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iNav: RTH with land mission
This video was taken last weekend during tests of latest changes implemented in iNav, as well as new GPS module Beitian BN-880 I shortly described here.Mission plan: Take off in Angle mode, Engage 3D Position Hold Fly away 100m Return to Position Hold Engage Return To Home mode Summary: Beitian BN-880 performed well. Quadcopter returned…
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Battery C rate: do I need a lot of it?
One of the values that describe LiPo batteries used in RC crafts is so called C rating. For example: 3S 1300mAh 45-90C. Or 3S 5000mAh 25-30C. Or 4S 1300mAh 65-95C. S is simple, it tells the voltage. mAh or Ah tell capacity. But what about C rate? According to Wikipedia is can be described as:…
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Magical LiPo tree
Since LiPo batteries are potentially dangerous, they can not be just put into garbage. They have to be properly handled, utilized, before they can be safely thrown out. I will write more on this topic later. Here is only a picture of my magical LiPo tree. Knife, electrical connector, 12V halogen lightbulb, some sand, a flowerpot…
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Hands-on: Beitian BN-880 GPS module
Looking for a decent replacement for my u-blox NEO-6M GPS modules I came by super cheap, Chinese, Beitian BN-880 modules from Banggood. According to information found in the internet, it’s build based on u-blox Neo-M8N and is capable of receiving signals from GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, BeiDou, QZSS and SBAS. Plus integrated magnetometer module. Yesterday package…
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iNav: Return To Home with land
New release of iNav is at the doors. Today I took testing version for a spin and tried few navigation scenarios. For example, transition for Position Hold to Return To Home with landing. It looked like this: It behaved fantastically: nice accuracy, precise landing. There were few wobbles on descend, but that was caused not…
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Connecting ultrasonic rangefinder (Sonar) to INAV
Keeping constant altitude with a drone is not a trivial task. Specially, if drone is supposed to keep give altitude very precisely few meters above the ground. One of the reasons for it is difficulty of reading precise altitude. Barometer can drift when atmospheric pressure changes and can produce a lot of noise. GPS is…
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WiFi telemetry for Cleanflight with EZ-GUI and ESP8266
Some time ago I have written a tutorial how to setup Bluetooth based telemetry link between Cleanflight and PC or smartphone. It’s simple and it works. But it has some disadvantages. For example, connection is very very slow and has a limited range: up to 10 meters. While it is enough to change PIDs before…
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New PID controller for iNav
If anybody keeps track of my posts about iNav flight controller software, he or she should notice that I like it very much. Guy nicknamed DigitalEntity did excellent job improving Cleanflight’s navigation modes. Maybe it is still not the same level as Pixhawk or Naza, but with this improvement speed those two are within reach…
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Quick review: DAL 5040 propellers
My last review of cheap Chinese propellers, Gemfan 5×3 3 leaf, was quite negative. This time it will be much, much better: DAL 5040 (5×4″) fiberglass reinforced propellers. They are cheap, only slightly more expensive than super popular Gemfans 5030. But they beat Gemfans in every aspect. Not only DAL 5040 give more power and…