e-Observer w/Photoship One mount and Ace One

[cbergen]

The other 2 batteries were similar, though I don't have the actual numbers handy.

Will be placing the additional Ace components on tomorrow, upgrading the Main controller, then testing the communications.

I think 2 more flights minimum, I'd like to try a different set of tailblades, some EDGE 105's, just for S&G's, and try a slower RPM on the tail to check authority.

[tott]

I am excited to see the new ace components on this thing.......and in action......I debated this "upgrade" for a while now and there seems to be little unbiased review and even less video currently......

It will be interesting to see what the different tail blades will do on this setup.

I was happily surprised in the last video at how well the tail held with the obviously slower tail speed.....it will be interesting to see what rpm RANGE the tail is "happy" with.

@Chris .....What head speeds are you currently flying with on the "mains"....??

@Chris.....what ....if any ....anti static stuff are you using for the belt on this heli (spray, straps, etc)????...I don't know if it is needed but do not remember it being discussed or pointed out one way or another......lol

Post the videos of the above changes and /or flights...... if you can Chris

Thanks again,
Jason

[cbergen]

Main rotor RPM.....Ummm... When I flew it last Tuesday, we measured the rotor RPM at 1780....

I adjusted the throttle curve to bring it down some, without effect. I then realized that I had the Power Jazz programmed that way. For the flight on Friday I changed the programming to "fixed" so that I can now adjust the HS with the throttle curve.

Keep in mind that our FBL rotor head prefers higher headspeeds. For instance, my personal Gasser FBL loves a minimum HS of 1800 in a hover, 1950-2000 for playing around upstairs. Part of this is due to the harder dampening used in FBL, part is due to the added stability of the higher HS.

So, the flight on Friday was performed with a HS of 1630. Any lower and it wobbled a bit. The gearing we have setup in the drive train seems to like this RPM as well, given the low amperage used to fly the heli.

Will take vids of todays flights with the EDGE tailblades and lower tail RPM.

The only belt used is between the motor and pulley to drive the pinion for the main gear. as they are both mounted on the same piece of metal, no spray or bonding is necessary.

[tott]

I have have a lot of people asking about this build lately and thugg there has not been a post he in a while the build is very much alive and moving forward.

I will leave it open for Chris to cover the more specific but in general here are the current changes and configurations of the heli....

The aceone click and go has been installed and works as advertised by DJI. All the parameters will be dialed in to perfection when the build is complete but it works very well already...

Teh tail rotor motor has been replaced by a standard EB torque tube from Bergen. This was a decision we made recently due to many many many factors. Mainly for the sake of completing the build it was decided by Chris and myself to remove the setup from this build and have Chris continue to test and refine the system to perfection.

The Kontronik Power Jazz has been replaced by the Kontronik Heli Jive 120+ recently due to a failure of teh Jazz to arm correctly. It is my intention to use the heli jive for setup purposes and some testing but ultimately before it goes into rotation as a dedicated AP heli it will be converted with the new Kontronik Kosmik 200. I am just waiting for the Kosmik to be put through its paces in teh open market before I commit to it.

With the TT tail setup and the Kontronik we a getting some undesired effects of teh tail that were not present with teh Power Jazz and the tail rotor motor setup.....which is where the build stands now.

Chris is working on getting the tail to settle down so he can do the final setup of everything.

Currently Chris is going to to adjust some parameters in the Heli Jive to see if the governer in the helijive was causing the tail to kick / twitch....

The telemetry setup for the helicopter will more than likely fall to either the JR XG11 radio with telemetry or the Jeti DC16 with telemetry or lastly the spectrum DX18 with telemetry. I was going to use a seperate dedicated telemetry system but after using / testing some of the dedicated systems on teh market I decided to take this opera unity to upgrade the heli radio and get the telemetry all at once.....this will help to justify the high cost of a radio with telemetry.

The charge case pieces are all here and I will be completing the case setup over the next month or so as time allows. It is made of of (4) Powerlab 8 chargers with 8 power supplies to push them and all the charge boards and cables. It will be installed into a king pelican case.....it all fits perfect...I just need to get it together...lol

I have the upgraded panshaft from photoshipone along with some different gearing to handle my specific camera gear load. This will be installed along with the gimbal stabolization once the heli is in my hands.

Lastly I am looking to purchase a dedicated laptop running windows for the powerlab 8 charge software, the ground software for the dji click and go, back up or second downlink monitor, and initial file storage for backup. I am a Mac g so this decision may take a while...lol

Thanks for reading......more updates to come soon...

Jason

[Exposure]

Just over one whole year since Chris got the bird.

You must have it back now. I would be interested to see some raw video from it as a benchmark of 'as good as it gets' from a Bergen.

[tott]

lol......actually it is in transit to me and according to the tracking info it should arrive to me today.

Unfortunately I am busy all day so will only get the chance to open and check contents today.

I hope to have time over the weekend to assemble and get a spool up to initially check everything. From there I plan on installing the new pan shaft upgrade for the camera gimbal as well as the external pots , Picloc 3xPro , receiver , battery , downlink , camera and lens , etc. I am going to switch over to a dual shock mount on the FMTS for this gimbal, so I be to see how it can be integrated and then ordere the parts I will need to complete. Then I will test all the controls including the downlink and range check for the gimbal. While I am waiting on the dual shock parts I will move onto the heli itself.

As for the heli itself it will be thoroughly checked from top to bottom. With everything installed (including the new dual shocks as mentioned above) i will insure the CG is where i want it and make any adjustments or changes here first. I will then get the initial info from the DJI ACEone Click&Go into my computer and confirm all the parameters and settings just for a piece of mind. I will review all the settings in the radio (as Chris set this up for the heli) and insure I know where the starting point is for everything. Then it is on to balancing and tracking everything from the mains and tail blades along with any spinning mass. From here I will make my new set of pre flight safety check parameters and write them down.

One thing I will be testing is the flybarless. I have never been happy with flybarless and especially with AP in mind, and even more so when we are using the DJI ACEone.. So time will tell. I do have several flybar heads for this thing, I just do not know if they will interfere with the FMTS for the gimbal....if so this would have to change as well, which may call for some bigger changes.....I hope the FBL surprises me but I am keeping my options and mind open.

Fom there it is just charge the batteries and go fly. But then that is where the fun begins as all you AP pilots know. I will be busy dialing this thing in for video. Once I am happy with those results I will move onto messing with the DJI Click&Go features more and really test the helis capabilities. Baring anything major I find that needs attention I will move forward with video testing and samples of raw and edited footage from this thing. But as we all know, there wil be changes, it is just a question of how many and how severe.... lol

I am just as excited as the next person to see what this thing can do especially for video purposes, but as you can see that may be a little ways off. With my current commitments I have to work on this thing when I have free time as well. There is a deadline for this thing to be done.....but I will not Jinx myself just yet..

I will try to update here when time permits.

Thanks everyone for following along....now the fun begins.

Jason

[onlocation]

After a year long build I would think this thing could fly itself to Hawaii.

[tott]

After a year long build I would think this thing could fly itself to Hawaii

.......lol.......

Chris suggested that delivery method but since the mid air refueling was not an option here since it is electric, we decided to go the traditional delivery route.

Jason