Where to go from here...

[chrisjunkie]

Tested my Skew Planar and Clover Leaf antennas yesterday. Worked fairly well considering one of the clovers of the skew-planar broke as I got to the field

I think I need to hot glue them so that the stress on those TINY solder joins is reduced. What are other people's experiences? At the moment I put the receiver on the top of my boot (my screen is in the back) - do you think the surrounding metal is doing bad things to the signal? Might have to get a pole to put in the ground?

[rogueqd]

One of my skew-planar lobes broke off at the base solder joint. It worked fine most of the time but occasionally got really bad static. I found the break while I was checking all the angles on the antennas.

It's good to have the receiver high off the ground, or car. I'd say min 2m high, preferably 3m. If it's next to your car then definitely 3m high.

[rogueqd]

FrSky purchase will be put next on my list, but what is the best module to get in terms of price etc? What DIY module and what receiver? I might as well get telementry too while I'm at it?

Get the Telemetry DIY kit and an 8ch receiver.

I just want to amend this. After doing some research it appears that the D8R-II doesn't have a direct RSSI output. There is an open source digital to analogue RSSI signal converter, you can buy premade ones on eBay. Although more advanced OSD's can retrieve digital RSSI information from the PPM out pin (the signal pin on the batttery port), again I haven't actually tested this. Apparently the digital information is also available in the same way on the V8 receivers. I'm still searching for confirmation about the digital RSSI output.

[NZ_AJ]

Bruce, Just read on RC Groups that you will be doing a review of the Nova RTH OSD?!? When can I expect this as I will most definitely wait if its in the next few weeks!

It's sitting on the bench now. The weather forecast for next week is good so it should be done in about 5-6 days from now.

Hi Bruce, I'm also really keen to know what these are like as I can't really enjoy FPV until I have a RTH (slightly paranoid and under financed)
I already have a Remzibi ODS and was thinking Ardupilot was the only cost effective way forward (although US$250 is still a fortune for me) and then heard you mention the Nova on one of your vids and found this thread.
Keep up the great work, honest, informative and entertaining, the perfect combo.

[dannyzz]

Diy Drones brought out the APM 2 for $200 which it the newer one but they have a massive backlog some you would be waiting a while.
And my experience with the APM 1 has been challenging and it has had quite a few major issues but hopefully i should be able to fix it
http://diydrones.com/group/apmusergroup/forum/topics/ardupoilt-auto-mode-problems

[NZ_AJ]

Thanks heaps dannyzz, I didn't even realise they'd released version 2, and for US$200 its pretty hard to beat given the extended functionality the project offers.
I've been keeping a close eye on the store and it looks like the initial backlog on their store cleared yesterday and they have resumed accepting pre-orders so have bitten the bullet and ordered one (and loaded a few unrelated bits on trademe to help cover it
Totally excited about this one......

[dannyzz]

You would probably want the telemetry kit well. Are you in NZ?

[NZ_AJ]

I did think about the telemetry kit but my needs are fairly basic (at this stage at least) so the key feature for me is RTL which will be activated by transmitter as well as being the receivers failsafe default.
I am a toy junky so the idea of telemetry certainly does have major appeal, especially when thinking about antenna trackers etc.. but unfortunately finance had the final say on this one.
Yes, based in Kerikeri (the not so winterless north these days

[dannyzz]

I finally got mine to work good and it goes great just the navigation needs some more fine tuning. But i would defently recommend the telemetry when you can get it.

[chrisjunkie]

Dannyzz where abouts in Auckland are you located? We should have an FPV day somewhere

Need to fix my plane with new receiver, speed controller and servos after it went swimming at Kohimarama Beach. Turns out the spa in the Bixler's isn't very strong!!!