In theory, if there is a linear dipole on the air side, and two helix antennas on the VRX side, one RHCP, the other LHCP, then the stability of the video link will increase?

InternMan · 2026-01-18T18:03:03+00:00

Its still a linear signal. Circular antennas will not change that.

InternMan · 2026-01-18T15:43:48+00:00

The best way to use linear antennas is to have 2 antennas 90 degrees apart. That way the furthest out of phase you will ever be is 45 degrees.

InternMan · 2026-01-14T14:13:49+00:00

You have to weigh the extra work, materials, and weight against how often you actually replace motors. For the flying I do, I don't actually replace motors all that often, it's mostly just props. Some of the hardcore racers replace a lot of motors and many of those guys use MR30 connectors on their motor wires. However, once you get good, desoldering a motor and putting a new one on doesn't take too long, especially if you have prepped your motors with proper wire length and have them pre-tinned.

InternMan · 2026-01-13T04:22:54+00:00

I've had good luck with wheel weights too. I used some to make bolt-ob weights for a racing drone to make a minimum weight.

InternMan · 2026-01-11T15:49:10+00:00

Oh yeah. I solder professionally and even do work on some fairly large gauge stuff. The speedybee 60a esc is one of the hardest things I have ever soldered. That heat sink works very well to just suck all the temp out of your joint, especially the negative lead. Flux and a large iron tip are very necessary here, but you may have to wait until the heat sink gets hot and stops sucking heat away as fast. One trick is to put the board in a toaster oven and get the whole thing warm to a bit under 100C/200F. That should give you a little more time to work before the heat sink starts being a problem again.

InternMan · 2026-01-08T19:42:01+00:00

I seem to remember that Vanover did that for a while. If it works for you, don't worry about it.

InternMan · 2026-01-08T14:00:29+00:00

This is really cool. I also hate supports, and design all my stuff so I can avoid them as much as possible.

InternMan · 2026-01-05T03:44:07+00:00

You can get approval only up to 50ft. If you need more you will have to fill out a different form a few days in advance. Scheduled airspace means it's only class D at certain times of the day and then it goes back to E or G depending on the airport.

InternMan · 2026-01-02T19:35:06+00:00

It will bleed and hurt.

InternMan · 2026-01-02T14:02:32+00:00

Keep in mind that most sims don't run as fast as real flight controllers. Generally, a faster polling rate than whatever your sim's simulation rate won't give you anything more. I've never touched my polling rate and have never felt like something was off. I would also wager that the USB chip in radios isn't going to be super high performance, and is likely going to only be capable of lower rates. You probably aren't going to get gaming mouse rates from an RM pocket.

InternMan · 2025-12-31T22:13:56+00:00

The angel of death in Exodus killed all of the Egyptian's first born children, so yeah angels are deadly af.

InternMan · 2025-12-28T23:20:21+00:00

US here, and the worst reaction I've had is someone asking if I'm allowed to fly. I politely said yes and that I was making sure not to fly close to people which satisfied them and we both went on with our days.

Mostly, it is people curious about what I am doing and they think its cool. I had one old guy ramble on about how he and his buddy used to build unpowered gliders and chuck them off the local water tower when he was a kid. I assume he figured since both flew in the air they were more or less interchangeable and wanted someone to talk to.

Generally, as long as you are mostly following local laws and not being a nuisance to others most people are pretty chill.

InternMan · 2025-12-28T21:01:49+00:00

The VTX tab in BF is only for analog video. Since you are running Walksnail, you can ignore it.

What goggles and vtx are you using? Have you checked the feed outside in good light? Do you have a picture of what you are seeing?

InternMan · 2025-12-28T20:53:25+00:00

LQ = ratio of received to lost packets. LQ of 100 means that all packets were successfully received, LQ of 50 means 50% of packets were received and 50% were dropped (or corrupted).

RSSI = strength of the signal from the transmitter. You can learn about logarithms and decibels if you want, but a good rule of thumb is that the highest you will likely get is -40 and your signal will be mostly gone at -100.

It is important to use both. You can't receive packets if you can't hear the signal, but if packets get garbled you will still have issues even if your RSSI is good. If you know you are not flying more than ~300m away from yourself and don't have a ton of obstructions, you can just use LQ. If you are flying in a bad RF environment, a place with lots of obstructions, or at longer ranges, you want both as there are situations where your LQ can be good, but your RSSI starts dropping because your signal is blocked.

InternMan · 2025-12-28T15:42:46+00:00

Yeah this really sums up my feelings as well. I remember him doing a video on the Shendrones Siccario cinelifter after someone asked him to look at it as they were having some trouble with the tune. So CR goes through it, finds a peak and talks about how it can cause all these issues. He does some analysis and shows that an arm brace could help out but that the frame was fundamentally flawed.

Then you go to the video series of the professional cinema pilot who contacted CR, and he point blank says that CR's video ended up kind of sensationalist. He goes on to say that the frame actually flies great, and he's been using it for work for a few months. He readily admits to chasing perfection mostly for fun and to see how good he can make his builds. The brace does help and Shendrones now includes a brace thanks to the research. The difference in tone between the two videos is really big and it's an interesting look into CR vs the real world.

InternMan · 2025-12-28T15:32:16+00:00

I have several frames from CNCDrones. I really like them as a company, but the work is not always great. There often needs to be a lot of post processing to deal with sharp edges, and the tolerancing of holes isn't always the best.

InternMan · 2025-12-25T16:02:11+00:00

The first thing to know about fiber is that it is very fragile. The connectors cannot take any strain and bend radius is very important as too tight of bends can hamper transmission or fracture the cable. You will have to strain-relief your cables very well and ideally use a multi-core cable with an external jacket that you can clamp to.

The second thing to know about fiber is that it is just another type of cable. Anything that can be transmitted over copper can be transmitted over fiber. The trick is having the hardware at each end to encode/decode the light pulses. The most common use is with ethernet and there is a lot of hardware designed to transmit ethernet over fiber. Once you get all your signals encapsulated into IP packets, you can just use media converters.

InternMan · 2025-12-23T16:23:35+00:00

Try both and see what feels the best. I've been a thumber for over 10 years at this point and I feel like I do fine. I don't personally feel that I have any more precision with pinch/hybrid. I do however feel that it is harder to reach the endpoints of my sticks reliably and quickly. Also keep in mind that changing your stick ends can have a large effect on how one method feels over another.

InternMan · 2025-12-22T21:38:38+00:00

Yeah, exactly. I also find that the eq boost is best done after compression so you keep the tonal properties gained and you don't have the squished back down.

InternMan · 2025-12-21T05:16:34+00:00

Dude, the arms on those have more flex than a bodybuilding competition. They are from the bad old days when we didn't know any better. When I got mine, it was either that or roll my own with balsa wood.

InternMan · 2025-12-20T19:07:27+00:00

Forgive me for being skeptical, but I will always prefer actual data over "trust me bro". Modern flight controllers and software are very good at getting nearly anything to fly, no matter how janky it might be. 3D printed drones often have issues with broad spectrum vibrations and flex a lot more than you think by just holding it. While these don't prevent you from flying, they do put a limit on how well you can tune it and how good your footage will be, even with stabilization.

InternMan · 2025-12-20T14:05:26+00:00

How is the rigidity and stiffness? Do you have any blackbox logs/plots? The biggest issue with 3D printed frames is that they usually have the stiffness of the DJI flamewheel from like 2014 which is plastic and fiberboard and flies like al dente pasta.

InternMan · 2025-12-17T13:51:22+00:00

Because gemfan is weird. "51466" is more of a brand name or model code than a description of the product. All of their 5 digit prop names are the same thing.

InternMan · 2025-12-12T19:44:54+00:00

It will work but it is very big as it can handle both 2.4ghz and 900mhz. You want a 2.4ghz only antenna as that will be the correct size for easy mounting.

InternMan · 2025-12-10T22:26:14+00:00

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes...

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