Armattan Badger DJI Edition - Two Stage Brain Transplant
By Jayembee67 on Aug 24, 2020
This machine is actually the result of a two-stage Brain Transplant. The very first DJI build I put together had the Air Unit jammed into a standard iFlight XL5 frame, rather than a dedicated DJI frame. It worked but it was rather inelegant and there were plenty of props in view. As time has gone on I have been flying it less and less.
So I recently stripped the XL5 down, and put all the electronics into a cheap Chameleon clone designed to hold the Air Unit. I was basically able to lift the electronics wholesale out of the XL5 and drop them into Cham Clone with almost no soldering (but a bunch of printing). It looked great, had no props in view, but was very disappointing in the air; jello in the FPV feed, and strange handling, the cornering was odd, sticky.
And so I did the brain transplant again, and moved all the electronics into a reputable frame, an Armattan Badger DJI Edition. And apparently Third Time Is The Charm - the build was more effort this time, much more soldering, including everyone's least favourite activity, extending motor leads, and yet more printing. But it is still quite clean, and it flies very nicely; fast and stable, and the cornering is smooth and fluid once more. Huzzah.
This is almost the maiden flight, and it has not been tuned at all. There is a bit of rattle, which can likely be smoothed out, but this is flying nicely, and there are no props in view. So it took two goes, but finally a worthwhile upgrade. And perhaps a lesson about getting what you pay for.
Photos
Part List
Show stores (4)
i just created a very similar build with the marmotte. i'm having same bit of propwash and wobbles that you're getting. i've tried to read about PID tuning but I'm at a complete loss... how are you going to tackle the tuning?
also, are you in california? i was flying in the same smoke the other day. i got a little nervous because i chopped through the balance cable and i noticed sparks coming out if i moved it a certain way. i was able to cut the cables different lengths to prevent them from touching but it made me wonder if i should carry a fire extinguisher with me in case i started a small fire in the grass or something.
Yes, it's something to do with the frame geometry, I think, the squashed X gets the props close to one another on the sides, I do wonder if prop-tip turbulences bleeds across the props. But whatever it is, yes definitely got a bit of that.
So despite having been doing this for a while now, I am terrible at tuning, but at least it's now a lot easier with the sliders in 4.2.x. So I will likely start with upping the P+D gain a touch and then try sliding the P/D balance a little towards the D. Your D-term is there to help with the prop-wash, as I understand it. I'll also look at the Blackbox logs, they can be utterly opaque, but can also be really helpful; I'd be looking to see if there were any weird spikes of noise that aren't being filtered out, and then trying to get the various filters to remove them. But again, I suspect that the frame is likely solid; it's Armattan, after all. But I think a bit more P+D is needed, but in what proportions, I am unsure.
(I just looked at a tune on YT of 4.2 for the Marmotte, and they have upped the Master Multiplier to 1.1 and P+D Gain to 1.4 - they have similar hardware to mine, so I will likely start here and see what happens)
And yes, I am in the Bay Area, and it got pretty socked in yesterday. And yes, you really should, unfortunately. When we go out to this ranch to fly, we do take a fire extinguisher. Batteries can be quite explosive, as well as throwing sparks, so there is definitely a fire risk, and I really don't want to be the one that took down a million acres because of a drone fire... :-(
East Bay, Alameda actually. I mostly fly alone, and with a few friends, but there is a 415FPV group on Slack, and I think FB too, and they set up races and general get-togethers in the whole of the Bay Area. Plus there are a lot of folks who know a lot of things, so it can be a handy resource. If you are interested, DM me an email address, and I can request you get added to the Slack channel. It's a bit racing-centric, but everyone is very nice, and those that I have met in person doubly so!
Guides & Reviews
AirbladeUAV has done it again and this time they've brought long range to the 5" class! Based on the popular Transformer Mini, the new Transformer 5" Ultralight adopts a lot of the same design philosophies with larger props and more payload capacity. It can fly upwards of 20 minutes on a 4 cell Li-Ion battery pack and in ideal conditions it's got a range of over 4 to 5 miles. In this guide I'll walk..
Read more
With the release of the DJI FPV Drone cinematic FPV has become a lot more accessible, but you certainly don't want to crash a $750 drone! The QAV-CINE Freybott is a compact, lightweight cinematic FPV drone that can take a hit and keep going. It's a lot safer to fly indoors and around people. With a naked GoPro or the SMO 4k you can capture some great stabilized footage. In this guide I'll show you..
Read more
Are the 3D printed components included with the frame? Thanks.
They are not. There is no real need for any extra parts for the Badger DJI Edition, it has all the bits and pieces to hold the DJI gear. But I like to add needless weight, apparently, and a bit of character. If you are interested, I have just uploaded the models here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4630344
Thanks.