Category: Videos

FloRotors 130 Build

So after losing my last FloRotors 130 off the back of my cart I wanted to build another. The last one I went with a few cheaper parts in the essence of time, this one I wanted to just throw the good stuff on it, the only thing I’m not sure about yet is the camera, a bit too wide of a FOV for me. The build was pretty simple, I skipped a PDB and just went with a wire loom I made. The quad flies really well out of the box, and I can go to 4S if the track is big enough. The Turnigy Bolt 850 HV 3S are nice, but too big imo. I think this quad would be great with a 500-600mah battery… yet so few batteries that size.

AUW: 246g
Frame: FloRotors 130
Motors: DYS 1306 4000kV
ESC: DYS XM20a
Props: GemFan 3″ TriBlades
Flight Controller: Lumenier Lux
Firmware: Betaflight 2.7.1
VTX: FX799T (200mw tx)
Camera: Micro 600TVL (170deg)
Receiver: FrSky XSR
Battery: Turnigy Bolt 850 3S

I’m sure those of you that are following my page closely will notice a few components are becoming my goto’s. Mainly the Lumenier Lux, FX799T, and the XSR. They are all rock solid components and am planning on throwing them in everything I build until something better comes along.

Lost Quad!!

It’s official. I have lost my very first quad.

No I didn’t have a fly away. No I didn’t lose control of it. It actually happened as I was walking… yes I wasn’t even flying it. This past weekend we had the 2016 Maker Faire Bay Area. I was racing the Aerial Sports League track for most of the weekend. It was clear the track was small and I should be flying a 3″ quad versus a 5″ quad (which was all I had). So on friday night I built up a FloRotors 130 that I had sitting around. Swapped in a SPF3, FX799T, FrSky XSR and tuned it Saturday morning. After tuning it I headed to Maker Faire and parked at my friends place and walked to the race (.8 miles).

Sadly during this walk it was raining and I had an umbrella over my “cart” and at some point it fell off and didn’t notice it. Very sad times since I just threw on $100 worth of parts on it the night before and only got three packs in it before it was gone for good. Also really sad that I didn’t get a chance to fly in the “outlaw” races which added a lot of track time for those that were able to.  I am already planning another build for a 3″ Outlaw class.

The race itself was a mixed bag of results for me. I set fast times and had the fastest (at least as of the second day) set of five laps, but I wasn’t going through the “bonus” gate. Still I felt really good going around the track without it. Going into Sunday I was ranked #14 based on points and got into the AMain. In the first round I crashed going into the bonus gate. I second guessed myself and paid for it. Even though there were two rounds that basically eliminated me. So for the second round I just said “screw it, let’s have some fun”  I threw on my RunCam 2 and went crazy. Crashed multiple times, landed in the raptures, got back out. All for my RunCam not to record anything.

Anyways here’s some video of my “practice” on Saturday night. I am pretty sure it’s in “order” or my flights so you can easily see some improvement over just 2-3 flights.

Rage X – RED Edition!

Rage X Red Corner Shot

 

I built another Rage X over the past couple days. It’s a high KV motor just like previous ones but the major difference is this one has 32bit ESC’s and the motors are Emax RS2205/2600kv. This is also the very first quad I have built with red accents to it. Not sure why I never did red before, the availability of anodized red is very convenient and pretty standardized too!

Parts:

 

So really nothing out of the blue here other than the ESC’s and motors. It feels like a completely different beast when compared to my other Rage X’s. Now I don’t know if it is the ESC or the Motors [or both], people at the field felt it was likely to be the motors as they produce roughly 20% more thrust than the RCX (I’m told at least). Either way the quad felt awesome and had TONS of power. The ESC’s had no problems handling the fast KV nor the power. ESC’s felt cool to the touch after the hard flights. Far more power than my other two Rage X’s (LittleBee 20/XM 20). I think my next plan is to get some more RS2205/2600KV motors and throw them on the XM20 version and see how that feels compared to this one.

Full Disclaimer: I bought these ESC’s at a discounted rate to sample them. This did not influence my view of them in any way.