M4 - what is it, what can it do?

[Altix]

[Mullet]

@Altix

I think it would be great if you posted your findings in both German and English. I'm interested in doing FPV with one of my M4s. So I think I'd get a lot from the English version. You are right, there is a learning curve with AutoQuad. I can attest to this with my recent posts. I'm not sure if it's AQ or just this hobby in general. Unless you are buying RTF then there is a learning curve. Even with RTF there is a learning curve. You have to learn how to fly the craft too and not crash it too often.

It is my opinion that the people looking to learn or looking for a challenge will be attracted to AQ. A few months back I decided to finally get into this hobby after first learning about it in 2012. I read an article online the mentioned 3D Robotics and DIY Drones. I went to DIY Drones website, but didn't follow through because of other hobbies. I have been into DIY audio for a few years, building headphone amplifiers and digital-to-analog converters for my headphone hobby (addiction). So I knew I'd eventually end up here or something like it. I started looking at nano sized quads that had a DIY element to them. I first found CrazyFlie, but soon realized that the platform wasn't for me. I didn't like that the only way to control the craft was via iOS or joypad via a computer (joypad is better than iOS at least). I wanted something that was more traditional I then found the M4 and haven't looked back. I like that it's small, but powerful and is modular. Even with my recent issues I'm glad I chose AQ.

[Crizz]

German manual for quick set up would be nice, if i can help (maybe with own experience in try & fail ) let me know where you post it

[kinderkram]

If anybody is up for a German translation I could grant access to the Wiki as an editor w/o admin rights.
I previously had a translation tool for WordPress (transposh) which offers machine translated texts to start with.
It keeps the structure of the pages and displays the translations by adding the country to the URL.

There´s also JensKa preparing a quick start guide for the AQ6.

Tell me what you guys need...

[Crizz]

maybe a machine made translation is a base to start from, if its still editeable to correct some translation faults like grammar or syntaxes

[Altix]

OK, for me, there is still a long way to go to get the Mini- H flying, which is the base for writing anything. The idea was to write something like a cooking book, starting with the ingredients (here components), and then describe the steps what to do to get things into the air. Those 250 sized Mini-Hs are very popular these days, so the cooking book would be easily to follow door opener into the world of AQ. Nothing more. If somebody wants to go in depth, there is no way to pass the Wiki and the forum (this is at least my opinion at the moment).

Regarding a translation of your Wiki I doubt, if this could ever work. To keep the English version at the latest stage of development is already a hugh task, which sometimes fails as we all know (no critizism, just an observation in many Wikis I have been reading in the past). To keep several other languages up to date in parallel will never work.

But again, first of all my baby has to fly, which probably will take some time. After that I can do the next step.

[funkjan]

just started with my M4 LB build and I wonder if I should get myself one of the 10mm patch antennas - showed here in Jussi's shop: https://viacopter.eu/multirotor-shop/an ... pter-store

But what is the key, when it comes to the decision wether to take the 15db or the 25db model?

and does the relatively high investion of with insured shipping sth. like €50.- makes sense compared to the DIY Dipole?

http://autoquad.org/wiki/wiki/m4-microc ... a-options/


thx in advance for your inputs - regards

Jan

[gredeby]

I made a dipolar GPS anttenna and I,m satisfied with that.
My AQM4 LB get sat lock in 20 sec. If I use alt pos hold at once. It,s doing a TB with a circle of 1m.
After 1-2 min that behavior disappear.
Regards,
gredeby

[funkjan]

[JussiH]

Basically, The lower db rating, the wider "view" of the sky the antenna has.

So...in theory a 15 db antenna should be better than a 25 db. However, in case of the 10mm, some results have shown the 25db to perform better. An explanation could be that the wider receiving area of the 15 db also makes it succeptible to pick up EMI from the control stack, so that it needs a bigger groundplane.

In any case, with a ceramic patch antenna, the groundplane area becomes important. As a rule of thumb, I always aim to make the groundplane diameter at least double the diameter of the antenna. Basically, the more GP area you have, the better your antenna will perform.

A well shielded active Patch antenna will outperform the dipole in most cases if there is sufficient groundplane under it (and probably also distance to the FC has impact). But on very small copters, it can be hard adding enough groundplane to make a patch work well.

So in that case, the Dipole is good, since it allows to use little or no groundplane, provided the antenna itself is high enough off the board itself.