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Hobby King Dart 450

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  • Hobby King Dart 450

    I took the opportunity to buy 3 of these since the price has been drastically reduced down to $17. 00. (1 for parts)
    They have a lot of features for the money. Built in PDB, front and rear LED lighting, Warning buzzer and more.
    I have been using mine mainly for missions which I really enjoy. These little Quads fly very well even in strong winds.
    I use Emax MT3506-650KV Multi Copter Motors which are fairly large but only draw 5 amps on full throttle with 10" props. (max size on this frame)
    The ESCs are Racerstar 30 Amp (V1) from Banggood.
    Flight Controller is a PX4Pilot. I use a Toshiba Laptop for missions and hopefully a new WiFi system will also let me use a iPad Pro. On missions I fly it at 5 meters per second (18 klm) but it will go a lot faster of course.
    I also have a larger Quad I use for videos but this is my favourite.



  • #2
    I built another one yesterday/today. It is the same except for different motors, ESCs and GPS.
    It has already flown 7 missions and is performing perfectly.
    I have ordered a Hawkeye Firefly camera for it as they were on special at BG. The Firefly has a built in Gyro so I shouldn't need my gimbal.

    Comment


    • #3

      I took the two quads to the club today and nearly came home with just one.

      Long and short of it, I programmed a Quad to fly a simple mission. It started well and flew a few hundred meters and then it decided that it had not explored that part of the country before so it decided to go walkabout once it reached waypoint 7. It decided it wanted nothing to do with waypoint 8 or any others and flew off to the north to look at the neighbours property. How it managed to fly between the trees on that hill I will never know but I guess a quad with a mind of its' own is quite capable of doing that easily. The neighbours can't have been all that interesting as then it turned west and continued in a straight line hoping to frighten the western neighbours kids by sneaking up on them. By this time it was well out of our sight and I believed the battery should have been well and truly exhausted as I had only managed to fly a bit over 2 klm before with a little reserve left on landing. But how was I ever going to find it?
      I sat at the table of knowledge staring blankly at my Laptop screen when I noticed a small window appear. it said, "Continue with Mission" WHAT?!! Grabbed the mouse and click click. YES!!!!
      A few minutes later whilst all the sages were discussing the mysterious happenings someone (I think it was GOD?) said "Here it is" !!! The bloody thing was coming back and heading for Waypoint 7 from where it had originally deviated.
      It reached Waypoint 7 and amid serious fears of the battery going poooof, it turned towards Waypoint 8 (right across the dam of course) and cruised so smugly as if nothing had ever happened, reached the waypoint 9 and 10 and finally landed as it had been instructed to do at Waypoint 11. It then re-percolated the motors and cruised to its' Home point and disarmed.( Like it was supposed to do 10 minutes earlier!!!)

      I HAVE NO IDEA WHY, SO DON"T ASK!!

      The battery you ask? It landed with 28% still available so it could have gone even further if it had wanted.....

      I did as flying buddy Scotty suggested and checked the co-ordinates on Waypoint 7 (from where it deviated) and then transferred them to Google Earth and they matched perfectly so it is a mystery.
      I have included some Pics.

      1. Where the sucker was supposed to go.

      2. Where it actually went as far as can be ascertained. Note: it was only a few meters off being a 5 klm round trip!! (and all on a 3S 2200 mAh battery.)


      So all in all we had a great day..... (because it came back)


      Comment


      • #4
        Had some successful autonomous flights at the club on Saturday With NO problems at all. In fact I have had about 50 flights since the fly-away and no hint of a problem at all.
        Anyway, I am so happy with these Dart 450s that I just got myself another one in the Post today. (No. 4) Can't beat the price or the way they perform. As mentioned above I ordered a Hawkeye Firefly Q6 camera and it arrived today so I have plenty to keep me busy.

        Comment


        • #5
          I just got one of these frames ordered today! Was fairly inexpensive so I thought I'd give it a crack. Just need to have a look at what motors etc I have and then give it a go.
          I noticed that you mentioned about the wi-fi etc and using the iPad. I'm keen on learning more here as I have one that would be great to use for FPV etc.
          I'm 'up the hill' from you so its good to have someone local to listen to! Cheers

          Comment


          • #6
            Hi Gaz
            Good to hear from you. Always happy to help. Keep us updated.
            I got interupted with a visitor.
            I use both the ipad and a android tablet.
            I bought the Samsung Galaxy Tab S4 and mostly use that now. It is brilliant for QGround Control and doing missions.
            My old flying buddy uses an iPad for his too.
            I have probably done around 300 missions now and only one prop failure that caused a quad to come down but no damage as it landed in a bush.
            If you need advice on motors and escs give me a hoy. I can also help if you are using a Pixhawk 2.4.8 but not interested in F4 type boards as Ive been there before.
            Banggood sell the little on-board wifi modules for the Pixhawks as well as gps etc

            Autonomous quad flight amongst trees. Practising setting waypoints.

            Comment


            • #7
              My buddy and I did some missions in the weekend.
              This video is from my on board camera as I was landing and my buddies quad came down beside me.

              https://vimeo.com/338393266

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by Grantham Kid View Post
                I took the two quads to the club today and nearly came home with just one.

                Long and short of it, I programmed a Quad to fly a simple mission. It started well and flew a few hundred meters and then it decided that it had not explored that part of the country before so it decided to go walkabout once it reached waypoint 7. It decided it wanted nothing to do with waypoint 8 or any others and flew off to the north to look at the neighbours property. How it managed to fly between the trees on that hill I will never know but I guess a quad with a mind of its' own is quite capable of doing that easily. The neighbours can't have been all that interesting as then it turned west and continued in a straight line hoping to frighten the western neighbours kids by sneaking up on them. By this time it was well out of our sight and I believed the battery should have been well and truly exhausted as I had only managed to fly a bit over 2 klm before with a little reserve left on landing. But how was I ever going to find it?
                I sat at the table of knowledge staring blankly at my Laptop screen when I noticed a small window appear. it said, "Continue with Mission" WHAT?!! Grabbed the mouse and click click. YES!!!!
                A few minutes later whilst all the sages were discussing the mysterious happenings someone (I think it was GOD?) said "Here it is" !!! The bloody thing was coming back and heading for Waypoint 7 from where it had originally deviated.
                It reached Waypoint 7 and amid serious fears of the battery going poooof, it turned towards Waypoint 8 (right across the dam of course) and cruised so smugly as if nothing had ever happened, reached the waypoint 9 and 10 and finally landed as it had been instructed to do at Waypoint 11. It then re-percolated the motors and cruised to its' Home point and disarmed.( Like it was supposed to do 10 minutes earlier!!!)

                I HAVE NO IDEA WHY, SO DON"T ASK!!

                The battery you ask? It landed with 28% still available so it could have gone even further if it had wanted.....

                I did as flying buddy Scotty suggested and checked the co-ordinates on Waypoint 7 (from where it deviated) and then transferred them to Google Earth and they matched perfectly so it is a mystery.
                I have included some Pics.

                1. Where the sucker was supposed to go.

                2. Where it actually went as far as can be ascertained. Note: it was only a few meters off being a 5 klm round trip!! (and all on a 3S 2200 mAh battery.)


                So all in all we had a great day..... (because it came back)


                This was a roller coaster to read, thanks for sharing the story. It is the worst feeling when a quad flies off and there is a chance you will never know where it went.

                Comment


                • #9
                  It has never happened again and I have a good 300 missions up now. The Pixhawks have been faultless since. I still have no idea of what happened that day. Just a glitch in the ether I guess.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Here is a Dart that I tried 2 GPS units on for the heck of it Click image for larger version

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                    • #11
                      I got a bit game a couple of months ago.
                      My buddy lives a few klm from me but we are separated by State Forest. We have talked about trying this for some time and conditions were right so I rang him and made arrangements.
                      The idea was a fully autonomous flight from my place to his and landing in his yard.
                      I carefully checked google maps and set up the flight plan in QGround Control. I set a height of 100 meters thinking that would be plenty to allow for large trees on route.
                      What I did NOT see on google earth was a ridgeline with trees about 3/4 of the way there. Anyway, I rang him and said "It's on the way"
                      He grabbed his camera to video the arrival.
                      All went well and the drone arrived and landed at his place exactly on the selected spot as planned. When we watched the onboard video our hearts were in our mouths as the drone had gone awfully close to hitting some trees on the ridge on its' journey.
                      It was quite an achievement but I don't think I will try it again.
                      Here is a short video where the drone is approaching the ridge on its' journey. Enjoy. Sadly I was flying into the sun so vid quality was affected a bit.


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