DJI FPV in the forest at 500mW (comparison to Byte Frost) techdaemon 2019-12-17 | Best viewed at 1440p. Turn on CC for link stats. DVR recording of DJI FPV at 500mW (as close to Byte Frost's 450mW I can get). First time I've gotten to fly here with real sunlight, so I was curious how DJI's camera would handle the deep shadows. It does very well. I can still see little ghost branches hanging down and bare bushes sticking up with enough time to avoid, even while cruising at a good clip. The only sign of decreased signal is Focus mode, although it's not really clear when it activates and when it recovers. I never see any stutters in the video feed unless I put the quad entirely out of LoS below solid earth and even then it's pretty mild. So far, I haven't hit anything bigger than a blade of grass that I didn't see coming, and I'm seeing most blades of grass too. Byte Frost video for comparison here.youtube.com/watch?v=glxNsfUvT54
Inav Profile 2 - Max iterm windup in 25-45mph windy mountains - Dragon V2 techdaemon 2022-02-22 | Best viewed at 1440p for highest bitrate. I've been developing a PID/Rate profile for iNav with a maxed out iterm throw limit, max iterm windup, and nothing to interfere with iterm doing its job.The goal is to keep the aircraft locked on the desired attitude no matter what is thrown at it. To test that, I went up into the mountains and launched into 20mph swirling winds, and then flew it up 2000ft into 40mph winds spilling over the edge of a sharp pointy mountain. P-term takes the edge off the initial hit, but I-term windup is doing most of the heavy lifting. I felt like with P-term at 12, it was a little underdamped. 18 might be a little over which I may be able to fix by raising D-term. Other than maybe 3 total instances in the vid, I did not have to make any corrections even when the plane was getting thrashed. The ultimate goal is for iNav to keep it on course, through rough air when flying low level proximity, and constrain the maximum extent of the bumps to the point that the GoPro's Hypersmooth can handle the rest. Oh, and the Dragon V2 is setup so it can fly straight up any mountain in pretty much any conditions.
Uncut - Quicky run up and down Red Mountain - Dragon V2 techdaemon 2021-12-19 | Quick proof of concept run up the side of Red Mountain (which Henderson Molybdenum Mine is slowly eroding from underneath) with the Reptile Dragon V2 on a windy day. What I'm looking to see is how easy it is to launch, climb and spot land at high altitude (10.2k ft up to 12.2k ft) and can the plane, stabilizer and Hero7's Hypersmooth handle the wind while diving back down the side of the mountain enough to make usable video. It was extremely windy and bumpy especially at the top so you can see some of it still gets through Hypersmooth, but overall pretty happy with the result. This plane launches so easy, and glides like the space shuttle so spot landings are pretty easy. Not super fast, but because it's so stable it's pretty easy to fly low, which looks faster. Using the Hobbyeagle A3 Super 3 stabilizer in Atti-lock + Rotation Rate mode (roughly equiv of iNav Acro but much much better), plus iNav for DJI OSD and RTH. #fpv #cofpv
Raw DVR - Terrain Following w/ Reptile Dragon v2 and A3 Super 3 techdaemon 2021-12-08 | Best viewed at 1440p. Several people asked me to upload the DJI DVR footage from my Terrain Following vid on the main channel here youtube.com/watch?v=Gl7edgi4gP4Wind was blowing about 5-10mph diagonally across the ridge so there were places where the plane gets shook up but the Hobbyeagle A3 Super 3 stabilizer just keeps it on course, whether I'm on the sticks in a turn or off the sticks flying straight. It's very fly by wire, but doesn't feel overly artificial.It just goes where I point it. My main goal is to simply constrain the bumps to the point that the Hero7's Hypersmooth can take care of the rest. I'm not looking for the surreal stabilization of Reel Steady, but just a natural looking flight without the bumps from wind and thermals that are a constant in Colorado. If you feel that your stabilization is better than this, then please try it in 5-10mph or wind staying less than 5-10m from the ground near steep terrain and trees. It's a different world down there.
Mostly Raw - Reptile Dragon 2 first full flight at Jones Pass techdaemon 2021-09-27 | Best viewed at 1440p.First flight of the Reptile Dragon 2 twin at Jones Pass.This is the "PNP" kit which means a bunch of parts in a box you build yourself. (non-PNP doesn't include the parts). Stock motors, ESCs, props, servos, etc. I added a Hobbyeagle A3 Super 3 stabilizer and strapped the DJI gear into it.The plane is forgiving to launch (even at 12400ft elevation) and neutral (not rocked excessively by turbulence). Pretty much point and shoot. Not a super efficient glide, but nearly unstallable and very very quiet. This is the plane to fly in/near noise sensitive areas. One thing about cameras in this plane. It will fit a DJI camera and a Hero5/6/7 but nothing bigger (thus not a Hero 8/9/10). Hero7 has Hypersmooth, so it is the one to pair with this plane. I suppose you could mount the FPV camera on top and carve out more area for the larger GoPro. I still need to carve away some more foam to get the nose out of view of the Hero7 at Superview + Hypersmooth fov. I had to crop this video a bit as there was quite a bit of foam in view, but otherwise video is unmodified. The A3 Super 3 stabilizer is fantastic. It's so much better than iNav's core stabilization loop (Acro mode). In this video there was about a 15 mph wind from the east (direction I launched) so any time I'm on the other side (sun side) of the mountain it was extremely turbulent and this stabilizer just ate it up, with no additional inputs from pilot required. About 99% of the movement you see on roll axis in this video is pilot inputs.
Low in the rocks - Raw DVR techdaemon 2021-06-01 | Best viewed at 1440p. After more than a year with DJI FPV, showing why I still really enjoy flying this low and fast at the edge of and often below LoS. Turn on closed captioning to see the link stats.
Tree Slot Run - Raw DVR techdaemon 2021-06-01 | Best viewed at 1440p. After more than a year with DJI FPV, showing why why having a *very* clear view makes it possible to make really high consequence flights. Simply can't afford to not see a ghost branch or miss a tree in the foreground blending into the background. Descending this slot fast definitely gets the heart rate up. Turn on closed captioning to see link stats.
AR Wing Pro 1000mm at full throttle. Raw clips with Hypersmooth techdaemon 2020-12-06 | Best viewed at 1440p. Just showing the kind of video you can get from this plane once it's in the air. This is Hero7 with Superview+Hypersmooth. For this flight I was on a 5S battery with a 7x6 prop (broke the stock 8x5) and was running it at full throttle most of the flight which was good for about 90-95mph at 20-22A draw (about 400W).Haven't had much luck launching this plane in manual mode, so have been launching it in auto-level mode (depending on flight controller). This was one of the first flights with iNav and launching in Angle mode presents some problems because iNav allows a I-term windup to accumulate so when I angle the nose up, it runs the elevons down too far, so after release it dives at the ground and even while pulling full up elevator, it takes a while to level out and start climbing. I'll see if I can avoid this with the NAV LAUNCH mode which disables I-term windup until the motor starts running, and tries to climb out at a fixed angle.
Trying to cure pitch bob on the new SonicModell AR Wing Pro - Raw DVR techdaemon 2020-11-28 | Best viewed at 1440p setting for max bitrate.This is the new Sonic Modell AR Wing Pro 1000mm PNP (really ARF) version with all stock gear. Flying with a 4S 3300mAh pack and currently only an ET Guardian stabilizer which I had turned off for all but the launch. 00:00 - Launched in auto-level mode (2DH)00:18 - Getting goggles on00:53 - Switch to manual mode, trim for neutral roll/pitch01:46 - Down and dirty with stabilization offI saw another video where this plane exhibited some pitch bobbing (not as bad as the AR Wing 900 but still noticeable). My goal is to eliminate that, so I made some mods. CG is 19mm behind center of the stock CG marks and the winglets have been extended back about 35mm on average, and a little taller at the back to give more stabilization for their rearward CG. Even so, it's hard to launch with stabilization off (can tip stall and flick), but seems to do ok launching in auto-level stabilization mode.
Valley Proximity run - Recruit V2 - DJI FPV at 50Mbit/s versus Hero7 techdaemon 2020-08-31 | Best viewed at 1440p for max bitrate.Showing a number of things here.1. Recruit V2 / AR wing is fairly high performance even at 10.5-12.5k feet elevation..2. Pitch bob is constant in all but the smoothest air which makes piloting less enjoyable and more nerve wracking when dodging trees3. Hero7's Hypersmooth eliminates 99% of the wing's bad behavior.
Williams Fork Fire smoke sunset timelapse from Jones Pass techdaemon 2020-08-20 | Looking at smoke from the fires in western Colorado including one south of Kremmling, from the top of Jones Pass.
Uncut - Cliff diving a mile out techdaemon 2020-08-02 | Best viewed at 1440p setting for max bitrate.Drove up here on my motorcycle to do some cliff diving with my DJI gear. Once again it was blowing 20+mph most of the time so I burned a lot of juice getting to and from the cliff each flight, but the wind does sort of pin me to the cliff wall so I don't arc out away from it. Video is straight from the camera with no corrections in post.Hero7 - Superview + Hypersmooth. Protune on. ISO min/max 100, WB 5000K. ND16 filter. Hypersmooth does wonders for taking the wind bumps out, but have tobe careful when using an ND16 filter as it must be in *full* sunlight, or you may get some motion blur from the shakes.Here's the raw DVR footage from the flight. Turn on Closed Captioning for link stats.youtube.com/watch?v=Xz3kVOTI9L4
Golden Hour with the FR7 and cinematic settings on the Hero7 techdaemon 2020-06-07 | Best viewed at 1440p for the higher bitrate.Just cruising in some nice late day conditions with the FR7 7 inch quad.Hero7 running 2.7K@30fps, Superview+Hypersmooth, Protune on with min/max ISO 100, WB 5000, plus an ND filter.No color grading of any kind in post.
RMRC Recruit V2 - DJI Ground recording versus Hero 7 Hypersmooth techdaemon 2020-04-20 | Best viewed at 1440p (even on 1080p monitor).I wanted to take a look at this plane because it's *just* big enough to carry a Hero7 and has enough space inside the cockpit for the full sized DJI FPV gear. It comes with a basic gyro/leveler that makes it handle pretty well, but it gets kicked around by the wind quite a lot. Luckily Hypersmooth is magic, and it removes all but the most ridiculous bumps, making for pretty good video. All the shaking can make it a little harder to see details at a distance in the live view, but I can still see those mostly invisible trees. I look forward to being able to fly it on a smoother day.It's a convenient platform for the DJI gear, but if it couldn't carry the Hero7, I probably wouldn't bother with a wing that is this bumpy in the wind.
Skimming the grass techdaemon 2020-03-30 | Best viewed at 1440p. Just cruising low over a big open field.iFlight DC5 frame 5S with 2450kv motors with Hero7 running Superview and Hypersmooth.
Thirty Minute Rip - 250g Nano Goblin w/ Caddx Vista techdaemon 2020-03-23 | Best viewed at 1440p. Turn on Closed Captioning to see DJI link stats.Full rip with the Nano Goblin with the DJI compatible Caddx Vista.The entire 30 minute flight was 3/4 to full throttle. And yes, it's a bit wiggly. Started with less wind, and ended with a lot more. If I didn't fly in the wind, I'd never fly at all. Video is recorded in the goggles at 4:3 aspect and I did a Superview-like conversion to 16:9 using Shotcut (by far the easiest install and workflow to achieve this effect).
Audience Mode with Caddx Vista is terrible (Main & Audience side by side) techdaemon 2020-01-26 | Best viewed at 1440p. This is a Beta95x with Caddx Vista air unit, at 700mW. HQ mode. Main goggles on the left, Audience mode goggles on the right. Stock omnis all around on both goggles. As you can see, the main goggles look great. Signal strength is high, latency varies little, bitrate is high. Audience mode is dreadful, from pretty much the moment of launch. Notice that the link stats for audience mode looks almost identical to the main goggles, but any time the latency rises above minimum (which I think indicates lost packets + retries), the image is degraded. Here's my hypothesis on why.Main goggles + regular DJI air unit use a combination of retry requests/re-transmissions to recover lost packets, and MIMO+CDD (same data stream is transmitted on both VTX antennas with a small delay between them to create signal redundancy). Audience mode goggles can't ask for retries and probably don't hear those that are sent anyway, but they can still see the dual CDD streams so the quality is ok, but gets bad quickly if a lot of packets are lost. But Vista only has one Tx antenna so it cannot do MIMO+CDD. Main goggles can still do retries which you see in the variable latency, but audience mode goggles can't, and they only see a single data stream, so any lost packet immediately results in a degraded video signal, which can take a long time to recover from. You'll notice that generally the video is worse when going straight away or toward home, and best when going perpendicular to path to home. That's consistent with the horizontal antenna orientation on the Beta95X. Going away or coming home, we're flying in the nulls. Appears that main goggles retry mechanism is enough to handle that, but it must be losing a few packets pretty much all the time.DJI, please give us a real HDMI compatible video output option. Using the $750 Smart Controller as an HDMI dongle (next firmware update) is not acceptable.
Beta95X with Caddx Vista first flight at the school yard techdaemon 2020-01-25 | Best viewed at 1440p setting. Turn on CC for link stats. First outdoor flight with BetaFPV Beta95x with the Caddx Vista with moderate NLOS. 700mW power, High Quality mode (because it was pretty dark out and HQ captures more light at 60fps). Anyway, flying around the course at the school yard. Many places out of LoS, behind buildings, trees, fences and sometimes below ground level. It did very well, especially considering the stock Vista antenna orientation is horizontal, so I'm flying in the nulls when I go straight away from or toward home. Beta95X was running on 3S battery and it cruises pretty nicely. It feels very locked in (goes where you point it), but does take some hits from the wind. This DVR recording was actually captured at 4:3 aspect (960x720) then I cropped off some of the top, and stretched it out to 2560x1440 to get it back to 16:9 aspect. Sort of a poor man's Superview because I don't have a warp filter.
A new favorite line made possible by DJI FPV techdaemon 2020-01-21 | Best viewed at 1440p setting.Kind of a dreary winter day, but exploring a new line where I regularly dip behind the ridge out of LoS.Between being able to fly NLOS and see ghost branches at speed, this line is only possible with DJI's FPV system. This is GoPro footage (Superview + Hypersmooth). RHCP omnis on the VTX running at 1200mWTwo AXII 2 long stems on one side and RHCP X-air on the other side.
Two narrated NLOS flights behind solid rock (DJI DVR recording) techdaemon 2019-12-30 | Best viewed at 1440p. Link stats are already shown in the video.Here again, I'm pushing the limits of NLOS piloting with large sections of the flight blocked by solid earth, rock, or both. Running 1000mW with two omnis and two Triple Feed patches on the goggles. I misspoke in the video. When I fly under the trees on the right end of the ridge, I'm about 600m away from launch, and the old structure I flew through at the other end, is 660m the other direction. It is unfortunate that the DJI DVR doesn't record any of the other telemetry data (either on screen or in a separate file), because I wanted to see what my RSSI looked like just before I lost control. The transmitter's own audio telemetry did not complain of losing the signal until the quad had dropped to the ground, and was resting upside down, but it certainly behaved like I lost control there. The video was solid until after it dropped. I wonder if it was a "random drop" instead of a real control loss. At this point I've got a little more trust in DJI video link than I do Betaflight 4.1.x.
40ft (12m) down, behind solid earth (DJI ground recording) techdaemon 2019-12-27 | Best viewed at 1440p. Turn on CC to see link stats.Here I'm making a flight trying to maximize my time flying behind solid earth. At the lowest point I'm 40ft vertically below the high point of the hill and still have a usable video signal. It makes sense for this MIMO/CDD based system to work NLOS when there's a lot for the signal to reflect off of, but here there is only trees, and normal trees and other live vegetation absorb rather than reflect Rf signals. 5.8Ghz isn't known for being able to bend over the horizon like lower frequencies either.Using two of these on the quadamazon.com/gp/product/B0816L3ZBP/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1On the goggles I have two of theseamazon.com/gp/product/B0816N98CX/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1Plus two Triple Feed patches, amazon.com/gp/product/B07KGFT1V3/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1For RC control.. R9m Lite on my X-lite with the better dipole (from the full sized R9m module)and the r9mm receiver with a homemade dipole mounted mostly vertically (I don't believe ever horizontally orienting antennas, unless it's paired with a vertical one).
Byte Frost in the forest (comparison to DJI FPV) techdaemon 2019-12-17 | Best viewed at 1440p.Maybe I should call it Byte Frozen. It was 24F and windy, so my fingers were COLD, especially after setting up the ground station on a tripod. I've now flown here a few times with DJI, was curious to see how Byte Frost would handle being blocked by trees and not so much multipathing. It seems at least on par with analog.DJI comparison video at 500mWyoutube.com/watch?v=NdB6YI8jRmg
In the Trees with DJI FPV - DVR recording techdaemon 2019-12-13 | Best viewed at 1440p. Turn on CC for link stats. I was worried that maybe DJI only really performed well in NLOS conditions when it had some hard objects to bounce its signal off of (it uses MIMO + CDD), and that when it was blocked by thick vegetation (which is generally non-RF-reflective) that it would stumble. Not so much. Anyone who's ever flown analog through tree canopies knows that it breaks up *a lot*.FWIW, it was quite windy, which is why I wasn't aiming for the really small gaps and going through the structure every time. I'd be correcting for the wind on the approach, and then encounter no wind in the passageways of the structure.
Night flying - Analog DVR recording for comparison techdaemon 2019-12-09 | Best viewed at 1080p or 1440p. View in the goggles is a little better than this, but not by much. Can see that the Caddx Ratel camera sees in the dark quite well, but that doesn't do me any good when I get low behind a row of structures and trees and my video signal goes to hell.Flight ends when I clip a black low hanging wire that I could not see at all and spun loose a prop. I had to go back and watch the video from the DJI ground recording to see that wire was even there (didn't even notice it when I was picking up the quad. I thought I had hit a stray tree branch). On the DJI equipped quad I was always flying so much lower that I didn't notice the wire above me. Sometimes lower is safer.
Relentlessly pushing NLOS with DJI FPV (raw DVR recording) techdaemon 2019-12-09 | Best viewed at 1440p. CC on for stats. Here at the school yard, there's a lot of places I don't normally flybecause theyr'e out of LoS behind buildings, and trees, and chain link fences, sometimes all at once. I've tried with Analog, I've tried with Byte Frost and just can't do it. With DJI FPV, I'm just charging deeper and deeper into NLOS conditions and pushing through it with only moderate degradation of the video signal. The worst I've seen was maybe a quarter second glitch (video pauses and then jumps forward), but compared to seconds of near total static, it's completely liberating. I can see people and dogs when they enter the park or at the far end of a gap I'm about to shoot, and turn away long before I surprise them (or them me). BTW, I added the sound from the onboard video, so it gets a little out of sync by the end. That amount sync loss, represents the sum total of all delayed frames for the entire flight. Maybe a second total.
DJI FPV DVR recording at night in High Quality (vs. Low Latency) techdaemon 2019-12-09 | Best viewed at 1440p setting.In my last night video I had been running in Low Latency mode which means it's capturing at 120fps which means the shutter speed is at least 1/120th. Someone pointed out that High Quality mode would drop the shutter to 1/60th which should let in more light.That does indeed appear to be the case. Yes there's more lights on the path now than before, but when I do pull up and look out into the open space, you can see more than before, even though there's less snow to catch the moonlight. Also in my last video apparently I had Focus Mode turned ON instead of Auto, although I didn't really notice it in the dark. In this video I had it set to Auto, but never noticed it active.
Byte Frost NLOS conditions techdaemon 2019-12-09 | Best viewed at 1440p. This flight was done after I'd flown DJI FPV behind the buildings/trees a whole bunch and I wanted to see if I could push through the inevitable static with Byte Frost at 450mW. The result speaks for itself. Using same antennas for both systems. Two omnis and two Triple Feed patches, generally pointed in the direction of the worst NLOS locations.Here's the DJI video for comparison. youtube.com/watch?v=3CqJ4WbR7XUI flew through the same area probably 20 times over the course of the afternoon. It's admittedly one of the worst spots for NLOS, being behind two structures, several fences, and even some construction materials. Low enough I may have been below ground level as the ball field cuts into the hill a bit.
DJI FPV DVR recording of true night flying with NLOS (Low Latency) techdaemon 2019-12-07 | Best viewed at 1440p setting even on 1080p monitor.Here's a night spot I haven't flown in years. It's best flown with snow on the ground and some moonlight as a good camera can see the moonlit snow directly, and if nothing else it helps spread out the light from the street lights, although I see more have died and never been fixed since I flew here last.Anyway, DJI FPV camera has very wide dynamic range, but it's only an average camera at night. Here's an old DVR video from my Hero3 Black with Protune turned on. youtube.com/watch?v=q-uFJPpYSiMI'd forgotten how good of an FPV camera in low light conditions until I viewed this video again. It was also recorded with a high quality analog DVR. Forgot how good that was too, compared to the Fatshark DVR. However, when you compare the videos, you can see that the NLOS peformance of the DJI system is vastly better, and that old quad was using 800mW 1.3Ghz VTX with a full sized cloverleaf. I did see the image slow down a couple times, and dropped from 4 bars down to 3 or 2, but could fly through it without issue. You can't see it in this vid, but sometimes there were several structures between me and the quad. Can see them better in the old video.
DJI FPV Flight #3 DVR recording techdaemon 2019-12-01 | Best viewed at 1440p even if on 1080p monitor. Turn on CC for telemetry info. 3rd flight of the DJI FPV system.Stock omni antennas. Low latency mode, Focus mode enabled"LED scene" camera mode (darker and more contrasty). Any time I fly to the right I'm either fully out of LoS (behind a big shed) or partially (behind chainlink fences) and this system just chews through it. I'm flying paths that are generally very uncomfortable with analog due to high level of static as I go deeper and deeper of or clear LoS. Forgive the shakiness. It was blowing about 15mph and it was also my 3rd flight of this quad.
Byte Frost .23 firmware @60fps uploaded at 1440p techdaemon 2019-11-17 | Please watch at 1440p even if on a 1080p monitor. All detail is lost otherwise. First flights on Byte Frost firmware .23 with camera and GS at 60fps. Performance is ok, but not great. VTX at 450mW setting. Two AXII 2 omni antennas and two Triple Feed Patches on the ground station (using the Transformer box, so I turn to face the aircraft as well). Here's analog comparison of the same flight route.youtube.com/watch?v=M9amYQjxmUgAnd here's what it looks like it uploaded direclty at 720pyoutube.com/watch?v=D2WOebyJEeIwhich is unfortunately how most people are doing it.Youtube only gives about 3Mbit/s peak bitrate to 720 vids,while 1080p gets around 6Mbit/s and 1440p gets close to 20Mbit/s peak, and VP9 (H.265) codec so it's about twice as efficient, and has more than enough bitrate to cover the original.The DVR records at about 16Mbit/s.
Analog comparison to Bytefrost. Same flight. Uploaded at 1440p techdaemon 2019-11-17 | This is my analog quad flying the same route as I did with Byte Frost in the other two vids. To make it fair, I'm using Legacy diversity mode on RapidFIRE (no combining, no sync)and same antennas.. AXII 2 omni + Triple Feed Patch on VRX.Here's the Byte Frost video youtube.com/watch?v=vH2CwZ8_f5E
Quick run up to Jones Pass on the Tiger 800, to fly techdaemon 2019-08-13 | (Note: best viewed at 1440p for higher bitrate, even on 1080p monitor).Headed up the road to Jones Pass on my Tiger 800XCx Sunday evening so I could fly my quad over the cornice near sunset. Got some great footage, which I'll post up on the main channel. By this time the weekend campers were all gone so the road is relatively clear. The low camera position makes it look a little faster than I was actually going, but I made good time.Recorded on Hero7 Black with Superview + Hypersmooth.GoPro 3.5mm microphone adapter with a lapel mic sporting a deadcat windscreen, clipped to the top of my tank bank. The rattle sound is a bottle of ibuprofen inside the bag. I need to get some cotton in there.
StarHoppers first successful hop - Everyday Astronauts video brightness corrected techdaemon 2019-07-27 | Original video by Everyday Astronaut hereyoutube.com/watch?v=3ZTybL6Dzz4Used with permission per terms stated in the description of that video. I did my best to stabilize the brightness as EA was manually changing it down and back up, and of course brighten it in the darkest moments. I did it mostly for my own curiosity to see if I could a few more details out.I can see the top of the hopper (in the original), then the upper right corner venting down the side as it starts descending, then edge of right leg briefly before it disappears into the smoke fully.
Green Gulley techdaemon 2019-05-27 | Found a fun a little gully nearby to play in. (Best viewed at 1440p)I need to get back here when the lighting is better. When that happens, another version of this video will probably go up on the main channel.
Raw 5S Fun techdaemon 2019-04-01 | Going fast on 5S. Finally nailed the sideways drop. (Bested viewed at 1440p just for the increased bitrate).
P51 on a cold windy day techdaemon 2019-02-27 | Short clip of one of the first flights of a new to me P51 PSS slope plane out at the Powerlines in 30mph winds, at about 33 degrees F. Looking forward to getting this into some better lift on a bigger hill. When I bought this plane it had a camo color scheme which made it invisible against the ground most of the time. I sanded it down, painted it white and then gave it a red/white/black color scheme inspired by the Strega P51 Reno racer.
Nano Goblin - Predator Micro V2 + Rapidfire - long raw flight techdaemon 2018-08-02 | Just a nice long evening cruise at 2/3rds to full throttle with the Nano Goblin using combination of the Predator Micro V2 camera and RapidFIRE with latest beta firmware on Mode 1. Some folks seem to be very unhappy about the lens flare with the Predator Micro but I just don't notice it while flying. I can be pointed straight into the evening sun, and still see the ground in shadow.
2017 COFPV Meet - Cabin Run (1 mile out and back) with Goblin techdaemon 2018-07-31 | I forgot to post this footage last year, so I'm posting this now in response to someone who asked how fast could a relatively stock powered Goblin reach out a mile and back. edit - correcting bad mathRoughly 63 seconds out and back, for an average speed of 114mph. Using cumulative distance from the OSD in the same time, 125mph average. Then followed it up with a 171mph dive.There was about a 20mph quartering crosswind for the cabin run, and did the 171mph run straight downwind. Have draggy Runcam2 embedded in canopy, and I was using a dipole for video at the time (now Singularity inside).
Testing IRC RapidFIRE in a high multipath environment techdaemon 2018-07-22 | Best viewed at highest resolution available due to get highest bitrate.Some proximity flying with my Talon against a 500ft tall cliff face. This normally will produce a fair bit of multipathing. Firmware 1.1.1 in RF Mode 1.
Just cruising techdaemon 2018-04-05 | Chasing my own shadow with the Skyhunter.I had more/better flights here, but lost most of the footage. About 90% of the stabilization is provided by the Hero6, which does a pretty good job.
Nano Goblin flying low on a no wind evening techdaemon 2018-03-14 | Buzzing around a few obstacles on a rare no-wind evening.No onboard stablizer.
Hero 6 Black - fmware v2.01 - Stablization on - medium low light techdaemon 2018-03-02 | Shows how well the stabilization works with the newest 2.01 firmware update for the Hero 6 Black in medium low light conditions. It's after sunset. The automatic headlights on my car have come on, but still have stabilization. The camera is firmly planted on the dash, so all movement you see is from stabilization working. Settings 2.7K @ 30fps Linear FoV. PT Off.
Hero 6 Black - fmware v2.01 - Stablization turns off in low light techdaemon 2018-03-02 | Testing the stabilization on the Hero 6 Black following the new v2.01 firmware. In this video I catch the moment of transition from enough light that it can provide stabilization, to when it is too dark to do so. A little past halfway through the video, it gives up.
Testing Predator Micro camera pointing into the sun techdaemon 2018-02-09 | Flying my Nano Goblin around the park with my new Foxeer Predator Micro camera on a cold, extremely windy day. Folks complain about seeing a lot of lens flare with the Predator Micro. I'm just not getting that. Yes there is *some* lens flare, but it doesn't obstruct my view and I don't notice it while flying. What I do notice is that the sun is visible as a bright spot in a blue sky, at the same time the ground detail is visible. With most cameras I only get to choose one or the other. If the ground detail is visible, then the sun and all the sky around it is blown out white, or if the sky is exposed ok, then the ground goes to black.Note that this is recorded with Fatshark goggles DVR which records at an effective resolution of 640x240 (skips odd interleaving lines). I upscaled to 1440x1080 to retain as much high motion detail as possible, otherwise YT just re-renders it to mush.
STRIX Goblin Speed Bounty Submission techdaemon 2017-12-30 | Strix Goblin making a high speed run.153mph a few seconds in coming out of a dive with a moderate tail wind. Setup: 4S 3300 battery, Stock motor, APC 6x5.5 prop, 60A ESCRunCam2 on the canopy.Rlink LRS with dipole in the tail.FOX800 1.3Ghz video with Singularity in the nose. Vector FCBalsa elevonsreadymaderc.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=11_45_49_97&products_id=6670
Two Ninja Stars and two unintentional flicks with D80 at Jones Pass techdaemon 2017-09-23 | In my D60 video youtube.com/watch?v=o6lGJAvWn64I tried to do two Ninja Stars and it would just spiral for a while burning off about half its speed, before it'd finally depart and spin. My D80 was flying great, feels like the CG is spot on and the elevator throws don't feel excessive, but I discovered that it wanted to flick very quickly. It happened once unintentionally down low, and luckily was pointed away from the hill. Then I tried two intentional Ninja Stars and both initiated almost instantly.The near the planned end of the flight I was just cruising across the back down low at about 200mph, and it snapped left about 90 degrees toward the hill on its own, tried to pull up and it departed fully, and "landed".. still going 150+mph. D80 isn't really known for weird handling like this, so not sure what to make of it. In case some folks are wondering what is a Ninja Star.. It's when one wing and the tail stall at the same time, at high speed. It induces a very fast flat spin. The only recovery from it is to just wait, usually hands off the sticks until it eventually points its nose at the ground.
Dreamflight ahi in light air techdaemon 2017-07-31 | One of the first couple flights of my new Dreamflight ahi in very light air. I flew it in some bigger air (didn't film it though) and then can do some fun stuff with the rudder, spins and snap rolls and such. It does not like outside loops. I'll probably go back when the lift is bigger and make another version of this vid for the main channel.
Blackbox overlay on new QAV-XS. Tuning/filtering problems. techdaemon 2017-07-24 | Trying to figure out what's wrong with my new QAV-XS frame with DYS F4 FC + DYS 4in1 30A ESC + EMAX 2206/2400Kv motors and DAL Cyclone 5046x3 props. Everything is brand new. I've run through two different sets of ESCs, 3 sets of of motors, 3 different types of props, and two different Betaflight version (3.1.6 and 3.20 and they all behave the same. I get obnoxious low amplitude shaking which you can see is *caused* by random pulsing of the motors by the FC. My sampling rate is too low to see what's going on with the raw gyro traces (my mistake), but there doesn't appear to be any noise from the gyros at the frequency that the PID loops are responding. It feels like Betaflight's LPF and notch filters are just doing nothing and it's feeding back on itself. The quad *handles* like it's on rails, and I can't see the shaking the flight camera view so nothing I do in the field has any visible effect. Only when I get home and see a card full of really crappy HD video do I know the problem persists.
107mph Ridge Run - Strix Goblin techdaemon 2017-04-05 | One more run from the RMRC supplied Strix Goblin. Same ridge run as my "Black and White" vidyoutube.com/watch?v=GeSKQNlCcvEbut first north to south pass done at an average speed of 107mphpulling about 25A. Piloted through RunCam2
RMRC Strix Goblin early LoS flight techdaemon 2017-04-05 | This is the new RMRC sourced Strix Goblin, piloted LoS before adding any FPV gear. In this configuration it runs over 130mph. Here you can see how fast it is and the very long approach it takes to land it visually. I recommend landing it via FPV instead, by burning off all altitude early, and then flying it low and slow until you're near LZ and then cut throttle to float in. If you start your approach with any altitude, you'll run long every time. With FPV gear it slows down a little quicker, which helps.Note: Almost every time I saw "1/3rd throttle" in the vid it was really 1/4 throttle, and when I say 1/4 throttle it's really closer to 1/8. It really does fly on almost nothing, and I was misreading the marks on my Tx (can't take my eyes off the plane for long).
