Snelflight Jump Jet

[Terry]

here is a video of a little quad battle we had in the front room, very good fun

http://www.vimeo.com/4325375

Terry

[W3FJW-Ron]

LOLOL. Like the look of utter concentration on the little ones face. Sounded like a nest of wasps in the living room... Those things can take a real beating. How about some info on them?

[Terry]

Hi Ron, yes he was focused

They came from here http://www.snelflight.co.uk/jumpjet.htm

The boys quad is IR controlled and mine is converted to use radio so we could fly them both together, it also lets me fly outside.

Both have had the bodys removed as them slow them down and are not very strong. We have also added rubber buffers to the ends of the arms.

There is more info on this site from a conversion Kilrah did to convert his to radio.

Terry

[W3FJW-Ron]

Hmmm. I gotta put that Harrier on my wish list..

[Mr.RC-Cam]

Those little buggers are really cool. Have you tried indoor FPV with them?

[Terry]

Not yet, I have a very light camera but its 12v and the battery is a bit heavy.

It looks like we are trying to crash into each other in the video but our aim is to get as close as possable above the other quad and the down wash causes it to loose control for a second or two.

Terry

[Kilrah]

I have a tiny camera that I've put on it, but for indoor FPV with the short distances it doesn't have a wide enough angle of view...

[Doofer]

Indoor FPV I've found really hard, despite these things being the most stable small fliers I've ever encountered - flying conventionally, it's easy to take off, fly around, and land back on the same space on the bookshelf

FPV-wise, I'm still teaching my brain to react fast enough to avoid the walls, or rather, damp down the back & forth oscillation that results from my slower reflexes, that makes me hit the walls. My impression is that the critical loss is good depth information. Could be the field of view problem Kilrah mentions. I also find that multipath is more of a problem indoors. Overall, I've got through quite a lot of propellors - something I never broke before trying FPV

Outdoors things are much easier, because there is more room to over & under-correct a bit. A hoot to zoom up to roof height, look around, inspect the bushes, go and buzz the jerk in the video glasses etc.

I'm still working on reducing motor/ESC noise on the image. The recommended 'inductor in the regulator line' just gave me unpleasant parasitic oscillation. I must try another, but meanwhile I'm putting up with mild lines on the image in flight. Probably not helping me deduce depth, and also means my videos so far are nasty.

Another challenge is balancing it up. With the added R/C unit, it's right on the AUW limit, but layout-wise there are constraints. I've put the camera one end, transmitter the other, but even so it's pretty front-heavy, and as us FPV-ers know, it's essential to start with a well-trimmed aircraft! Accounts for some of my indoor problems. Work in progress...