Quadmcfly

15/05/2024

Another whoop joins the family. Big thanks to for the parts! Trying out the new 0703 23000kv motors on 35mm props. Not going to lie this thing flies amazing with a lot more flexibility than my 31mm in 0702, and gets better flight times. The 0702 basically has to use the 31mm HQ ultralight props only to fly well and still struggles at times. The 35mm props on the larger motors feels more in control even though it's 3g heavier, but you definitely feel the momentum. I'm going to drop the 31mm setup into a lighter frame, but for now I'm super happy with this new setup.

In other news I used an old beat up cam/VTX combo from an original Babyhawk, and I'm surprised at how much I like it. I was able to repin the connector on the bottom to get full OSD support and I think I like the picture better than the Pinch that is in my other tinywhoop. The picture is clearer and less saturated when comparing the two, the Emax is just a heavier camera by a bit. The 35mm setup handles it fine though.

Anyway a fun build this weekend! Hope you all got some flying in!

$drone

02/04/2024

Been flying this early prototype of the GetFPV Lumenier Johnny FPV QAV-S 2 for over 6 months now. Put some new shoes on it a few weeks ago, trying out these AMAXshop Competition Bando 2306 2550kv motors, and they definitely haven't disappointed. Big thanks to AMAX for sending them to me to check out.

I'm still flying some of the original AMAX motors on a few of my setups, and I've always been pretty impressed with their stuff. These seem to be following in the same vein. They've done some interesting stuff with the way they protect the lower bell section, adding material where the strength is needed without adding so much that the weight goes way up. They also do a great job of making sure the magnets stay secure even under abuse. The fact they were able to accomplish what they have with a sub 32g motor is pretty impressive honestly. The finish on these is beautiful as well, though to be honest I miss the black and gold from some of their earlier stuff a bit!

4S 2550kv is probably my favorite combination, especially on snappy props like the Gemfan Hurricane X props. I was upgrading from Emax FS2306 2400kv motors which are lower Kv than I usually run, so moving back to the extra pop is nice. Here's a quick flight I got in last week with these. https://youtu.be/b38k9o1WU0A?si=Hsm_8ft71kVrDz9r

02/03/2024

I'm super excited to finally be able to share this beast. We've been working on this design for almost a year, and it has been worth the wait. I've been flying the prototype for months now and it has rapidly become the first drone I grab! Absolutely killer frame!

the team really delivered!

27/08/2023

Finally got the production QAV-S 2 Bardwell frame up and running! This thing is an absolute beauty! It's a monster with those 2407 2600kv motors. A tad on the heavy side with a 30x30 stack, but loads of power. Check out my Rotorbuilds page for more details.

-s2

25/08/2023

Oooh something fun happening at the university where I work! I have plans for this let me tell you!

24/04/2023

I got my basic presets added to Betaflight Configurator! Jump on there and give them a try! Once folks have a chance for some feedback we'll get them moved from Experimental to Community. Please post any feedback on the pull requests. Thanks Betaflight for all the hard work.

22/04/2023

I just realized I've been forgetting to post my videos over here! If you aren't connected to my YouTube, I'm posting things over there. Check out my latest video flying the always amazing EFAW motors. I really wish those things were still around!

So I finally got around to pulling one of my favorite quads off the shelf and getting it back in the air. I've been flying a couple other setups regularly an...

01/02/2023

Check out this mini documentary done by a student at the university where I work! Very nicely done by Nick Cox https://www.youtube.com/-cinematic6887

https://youtu.be/CjdANwwK2Vk

The journey into FPV for me has come from, and gone to, some interesting and probably unusual places for the hobby. I got started out of homebrew robotics, d...

23/01/2023

I've been volunteering for a while now at a local elementary school to help teach a class on drone technology. It's the beginning of the new term, and I always get to go out and do a demonstration flight for the kids. This year's batch of kids is super excited, and it's always great to share the hobby with some new blood.

Also was a chance to try out the latest stuff in the Betaflight 4.4 release candidates. This was a chance to use the new cloud build system, which was pretty cool, and try out the new antigravity code and other new features. I compiled a super minimal version for my FC with just the basics to see how it would work with a non-default build, and everything went well. I'm impressed with the new cloud build options. I'm still waiting on support for the new HD canvas mode in DJI, but I hear that's coming after the CNY.

Flight handling on 4.4 is amazing! No complaints, and the tune was pretty solid for a first pass. I think my P gains are still a tad high, but it's 90% there. Nothing too impressive for the flying, I was just flying past the kids for the most part and trying to get a feel for anything different with 4.4. Mostly a wide open space and I was trying to be careful of spectators. Still a fun day of flying, and I love seeing the kids get excited! They'll be flying the Emax EZPilot soon once they spend some time in the simulators, and they're already chomping at the bit!

06/01/2023

05/01/2023

So there's a lot of new stuff going on here, and I have some thoughts! I got the new Goggles 2 and O3 Air Unit for Christmas, and I'm finally getting a chance to do some testing. So far I'm really happy with everything. The transmission quality is amazing!

I know some users have tried to minimize the range improvement, but personally I'm getting significantly better usable range and pe*******on than with my old air unit. Interestingly enough I also seem to be getting slightly better video with my Vista quad that upgraded to work with the Goggles 2, though not as good as the O3. I did some back to back flying in the same spot and the O3 definitely gets better sustained bit-rate with less blocking than the Vista in the same spot at the same distances.

As far as the O3 Air Unit recording goes, overall I'm pretty pleased with a few caveats. The quality reminds me a ton of my old Session 5 actually. Very similar dynamic range, contrast, and light handling, but with slightly better resolution and a higher frame rate. My biggest complaint is that the video recording mode and the FPV transmission modes are locked in terms of aspect ratio and frame rate. Unfortunately the O3 doesn't do 4:3 at anything higher than 2.7k, and I prefer to fly in 4:3 mode, which means I'm limited to shooting at 2.7k at 100fps in order to get what I need from the FPV feed. Not a deal breaker, just mildly annoying. My Hero 7 couldn't do superview 60 above 2.7k either, so I'm fairly used to dealing with 2.7k video. Upressing to 4k isn't too bad.

Now let's talk about this build and flight. I decided to put the O3 into a QAV-S Mini 4" as it fits everything without the need for any modifications. I'm not thrilled with the 3mm arms at this length, so I'll probably cut some 4mm or 5mm arms. The frame is designed to handle arm thicknesses from 3 to 5 mm without needing to change the hardware (that's what that funky included plate is for), so fortunately it's possible :D I had to go with a slightly lower camera angle than I am used to to keep the posts out of the shot, and the tune is just a raw attempt thrown in with no adjustments yet, so pardon all the prop wash and jitters. Also there was a lovely smear on my lens that I didn't notice till after I started editing the footage :O Not my best work!

With this build I finally dropped in an old 4-in-1 ESC that Pete (AlkaMotors) sent me and got the latest AM32 build installed on it. Seems to work smoothly, and all the RPM filter stuff is working great. I have it set to dynamic PWM, and I have to say I've been impressed with his implementation. My experience and early testing has shown that the AM32 implementation of dynamic PWM is more consistent across the throttle in terms of power delivery than the BLheli32 implementation. I'm excited to see more AM32 options hit the market. BLHeli32 has been solid for me, but I like to see guys like Pete offering open source options and pushing the hobby a bit further through more active development.

All that being said this was a fun flight! I threw on some 1300mAh 4S packs and it handles great, especially without the GoPro. This is with some BB 1607 3500kv motors I had laying around with some old Dalprop 4x4x4 props. Not the most efficient thing, but handles pretty dang well. Might be over-propping the motors a tad, they were pretty warm. Flew great other than needing a tune though! Still trying to get used to that lower camera angle though, found myself flying unintentionally backwards a few times! We'll just pretend I did it on purpose! Anyway, here's my second pack on the new rig with a few cuts. This was all from one flight, got about 4:15 on a 1300mAh 4S, so not too bad. Could do better with a more conservative setup I'm sure. We'll see what I can do with this once I've gotten some more rigid arms installed and dialed in the tune.

I'm thinking about doing a more detailed video review of the O3 and Goggles 2. I haven't really done any video reviews, so I'd have to set something up, but we'll see. I have thoughts that I think would come across better in video, so I might try something new!

26/12/2022

First build with the DJI O3 air unit and Goggles 2! Merry Christmas y'all! I have some thoughts that I'll be sharing more of once the weather clears up enough to get some flying in, but I'm super impressed so far! Already bound to one of my Vista builds as well, and been testing a few things back and forth. OSD is working great with Betaflight 4.3 canvas mode on both.

13/12/2022

I picked up a Hero 11 Mini on black Friday for a pretty good deal and finally got a chance to test it out. It's been raining for over a week but the sun finally came out along with some decent flying weather, so I strapped the GoPro on and put in a few quick packs. No case yet, just mounted straight to the frame, which is probably foolish, but it survived! Pretty impressed so far. I was trying out HyperView at 4k 60fps. Honestly it's too wide for my tastes. I ended up cropping this in some just to get rid of that super wide feel, and I think this ended up almost the same as SuperView. I think I'll probably go back to superview honestly. That being said the GoPro is killer.

I also edited this in Premiere Pro for the first time in a long time. I've been using Cyberlink PowerDirector on my cell phone for the most part. I may have gone a little overboard with Lumetri this time! Oh well it was fun to do some more aggressive color. I honestly don't feel like for the quick edits I'm doing Premiere really provides that much additional functionality over what I can get on my phone, so probably I'll go back to editing sitting in bed instead of having to sit at the desktop.

In addition to flying to test the GoPro I was flying to get some footage for a mini-doc that one of the students at the university where I work is create for a class. I'm hoping to have it posted up here on the channel before Christmas as well, so keep an eye out for that!

01/06/2022

Hmmmmm.... What's this? :D

The FPV Cinema Drone... You've Been Waiting For. 🔥🔥🔥
𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐉𝐔𝐍𝐄 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟐 👀🚀🔜

Lumenier 𝙖𝙣𝙙 cinequads 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙖𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙜𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙁𝙋𝙑 𝘾𝙞𝙣𝙚𝙢𝙖 𝘿𝙧𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙜𝙖𝙢𝙚 𝙖𝙜𝙖𝙞𝙣!
𝙄𝙛 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙖 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙛𝙚𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙖𝙡 𝙙𝙧𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙥𝙞𝙡𝙤𝙩, 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙬𝙤𝙣'𝙩 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙢𝙞𝙨𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨! 𝙈𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙙𝙚𝙩𝙖𝙞𝙡𝙨 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙨𝙤𝙤𝙣...

Be the first to be notified (CLICK HERE) 👉 https://www.getfpv.com/multi-rotor-frames/lumenier-frames/qav-pro/qav-pro-lifter.html

13/09/2021

It's been a while, but yes, I'm still alive! Summer was a lot busier than I would have like, not to mention the heat and the rain, so flying got back-burnered unfortunately. This weekend I was on club retreat with my son and brought a couple quads with me. I actually managed to get a few packs in without feeling too rusty amazingly enough. It was a beautiful spot to fly, and the weather was not too hot in the evenings. I honestly didn't even check what was on this quad, I just grabbed my QAV-S and flew. Checking afterwards, this was Betaflight 4.2 on Gemfan 51466 props with SunnySky Edge Racing R2305 2480kv motors and an Aikon 20x20 stack. Ghost is still kicking strong for me, this was on SRXL2 since it was 4.2 but still feels great. No complaints at all with how this thing flies. It just floats over the trees, but still carries a decent amount of speed. Even though these motors are old, they're still some of my favorites. Great combination of smoothness and power and not super heavy. This setup is a fantastic weight as well. I find it being the one I grab preferentially.

Anyway, nothing too exciting here, just some fun times out with my oldest son. It was a great weekend, and it felt great to get back in the air! Here's an edit from two golden hour packs. Enjoy!