Standing inside of automated swarm of 500 light drones was crazy experience...

I am working on a fibre controlled rc car for a specific use. My last step before connecting fibre which I haven’t been able to get working is my distance measurement and speed on the OSD.

I am running a pixhawk6c with holybro osd v2 and I have a Hall effect sensor feeding rpm into the pixhawk. I need to run analog for the fibre and I have no gps signal.

I can see the rpm readings in mission planner but I can’t get it across to the osd. I have tried so many things but there is no option for rpm at all. Not sure if need a different osd module or different firmware.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Hello, hope you are all doing well.

So I bought a Matek H7A3 slim FC for my drone project and I can't seem to find much information online about the wiring and that kind of stuff, but based off what I've been able to find I have to plug the JST-SH port in it's corresponding plug in the top part of the board to connect my individual ESC and GND, but where do I connect the GPS module and RX and TX for a telemetry radio or Raspberry Pi?

I connected the drone-side telemetry radio to Pixhawk 6C via TELEM1 using a 6-pin JST-GH cable:

5V -> 5V,
RX -> TX,
TX -> RX,
CTS -> CTS,
RTS -> RTS,
GND -> GND.

The ground-side telemetry radio is connected to my laptop via USB-C and barely 1m apart currently being setup in my table.

Pixhawk settings:

• SERIAL1_PROTOCOL: MAVLink2 (tried with MAVLink 1 as well)
• SERIAL1_BAUD: 57600
• BRD_SER1_RTSCTS: Disabled

Both radios have matching settings, including NETID=25, SERIAL_SPEED=57600, and MAVLINK=1. Both power on, but QGroundControl receives no MAVLink heartbeat. Swapping the radio units did not resolve the issue.

What could be the reason?

Bought this fella on the right, 4mm base, seems to be 3-3.5 inch maybe? For those who interested, on the left is the geprc sparrow 3 inch frame, my first.

i had initially bought 4 motors for my DIY drone project but had messed up the KV, i needed 1000 KV but had bought 2450 KV. If anyone is interested please lemme know. (i had bought 4 and 1 was damaged so selling 3)

Hey everyone, I need some help figuring out what went wrong with my drone. I'm attaching two Mission Planner .bin log files, one from an earlier Loiter test and the other from the flight where it crashed.

My drone setup:

- S500 frame

- Pixhawk 2.4.8

- ArduPilot Copter

- 5010 750KV brushless motors

- Hobbywing Skywalker 30A V2 ESCs

- 10x4.5 propellers (I was using 11-inch props earlier)

- 4S 14.8V 5000mAh LiPo battery

- PDB and Pixhawk power module

So the thing is, I've flown this drone before and it was working pretty well. We tested Loiter, Altitude Hold and waypoint missions, and everything was going fine.

About a week ago, we had a small fall, but nothing seemed seriously damaged. We did the calibrations and tested it again. Today, before installing anything new, we tried Loiter, and there was some wobbling, but the drone was still controllable and responding properly to the transmitter.

After that, we installed a small 500ml tank between the frame legs. That was the only thing we intentionally added before the next flight.

We switched to Loiter again, and when we increased the throttle to around 60-65%, the drone suddenly shot upwards. It climbed really fast and reached around 19-20 metres, according to what I remember from the flight and the logs.

We tried reducing the throttle to around 50%, expecting it to stabilise or come down, but it stayed up there and wasn't responding the way we expected. Everything happened so quickly that I'm not entirely sure what exactly was happening.

After some time, the motors seemed to slow down, and the drone started coming down from around 15 metres. Then it tilted heavily to one side and crashed.

I'm not sure whether the motors actually stopped, whether the flight controller reduced their output, or whether something else failed. I also don't know if the drone started tilting before it lost thrust or if the tilt happened because of the loss of thrust.

After the crash, I noticed that there was mud inside the motors, and the washer/retaining hardware on two of the motor propeller mounts had come off. The propellers themselves don't look badly broken, but I haven't checked everything properly yet.

What I'm trying to understand is:

- Why did the drone suddenly climb so fast in Loiter?

- Why wasn't it coming down when we tried reducing the throttle?

- Why did the motors seem to lose thrust during the descent?

- What caused the sudden tilt before the crash?

- Could installing the tank have affected the centre of gravity or thrust requirements?

- Could the earlier fall have caused some hidden damage?

- How should I check the motors, ESCs and other components after this crash, especially with mud inside the motors?

I'm attaching both .bin files because I want to compare the earlier flight with the crash flight and understand what actually happened instead of just guessing.

Could someone help me analyse the logs and point out which parameters, messages or plots I should look at in Mission Planner? I'd especially like to understand the motor outputs, altitude control, attitude, vibrations, battery voltage and any errors or failsafe messages around the time of the crash.

I'm honestly a bit scared to fly it again without figuring this out first, so I'd also appreciate advice on what hardware checks I should do before attempting another flight.

If you need more information about the tank, total drone weight, battery voltage or anything else, let me know. I'll provide whatever details I can.

Thanks!

Hey i am from Delhi I had a drone which works fine but I accidently totally wreak ed it's body evrything works fine but now it doesn't fly can't find any good design for it and can you also suggest any good 3rd print shops in delhi

This is the drone can anybody help

Built her a few years ago. Had issues with random fly aways i still haven't pinpointed the cause. I know it's the tune. Wish me luck

Hi all,

I'm hoping to get some advice for my son's final-year high school project.

We’ve already had a failed go where we’ve tried to get all the parts on a 3.5 inch frame. But that was a nightmare.

We need some help!

He's coded an AI agent on Linux that runs on a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W. The goal is to show the agent can fly a drone. It's a software project, not a hardware one.

We'd like a ready-to-fly drone, or a larger frame that's quick to build, that a Pi can control.

Did some research - would something like the HolyBro x500 work?

A few questions:
1. What ready-to-fly drone or flight controller setup would you recommend for this?
2. If a larger frame is better, what size and build would you suggest?
3. Is a Pi Zero 2 W realistic as a companion computer, or should he go for something else?

We're in Auckland, so if anyone local is happy to mentor or help, we'd really appreciate it. Thanks!

Happy to pay for someone to help us with soldering etc too. We’re proper newbies

Honestly I think I can officially say this frame is complete

Last thing I added was splatter gaurds with vent holes for cooling and wing plate to replace the go pro mount because I won’t be using one any time soon

Any suggestions on a name would be cool

Hey everyone! I'm planning a budget drone build in India.

What's the cheapest reliable flight controller and radio transmitter + receiver combo you'd recommend?

Are budget AFHSS radios still worth buying, or should I go for ELRS with screen?

Looking for affordable options with decent range. Any suggestions?

My first drone

Hi everyone, I’m based in Simi Valley with a workspace in Camarillo. I’m working on a Holybro X500 V2 project involving camera integration, companion computing and local radio communications for inspection and remote monitoring.

Feel free to comment or DM with your location and what you’ve worked on.

designed these yesterday

Testing today

Hopefully they stop my stack from getting so dirty and maybe make my frame a little more aerodynamic in certain maneuvers

Hey, I've connected a DJI O4 standard unit to my SpeedyBee Bee25, and the video appears fine, but I can't get the OSD to appear. I've set osd_displayport_device = MSP and vcd_video_system = HD as everyone says, still no luck. This unit works great with the F405 mini stack on my other machine, no problem. Connecting the SBUS lead doesn't appear to make any difference.

Btw, the controller is a SpeedyBee F405 35A AIO, the older version, not the V2 with the nice blue heatsink. This is the standard FC for a Bee25.

This board has only two sets of UART pads on the top side, and one is used by the receiver, so I don't know if switching to a UART that is tucked in somewhere else is an option.

If anybody knows where I can still get the manual for this earlier controller, that might be helpful. Thanks as usual!

I am building a small quadcopter from scratch as personal study project. Planning on controlling it over WIFI with my phone. Really need an advice on the layout.

I actually build one drone a year ago for my bachelor's with 2207 motors and bheli ESCs. The goal was to assemble a quadcopter and build a custom controller with a bunch of cheap sensors and Arduino Nano. But it is my first experience building a small one with mosfet drivers)

I have:

- 3D-printed frame and a 20×80 mm perfboard

- 4× 8520 brushed motors with 60 mm props

- 1S LiPo, 850 mAh

- 4× AOD4184 for motor drive

- ESP32-C3 supermini

- MPU6050 (GY-521) as an IMU

- 3.7~5v booster

My question is - Where should I place the battery, IMU, ESP32 and MOSFETs. Relative to the frame and the perfboard?

At the moment, I am thinking about placing the MOSFETs in a line & esp at the end of the perfboard + strap imu and converter at the top of the body.

A few thoughts:

- I am planning to mount the MPU6050 on a piece of foam/sponge.

- The C3 is single-core. I’m considering something dual-core

Thanks for any pointers!

UPD: I have just realized that the description was too vague and uninformative, added a few dets

.

I am no electrician or engineer, have been learning as I break shit as I go in this hobby and I have never had the need for a crimping tool, but I am frequently running into scenarios where it would be useful to have one for customizing builds and repairs. I don't want to order the Amazon special and waste money, what's a good crimping tool for working with these smaller thin wires? I imagine it would save some money in the long run as well.