What did you buy for your drone/drone project today?

@ruouttaurmind Wow that is a great deal!

@ruouttaurmind good luck on the turn signal.

@ruouttaurmind Looks nice. Where do I get my hands on this?

@DJMajickMan I got them both on eBay. Search for G-3D-Z-11 for the mounting rail, and G-3D-Z-12 for the top plate. You can also get the lower plate (part number G-3D-Z-13) and convert an existing non-Walkera gimbal to the quick mount system (all three parts required).

@DJMajickMan PS: I haven't measured the top plate yet, but I believe it's the same dimensions as the G-2D gimbals as well, so a G-2D could be converted to the rail mount system with only the top plate and rail.

@DJMajickMan Just confirmed. A Walkera G-2D gimbal can be converted to the 3D style rail mount simply by replacing those two parts. It's my intention to see if I can use the G-3D top plate and G-2D bottom plate to convert my Chinese gimbal to the same rail mount as well.

@ruouttaurmind my plastic walkera 2d uses that same rail system but plastic.

@nltownsend843 It's awesome. I can remove the G-3D in less than 10 seconds. Unplug, unscrew one thumb screw, slide off. Fantastic system.

@ruouttaurmind Wonder if it will work with my cheap 2D gimbal. Having quick change would be nice.

@DJMajickMan I'll dig out the mic this weekend and get a center to center measurement, but I doubt they'll be a direct fit. More that likely what you'd have to do is replace both upper and lower plate, then drill a couple holes to mount your current control board, and a couple more to mount the down shaft of the current assembly. To do this you'd need upper plate, lower plate and rail. Total about $20+/- invested.

@ruouttaurmind That's still not bad for quick swapping between quads. Means more video filming with less downtime while I unscrew it from one quad and move to the other.

@DJMajickMan placement of weight will also be a factor, to be fully balanced they all need to weigh the same and balance at the same point.

They probably should do this if they weigh the same, but if you have to add weight to balance them make sure it's placed to keep the balance point correct.

@DJMajickMan This is the one I have: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002SC3LLS?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00

@garyhgaryh I looked at that but the one I got has 0.01 accurracy vs 0.1 I want this to be as accurate and close as possible as I think that's probably most peoples problem with these props is they don't get them matched so the don't fly optimally.

@nltownsend843 how much was that?

@garyhgaryh
$150 for bnf with 7 batterys.

@djslack Good buy. I need to get a decent set of hex drivers too. The crappy Harbor Freight ones I have aren't doing any justice to the screw heads..

@ruouttaurmind I wasn't sure when I bought this, but it was basically this set or a $26 set of three aluminum hex drivers. The guy at the LHS recommended it, says it's what he uses himself. I'd say the small size and packability overrides the inconvenience of changing bits out. I knew I wouldn't regret getting a decent set in time for the ZMR250 build, too.

@ruouttaurmind I got a decent one from HF this year that I've been using for my bikes and phantom. http://m.harborfreight.com/18-piece-t-handle-ball-point-and-hex-key-wrench-set-96645.html

@DJMajickMan I surely would like a decent soldering station. I used to use one of these Weller stations in the lab. Soldering with that, compared to my cheap 20 year old Tandy soldering iron... it's like the difference between writing with a Mont Blanc LeGrande and a broken crayon.

@ruouttaurmind Man that's a world of difference. PDB has power leds run and all of the other spots tinned and ready to go. All in less than 20 minutes and I'm realtively newbish when it comes to soldering and all of my spots look a hell of a lot cleaner than any previous job I've done.

@djslack
Its all boxed up and waiting on you, whenever you're ready.

@nltownsend843 sweet! I'll get some cash and get in touch this evening after work.

@garyhgaryh testing various props I see? Be sure to report. I am actually putting my order together now and thought about adding some 5040s. Can't pass up that vtx deal, it will since my sideways transmitter issue.

@djslack i know the 6045 won't fit, but it was recommended by our buddy @ruouttaurmind so I bought it for a future project. I really hope you get your zmr250 issue resolved quickly. I'm afraid I might run into issues like this... BTW, when you are hovering, how much does it drift? I'm tempted to try hovering it in our living room tonight.

@garyhgaryh the drift is not bad. I mean there's no gps lock so you do have to fly it, but if you can fly without gps you can do it. I tried to hover in my kitchen (furthest from the bedroom) one night but it was sooo loud and made a ton of wind--definitely not indoor friendly.

I threw in some 5040 and 5045 props to try out with my order.

@garyhgaryh I really liked @djslack's test rig. As easy as it is to do, maybe you want to try that first? ;-)

@ruouttaurmind Yeah i should.... too excited to build the string rig tonight.

@garyhgaryh If you were able to angle the motors say 10-20 degrees out on each tip so that they were / instead of | on the right and \ instead of | on the left would that give you enough room. And yes those angles are off from what I'm actually thinking of as they would actually be also pushed out the z axis also away from the center of the craft.

I know Getfpv Sells a motor mount that adds distance and angle but it doesn't look like the angle I'm thinking off. These look like even at idle you're always moving forward. My mental concept would leave them all angled away from each other allowing you to still hover. Not sure what that would do with the down draft though...:S

@DJMajickMan Interesting. I'll be curious to see how it works out. I would like to have recording of FPV viewpoint including telem data on the Tali and QR X350 Pro. I think it would be an interesting mix to cut into the standard video. Particularly with the MiNi 3D's Follow Mode, which sort of simulates the FPV flight experience.

@DJMajickMan Hobby king sells a video record (I'll try to dig up that link) for about the same price. Luckily my fpv goggles has video recording so I don't have to worry about that :).

@garyhgaryh I looked into this DVR/7" LCD VRX. For $130 I'm not THAT far off from goggles, but with my closeup vision being so bad I'm not sure if I can get on with goggles.

@DJMajickMan I just got my bullet connectors two days ago. Are you the one with the 1806 motors? I saw a guy this past weekend flying a 250 quad and I noticed he had the RCX 1806 motors. Much bigger than the 1804 motors. You're saing the motors already have the male connectors, right?

@garyhgaryh Yes mine are the 1806's the bullet connectors that were on it were just slightly larger than the 2mm ones I bought so I'm just replacing them all. The lines are long anyways so this allows me to tighten things up a bit.

Okay so the ImmersionRC EzOSD fracking rocks. So easy to hook up, and it gets it's power directly inline with the battery so once mounted it'll be a nice solid XT60 connection.

@DJMajickMan Is this for your phantom or the 250 quad?

@garyhgaryh for the 250. As you may recall my Phantom got upgraded and is running the DJI IOSD and has the Ground Station installed. Which I've yet to use the Ground Station. Although this would have been a much cheaper alternative for OSD. Just think having another GPS unit in there is kinda overkill.

@ruouttaurmind Awesome! That printer will do ABS with no issues (enclosed print area). You def. went big...

BTW, guess what I got today? My nuts! lol.. ok, my propeller nuts guys (what were you guys thinking?). I was still looking for the lost one but I've given up. It's impossible to find unless I dedicate my life to finding it..

@ruouttaurmind Welcome to the 3d printing world. That's a nice little piece of kit you're getting there. And with Dual extruders that'll come in handy when/if it can print some of these degradable filaments. Allowing you to print the supports out of the degradable material so that it just washes away instead of being broken of and having to file it down.

@garyhgaryh, @DJMajickMan Thanks guys. I'm probably going to spend a disproportionate amount of time messing with 3D printing for the next week. Sort of like Gary did when he got his printer. LOL!

@garyhgaryh, glad you've got your nuts. (insert easy joke here) Back to the skies! :-) Banggood started listing a set of CF rotors... 5030's I think... with the integrated hub nut. I think they're about $3 a pair or so. I might try a set of those. I don't really want or need CF rotors, but I surely do like the self-tightening and easy-on/easy-off rotors on my other drones.

@ruouttaurmind I ordered five nuts, one nut does not thread onto any of the motor shafts. Hate going through the return process. They're gonna think I don't know what I'm doing. Hey, does our phantom 1.1.1 come with prop wrenches? My friend with the Phantom 2 says his came with the propeller wrench. I had heck of a hard time getting my props off so I borrowed this dji propeller wrench and they came off with no problems. I discovered those fake DJI 9443 props was causing instability with my phantom. The p1.1.1 kept taking a dive into the ground. I switched it with genuine 9443 and it's like night and day. I also bent my lightweight gimbal big time.. I bent it back. I guess it's time to install the walkera G-3d (soon). Oh, i probably wouldn't go with CF props. they can hurt you real good when they make contact with your soft flesh :(.

@garyhgaryh Mine came with the prop wrench. I don't know where it is so I've found alternatives for getting hard stuck rotors off. Mainly my keys jammed at an angle or the leatherman micro's flat head screwdriver locking the motor from spinning. Also I had no issues flying with the CF blades just keep your distance and warn everyone around you to stay back if it hits the ground. And remember DON'T TRY TO CATCH IT if it starts coming down with the CF props ;)

@garyhgaryh I don't recall if my Phantom came with a prop wrench or not. The Cheerson and Quanum both did though, so I usually use those. What I need is some kind of motor wrench to use with the prop wrench. Something that maybe fits just onto the top of the motor to secure it while I turn the prop wrench. Say.... maybe that's another thing that should go onto the 3D printer wish list!

@ruouttaurmind Sorry...guess I should correct that. It's not a prop 'L shaped' wrench like some drones come with, it's a 'U shaped' wrench that's the exact size(width) of one of the motor arms that allows me to hold the motor still while I wrench off the props by hand. I don't think the self tapping props have the hole in them to use the 'L shaped' wrench to tighten/loosen them.

@DJMajickMan Oooohhh, you mean dis ting!

@ruouttaurmind yes. The thing I was going WTF is this for when I was unboxing.

@DJMajickMan Yeah I found it in my phantom box in a plastic baggie with a short string and I guess some sticky tape and rubber foam sticker. Have no idea what those things are for, but I know what the wrench is for! :)

@DJMajickMan It wants me to log in. How much are they?

@garyhgaryh $50 for the set. I don't know about shipping, I didn't look that closely at the seller.

@ruouttaurmind @DJMajickMan Thanks. I've been thinking about get the aliexpress set with the 1806 motors for $86. The little quad is fun (or get the big 550 quad). argh, just checked. Looks like the sale is over. the 1804 version is now $88!

@ruouttaurmind @garyhgaryh it's $1 shipping and coming from California. :) So for $51 I'm getting spare motors and ESC's...or it'll be motors and ESC's for my coroplast drone build.

@ruouttaurmind So it's a horrible picture. Maybe my next purchase should be a decent camera for stills?

Anyhoo... all set up and printing my first test. The object was included on the SD card that came with the printer, so I have NO idea what it's going to be, but in two to three short hours I should have my first completed FDM part! :-)

BTW, I have a BUNCH of parts left over. I'm hoping they're spare parts included by the manufacturer. Lots of screws, two little tubes and a bracket of some kind. But careful review of the FF manual, all the alternative manuals out there, and about half an hour of looking at the printer and I'll be darned if I can see anywhere they should be.

@ruouttaurmind wow wow! Nice printer you got there! I'm positive you will enjoy your printer. At least u didn't have to put it together like the diy kits.

@garyhgaryh I have to say, I spent quite a bit more than the DIY kits, but I definitely got quite a bit of printer for the price I paid.

The original Amazon invoice was still pasted to the side of the box under the shipping label. After seeing the what the guy paid for it, plus four spools of ABS, I kinda feel bad for the guy.

@ruouttaurmind yeah the DIY kits are always cheaper but who has time when you want to get straight to printing ;). So which model 3d is it and does it have dual extruders?

@DJMajickMan It's the FlashForge Creator Pro. Yup, dual extruders, heated print bed, high speed high resolution, steel enclosure, nifty LED lighting, SD reader, LCD display... all the bells and whistles except for an oversized print area. This one has the typical 9"x6"x5.7" print volume. I was hoping to trip across a deal on one with larger capability, but I got such a great deal on this one I, and I'm sure it'll print nearly anything I might want.

Here's the dual extruder test object included with the printer's software :-)

I think I need about four more printers. I'm drawing up projects twice as fast as the printer can fab them! It's excruciating when the most simple part takes 35 minutes to print.

@ruouttaurmind I know the feeling. If that printer is too slow for ya, I'll take it off your hands for what you paid for it :). I'm not sure where you find these deals, but I'm jealous that I didn't find a deal like that :).

@ruouttaurmind any chance of rotating your prints and using supports to print more than one item at a time. I've done this with my DaVinci to print up to 6 items at once. Only issue is the clean up of the printed item. Nothing sandpaper and elbow grease can't fix.

@DJMajickMan I hadn't considered multiple items on the bed at once. Great suggestion, thanks! I'll give it a try with a few test parts and see what happens. :-)

@DJMajickMan I've been able to print multiple items. It's easy with cura. You just keep loading objects and it'll generate the code for it.

@garyhgaryh I've been using ReplicatorG to create GCode, putting the file on a SD card and moving that to the printer. I haven't messed with any other printing software. I probably should check out some other options since ReplicatorG is pretty complex. I understand it's pretty powerful, but it's not that newbie friendly.

@ruouttaurmind I have one of those. Works great.. I also bought some butane lighters from the dollar store - 8 for $1.00.

@garyhgaryh Oh, I also got one of their free 9 LED flashlights. I've torn it apart to see if I can mount the LED assy on a drone for better orientation indication. Last week when I flew the Frankenracer for it's test flight I had the WORST time trying to figure out which way it was facing once it got more than 20 or 30 yards away.

@ruouttaurmind false advertisement! (glow in the dark).

@garyhgaryh Seller offered $10 refund for the glow-in-the-dark filament that doesn't glow. Fair enough. I bought 2 rolls at $10.47 each. So that takes my net cost to $6 per roll, and it's still a nice bright green.

I think @djslack got some as well, so Chris, make sure you contact the seller and ask for a partial refund for the non-glow in the dark stuff.

I'm really liking the gold filament I got from the same seller. It doesn't flow quite as well as the other colors, but if I slow down the extruder travel a bit, it makes some nice looking stuff.

I am going to try the purple and non-glow green today. I think I'm going to make my 250 fuselage 2 colors. Front half maybe red and rear half bright green.

@DJMajickMan I like it. Did you get 2 of the same 4-in-1 ESC, or 2 different brands?

@ruouttaurmind two different brands.

@Douggieboy At the moment I'm in the wilds of rural America in a data hole (climb a hill, then climb a tree at the top of the hill to get 1 bar of EVDO 1x data, LOL!) but I'll try to help. What multiroror are you mounting to?

@Douggieboy if you have the threaded base piece that broke out, I'd try 5 minute epoxy. You'll probably still have to take the whole thing apart to glue it up right from the backside, but it should more than hold up.

@Douggieboy Ok, I have a few spare fuselage halves, so a pic of what's inside may be fruitful for you. Give me a second to take and post a picture of the inside so you can see what the internal structure looks like.

@Douggieboy Ok, here's what the inside of those mounting points looks like:

I think @djslack is on the right path with epoxy.

If I were going to repair rather than replace, I would probably superglue the broken part as closely as possible back into it's original location, then I would pump that area surrounding the stud with epoxy (I might choose to use JB Weld for it's added strength).

In looking at my fully assembled fuselage, I see that you have easy access to that area from the battery compartment:

So this should be a relatively painless repair. Just go slow, be precise, and when applying the glue and epoxy remember "less is more". You can always add more glue later, but it's difficult to remove if you put on too much. If you wind up overflowing that area around the studs, you'll probably have to disassemble in order to sand down the excess so the battery will clear.

I would probably fill the area indicated by red like this:

being careful to apply epoxy only to the top level of the mounting studs and not get any inside the stud holes.

What do you think?