Quadracopter

The instructions for Drone #3 were not only in English that was correctly translated, but they included something that the ones for Drone #2 did not, instructions on how to properly change out damaged blades. Turns out there are two different kinds of blades and they sort of go in certain spots!

While poorly flying Drone #2 around I did have to change out a couple of damaged blades, but because the quadracopter continued to fly after each swap, I must have gotten lucky twice. Little did I know, that when it was doing the one sided hop, if I moved two blades around correctly, it would have flown. What I did do, was swap one blade out, which caused the drone to just lazily spin while still totally earthbound. This is the point where I was allowed to buy Drone #3.

By the time I read the instructions for the correct blade replacement procedure I didn’t have enough of the proper type propellers to get Drone #2 airworthy again. But I did have the 4 back-up blades from Drone #3. Yeah, Drone #2 flies again! But not well, it makes a loud ticking noise and drifts hard right. One set of the blades are hitting each other. I guess the slightly larger drone must use slightly longer props…maybe next time I order something from Amazon, I’ll tack on a few bucks for some new blades for the smaller Cheerson CX-10.

The other day when I broke my 2nd quadcopter in as many years after about a total of 2 hrs of “flying” both of them, I figured I would never get my Drone Driving License. I was moping around the house with a big ol’ sad face on when my wife took pity on me and said, “Oh, all right, go ahead and buy another one.” “But this is it,” she said, “three strikes and you’re out.”

I headed back to Amazon to go shopping. Last week when I bought a passel of K-Cups from them, they offered me a 30 free trial of Prime, I took them up on the offer. I was kind of surprised by this, because they did the same thing back in August when I bought the Kindle and I used it for 29 days then cancelled. I’ll do the same thing again, but first this will solve my having to wait a week or so for my next magnificent flying machine. All I needed to do is look for a little check mark under an item signifying that it was Prime Ready and two days later it would be here.

Started out looking to get another one identical to the recently my deceased drone, but couldn’t find it for the same low price and get it before Christmas too. Then I stumbled on a different model that already came with a built in propeller guard, something that should be very helpful with my spastic flying skills, for a little more than what the Cheerson CX-10’s were going for, the BangK CX-13.

The new one looks about the same size, i.e. real small, until you place them side by side. The CX-13 measures 1-7/16″ between motor shafts making the old broke CX-10 at only 1-1/4″, about 25% smaller. I’ve had it a couple days now, flown it quite a bit, crashed it quite a bit too, and I haven’t bent a single prop. Tomorrow I may venture outside where I have more room so I don’t have to panic and kill the throttle after drifting only a couple feet of course.

Environment For Flight
Please try in the spacious indoor, and ensure that no obstacles, animals in the surrounding crowd

If you remember last year I bought a Micro Drone 2 for my Christmas gift. Turns out I didn’t get it until late January. And then my inept flying talents led to numerous crashes and shortening its life span to about one week.

This year the weekend before Thanksgiving the folks at Stack Social were offering the same Micro Drone 2 again. I took one look at it and said, “I’m not falling for that again.” A couple days later I noticed they offered a Nano Drone without a camera for 50% off, bringing it down to a mere $35. I thought about that a bit and decided not to try that one either.

The Wednesday before Thanksgiving I changed my mind and thought I should go for the cheaper, smaller one, because even though I didn’t get the Micro Drone flying with any regularity, it sure was a heck of a lot of fun. When I went to the Stack Social site the offer was sold out. Rats.

I highlighted the name of the thing, googled it and came back with a bunch of hits. Found one nearly exactly like it (different logo) on Amazon for $22 shipped! It arrived Monday and I’ve been monkeying with it ever since.

Began To Take Off
Boot process right boot sequence is as follows:
1. Will hit the lowest throttle joy stick throttle
2. Open the aircraft power supply, the aircraft on a level surface, motionless. Vehicle lights flashing.
3. Open the remote control power supply, remote control issue “DAILY DOUBLE” sound, then the throttle lever (Figure 2) hit the highest, issued a “GOD” the sound of the throttle lever to hit the lowest (Figure 3) indicates the success of the code. Meanwhile aircraft lights stop flashing.

I even took it to work yesterday and let several people fly (or try to fly) it around our office area. One fellow was really good with it because of past RC flying experience and he made me extremely jealous. Needless to say I sent out the link to everyone in the place, with so far one confirmed order being placed. I took it up front and showed a few people there too and with the price of these things I bet there will be a few more in stockings this year.

The thing has some trimming capabilities and it did fly pretty straight right out of the box, but my constant banging into walls and ceilings have now made it essential to get it trimmed before each flight.

Accelerator Alignment
When the flight is not smooth or fast drift in one direction, the need to calibrate the accelerometer.
1. Aircraft and remote control of the code, the vehicle on a level surface.
2. The sensitivity settings in the advanced mode and push the throttle to the lowest position.
3. After the throttle / rudder control lever to the lower left comer, elevator /aileron control lever to the left corner, then the aircraft lights flash for 1-2 seconds, the calibration was successful.

This evening in the fading daylight I took it out in the front yard with a fully charged battery and flew it around until there wasn’t enough juice left to get it off the ground. Actual flight time maybe 10 minutes, but I was out there twice that long picking it up out of the leaves after augering back to earth.

Operation And Control
Caution: Avoid out of control, in control of four-axis aircraft needs to always be careful when moving slowly operate the remote control, remote control aircraft lost a bit of momentum in the process, so you can add a little extra gas to make micro four-axis flight exercises to maintain a certain height.

Heck I’ve half the cost of the thing in fun, just trying to decipher what the instructions actually mean…

I ordered it on the 19th of December and it showed up today, all the way from merry ol’ England. It’s all assembled and all I have done are a few test flights in the computer room, but it is not at all as easy as it seems in the online video. I’m guessing it’ll take several weeks to get merely good at it and I’ll probably never really master it. Next up crashing drone videos…

You have only a couple more days to get yours at 45% off the list price from StackSocial.