Today we mark as a great milestone: we’ve made our maiden flight. FlightS. Even although the average flight was only a few seconds, we are happy. Happy to see that indeed the quadcopter is flying. Of course, what can go wrong? Well, for someone not used to operate a solder tool, not used to fix frames, not used to be very creative with our hands we our proud. As you can see below, we’ve made the first few seconds in the air. And yes: it’s complicated to operate. We still (well, how could we, after only three attempts) don’t know how to operate the quadcopter, but this will sure will be a matter of time.

Now we are facing some problems: our engines are attached in a (see below) red ‘placeholder’. The attachment is by a very very small hex key. We feel that this is a weak point. After a few very light crashed this right away came loose. No problem for three of them, but we now face a probem with number four: this now is a bolt with warped thread.
So, how to fix this engine and get it solid in the red placeholder? This will be the question for the next upcoming days.

Connection setup first attempt of configuring the ESC's.

This also might be a great time to tell the hardware setup I am using. I am using a Spektrum DX6i with AR6210 and HK-HW30A ESC and HK Control Board v2.0 (Atmega168PA)

Let’s do a  schematic view of all connections between the Power Distribution Board, the Control Board, the Receiver (TX), the ESC’s and the motors.

quadcopter technical schema of connecting the wires

Further on we got a hint that the key is that you need to configure the throttle range of the ESC’s without the control board connected. Directly connect the ESC to the RX and off you go! All ESC’s now are calibrated with the Spektrum transmitter.

After succesfully connecting one ESC, we went on and made sure that all four engines are connected and in the right direction. So, that is a succesfull end of building session 2. By the way, a small hint for checking the motor direction: just add a small piece of tape over the axis and ‘feel’ the size where the tape it hitting your finger. Since it is tape this would hurt..

We are excited to go on, however still need some material. Next fase will be mounting the Control Board (we still need to add a layer on top of the powerboard, drilling the right size hole in the props and it seems that then we are ‘good to go’ .

Below you will find the result of building night one.
We are….. well…….satisfied.

Progress looks disappointing at first sight. But, accuracy is great. So, slowly but with quality???
We really wanted the frame to be very narrow, strong and ‘square’. And, I think we’ve succeded in that. Only one thing: weight. The full frame, including the four brushless motors is weighing 490 grams. Let’s do some math: the motors weight each 40 grams. So, 490-160 means the frame weighs 330 grams. It might be a bit on the heavy side. At HobbyKing for example there are for sure more lightweight frames for sale, but where is the fun in that…..

More to come.

Starting with a new hobby always comes with expenses. A few days ago we bought the parts for our (soon to be build) quadcopter. And, as always, you spent just a bit more on this than planned.
Now, a few days later we (and yes, we knew this in advance) went on: buying the controller for our Quadcopter. So, very wise (ahum) bought the Spektrum DX6i. Yes, we could have done cheaper but hey, all setup is expensive.
And indeed, without even seeing anything close to a quad, we’ve spend several hundred bucks.

The Spektrum DX6i brings 2.4GHz radio control technology to the beginner / intermediate flyer.
The biggest benefit of spread spectrum rc technology is that it’s virtually impenetrable to outside interference, because of the way the transmitter communicates with the receiver. This means no interference, it’s just switch on and you are all set.
The receiver supplied is an AR-6200 with full range capability for quadcopters, helicopters and planes.

We are looking forward in using this one. Why? That would mean that we have finished our Quadcopter…
And, as always, you will read our findings here!

Yesterday we went to a RC store for getting some hands on advise on how to start. For months now we’ve been looking at quadcopters. How to start, if you are inexperienced in anything RC flying. We’ve had years and years of fun with some RC cars, but that is quite some time ago. We’ve decided to get back in the field of RC, but this time in flying.

The big question we had: buy a Ready To Fly (RTF) kit, or building one ourself.
Financially this is a easy question. Get some parts at the right dealer will for sure be cheaper than buying a RTF kit. But, with totally none experience in Quadcopters and not being known for my skills as a technician, I’ve came in serious doubt. Yesterday we’ve decided (or were convinced by the store) to build something ourselfs. Buy ‘cheap’ parts and get to know the feeling with flying. One thing is sure (according to the store): first time user, no fly experience: you will crash. you will crash hard! So, why buy a perfectly aligned RTF kit, when there is a serious possibility that you will crash more than once the first day.

Then after a few years the flashlight industry really grew. A company called Maglite became a sort of fashion statement amonst many people. The American build flashlights by Mag Lite are recognized by almost everyone. One day I bought a 6 D cell flashlight. Well, you can hardly call that a portable flashlight. We thought of it more as a batting tool than a flashlight. And boy…what an incredible strong beam that produced….

Just this week on eBay we bought the new portable XL200. A small flashlight powered by three AAA batteries. And, with a capacity of 170 lumen. For those of you who haven’t got a clue: wear sunglasses! My god, when using this at night you better be awake, because this flashlight has really lots of power.

The first thing we’ve noticed is the size. Well, look up the specs on the internet, look at a picture but still not really a clue about the size. Opening the box the first thing we would say is that the XL200 is bigger than expected. It contains 3 AAA batteries combined in a ‘clever’ placeholder next to each other. But, the lenght of the light is almost 2,5 times the length of that same AAA battery. So, first impression is that this light is larger than expected but…..since the high capacity makes this not a toy but a serious tool the size added to this feel of a serious tool.

The last few days we’ve been testing the functionality. All functions are stored in one simple button on the back of the XL200. That means that depending on the number of times you’ve pressed the button the XL200 operates in a different way. For example, press quickly for two times, the Mag-lite becomes a strobescoop. Pressing it three times, you get a touch-sensitive nightlamp.
To modify the settings, for example the frequency of the strobescoop, press twice quickly and hold on the last press. Then by turning your hand you can make it blink faster or slower. In normal usage this works pretty well. Okay, you really need to remember how many times to click for a specific function, but it works pretty intiutive.

After a little under two weeks intensive usage we’ve found only two minor downsides of the XL200.

We click once to turn the light on. But, let’s say you want to turn it of quickly and press again to turn it of, the Mag-lite might pick this up as ‘two presses’  command and starts blinking instead of turning itself off.
The other thing is that  the design of the lamp requires a specific usage, other than I was used to use a flashlight. The button is on the back of the lamp, which means that you have to hold the lamp pointing backwards so you can press the button with your thumb, and than turn your wrist. I am getting used to this, but still every know and than this feels a bit wierd.

Overall: the build quality is as we are used to from Mag-lite: perfect. The light itself has a brightness I can hardly discribe, so at this moment this is my all time favourite.

remaining work = budget – actual work

Yes, this still happens in the real word. And yes, we know that this will for sure bring surprises at the end of the project (or better said, end of the budget) when only half of the work it done. ‘dear project board, here is my exception report’…….

So, we’ve introduced ‘Earned Value Management’, EVM. We have enough stories for a year to tell about that project, but let’s start with a discussion about baselining a project.
While we were tracking a project, the discussion came ‘when to baseline a project?’. Opinions varied a lot, even amongst the so called ‘experts’. Over all there where two opinions:

1. after each approved exception
2. only in extremly large changes of plan

We ourself believe that the first option is the best. Always baseline after an (by the Project Board) approved change in plan, scope, budget. And, therefore the Earned Value Analisys might differ from time to time. Whilst first you might be behind schedule with your earned value, after the acceptance of a new plan, you might be right on track. Apparently you’ve changed the plan, had it approved by the project board and set a new baseline. In our opinion after approving a exception you get ‘green light to reset your project status’. Of course, in the end you probably want the look back at the other (initial) baseline and compare. But, we feel it’s wrong that after a project board approves for example a increase of scope, the project status won’t get a reset. So, always baseline after approval.

So, we are using it for running. One of the pretty useful features we came around is the start delay: normally we configure our training program, press start and then need half a minute to store away our iPhone in a safe place. So, first interval the current pace is too slow. Runkeeper has a feature for that, the countdown delay. Nice, and a good example of applying really useful features.
So, functionally Runkeeper wins over Nikeplus by miles. Visually it is the other way around. There is one small ‘but’: somehow I’ve got the feeling that the GPS accuracy is less with Runkeeper. When running we get on the same lap pretty different distances, how can that be possible?

First, you have to seelct the first hidden row or column on the worksheet
You can do this by doing following:
1. On the Home tab, in the Editing group, click Find & Select, and then click Go To. In the Reference box, type A1, and then click OK.
2 .On the Home tab, in the ‘Cells’ group, click Format.

Under Visibility, point to Hide & Unhide, and then click Unhide Rows or Unhide Columns.