Heroes of Thin Air: Castle Wolfstein 3D

I have to confess: I could not resist when titling this new blog post. Anyhow, this is about a real Castle Wolfstein, a ruined one, to be precise. Because I shot this landmark portrait from my Phantom quadcopter, I'm ... well ... entitled to also tackle on a shiny «3D»!

Castle Wolfstein, Upper Palatinate (view on YouTube)

My first attempt to film on site wasn't exactly any success. Light was bad, the sky was overcast when I returned on site. Colors were simply dull, contrast was awful. So I deleted all footage and I never did since regret. But then there simply was this afternoon, with its beautiful autumn Sun light ... so I grabbed my equipment and off I went to Castle Wolfstein. This time, everything was (nearly) perfect. Beautiful light, only few clouds on a bright sky, almost no wind at least in the heights I wanted to fly. And then these fantastic colors of Nature: red, yellow, and green ... like a lovely poem.

Fine conditions for flying and shooting. And on top I had this incredibly unlikely fortune to get a motor paraglider on, erm, tape. So enjoy watching my newest video!

DJI Phantom and Futaba T14SG/R7008SB

Some time ago, I had this great idea to replace the original DJI transmitter and receiver units in my Phantom with with something better and more robust. I opted for a Futaba transmitter T14SG and an R7008SB receiver, complete with telemetry.

I've even upgraded my Phantom with a Zenmuse H3-2D gimbal recently; that required replacing the original main board.

For those interested in these upgrades I've documented both the hardware upgrade side, as well as the gory details of programming (or configuring) the T14SG transmitter. As there are quite some things to take care of, I've cut down the rather big topic into a series of blog articles:

• Phantom transmitter/receiver upgrade Futaba T14SG/R7008SB.
• Programming the T14SG for the Phantom.
• T14SG and the Phantom failsafe.
• T14SG Dual Rate.
• My T14SG switch assignments.
• Upgrading the Phantom with a Zenmuse H3-2D gimbal.
• T14SG Telemetry: programming the flight battery warning level.
  

In addition, you can find more articles with respect to the Phantom quadcopter and the Futaba T14SG transmitter:

• tag: aerial.

For the Records: Phantom Cable Spaghetti

Luckily, newer firmware releases for the Naza-M starting with V3.16 support S.BUS2 operation. The english articles already base on a S.BUS(2) setup. Having only a single cable between receiver and Naza-M is a great improvement, no more cable spaghetti.

For the records, I'm documenting the mess that was my interim setup, using seven servo patch cables to connect the receiver to the Naza-M flight controller. You need to see this...

Upgrading My Phantom With a Zenmuse H3-2D Gimbal

Unimpressive box containing impressive tech!

Welcome to another upgrade (or add-on) story for my ready-to-flight quadcopter! Rrrriiing ... my doorbell proclaims new work arriving. The kind delivery man hands over a small parcel containing pleasant work. At least for now I consider it to be pleasant, so let's enjoy the moment.

The parcel contains my long-awaited Zenmuse H3-2D gimbal system. This upgrade should bring me into the league of super stable aerial filming.

I couldn't resist so I immediately opened the next chapter in the book of my flying construction site. Today, it seems ages ago that I purchased that ready-to-flight kit...

Test Flight of Zenmuse H3-2D Gimbal

Taking aerial footage now is a great pleasure using the cam gimbal system Zenmuse H3-2D. You have to see how incredible stable the camera point of view now is, so here's a little video showing some simple footage. Now seeing such stable footage is great earnings for the effort I had to suffer when upgrading my Phantom quadcopter with the gimbal. More on the upgrade details will come as a separate blog article. Update: see here for my Zenmuse H3-2D upgrade experience.

CCW Motor Upgrade Correct...

In the meantime, I've found a DJI tutorial video that is proof that my musings about upgrading my DJI Phantom with CCW motors are correct...

Spin Me Around Like A Record ... Or the Other Way

As one of the motors of my Phantom quadcopter developed a bearing damage I had to service the hardware anyway. And then I had this glorious idea to upgrade my first generation Phantom a little bit...

T14SG Switch Assignments

After all the detailed programming of your Futaba transmitter T14SG you may now wonder what switch does what? So, here's a quick reference at your convenience...

T14SG and the Phantom Failsafe

In this article, I'm going to take a closer look at the topic of failsafe. The Futaba transmitter T14SG and receiver R7008SB both come with failsafe functionality, as does the Naza-M flight controller inside the Phantom too. Now how do all these failsafes work together? As usual, no warranties given, this is just how I did it and I may be perfectly wrong...

Programming the T14SG for the Phantom

Futaba T14SG: 2.4GHz transmitter,
12+2 channels and telemetry.

In a previous article I described how I upgraded my DJI Phantom quadcopter with a Futaba R7008SB receiver. In this follow-up article, I'm now showing how to program the T14SG transmitter in order to fly the Phantom. So let's start...!

Phantom Transmitter/Receiver Upgrade Futaba T14SG/R7008SB

My DJI Phantom with Futaba R7008SB receiver and
T14SB transmitter. Telemetry now included!

The international version of my blog is still lagging behind, but I try to slowly catch up. So here we start with Pimp My Phantom...

The DJI Phantom comes ready to fly and so the box includes only a simple and inexpensive 2.4GHz transmitter to keep the box price low.

Update: Meanwhile, DJI has improved the Phantom's transmitter and receiver. While the company now markets this improvement as a frequency hopping system, measurements show that the new system only uses four discrete frequencies, so this is still a very simple system.

After having flown the Phantom with great pleasure for several ten of hours I wanted more comfort and more reliability than just what the beginner's level has to offer. I wanted more reliability of the radio link even in difficult locations with many reflections, automatic timers for monitoring the flight battery, and also a proper slide lever for controlling the camera for my future gimbal upgrade.

After touring the local electronics chain store I picked up a Futaba T14SG transmitter that also comes with a suitable R7008SB receiver. This combination features flight battery telemetry, that is, the receiver send back the battery voltage to the transmitter. Don't declare me nuts, read on for my story of upgrading my Phantom...

Transporting a Phantom

Albeit the DJI Phantom quadcopter is light and small in size, you always need to carry additional things you'll need, such as the transmitter, battery packs, et cetera. In order to have all things ready that one may need on a trip I went for a transport case. Luckily, Globe Flight sells a suitable one, albeit it needs some DIY work.

It Only Happens to Me: Computer Communication Problems

Every electronic nowadays seem to come with USB connectivity. So the DJI Phantom quadcopter doesn't want to be the only exception. Using a USB cable you can update the quadcopter's firmware and tune several parameters of it's flight control unit. Easy, just install the driver software as well as the Naza-M assistent software (grrrr, Windows only). According to the manual, I powered up the Phantom, then connected the USB cable that came with the Phantom to my computer. Beep, beep, Windows recognizes the new USB device ... so I'm starting the assistent software ... and then nothing happens...

Above the Waters ... Done Right: Fly & Dive

Roughly two years ago I rather accidentally stumbled into filming and filming under water in particular. I have to admit that I've been hit hard again ... after seeing the Ready-to-Fly Quadcopter Phantom by DJI Innovations. I immediately knew: my GoPro HD Hero 3 has to go into thin air! I want to film diving spots not only from below but also from above! And those reports were just fueling my idea as they painted a realistic, yet highly addictive image of the Phantom system by DJI Innovations.