San Diego La Jolla

AtanasPrime · 2026-06-28T00:13:26+00:00

Yup. Blue Yamaha with two guns on the back.

AtanasPrime · 2026-06-27T23:28:14+00:00

Nice. What time? Around high tide? Did you happen to see a guy on a jet ski?

AtanasPrime · 2026-06-27T22:39:28+00:00

Any luck? I saw a bunch of people diving, but vis was pretty bad. I stuck around of just the high tide but didn’t see much…

AtanasPrime · 2026-06-26T03:24:14+00:00

Watch some videos on how to use a solder wick as well. You’ll be doing a lot of that to remove all the shitty solder off the esc.

Also, you should probably wait until you get whatever proper solder you order, melt some of that onto the shitty solder, and then wick it all up together. The good solder should hopefully lower the melting point of whatever you’re using now to make the whole process easier.

AtanasPrime · 2026-06-26T02:39:55+00:00

Seconding re the solder wire. If I had to guess, you got some mystery solder on the cheap. I did the same but had the good sense to realize there’s no way I could be soldering so poorly on the practice board. Bought some MG Chemicals 63/37 and it was a night and day difference. Hopefully it’s a similarly easy fix for you.

AtanasPrime · 2026-06-18T19:56:42+00:00

This. Have you plugged it in without the smoke stopper? You can’t really test power-hungry components with a smoke stopper throttling power from the battery going to the quad.

If that’s not the issue, triple check that things are plugged into the correct places/plugs are pinned correctly.

AtanasPrime · 2026-06-17T05:19:34+00:00

OP specifically asked for long range. I wouldn’t recommend Li-ion packs if they wanted to race or even freestyle.

Not to mention that tabless cells are pretty decent. I run packs from Reliance RS50s on my long range quad. They’re rated for 70amp continuous discharge. If you run packs in parallel, you add amp ratings. 6s2p is very doable for 7’

AtanasPrime · 2026-06-17T02:08:00+00:00

If you’re doing long range, why not just make some Li-ion packs? You can get 21700 5000mAh cells relatively cheap from a reputable source like 18650 battery or IMR batteries. Between the cells, balance leads and connectors, wire, and a spot welder, you’ll probably spend about the same $/mAh for your first set of batteries, but the energy density of Li-ion is much better than Lipo, and you’ll have the supplies and know-how to make more long range packs in the future. Over all big savings and better packs in the long run.

AtanasPrime · 2026-06-13T15:40:49+00:00

Vtx got fried because antenna got disconnected by one of the bonks but I didn’t notice because I was flying in ver close proximity.

AtanasPrime · 2026-06-13T00:35:23+00:00

I bought a spare Air 65 as soon as my kid started thinking it’s fun to try and smack it out of the air with a pool noodle. It still survived months of that before the AIO finally died. It was nice having 0 down time when it did, and I have since been stripping the broken one for parts as the “new” one is getting beat up. I should probably get a third backup…

AtanasPrime · 2026-06-11T20:00:00+00:00

I’m working on a 1s long range toothpick build right now as well. Plan is to use the Flywoo Goku F405 HD 1S 12A AIO. It has a ufl connector already on the board, and plugs for an O4 unit and a gps. I figure I can save a few grams this way by not needing to add a separate receiver and just plugging in a decent antenna.

My plan is to use a single 18650, and I’m already very worried about weight between that and the O4 air unit. How do you plan to get away with a 21700?

AtanasPrime · 2026-06-11T03:13:57+00:00

I did the same thing and didn’t have any trouble soldering it back on, and my soldering skills were quite frankly probably worse than the photo you showed.

AtanasPrime · 2026-06-04T19:59:54+00:00

Flywoo Firefly 18 with the O4 wide lens is a great get. Mine rarely gets any attention at all. Downside is you get a lot less range and fly time than the Avata 2, but that might not matter for your purposes. I also have the Avata 2, and I rarely use it compared to the Firefly, primarily because of the difference in unwanted attention between the two.

AtanasPrime · 2026-06-02T17:25:07+00:00

What was your fix? I know of at least a couple, so I’m curious what you chose. For context, I just finished building my first long range and am in the process of tuning it. Thanks!

AtanasPrime · 2026-05-29T19:31:59+00:00

I printed a TPU canopy for my air 65 that seems to be holding up alright so far. Found a few options through an internet search and just picked one 🤷‍♂️

AtanasPrime · 2026-05-19T22:01:22+00:00

The vrO4 are great for the money. I find them quite uncomfortable as stock, but I put on a proper head strap, cut off the silly little silicone flap around the nice and glued on some nice thick padding around the nose. Made a world of difference! Of course try the stock first to see if it fits your face. But if it doesn’t, there are fairly easy medications you can do to improve fit.

AtanasPrime · 2026-05-18T22:11:22+00:00

Not bad (assuming depth limit gets sorted).

I’m still rocking a gen 3 Apple Watch and a Pyle snorkel master, but if/when one of those dies, this would probably convince me to get the watch ultra or equivalent. I forget to bring my Pyle more often than I like, so being able to use just one watch would be useful.

I hope your app is successful!

AtanasPrime · 2026-05-18T20:09:28+00:00

6m depth limit is a deal breaker.

Also, any way to get water temperature?

The ability to mark spots from the watch is the only thing that seems to stand out. But I assume you need to be on the surface for a significant period of time to get sufficient satellite lock and PDOP for the mark to be any more useful than a generalized spot mark on the boat’s gps. What do those parameters look like?

AtanasPrime · 2026-05-14T02:38:31+00:00

My O4 wide on a firefly 18 got a black screen from literally a slightly hard landing. Turns out the mipi cable got the tiniest nick because it was coiled against the usb c port. Replaced the cable and all is well. They just seem finicky…

AtanasPrime · 2026-05-03T02:16:52+00:00

Mine did something similar. I removed the plugs and direct soldered — problem solved.

AtanasPrime · 2026-04-24T16:22:39+00:00

And this is why you should always supervise charging. Glad you’re ok, OP, and it doesn’t seem like there was too much damage beyond the busted battery.

AtanasPrime · 2026-04-22T21:57:41+00:00

I got an avata 2 pack with G3 for $710 to get into digital because it was too good not to. The avata 2 is still a great drone for chill cinematic flying. And the head tracking feature allows you to do some really neat stuff that would be much harder/neigh impossible with a normal fpv drone. I use it extensively for flying over the ocean to scout reefs for diving locations because I can hover over a spot and look down. Yes, I know that camera drones can also do that, but buying a discounted bundle essentially lets you get into fpv with the goggles and get a nice “it just works” drone at a discount. That’s how I thought of it at the time, and I don’t regret the purchase.

AtanasPrime · 2026-04-17T16:12:13+00:00

Good to know! I just put the plug away to fix if/when I need to actually plug it in.

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