spring to center). If you are not adjusted correctly you will not be sitting on exactly 1500 for pitch/roll/yaw and the quad will move slightly in that direction when it is something other than 1500. You never want to use your trim switches on the radio for this, and you want to make sure you are at "trim center" for all 4 trim switches before adjusting your Outputs section of the model. This is a super old video, and using Dead band to fix the jitters of noisy sticks is a last resort after the output adjustments fail to get you steady at 1500, but this video will give you an idea of what I am talking about.
Here is a little newer video, and it is with a Jumper instead of your QX7, but the concept and theory is the same. Digest these 2 and let me know if you have any questions.
Here is a little newer video, and it is with a Jumper instead of your QX7, but the concept and theory is the same. Digest these 2 and let me know if you have any questions.
I have the endpoints set on my QX7 and just tried LiftOff and if I just give it throttle, it hovers steady with no side movement.
Thanks again!!
I watched the first video but I was not clear about the Betaflight software. I'm guessing he is connecting the receiver on the quad to his computer right? I don't have a quad yet, just the radio, so I guess I can't do this 1500 configuration?
The betaflight configurator I have does not recognize my Taranis radio when I connect it to the Mac. But maybe it's not supposed to?
Sorry, I know these questions seem silly but I'm a bit lost again.
Totally agree with Scv Flyer and was going to say the same. There's no way around the "DIY" nature of this hobby. For most of us, that's a BIG part of the draw. I've heard folks say, "I don't which I enjoy most: building my quads or flying them." The well is deep and the learning curve is steep, but the hobby is rewarding. The ability to make and post a video like "Viking Valley Fall" is the end of a LONG journey. The videos are impressive on their own, but once you're in the hobby, you develop a new level of appreciation for what it took that pilot to get there.
Like you, I started with DJI products (Mavic and Phantom) but wanted more excitement and more options. The DJI mindset is that a crash is unlikely, but if it happens, you send it in for repair. In the world of FPV, crashing is par for the course. It will happen DAILY when you fly. So, even if you get everything ready to go, right out of the box, you WILL crash it and then you'll either have to give up the hobby or learn to fix it. The community is here to help.
A good suggestion, if you've got the budget, would be to buy one of the RTF kits folks talked about above and simultaneously buy the parts needed to build a second quad. If possible, buy the parts for the second quad to be identical to the one you buy prebuilt. Then you'll get in the air sooner (with the RTF), but the process of learning to build your second quad will get you ready for when your first one needs a repair. An excellent site is rotorbuilds.com. Folks post their quad builds there and build guides that sometimes include step by step instructions and videos. The best one's even get into the betaflight setup, binding, etc. So, you can truly go from a box of parts to flying your quad.
I would also strongly recommend buying a small 1s or 2s Whoop style quad. These are the little guys that have the ducts (you were calling tubes) around the propellers. You can fly these inside on a rainy day and they are really a lot of fun. Along with flying in the simulator, flying these whoops really improves your flying quickly. But they get crashed and have to be repaired, too. I particularly like the BetaFPV 75x. . I've got 3 or 4 of them.
Also buy all the other gear you'll need (soldering iron (the TS100 is highly recommended), solder, spare parts, hex driver wrench set, shrink tube, heat gun, various M2, M3, M4, M5 screws and hardware, liquid electrical tape, conformal coating, etc).
You'll need a charger. Do your research. Learn about "parallel charging". It's fast but can be dangerous if you do it wrong. So you may want to spend more on a multiport charger. Watch Youtube videos. There's lots of great content out there, but Joshua Bardwell is the king of great and helpful videos in FPV.
Regarding your DJI Racing Edition goggles: I've hearding something about them having a receiver in them that you might be able to use with an FPV quad, but that it has tremendous latency. Latency matters less with a Mavic or other DJI drone, but a few extra seconds of latency on an FPV quad will eventually be devastating. Buy some goggles (DJI or Analog) that are made for FPV.
Good luck!
Like you, I started with DJI products (Mavic and Phantom) but wanted more excitement and more options. The DJI mindset is that a crash is unlikely, but if it happens, you send it in for repair. In the world of FPV, crashing is par for the course. It will happen DAILY when you fly. So, even if you get everything ready to go, right out of the box, you WILL crash it and then you'll either have to give up the hobby or learn to fix it. The community is here to help.
A good suggestion, if you've got the budget, would be to buy one of the RTF kits folks talked about above and simultaneously buy the parts needed to build a second quad. If possible, buy the parts for the second quad to be identical to the one you buy prebuilt. Then you'll get in the air sooner (with the RTF), but the process of learning to build your second quad will get you ready for when your first one needs a repair. An excellent site is rotorbuilds.com. Folks post their quad builds there and build guides that sometimes include step by step instructions and videos. The best one's even get into the betaflight setup, binding, etc. So, you can truly go from a box of parts to flying your quad.
I would also strongly recommend buying a small 1s or 2s Whoop style quad. These are the little guys that have the ducts (you were calling tubes) around the propellers. You can fly these inside on a rainy day and they are really a lot of fun. Along with flying in the simulator, flying these whoops really improves your flying quickly. But they get crashed and have to be repaired, too. I particularly like the BetaFPV 75x. . I've got 3 or 4 of them.
Also buy all the other gear you'll need (soldering iron (the TS100 is highly recommended), solder, spare parts, hex driver wrench set, shrink tube, heat gun, various M2, M3, M4, M5 screws and hardware, liquid electrical tape, conformal coating, etc).
You'll need a charger. Do your research. Learn about "parallel charging". It's fast but can be dangerous if you do it wrong. So you may want to spend more on a multiport charger. Watch Youtube videos. There's lots of great content out there, but Joshua Bardwell is the king of great and helpful videos in FPV.
Regarding your DJI Racing Edition goggles: I've hearding something about them having a receiver in them that you might be able to use with an FPV quad, but that it has tremendous latency. Latency matters less with a Mavic or other DJI drone, but a few extra seconds of latency on an FPV quad will eventually be devastating. Buy some goggles (DJI or Analog) that are made for FPV.
Good luck!
Thank you so much, this has been a great read! Off to Amazon now to get that soldering iron and the rest I guess
I got the charger already, luckily, the iMax B6AC V2. It will do the trick, don't care much about parallel charging for now, safety first
Got the LiPO bag too. I'll post here whatever videos I make when I get the first quads. For now it's LiftOff. Thanks again and I will be sure to come back with more questions!
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A few additional questions:
1. Can you recommend any particular goggles? Nothing too heavy with good quality screens.
2.If I go for the DJI system, will the quad usually come with the DJI unit or will they be analog or will the choice be up to me and the video receiver will have to be extra?
3. Are goggles usually powered by an external battery (sort of dangling on the side...)?
4. I'd love to start on with a whoop to practice indoors. Will all those whoops have receivers that support FRSky radios (X7 in this case)? Or is this something I have to make sure about before purchasing?
5. Will the whoops and/or quads in general usually work under Betaflight?
6. Will they have a USB port usually so I can configure them on a PC/Mac with the configurator?
7. As far as the analog system is concerned, are there different ones to choose from or only one gold standard?
8. It was mentioned before in this thread that analog would give me greater distances but the image quality is not great so it
would be
9. Do analog goggles usually come with an SD port/screen recording so I can have videos of those flights before I set up a GoPro?1. Is the OSD a function of goggles or of the flight controller or of both? Will I usually have altitude and battery voltage displayed in the goggles or do I need to buy something extra to have that?
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