Test flight with crash landing.

After some trimming, and thinking, and not to mention good answers to questions I have posted on the UAVX forum at rcgroups.com, I have now test-flown the UAVX quadrocopter.
It went well for a while, but ended in a small crash and a broken propeller.

Video of this can be seen here: Test flight video

I'm a little unsure of what caused this crash, but assume it comes from both a bit inexperienced pilot, and some wrong settings in UAVPSet.
I'll change some parameters, and I have ordered a more powerful lipo, so no voltage drop will create problems.

Replacing the defective propeller, and dismantling the motor for a check after the crash.:

5 volts regulator modifying

5 volt voltage should be taken from the Motor K1 ESC.
It turned out that this one provided voltage up to 7.5 volts, and this can destroy a lot.
I did not wanted to modify the flight controller board with an internal 5 volt regulator, so I started to look around for one that could be used externally.
To make it simple, I ordered a regulator from ebay, but this one was not good. It delivered everything from 5.5 volts to 7 volts.
I have now tested several "stable" 5 volt regulators from ebay, and have not gotten hold of anyone who realy is stable yet.

Do not buy this one:



On my FPV plain, I had a good regulator that delivers konstand 5.14 volts, to supply power to the HD camera. I have now taken this regulator from there, I'd better buy a new one to the FPV plain.
This is made from a 12 volt USB equipment charger like this.:



This provides a very stable voltage, and up to 1 Amp.

Mounted on quadrocopteret it looks like this:

Problems with PPM signal

Since I last wrote something, a lot has happened here.
I've had some problems getting the receiver to talk with the UAVX flight controller.

To fix this problem, I had to buy several PPM encoders. A PPM encoder encodes a multiple-channel PWM signal from a standard RC receiver to a serial ppm signal, which goes to the flight controller.

The first encoder I ordered from Paparazzi http://ppzuav.com, this one did not work.
The next one I ordered from DiyDrones
This one was ok, but I thought I fried it because it turned itself off after a while, and the voltage who should be 5 volts, was closer to 7.5.
I ordered a third encoder from DiyDrones, this did not either worked. And in the meantime I have modified 5 volt power supply to the flight controller.
I also realized that the second encoder I bought turned off when it got too hot, and it works fine now that I have a stable 5 volt supply.

Paparazzi PPM encoder:


DiyDrones PPM encoder in place with shrink wrap for protection:

Div settup