Around sunset I took the big hexacopter for a quick flight over the 7th hole at my home golf course today.  The goal was to see if last night’s work on the pitch control of my Arris Zhaoyun gimbal was working.  I set the pitch up to be controllable from horizontal to 90 degrees with the camera lens parallel to the ground, all from the remote.  In the first image the camera is pointing straight down.  On the following three it is around 45 degrees, give or take a few degrees.

The tests went very well, as did some new camera settings.  I’m still in the midst of finding the optimal camera settings.

After a recent road trip which I brought my Phantom and my hexacopter, I found that the Arris CM3000 3-axis camera gimbal on the Phantom became stuck.  The pitch motor would only move about 1/16 of an inch.  Something was blocking it.  I didn’t want to give it too much force for fear of breaking it.

I found a replacement for the motor online for about $18.  But before I ordered one from China and had to wait 17 million weeks for it to arrive, I thought I’d tear apart the broken brushless motor and see if I could fix it.

I’ve never torn apart a brushless motor before.  It was not hard.  I popped the clip on the drive shaft and unscrewed the shaft screw.  Then the outer cover came off with a little force.  It did not want to come out because of how strong the magnets were.

The problem was visibly obvious as soon as I had the cover off.  A couple of the magnets had broken and a piece of them came off, lodging between two other magnets (above).  I’m guessing the magnets were cracked during a Phantom crash, and eventually the piece broke loose.  You can see the loose chunk below:

I cleaned out the debris, put it back together and it appears to be working again.  I just hand tested it though.  A real flight test is up next.

Pelican case for large multirotor copter

I’ve been shopping for a protective transport case for my large hexacopter for a while.  The size of this bird, even when folded, is oversized for flying and requires a long and deep space.

I looked at SKB hard cases and many others.  Dual rifle cases were also on the table.

As an early birthday surprise the lovely wife actually researched and bought me a Pelican 1780 Case with Foam (Black).  I had not considered Pelican as I figured a Pelican case of that size would be far too expensive.  Somehow she managed to get a great deal which I found to be more than reasonable for a case like that.

The 1780 is huge, heavy, and spacious.  My hexacopter will fit, props off.  The gimbal will also fit inside as will many accessories.  I have yet to figure the layout, but that’s next on the slate.

Travel

The one big drawback to this case is the size.  If traveling with the hexacopter, this oversized case will cost as much as $200 EACH WAY to check.  I suppose that is just the way it has to be with a bird of this size.