Aleksandar Kolov Blog - living life to its fullest

Racerstar Star20 20A Blheli_S 2-4S Detachable 4 In 1 ESC first look

February 28, 2017/in Multicopter /by Aleksandar Kolov

Racerstar Star20 4 in 1 ESC

Star20 is the newest 4 in 1 ESC from Racerstar that for the first time offers a unique feature, each ESC is detachable.

I saw this item posted on BangGood and it seemed like a nice logical step forward in the 4 in 1 ESC development so I have decided to take a look and share my thoughts.
This is the long awaited feature for all fpv miniquad racers that are flying 4 in 1 ESC combos on their rigs either they want to have a clean build or they have some of the newer airflow optimized frames with thin arms.

I have seen several burned 4 in 1 ESCs and most of the times nobody cares to repair them so you have to throw it in the garbage even if only one FET is burned. They are a bit cheaper than buying 4 regular ESCs but it seems a waste of money throwing three working ESCs when only one is burned.

This item is on preorder at the moment and looking at the photos, I’m not sure if the ESCs come soldered or separated (they probably packed with shrink tube). Either way, if they are separated it will be required to put a few blobs of solder in order to connect them and there is no delicate soldering required.
I think that this is the first 4 in 1 ESC of its kind and probably more will follow.

At this moment it is few bucks cheaper ($29.99+$0.34)than regular 4 in 1 20A ESC listed on BangGood from the same company.

I’m considering buying one of these since I’m planning a new build based on the X-Foot frame, but maybe I will have to wait for Racerstar to release Star30 30A 4 in 1 ESC in order to use it with some of the new powerhouse motors that are available on the market lately.

Update: It seems that FPV Model is already offering similar product X-Racer Quadrant 25A and it is in stock at the moment. The only downside is that this one is a bit longer so it may partially protrude out of the frame.

Eachine E010S 65mm Micro FPV Racing Quadcopter with 800TVL CMOS Based On F3 Brush Flight Controller

February 21, 2017/in Multicopter /by Aleksandar Kolov

Micro FPV Racing Quadcopters, the new hype train that started as the winter was coming in the northern hemisphere.
After owning the Eachine E010, I have decided to jump on it and ordered this ARF kit.

I have ordered this one from here, it is the Frsky version and this review will be regarding that one, I have no experience with the other versions except what I have read in other reviews and forum posts, mostly compatibility issues on Flysky (not compatible with FS-i6s R9B, R6B system and set your transmitter to AFHDS instead of AFHDS 2A)

Priced $54.99 as it is one of the cheapest micro fpv quadcopters, although you could spare few dollars if you look on Aliexpress for similar deals, but this seller seemed OK to me and I have decided that it is better to spend few bucks more than receive a broken or incomplete order.

The build is good, similar to E010, the antenna seems a bit fragile so it is advisable to mod it in order to be protected in crashes. The flight controller is not F3_Evo but regular F3 which is worth nothing if you try to flash it with Betaflight or Cleanflight. This one was missing the dampening rubbers for the FC so I had to improvise and use silicon strip in order to minimize the vibrations from the motors and get top notch performance from the FC.

The Racerstar motors pack some serious punch for a build with this size and weight (26 grams with battery), unfortunately, such motors require a lot of juice and the battery lasts about 2 minutes so make sure you order plenty of batteries if you want to really enjoy flying. Fortunately, I have found that this micro quad could fly even with 500mAh battery instead of the 150mAh. The 500mAh battery tames it down so it is more suitable for beginners.

I have flashed it with Betaflight since I use it on all of the other miniquads that I own. It flies great, a bit sluggish compared to the brushless miniquads but this is a real indoor flyer, stable, precise and responsive. I can’t stop flying it trough my apartment if only I had few more batteries haha (never enough). The telemetry on FrSky works perfectly

Here is a link to the receiver manual

Look no further if you are looking for a micro quad, this is the best one the money could buy.
Here is a great video review made by youtube user AndyRc

Realacc Genius 215 4mm Frame w/ REVO F4 Racerstar BR2205 2600KV Motor RS30x4 Blheli_S ESC 5042 Prop

Realacc Genius 215 w/ REVO F4 Racerstar BR2205 2600KV Motor

February 15, 2017/in Multicopter /by Aleksandar Kolov

Recently I have received the long awaited Realacc Genius 215 ARF package from BangGood.

A really nice kit for a great price $116 at the moment of writing this post, it comes with 4mm true X frame which weighs 85 grams, Revo F4, RacerStar BR2205 2600KV Motors, 4-in-1 RacerStar RS30A ESC and RacerStar 5042 TriProp.

Before ordering this kit I have done some research to find some reviews of the components used.

The frame is almost exact clone of the QAV-SKITZO Dark Matter and it seems that these cloning companies have learned the recipe, every frame that debuts on GetFPV should be cloned 🙂

I have already ordered and reviewed Revo F4 FC and you may find a detailed review and wiring instructions here
This kit comes with 4-in-1 RS30A ESC V2 which is a proven ESC for simple clean builds on frames with super thin arms like X-Foot. These ESCs could easily handle most of the power hungry miniquad motors and in this case, they are more than enough, actually, I think that it may have been cheaper to use RS20A 4-in-1, but that is my opinion.

I have no real experience with the RacerStar 5042 TriProps, but I will surely gain some as soon as I complete and maiden this build.

There was already a great test video of the motors along with RS30A V2 ESC (not 4-in-1) thanks to Albert Kim

Conclusion: This is a great kit for the price, I would prefer a bit stronger motors and also it may have been cheaper if they have paired it with RS20A 4-in-1 ESC but all in all great package for the price, especially for the guys that are on tight budget.

I will post a flight video as soon as I maiden and configure it properly.

Cablecam and Ronin gimbal with one Futaba14SG

December 3, 2016/in Aerial photography, Multicopter /by Aleksandar Kolov

Recently A friend of mine bought a cablecam in order to use it with Ronin MX and he called me to complain about a problem that as I have learned most of the people using cablecams and Ronin gimbals have, they have to use two remotes, one for the cablecam and another one for the Ronin gimbal and they have to either use the cablecam with two operators or they need a table to lay down the remotes and work simultaneously on both of them like some sort of DJ 🙂

I have tried searching on google for solution but only found forum posts of users complaining that it is impossible task.

He bought the cable cam from ROTTOR TEAM website and received a FlySky FS-I6S transmitter with it, he had the RoninMX and a Connex full HD video downlink. Also, he owns a Futaba 14SG that he uses on a big X8 heavy lifter quadcopter. So I had three different remotes to work with and find a way to use only one transmitter.

I have started with the one that comes with the Ronin MX gimbal, I thought that it will be easier to add the two channels from the cablecam to the remote since there were plenty of spare channels. I was hoping that DJI may have done something similar to the feature on the A2 flight controller where you can have multifunction PWM output channels F1-F4. Unfortunately, there are none (DJI please) and there is no way to map the spare channels on the remote to something useful.

I have continued reading the Ronin manual and there was part explaining that you may use custom remote that supports SBUS, so I said to myself, OK, fine I can try with the Futaba and R70008SB and maybe pair 2 similar receivers with the remote, one for the Ronin and another one for the cablecam, but I had only one receiver and there was no time to order and wait for the other one.
I have managed to connect the R70008SB on the D Bus port on the gimbal and control the gimbal with the Futaba on 12CH Mode but I had to find another solution.

Then I have remembered reading that you may use the Connex along with the Futaba to control the gimbal, without the need of an additional receiver. Here is a tutorial that explains how to connect and use the Futaba to control the Ronin gimbal.

I have gone trough the steps on the video and I had the Futaba control the Ronin in no time by using the training port, so one part of the problem was solved. Now I have had one R70008SB that was bound to the Futaba in 14CH Mode and I have plugged in the two channels from the cablecam into it taking care that I use the throttle channel 3 for cablecam movement and channel 5 for the cablecam limits since the only the throttle channel wasn’t used for gimbal control. After that I have powered the cablecam and voila, everything was working.

As I’m writing this article the cablecam is used on a local pop star concert, I have been there for a while in order to make sure that everything is working as it should.

Let me know if this article had helped you in any way and if you have any additional questions.

Revo F4 from BangGood.com – firmware update, wiring and configuration

December 3, 2016/in Multicopter /by Aleksandar Kolov

Yesterday I have received the long awaited Revo F4 flight controller board from BangGood, also known as Flip32 F4 and Flip F4. I have ordered it to replace the old Naze32 board that I was using for the past 2 years.

It is the cheapest board on the market and judging by the reviews on Bang Good it seems that there are no complaints about the quality, so I have decided to order it and give it a try.

There is no wiring diagram or manual, only small relatively understandable lettering on the back side and it, so I have done some searching and found that Ready to Fly Quads offers the same board for the same price, the only difference is that they have better description and more pictures of the board and also a detailed wiring description.

My board came with Betaflight 3.0.0 so before starting to configure it I have updated it to 3.0.1
The firmware flashing procedure is relatively simple, hold boot button, connect the board to usb and it should display DFU instead of COM port on the right corner of the Betaflight configurator, if not you should use Zadig in order to update the STM32 drivers. Please refer to this youtube video for the whole process of updating the firmware.

I have created the layout diagram on the right for anyone having problems understanding the existing diagrams that could be found on other websites. This is a bare minimum for my setup, no led control or current sensing only SBUS, motor connections, buzzer, VBAT, telemetry and powering the board from the motors rail (PWR).
I’m using X4R SB receiver that is soldered directly to the SBUS, no need for hacking into the receiver in order to get an uninverted signal. The board is powered with 5v from my PDB. VBAT gets the voltage directly from the main battery connector cables.
And I’m using UART3 TX port to send telemetry data to my X4R SB receiver, one important thing to note is that you cannot just plug the telemetry wire from X4R on to the UART3 TX port since it will not work. You should follow the instructions found here (X4R-SB solution is at the bottom of the page) and solder the wire on the SOT23 transistor leg. If you need the technical aspects there is a really good explanation on the link above or you can just find the transistor and solder the wire on the specified leg.

My board came with MSP enabled on UART1, you should disable that and enable Serial RX in order to enable SBUS working with X4R.
And if you feel lazy and if you aren’t sure if you are setting the board right, here is a dump of all settings that should work with the wiring diagram that I have provided. Stock pids, stock filtering, nothing changed except the rates but you can reset them to defaults.

Let me know if you need any further help or if this blog post had helped you.

The lucky owner of the Revo F4 flight controller is my modified QAV-R that had the top and bottom plates broken in a crash so I have had to convert it to nearly true X. Hardly waiting to have some more time to take it out on a test flight.

365 photo project with aerial twist

November 26, 2016/in Aerial photography, Multicopter, Photography /by Aleksandar Kolov

It has been a while since I have posted something here. Probably because I was waiting for something important or maybe because I have spent much more time with my family and outside than by my computer.

There are few other blog posts that I plan to write in near future like the one for my relatively new stone balancing hobby and pottentionally some reviews of the equipment that I’m using for this project.

For the past 9 days I have posted one aerial photo per day on Instagram, so yesterday I have decided to start a 365 project but done only with aerial photos. For those that need an explanation, it is a photography project that requires you to take a photo a day for a whole year. It will be an interesting challenge to go out and take an aerial photo almost every day with exception of the days when it will rain or snow. For such days I will have to have a backup solution, either an aerial photo taken another day or I will use that day for checking the equipment and have a picture of that. Since this is a big commitment I will start with 30 days first and see where will that take me. I would be glad to hear your thoughts.

Here is one photo that I took today, not so good weather but I will have to work with what I have

Scupi is an archaeological site located between Zajčev Rid (Зајчев Рид ‘Rabbit Hill’) and the Vardar River, several kilometers from the center of Skopje, in the Republic of Macedonia. A Roman military camp was founded here in the second century BC on the site of an older Dardanian settlement.

All photos are shot with GoPro 3 strapped on my QAV210 freestyle mini quad (drone). There is no gimbal and no GPS positioning so it requires some patience and a bit of circling in order to frame the perfect shot.

I certainly hope that at some point in time I would manage to get some sponsors that will help me replace some of the old parts on my quadcopter.

Feel free to visit my Instagram profile here and check my progress.

Playing with Ricoh Theta S

May 19, 2016/in Outdoor, Photography /by Aleksandar Kolov

A friend of mine recently bought Ricoh Theta S and was nice enough to lend it to me for a day.
It is a really nice gadget that produces decent quality 360-degree photos (5376 x 2688 px) and OK video files, considering that the videos are 1920 x 960 px.

I was very lucky the previous day to find a field full of poppies and I have shot some really nice photos. You could check the other images on the bottom of this page.

I have visited the same field the following day to test the Theta S and I have got some really unique perspective pictures.
It is really nice that Ricoh had worked out the embedding so well, whether you want to share the image on Facebook or Twitter and there is also an embed code that works really well.

Here is an example that I have took while laying in the middle of the field

Post from RICOH THETA. #theta360 – Spherical Image – RICOH THETA

And here is an example of photo taken in lower light in closed space just to test the seams processing

Post from RICOH THETA. #theta360 – Spherical Image – RICOH THETA

At the end of the day, Theta S is really nice gadget and also it could be used for creating Google street view content, since it is one of the cameras suggested by Google

Downgrade A2 from 2.7 to 2.1 – GPS pro / GPS pro plus problem

May 15, 2016/in Aerial photography, Multicopter /by Aleksandar Kolov

Why would I need to downgrade A2?
It seems that DJI had forgotten that not all their customers that use DJI A2 FC have the latest GPS pro plus module

Recently I have encountered a problem after upgrading DJI A2 to the latest 2.7 firmware. The GPS pro module started acting and I wasn’t able to arm my multicopter.

After doing some research I have found that this is a well-known problem because the latest firmware requires you to have GPS pro plus module and it cannot work with the regular GPS module that came with the A2 when it was bought.

So you would say, that is easy, just downgrade and everything is back to normal.
That could be done if are keeping previous versions of the Assistant software so you could uninstall the latest and install the one that is compatible with the required firmware.
Unfortunately if you try to find previous firmware versions on the DJI website, there aren’t any. You could only download the latest one. So there is no way to downgrade A2 unless you have an older version of the Assistant software.
I have started searching for an older version of the Assistant software in order to do downgrade A2 and after an extensive search, I have found a link to download the 2.1 firmware – http://download.dji-innovations.com/downloads/a2/A2_1.2_Installer.zip

After the installation, all went back to normal, but I started wondering if I’m forced to use 1.2 version or the link could work for the other firmware version, just by changing one number in the filename. It turned out that all other versions are there,and you can downgrade A2 to any firmware you want, just replace the number 2 in the link with the required version http://download.dji-innovations.com/downloads/a2/A2_1.[enter your number here no brakets]_Installer.zip

Just in case DJI decides to remove the previous versions from their server, I have uploaded the file on 4Shared

Saving for Phantom 4 Phantom 4 Pro

April 6, 2016/in Aerial photography, Multicopter /by Aleksandar Kolov

After watching every available youtube video review and some of the early video shots that were taken with Phantom 4, I have decided that it is time to ditch the ideas of DIY multicopter that could carry Sony Nex sized camera and start spending some money to buy myself a P4.

I own a 650 sized quadcopter that could carry a mirrorless camera, but so far I have been using it with GoPro and Zenmuse H3-3D gimbal. Although I get near 30 minutes of flight with it, I have found that it is too bulky to carry it on shoots and almost impossible to take it with me on a hike because of the weight and bulkiness. I could have made it more portable if I have used folding arms, but nothing justifies the weight of the LiPos (1350 grams per battery), so I was stuck somewhere in the middle of decision whether to invest and buy gimbal and mirrorless camera like Sony A6000 or A6300 or go with the Phantom 3 Advanced (P4 was not out yet), since the camera + gimbal equals or it will be higher for A6300 than the price of P3A.

It was a hard decision because I really like the way this quadcopter flies, but in the end, I have concluded that the features, portability, and the camera photo and video quality outweigh the quality of the pictures that I will get by using A6000 or A6300.
That’s why I have decided to sell this rig and some of the equipment that I wasn’t using so I can have enough hobby funds to buy Phantom 4 which at this moment isn’t available here in Macedonia, but it will be, by the time I collect enough money 🙂

Image from http://drone.farm/consumer-drones-its-all-about-integration/

One thing that makes me a bit uncomfortable after 4 years of making DIY multicopters is the way DJI had integrated everything on one central board. If something fails, there are no spare electronic parts but the whole board must be replaced and that is not cheap. Also, the markings on most of the electronic parts are stripped so you have no clue about the part that needs to be replaced.

1/4 of the funds collected so far. Sold my old GoPro Hero 3 black and already had some funds from an aerial job that I have done two weeks ago, so far so good 🙂

3D Printed Nest

April 3, 2016/in 3D Printing /by Aleksandar Kolov

My younger daughter had an and idea that we should make a bird house and she was so persistent that I had to do something about that 🙂
Initially, while we were walking to the school and back we discussed and she had some ideas that we should make it from cardboard, but I told her that the cardboard wouldn’t stand a chance if it rains and that the first rain will ruin the house. I have told her that maybe it is better to have the construction done by combining some 3D printed joints and wooden sticks and we ended the conversation there.

After returning home I have decided to check thingiverse.com and see if somebody else had previously done some similar stuff and as usual, there were plenty of designs to choose from. One specific design that caught my eye was Printed Nest. I have really liked the idea that you could stick it on the window and actually see the birds while they feed. Another thing that I liked was the idea of having a community of people that have either printed their own nest or have bought one from the Printed Nest website and after showing her the look of this bird house, the decision was made, we were going to print it.

Since this is two part print the antler seemed to be harder to print, I have devided to start with it. It took over 4 hours on 0.3 mm kayer height to finish this part.

And 7 hours for the eggy part, so 11 hours altogether. Just in time when my daughter was home after school.

And finally the printed nest placed on the window. I really like the opening on the back of the nest that helps you to see the birds feeding

Everything came up really nice, not to mention that my daughter was delighted by the look of the bird house and the idea that we have the first one in Macedonia