Long Range Quadcopter testing

by squishy | October 24, 2012 | (5) Posted in Challenges

Long range video test, flying out and back to .8 miles (1.38Km).  Total flight distance of 1.73 miles (2.78Km) and flight time of 4:10.  I still need to purchase some new 4 cell batteries, 4 cell is the way to go for quadcopters and I hope to improve this flight time and range even further.  This was only a 2200mah 4 cell battery.

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COMMENTS

LanMark on October 24, 2012
so if my math is right (might not be).. 1.71 miles in 4:10 is 25MPH(?).. cool. One of the things I am curious about is the top speed of a quad copter.. I have seen some TBS Discovery and QAV500's seem to cruise fast.. just wondering how fast it really was.
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Lubis on October 27, 2012
My math got 55 km/h which is 34 mph

1380 meters in 90 sec = 15,3 m/s
15,3 m/s = 55 km/h
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squishy on October 24, 2012
Good question, I installed a nice skylark OSD shortly after this flight, future flights will have speed info on screen, granted it's just GPS reading but it should give me a good idea of the relative speed..
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LanMark on October 24, 2012
that will be fun.. see what your top end speed is.
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LanMark on October 24, 2012
I am just wondering why 4S is better than 3S? I am looking at my T-Motor MT4008-12 600KV specs.. and the grams/watt (efficency) aren't as good under 4S and this doesn't seem like a t-motor specific thing.

Like I am running 14*4.7 blades at 3S and the g/W = 12.81 g/w for 640g of thrust per motor... while 11*4.7 blades running on 4S = 10.71 g/W for 650g of thrust.

So it seems that I would get a lower efficency with a 4S pack.. granted I want to use 4S so I get faster less wind prone props.
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squishy on October 24, 2012
I can only comment on my motors and I am just using some cheap RCTimer..here they are..
http://www.rctimer.com/index.php?gOo=goods_details.dwt&goodsid=523&productname=
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LanMark on October 24, 2012
wow those are cheap.. buy 10 for every MT4008.. and I doubt the 4008 is 10x better.. granted it is super smooth and perfectly balanced... these RCTImer motors look like exactly what DIYDrones sells.

Do you have a logger of some sort and a 3S battery.. I wonder how much wattage you are running at 3S and then at 4S to maintain hover.

I want to run 4S because right now my larger quad is greatly affected by wind.. so faster smaller blades sounds nice... but I don't think I would get the same flight time or better with a higher voltage based on the efficency table I have on the motors.
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Long Range Quadcopter testing