Tested the new H4 Alien quad yesterday for FPV flight.  It worked great, even with the straight transmitter antenna going to a mushroom.

Alien Quadcopter FPV

I have some work to do on the flight controller mount.  I also intend to get rid of the cheap plastic wobbly landing gear and install some cool retracts which will make transport much easier.

Soon it will be time to mount the GoPro and gimbal.  This will be mostly a portable, packable GoPro craft, and perhaps flying a small point and shoot camera.

I’ve repositioned my FPV (first person view) antenna on my hexacopter. Previously the antenna was located to the under-back of the bird and whenever the copter was facing me the video signal would be lost. After some consideration, I decided to try one of the side arms of the copter.

New FPV Antenna Placement

You can see the antenna on the right, hanging from the arm.

This has been a much better solution and my FPV video signal drops have been greatly reduced, if not eliminated. When turning around I can make sure to turn counter-clockwise and I’ll never lose the signal due to parts of the copter blocking it.

I’ve had 10-15 successful flights now with the big hexacopter following the flip over crash issue described in the previous post.  I have not come to a solid conclusion as to the cause of the flip on takeoff.  The only difference was my gains on the SuperX flight controller, which I had changed from 1.2 to 1.1.  I suspect the flip was pilot error, in hitting the throttle too fast.

The bird is flying and I’m improving my FPV skills as well as getting the hang of using my newly implemented pitch (tilt) control on the camera gimbal.

Speaking of new, I’m also evaluating a Sigma 19mm prime lens for the Sony NEX-5T E-Mount system.  The above photo demonstrates the tilt and the new lens.