=== Let's Drone Out — Episode 505 === Title: LDO 505 - Urgent Appeal for cat pictures Recorded: 2025-05-01 Hosts: Andrew "Frank" Hyams, Wayne "CurryKitten" Andrews, Jack "Brightontillifly" Nash Guest(s): (none recorded) Total audience: 949 Platforms: YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9l7vA5H-AM); SoundCloud (http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/feeds.soundcloud.com/stream/2089347978-letsdroneout-ldo-505-urgent-appeal-for-cat-pictures.mp3) ===================================== [0.0] Jack: Hello, and you're listening to Let's Drone Out, a special thank you to our lovely patrons [6.28] Jack: that help donate so that we can pay the editor to remove the swear words and silly things [11.36] Jack: we say. [13.0] Jack: Massive thank you to… [14.36] Jack: Carlos Campos! [16.68] Jack: Art Faulkner. [17.84] Frank: Sam Dahmer. [19.68] Frank: On with the show. [20.68] Frank: Hello, I'm a tree recovery. [21.68] Frank: Let's drone out now. [22.68] Frank: Good evening and welcome to Let's Drone Out. [56.37] Frank: Five hundred and five. [60.01] Frank: There is two of us today at the moment, there may be more joining. [65.37] Frank: If you're not in the UK on today, the 1st of May, it's lovely weather. [70.93] Frank: I think everyone's found better things to do. [73.29] Frank: But tonight, you're joined by everyone's favourite, Curry Kitten. [77.17] Frank: Hello. [78.17] Frank: And I am Andrew slash Frank. [81.17] Frank: Jack is in transit, possibly in a transit. [85.41] Curry: Jack said he would be exactly 12 minutes late, but we're up 15 minutes late now, so his [92.41] Curry: initial estimate has gone wrong. [95.13] Frank: Yep. [96.13] Frank: Yep. [97.13] Frank: As Tailspin in the chat says, happy May Day, happy International Workers Day, all those [103.29] Frank: things. [104.29] Frank: The client FPV says normal LDO lateness has resumed. [109.69] Frank: Absolutely. [111.21] Frank: But you've taken advantage of the nice weather, Curry. [114.81] Curry: I went flying two times this week, which is like record breaking, because it's very rare [120.77] Curry: we managed to go out one time in a week, and this was two times. [124.37] Curry: So I'm quite impressed with that. [126.37] Frank: Two is more than one, definitely. [128.41] Curry: Yes. [129.41] Curry: And I flew a total of, I'm just trying to figure out what I flew, so it's like one, [133.49] Curry: two, three, four, five different quads and one wing that I continually threw into the [140.09] Curry: ground until it broke. [141.37] Frank: Was it a stress test, or was it just you just getting stressed with it? [147.29] Curry: No, it just wouldn't launch. [152.05] Curry: I'd got this like ESC about a year ago, so I don't think it counts as a review anymore. [156.73] Curry: But I thought the website, I can take this wing with me, we can try and get it going. [161.89] Curry: I spent last night reminding myself how iNet worked, and setting up my radio with IT's [170.05] Curry: like different switches, because the current one doesn't have enough bells and whistles [174.77] Curry: to do things. [175.77] Curry: And it's like, okay, it goes into auto launch, I throw it, gracefully goes off, and then [181.21] Curry: I'll sit down, goggles on, and fly it. [184.13] Curry: But that didn't work. [186.53] Curry: It just, basically, the first launch, I've got video, I can show you. [192.01] Curry: The first launch, it seemed like first it had some sort of desync thing, because the [199.01] Curry: motor suddenly went, and like, that's not a very good sound. [205.09] Curry: And then when I did throw it properly, wondering that the worst thing as well, was this is [213.09] Curry: a field you might see from my videos, normally the wind is coming towards me like this. [219.25] Curry: So I can chuck into wind in the big field, today, the wind is flying the reverse direction. [225.85] Curry: So I have to walk into the field, throw it back to me, and I've stood where my landing [231.53] Curry: that is, there's a metal gate, and then a field covered in cows. [236.25] Curry: So I had to try and just clear the gate and get up, and that should have done it. [242.01] Curry: So this was first launch attempt. [244.69] Frank: Cool. [245.69] Frank: Cool. [246.69] Frank: Sort of scrolling around a bit. [248.81] Curry: Yeah, it's like, first it sort of seemed to desync, and I took the power off, and then [253.33] Curry: I righted it and took the power back on, and it was already too low, and it kind of hit [259.01] Curry: the gate there. [260.61] Curry: So then I went launch attempt number two, and it hit the metal post. [268.72] Curry: So that didn't go all that well. [271.82] Curry: No. [272.82] Curry: So that wings a pain in the ass to launch. [278.86] Curry: What you need is one of those, of course, but I don't like having the prop near my nose. [284.28] Curry: So I don't like to do that by myself. [286.92] Frank: Yeah, it definitely feels wrong to throw it over. [291.24] Frank: So this is the two hands, over your head, launch past your face, and it definitely does [298.08] Frank: feel wrong, but it is the launch methods that I have had the fewest issues with. [306.08] Curry: I know. [307.08] Curry: When I've got other people to launch that wing for me, and they don't seem to mind [310.52] Curry: their face, then I get them to do that, and it's fine. [313.48] Curry: But trying to side launch it, I can do that on every other wing I own, except this one. [320.72] Curry: It's heavier, and the wings are like lower profile. [324.52] Curry: It's a sort of speedy, speedy wing. [326.24] Curry: And it's like, if you don't get it up to speed, it'll just stall anyway and fall out of the [330.8] Curry: sky. [331.8] Curry: And yeah. [332.8] Curry: So not successful from the wing point of view, but the quads flew. [336.96] Frank: Oh, there we go. [340.16] Frank: Any exciting new quads, or are they just sort of actually enjoying the weather? [347.0] Curry: I went out, and I decided to test some new batteries by taking some of the old quads [353.12] Curry: off my wall that I remember flying and seeing how they would work with the new batteries. [359.08] Curry: Because these quads, at the time, I used to use little 1.3-amp nanotechs. [365.08] Curry: And then these sort of newer quads came along with their big motors and stripped those batteries [369.8] Curry: there within about a minute. [371.32] Curry: So I thought, ah, now I've got these new 1550s. [374.68] Curry: I will try them. [376.08] Curry: Which was interesting, because these were quads from 2017, 18, and 19. [381.88] Curry: And the first one was running Betaflight 320, which meant I had to go and find the very [387.6] Curry: first version of Betaflight that wasn't a Chrome extension in order to just check how [392.88] Curry: it was set up. [394.08] Curry: And it had anti-gravity mode on a switch, which I don't remember what that was. [401.24] Frank: I thought I remember what it was. [402.4] Frank: I remember it being a thing. [403.96] Frank: I can't remember what it meant. [405.92] Curry: I think it might have been something, if you went full throttle, it would drop one of the [410.68] Curry: P or the D or something. [413.28] Curry: The idea was it- [414.28] Frank: I like TP-y. [415.28] Frank: That thing. [416.28] Curry: Oh, that's something else, doesn't it? [419.28] Curry: Yeah. [420.28] Frank: I did something. [421.48] Frank: If anybody in the chat remembers what anti-gravity meant in Betaflight, let us know. [426.48] Curry: Yeah. [427.48] Curry: Yeah. [428.48] Curry: They also had no concept of smart audio or anything, and I didn't know how to change [432.12] Curry: the channel. [433.12] Curry: But fortunately, I found it was on a channel. [436.52] Curry: And yeah, I flew three quads on the basis that if I liked them, they get promoted to [443.48] Curry: Express LRS. [444.48] Curry: Because they were all on Free Sky, which means I had to disassemble them to find the stupid [449.6] Curry: bind button to put on my multi-protocol module to fly them. [454.0] Curry: But they all flew okay, with one being like, ooh, this is terrible camera noise, like lines [460.32] Curry: like this. [461.32] Curry: And what was really clean and nice, so that's definitely getting one. [464.32] Curry: And then the other one was my original iFlight Nazgul 5, which I did fly quite a bit. [472.08] Curry: And that's still quite nice. [474.16] Curry: But the camera seems, even though it's a character hotel, it seemed a bit crappy in comparison [478.36] Curry: to other things. [479.36] Curry: But yeah, there was that one. [482.16] Curry: And I went out today, which I flew my franking quad. [487.76] Curry: Well, the story behind this is, oh, hang on, what's going on? [493.64] Curry: I thought anti-gravity was control of the air mode. [496.12] Curry: Heat mode is under control. [497.12] Curry: I went for it with a zero. [498.12] Curry: Now, it still had air mode, and anti-gravity was on a switch to do something else. [506.24] Curry: I don't know what that is. [508.24] Curry: Yes, I built a quad that doesn't fit in the frame. [512.8] Curry: If you look at this, you will notice there's this big, ugly appendage on the nose, which [517.8] Curry: is a Wi-Fi board. [519.68] Curry: I bought all these parts thinking, well, I bought all the parts. [523.28] Curry: Banggood gave me all these parts, the idea was to build a quad. [527.56] Curry: And I couldn't, I was trying to get like a nice long frame, so I could stuff my, oh, [533.16] Curry: my camera's trying to follow me. [534.96] Curry: Don't follow me upwards, just look at me. [537.72] Curry: The idea was, it's like a long frame, therefore, I can fit my HD system in the back. [543.68] Curry: But this was my third choice frame, at which point I was desperate because I ran out of [547.76] Curry: stock. [548.76] Curry: And it turned out to be, this will only fit with a 20-mil stack, and of course, my stack [552.96] Curry: is 30.5-mil array, specifically built to put an O4 module here, so there's space here. [562.44] Curry: And because there's an XC60 here, you've got quite thick gauge wire here, and you can't [569.4] Curry: put anything in it. [570.52] Curry: So I have a stupid fan unit with a unit there. [575.52] Curry: I think, though, because I got the props the same color as the rest of it, it looks all [580.72] Curry: right. [581.72] Curry: And these look a bit like bunny. [583.6] Frank: It flew all right. [584.6] Frank: It does look a bit 2018, but yeah. [589.96] Curry: It's going to be taken apart, and then that frame can be used for something proper. [595.84] Curry: And when I get a proper frame, I can put the other stuff in it. [601.12] Frank: Caroline Tyler has put some research in. [604.76] Frank: It says, anti-gravity multiplies the eye gain by a certain number the moment throttle changes [609.52] Frank: very quickly. [610.52] Frank: It immediately reduces it once the corners maintain the attitudes correctly. [616.28] Curry: I think that's just done automatically now, or something that's not a mode anymore. [622.48] Jack: No, it's in the filter settings. [625.76] Jack: It's buried in there, anti-gravity, and you lower it with the big quads. [630.96] Jack: That's what I found. [632.16] Jack: That's what I realized mine was still on 12, and that's what caused the smoke in the sky, [640.12] Jack: which Frank was very upset with, that he didn't catch on camera. [646.12] Jack: Yeah, I flew across the sun, and he said, I blacked out the sun with the smoke and fire. [660.12] Jack: Yes. [661.12] Jack: Good times. [662.12] Jack: New secret squirrel ESCs and stuff. [666.84] Frank: New shiny. [668.32] Jack: Yeah. [669.96] Jack: And I'll tell you what, little bees as well, but this one's dead. [678.8] Jack: This one won't pop right about, hang on, where did it go? [684.16] Jack: Bang. [686.92] Jack: Yeah, there. [687.92] Frank: In your face. [688.92] Jack: Yeah. [689.92] Jack: See it? [690.92] Jack: You can see the big giant hole missing in it. [694.32] Jack: That'll do it. [695.72] Jack: That'll be it. [697.8] Jack: Yeah. [699.36] Jack: So if anyone's got a spare fat, let us know. [702.8] Jack: Always up for a bit of, I'm sorry for being like, time, I forgot to airwall watch today. [710.56] Jack: I've been cleaning just totally, I was like, shit, it's Friday. [717.8] Jack: So yeah. [718.8] Jack: Royal. [719.8] Jack: Yeah, me and Frank should be, I should see Frank tomorrow, it's going to be a real treat. [725.48] Jack: Yeah. [726.48] Jack: Sunshine and seaside. [728.84] Frank: That's the plan, right? [729.84] Frank: That's why. [730.84] Frank: Yes. [731.84] Jack: If only we could get a disposable barbecue. [735.56] Frank: Yeah. [736.56] Frank: I mean, well, anyway, sort of following on from what Carrie was saying about FPS guy [742.36] Frank: receivers, I've been messing around with a radio master R168 with the sort of crossover [752.48] Frank: where radio master would, supporting people who weren't going to go for the FPS guy access [759.72] Frank: stuff and but I passed by and stopped making me a double CST, C double ST, whichever one [768.2] Frank: it was. [770.36] Frank: And so in that, in that brief period of time, I needed a receiver. [775.76] Frank: I wasn't going to go to express RS at that point, because I didn't want to spend that [781.8] Frank: much more time in front of my computer to make things work. [784.32] Frank: But I bought one of these receivers, it's been in one of my fixing things for ages. [790.28] Frank: And it's, it's got S bus and it's got eight PWM channels, using the S bus to go into the [800.8] Frank: flight controller to do all the normal control services. [806.04] Frank: And then using the eight PWM out to the other funky thing I've got. [813.64] Frank: Well, the thing was, it says in the manual, you can get channels 9 to 16 out of the PWM [821.68] Frank: and channels, all of the channels out of the S bus. [824.28] Frank: So I was using one to wait to do the flight controller stuff. [827.52] Frank: And then I was using panning to use 9 to 16 to do other funky things like flaps and a [833.48] Frank: pan tilt gimbal and all this kind of stuff. [837.08] Frank: But I could not get it to work. [839.52] Frank: It kept on putting channels one to wait out of the PWM. [843.0] Frank: And I had already used all of them to do like modes and all sorts of other stuff. [848.6] Frank: So I was like, I need, I need these PWM channels, it's all these things. [854.04] Frank: Why won't it work? [855.04] Frank: And I purchased another Discord, and I've purchased it in a couple of Facebook groups [858.84] Frank: of people that I thought might know. [861.16] Frank: And basically, no one ever used these receivers, no one knows what it's doing. [867.28] Frank: Luckily, Andy R.C. was like, yes, do this. [873.24] Frank: He was wrong, but he got me convinced that it was possible enough that I tried even harder. [879.44] Frank: What I ended up having to do was just change the receiver number when rebinding it. [885.4] Frank: Because basically, you have to set this setting as part of the binding procedure. [890.04] Frank: And I was convinced I was doing this as I was rebinding it, but it just, it was clearly [895.44] Frank: not rebinding with new settings when I was rebinding it. [898.92] Frank: But when I changed the receiver number, it was rebinding with the new settings. [904.92] Frank: And that made it work. [906.92] Frank: That was it. [907.92] Frank: That was the answer. [908.92] Frank: Just perseverance. [909.92] Frank: No. [910.92] Frank: Every possible thing in the menu, eventually it will work. [916.56] Jack: Is this free sky? [917.56] Frank: I mean, it's, that's the thing, right? [919.96] Frank: It's like, it's not, it's really, it was RadioMaster implementing something to cover [926.64] Frank: what AirPiles Sky weren't building anymore, right? [929.16] Frank: So it's, it's a bit of a hodgepodge of stuff, but it works, which is good enough for me [935.2] Frank: for now. [936.2] Frank: And I would rather be pressing buttons and pull, you know, pressing bind and having LEDs [944.36] Frank: and things beeping at me than going through another CLI to do stuff. [949.4] Frank: So that's, that's a win in my book. [953.56] Jack: I know, I know you got desperate because you rang me. [958.8] Jack: That's how desperate. [961.48] Frank: If you remember, no, this was like in the past few nights, no, for, for the CLI stuff. [972.86] Frank: You were like, Oh, that was months ago. [975.78] Jack: That was, that was for a quads. [978.06] Jack: Yeah. [979.06] Jack: Yeah. [980.06] Jack: Yeah. [981.06] Jack: You know, you know, it's bad when Frank brings me what's the, what's the command to do this? [990.86] Jack: Yeah. [991.86] Jack: Curry, you've had your hair cut straight. [995.54] Jack: You're looking sharp, mate. [997.54] Curry: I thought so. [999.42] Curry: And the very lovely hairdresser also trimmed the grays of my eyebrows. [1004.06] Curry: Extra special service for old people. [1006.46] Jack: Oh no, really? [1009.58] Frank: Oh God. [1010.58] Frank: I got IDs for, for a beer last night. [1013.62] Frank: I was very excited. [1014.62] Frank: What was that bit? [1015.62] Frank: I didn't have any ID on me. [1016.62] Frank: I'm worried. [1017.62] Frank: I might not get it, but eventually I committed something that, yes, I was born in the late [1030.1] Frank: 1900s. [1031.1] Frank: I am allowed beer. [1033.1] Jack: Thank you. [1034.1] Jack: Oh my God. [1035.1] Jack: Have you ever ID'd you clearly wanted to sleep with you or something? [1039.5] Frank: I think they're just, I think they were so young that they didn't really know, like sort [1044.66] Frank: of, you know, everything from 21 to 51 was all the same. [1050.44] Frank: I think as far as they were concerned, couldn't age blind. [1055.96] Curry: That's a real worry because no one carries ID anymore. [1058.44] Curry: They just have a phone. [1059.44] Curry: That's it. [1060.44] Frank: No, that's what I was trying to think. [1061.44] Frank: Like, do I have any ID on my phone that has my age on it? [1066.16] Jack: I don't. [1067.16] Jack: I can, I can give you my detainment slip of where I was trying to recycle. [1073.76] Jack: Is that any good to you? [1076.36] Jack: Love. [1077.36] Jack: I carry that around. [1078.96] Jack: When you get 40, everyone looks 12. [1083.52] Jack: That's worrying. [1084.52] Jack: Andy, I don't think you want to write that down. [1087.4] Curry: It is true. [1088.4] Curry: Like policemen look like they're in kindergarten. [1091.48] Curry: It's like, can't pull me over yet, I'm not old enough to shave yet. [1096.28] Frank: I know. [1097.28] Frank: So, Jack, have you been flying them? [1099.44] Frank: Have you been making use of the weather? [1102.4] Jack: No, no, I've been, I'll be honest here, depression's been kicking my ass. [1109.24] Jack: I, it took me all day to get ready. [1114.84] Jack: I had a bit of a cat's lick and then my friend, I was going to go for a walk and then my friend [1120.96] Jack: text me and then I ended up getting in the car and I drove to see him and that's it. [1127.88] Jack: I done a bit of soldering for Digby Dan this morning. [1132.08] Jack: I woke up and Digby Dan showed up, but no, I haven't, I have not been out flying. [1138.92] Jack: The last time I went flying, I was in the lab with a pen and a pad trying to get this [1143.92] Jack: damn label off. [1145.76] Jack: That's a, that's a, that's a Dr. Dre line and yeah, I just, I don't know, I've just [1155.84] Jack: been the lack of energy. [1159.04] Jack: I mean, I phoned you up, Curry, didn't I? [1161.64] Jack: You did, yeah. [1162.64] Jack: I cheered myself up. [1163.64] Jack: I was very upset and yeah, I should, I don't know, I'm looking forward to tomorrow. [1170.32] Jack: When I bring it, get off the phone, I'm probably going to chat to Frank and charge some batteries [1175.72] Jack: up. [1176.72] Frank: I have batteries, some batteries are charged. [1182.0] Jack: I will warn you if anything explodes, I will burst into tears. [1186.8] Jack: That's kind of, that's kind of where I'm at. [1190.4] Jack: It's got, [1191.4] Jack: This changes my plan of what I was hoping to test down there, then. [1194.64] Jack: I know. [1195.64] Jack: Yeah, I know. [1196.64] Jack: No, on purpose. [1197.64] Jack: The stuff that we want to blow up is all good. [1200.6] Jack: It's, yeah, it's got so bad that I kind of stopped doing stuff. [1206.04] Jack: I tipped a load of oil over my floor and then I was having like having to put bicarb down [1213.52] Jack: to like soak oil to get it out of the carpet. [1216.44] Frank: And to get the bicarb up, you put the acetone on and then to get rid of the acetone, you [1220.72] Frank: set fire to that and then to get rid of the fire, you get the fire extinguisher out. [1224.32] Frank: Yeah. [1225.32] Frank: We've seen the cycle. [1226.32] Frank: We've seen the cycle. [1227.32] Curry: It's just. [1228.32] Curry: There's definitely too many weird filthins on your desk to be healthy. [1232.8] Jack: Yeah. [1233.8] Jack: It's got, it's got to a point where it was so bad. [1237.4] Jack: I was like, I'm not going to touch any stuff because anything I work on goes to shit. [1243.2] Jack: The only thing I fixed is my old set of goggles. [1246.96] Jack: I took them apart, got the bit of dust out of it that always looked like a quad. [1252.52] Jack: It was just like a little speck of dust somewhere. [1254.56] Jack: And I'm like, when you're trying to look for what is a complete speck, yeah, so I took [1261.4] Jack: them apart. [1262.4] Jack: I replaced the ribbon cable. [1264.52] Jack: So I've no longer got a ribbon cable that has been snapped in half, scraped back, soldered [1271.52] Jack: individual pins to it, and then covered in solder mask. [1277.4] Jack: And then because there was no sunlight, because we live in England, I put it in there. [1284.52] Jack: So the whole inside of the goggles is covered in green liquid solder mask that never went [1289.52] Jack: off for ages. [1292.24] Jack: And then that's the last thing I fixed. [1295.76] Jack: And then I broke something else, which I won't say was on the show. [1301.04] Jack: One of those ESCs, that ESC might not work. [1305.12] Jack: The one I held up, because no, no, no, it's the other one that's never been used or soldered [1313.68] Jack: to a quad. [1314.76] Jack: I managed to solder one side on with a TVS diode, then forgot that I'd soldered that [1325.2] Jack: side down, and then got really annoyed that the other side wasn't moving when I was reflowing [1331.0] Jack: air, because I'd obviously like turned away to do something, or like scratched my balls [1336.52] Jack: or something, and then went back to air, and then got really annoyed that I couldn't reflow [1341.92] Jack: and it weren't moving. [1343.8] Jack: And then it turns out that then I ripped the pads, trying to move the diode. [1351.96] Jack: Yeah, so I ripped a pad off with a pair of tweezers, trying to manhandle this diode into [1359.2] Jack: the correct spot. [1360.72] Jack: No. [1361.92] Jack: Yeah, so that's just amazing. [1366.08] Jack: So yeah, that may or may not work. [1368.92] Jack: So the negative pad is probably about three millimetres squared for the whole entire eight [1376.24] Jack: ESCs. [1378.28] Jack: So that's all that's left of that. [1383.24] Jack: It's just been shocking. [1384.6] Jack: It's been a disaster. [1386.28] Jack: I didn't realise that these adjustable regulators, you have to cut the trace to stop it from [1393.64] Jack: adjusting, and I soldered the automatic level pad, set it to five volts, ploughed it, and [1403.84] Jack: then it blew right away, because I didn't realise you meant to cut the trace for the [1408.36] Jack: adjuster. [1409.36] Jack: What's the point, right, of having pads that you solder and jump to, and then having an [1415.4] Jack: other pad for it to be adjustable? [1418.08] Jack: Just don't connect any pads and let me select. [1421.64] Jack: If I want adjustable, guess what, I'll solder the adjustable pad. [1427.16] Jack: It's not hard. [1428.16] Jack: I've got to solder the wires on or the header pins anyway. [1432.04] Jack: What? [1433.04] Jack: What? [1434.04] Jack: Yeah, so that blew up today, so I killed that. [1436.96] Jack: So yeah, I've just like, other than perching on my chair and diking a big giant dump on [1442.96] Jack: my desk. [1443.96] Jack: I'm being having a great time. [1446.24] Jack: Oh, and the ant problem, the ant problem still goes on. [1455.76] Jack: I've got a constant headache, because I'm probably breathing and ingesting so much ant [1460.8] Jack: powder. [1461.8] Frank: There's ant powder, acetone, isopropanol, solder flux, and that's all the things that [1469.04] Frank: we've spoken about. [1470.56] Frank: I'm sure there's countless other things just sitting around, like PLA fumes, all sorts. [1478.8] Jack: I mean, this is how bad it is, right? [1484.04] Curry: It's disappeared into the darkness, you can't see him anymore. [1490.04] Jack: I have a bucket of what looked to be... [1493.64] Jack: It's not dead bees, is it? [1495.8] Jack: Cocaine. [1496.8] Jack: It's not. [1497.8] Jack: It's bicarbonate of solder, but that's how much bicarb I've had to buy. [1503.2] Jack: Did you need to get that much? [1506.2] Curry: You're going to be in a watch list. [1507.48] Curry: You could be in like some dirty barn with what you've got there. [1511.08] Jack: Stop saying that. [1512.08] Jack: Don't keep saying that. [1513.08] Jack: Like, I dread the day. [1514.08] Jack: Yeah, well, what do you do? [1515.08] Curry: You show up and say, can I have like a five gallon drum of bicarbonate of solder, please? [1520.48] Curry: I spilled some oil. [1522.2] Jack: It was a lot of oil. [1525.4] Jack: It was a good two or three liters on the floor. [1528.64] Curry: Oh my God, you've got too many of oil in your room. [1534.16] Frank: Also, I'm not sure I'd bear ask, but what sort of oil? [1539.6] Frank: Cooking oil. [1540.6] Frank: Oh, okay. [1541.6] Frank: Okay. [1542.6] Frank: I mean, it could have been anything, couldn't it? [1546.44] Frank: It could be anything from like CBD to 5w40. [1551.08] Frank: It could be anything. [1554.92] Jack: So there's white powder spread everywhere trying to soak up oil, and then there's ant [1559.4] Jack: powder on the other half of the room. [1562.4] Jack: The only place that hasn't got powder covering everything is the bathroom. [1567.16] Jack: That's it. [1568.16] Curry: It's just a matter of time. [1570.48] Jack: No didi oil, no. [1575.0] Jack: If it was baby oil, it would be so bad because A, that doesn't go rancid, B, that doesn't [1579.56] Jack: smell of cooked chicken, and C, it's see-through and clear, and now everything looks like a [1589.4] Jack: care home. [1590.4] Jack: It's that oily brown, like horrible. [1594.4] Jack: Brown and talcum powder. [1596.4] Jack: Oh God. [1597.96] Jack: Just I'd literally like, I have, how I haven't killed myself, I don't know. [1605.76] Jack: I think I just, I was like, if the doctors phoned me up, I'm like, you're going to die. [1612.76] Jack: I'd be like, oh, thank God. [1614.76] Jack: You've got a morning in the lab tomorrow to look forward to. [1619.36] Jack: Well, the lab nearly burned Digby Dan's house down. [1622.28] Jack: He tried charging it, and I was like, surely you do this. [1626.88] Jack: No, we have not figured out. [1629.92] Jack: We do not know how to charge the lab. [1633.88] Jack: We've got no idea. [1635.84] Curry: So what is the plan for tomorrow for you two? [1638.4] Jack: What are you doing? [1642.48] Jack: We're going to go, we're going to trespass and we're going to go fly some stuff. [1647.52] Jack: And I don't know, Frank, do I build myself one of those things? [1653.0] Jack: Yes. [1654.0] Jack: Would you share, would you share a bit of smoke with me? [1660.08] Frank: Well, I will have to find the smoke. [1664.24] Frank: I've got the matches. [1667.28] Frank: I got loads of them. [1671.52] Jack: But yes, I'll dig some things out. [1677.48] Jack: Tailspin, yes. [1678.88] Jack: Lots of kitties needed for Jack. [1682.04] Frank: So yes, so in the audio discord, link in the description, you can find the channel of Catsbound for Jack. [1690.84] Frank: Any contributions welcome as long as it's vaguely cat related. [1696.24] Jack: Yeah, real kitties, please. [1697.6] Jack: None of that AI. [1701.44] Jack: Sorry about that, listeners. [1702.96] Jack: If you 20 minutes of me whinging, I do apologize. [1709.11] Frank: This episode was recorded in front of a live online audience, downloaded and edited to make sense when it played audio only, [1715.75] Frank: censored to please the iTunes people, hosted on the internet, forwarded through to your podcast provider, [1720.51] Frank: downloaded, playing on your device and is now playing in your ears. [1724.19] Frank: All thanks to our Patreons. [1726.39] Frank: Consider joining them and you'll also get other online benefits. [1729.75] Frank: Find out more at Patreon.com forward slash. [1732.83] Frank: Let's drone out. [1734.91] Frank: Also on the discourse in the show or during the show, Caroline Tyler in the chat has posted a photo of a balsa, [1745.59] Frank: I guess, DLG because I can't see a motor or at least glider, balsa glider. [1755.07] Frank: I'm not sure if that's the official model name of the glider, but it's got some nice finals on it. [1761.95] Frank: Yeah, Caroline says that's her first full balsa kit. [1766.75] Frank: It looks very nice. [1769.39] Frank: I, it's looking a lot better than my first balsa kit, which is, well, actually, you know, I have done some free flight stuff, if that counts, which is balsa. [1780.47] Frank: They flew, they flew well enough that I didn't get them back. [1784.71] Jack: That's good. That's really good. [1788.11] Jack: That's what you want. [1789.79] Jack: It flew over a fence. [1791.39] Curry: Yeah, that's what we used to buy as children. [1794.07] Curry: Those little balsa kits with the windy rubber band thing. [1797.23] Frank: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. [1799.55] Frank: I was, I was annoyed by the tail being off kilter. [1806.31] Frank: So I built it straight, which means it goes straight instead of in search. [1811.11] Frank: So just carried on going into the distance. [1814.63] Jack: No, are you the sort of, are you the sort of person as well? [1820.55] Jack: Like, you know, like the, the, if you killed the motor off to stop the talks, did you like, oh, no, I'm not doing that straight as well. [1831.43] Frank: It's off. It's off. It's off kilter. [1833.87] Frank: Yeah, right. [1837.67] Jack: I'm doing years of years of progression. [1842.15] Frank: Yeah, clinical lack of humility, I don't see. [1848.59] Frank: Apparently the official name for this box, the model is a dammit and not the vinyl sticker that Caroline has put on hers, [1858.63] Frank: which you'll have to go to the discord to find out to save her heritage to doing your edit. [1864.55] Frank: Oh, no way. Is it, does it begin with the letter ref? [1870.85] Frank: It begins with a letter. [1874.85] Frank: Yeah, you'll have to go as soon as we find out. Exactly. [1879.21] Frank: So have you got any plans over the long weekend, Harry or Jan? [1885.93] Curry: Not flying related and going away in the campervan, although I could take a quad with me. [1889.93] Curry: That was the general plan of things. [1892.69] Curry: And maybe I'll take something that can fly. [1895.65] Curry: Last time I tried to take my, my like DJI, I think I've got a Mavic Air, the original one. [1902.57] Curry: And I sort of got my phone out and we were on this interesting bit where there's these multi-layers of these sort of damned things on them. [1913.97] Curry: Some, some estates, I can't remember where it was, National Trust stuff. [1918.01] Curry: And the phone kept crashing, the app kept crashing, the fly app. [1924.81] Curry: And I sort of posted in the DJI forums about this because it couldn't fly because it's literally like, I'm there. [1931.57] Curry: Right. Let's spin the motors up. Oh, it crashed. That's not good. [1934.93] Curry: So like, I don't really want to launch this and yeah, it's going to do that. [1938.89] Curry: And they're like, oh, yeah, have you tried doing this? [1941.61] Curry: You're the normal stuff, clearly you can actually do this, do this, do this. [1944.29] Curry: It's like, no, look, it fails on this version of iOS. [1947.41] Curry: It works on this version of iOS. [1948.93] Curry: So like, oh, right, we'll look at that then. [1952.25] Curry: They're not going to look at that. They don't care about all the quads, do they? [1955.77] Frank: No. Well, you say that, but isn't it the DJI [1960.93] Frank: fly ball or whatever it is? I feel like the same app has been used for a long time. [1966.73] Curry: It has, but this particular one was with the old stuff and the newer stuff uses a different app. [1971.85] Curry: It probably does work now. [1973.21] Curry: So now if I do that, I'll have to take my old phone with me just so I can fly this old DJI thing. [1981.41] Curry: Or I just take a different quad. [1983.45] Frank: Yeah. What is your go to FPV quad now? Do you have one? [1989.33] Curry: That's what I'm doing for that sort of stuff where it's like, it's not so much a sort of rip thing, [1994.41] Curry: but it's like more get nice footage and be able to have like a reasonable video, [2000.85] Curry: but not like too boring tripod in the sky. [2004.97] Curry: It's probably the GoFly 20. [2009.61] Curry: It's one with the walk snail stuff in it and it's got the Midnight VTX, [2015.61] Curry: which is the only thing for me that you put it into Joroflow and it just works. [2022.65] Curry: There's no messing. It's like put into Joroflow and it's like this is a moonlight [2027.61] Curry: and it turns out like nice stable footage on the other side and it's only about this big. [2032.77] Curry: So that's quite inconspicuous. I think that's quite a good one to use. [2038.05] Frank: Yeah, there's definitely something to be said for having a whole setup that doesn't need [2043.41] Frank: like an enormous special made quad bank to fit everything in. [2048.69] Frank: You can just have a radio, a couple of batteries, goggles and a little quad [2055.33] Frank: and you can just take it somewhere and not stress about it. [2058.53] Curry: I was thinking about that today because when I was flying an open IPC, I was using this on my [2066.85] Curry: HT0 goggles and I've got a separate power cable for both of them and I normally use like a 5200 4S. [2075.33] Curry: So I had two of those in my pocket so I could barely keep my trousers up because they're that heavy [2080.29] Curry: with this thing on my head, quite important quite a lot. [2083.21] Curry: I was like, this is a bit of hassle, isn't it? [2086.81] Curry: So there's something to be said for being able to be quite like low key and lightweight about it. [2095.85] Frank: Traveling light. And then at the other end of the scale there's like big fixed wing stuff which just [2103.93] Frank: requires a whole rigmarole to get it anywhere, light at all. [2109.37] Curry: Weirdly, when we used to go away, I often used to take like a one meter wing with me somehow. [2114.97] Curry: I don't know how I managed to get that on top of all the crap you put in the car. [2118.49] Curry: A parcel shelf. A parcel shelf. Maybe. And I just used to... [2122.33] Frank: Flying wings do nicely on a parcel shelf. I have found that over the years. They work well. [2127.29] Curry: It's like drive by flight. You get somewhere, you launch it, you fly around, [2131.93] Curry: do naughty things, land and drive off. No one sees you. You didn't have it. [2135.61] Frank: Yeah, yeah. There's like all the actual, like there's vaguely scale-y, model-y things. [2147.53] Frank: You just have to dedicate your car to taking them anywhere. [2150.73] Frank: Well, inconvenient, I would say. I'm reminiscing about the days when I would get on a bus with a [2158.81] Frank: backpack with stuff and then just go and fly somewhere. Like bus friendly flying is good, [2166.33] Frank: I would say. I still want a wing that can fold down enough or somehow compact down enough to [2174.25] Frank: go inside a bag without getting a load of hanger ratch inside the bag. That would be... [2180.33] Curry: You want the original Zode Dart. Do I? [2185.05] Curry: Yeah, that had like all magnetic bits that just pop on. [2189.13] Frank: Yeah, I feel like it's not gonna... You'd have to still put it inside a box or something there [2193.61] Curry: to put it in your bag. Yeah, but the box fits in the backpack. The box is like... [2197.37] Frank: Does it? Okay. Part of looking something like that. I've got a bunch of little wings, [2204.49] Frank: but I've not found one that meets that criteria just yet. But talking about small flying things, [2213.37] Frank: the Woot Club Norfolk are putting up two events. One is now live on FIFB in a tank museum in [2223.61] Frank: September. And they've got another one in the Aviation Museum, which will be going up on [2233.37] Frank: IFPB in a couple of days. So if you're listening to this on the audio only podcast, it will be [2241.37] Frank: coming out immediately. But yeah, I mean, I'm having seen some of the video of the racing around [2250.97] Frank: the Aviation Museum. That looks like a lot of fun. Well, we were talking before we went on air [2256.49] Curry: while we went viewjack about the apparent sudden, I wouldn't say rush or sudden availability or [2266.73] Curry: things coming out as far as digital systems going. First, we had DJI in walks now. And then [2274.81] Curry: Open IPC picked up a bit. And then we've got like Kadak saying we're going to release [2280.41] Curry: some sort of like beginner friendly or low cost digital system. And we've got this new thing from [2288.97] Curry: Edge. Was it Edge or Edge something? Edge T3. Which is kind of interesting. [2298.4] Frank: I had the link open, but then I closed it. Edge Smart Drive is the name of the [2308.4] Frank: Edge Smart Drive Edge T3. Although they are confusing in their terminology about the name [2315.12] Frank: of the various components, they help the transmissions, the video transmissions, [2321.28] Curry: where is it? Somewhere around here. Transmission module or something, [2325.12] Frank: transmission module VRX and transmission module BTX. I feel like there's a transmission module [2332.16] Frank: that can't be the VRX. There we go. I also like that they list the VRX as being a 20 watt unit. [2347.76] Frank: It's power consumption, not it's radio output, I would hope. [2356.8] Frank: Otherwise, people flying around you are going to have a bad time. [2362.48] Curry: You've got 20 watts coming out of your receiver. Although they do claim quite long range. Perhaps [2368.0] Curry: that's why. Just sort of bouncing it back off of it or something. Yeah, just bounces off different [2375.76] Frank: planets and things. Yeah, it's interesting. I mean, we've seen it before where someone [2387.04] Frank: writes a driver or just starts making use of a particular chip and then because that's available [2394.0] Frank: and you can kind of have other systems making use of that same trip and either the same driver or [2400.0] Frank: sort of reverse engineered version of that driver. That has definitely happened before, [2408.0] Frank: but it would be interesting to see if we're going to end up in a sort of situation where [2413.36] Frank: like with the R9 receivers that could be flashed to the LRS or I think was it ghost [2425.52] Frank: receivers? Yeah, I wonder if we're going to see a similar sort of thing where someone's going to [2433.84] Frank: have a an LRS equivalent for FPV, the video transmission side of things that makes use of [2442.24] Frank: all these chips across all these different products where you end up with kind of a unifying [2447.92] Frank: system that uses all the different products and those different chips. I don't know whether [2452.96] Frank: like the chips are fundamentally used differently on the boards the way you wouldn't be able to [2457.76] Frank: make them compatible. That would be the dream, I think. If you had a system that was [2465.44] Frank: supported by multiple different manufacturers independently but were cross compatible, [2471.92] Curry: that would be very nice. A bit like analog, so you don't have to buy [2478.4] Curry: either multiple pairs of goggles or multiple modules that awkwardly then have to fit on your [2483.44] Frank: goggles somehow. Yeah, what I'm saying is if only there could be some way we could have [2489.44] Frank: multiple different video transmissions and receivers that were independent, [2493.2] Frank: imagine the world why that was the case. [2498.56] Curry: In good times. [2499.36] Jack: Talking crazy now, lads. [2507.44] Frank: Yeah, and Caroline says, [2513.28] Frank: is FPV? Seems questionable. Seems okay for wings or planes for too much latency in the quads. [2523.04] Frank: But we've seen improvements in things over the years. With every system, we've seen improvements. [2531.28] Frank: I imagine there's a lot of head rim on this. You were saying before the show, Kerry, that it seems [2539.2] Frank: like there's a lot of stuff on here that could be cut down. Yeah, I mean, we've already seen that [2546.4] Curry: sort of the stuff used for open IPC was like sister wanted chips that run an entire sort of [2555.28] Curry: version of Linux. So it seems like that's overhead that you don't need if you're just doing one [2562.0] Curry: single thing. And open IPC is basically Linux running a bunch of programs which happen to [2569.52] Curry: push out the signal to the receiver. So I'm sure people that design their own chips, [2576.64] Curry: DJI don't have a big operating system. It's just like, push this stuff out [2581.52] Curry: is the most efficient way possible. And that's about it. So rather than it being kind of software [2589.04] Frank: of various apps working in an operating system, if there was someone wrote like an embedded [2596.08] Frank: software engineer wrote some C on it or something, I don't know. What sort of things might we look [2603.68] Curry: out for? Any ideas? No idea. I know I had to do that. But it seems to me that you like you've [2612.0] Curry: got a chip and obviously, you know, it it speaks some sort of assembly code. And that's what's [2619.28] Curry: running the OS. So just replace that with a much leaner system that just says, take image put that [2626.4] Curry: way. Because at the moment, of course, it's not just like we're using a whole chipset. And then [2633.04] Curry: we're pushing out there, we're using a whole chipset, and then we're connecting via USB, [2637.04] Curry: essentially to a Wi Fi unit. And then we're sort of doing doing hacky things with the Wi Fi. They [2643.84] Curry: don't use regular IP, do it my way and send it out there. And that'd be faster. So there's [2650.4] Curry: there's definitely things to do. And it seemed like Caddox were sort of vaguely admitting to using [2657.04] Curry: the same types of chipsets that were being used in the camera's open IPCs. I think they're the [2664.96] Curry: sigma somethings, a certain chipset, through sort of leaked documents. But they obviously don't want [2672.72] Curry: to run reply because they don't want to do their own thing. So perhaps they can make it leaner and [2677.68] Curry: better. But they seem to be suggesting that it would be some sort of low cost beginner friendly [2684.4] Curry: thing rather than like, big performance. So perhaps they're still going to concentrate on [2690.16] Curry: walks now for the big thing. And this thing, people interested, in which case, you're still [2695.84] Curry: going to need another Google module, probably this is what comes down to every time someone [2700.0] Curry: brings out a new thing. It's of course not compatible. It's like, yeah, you never got a [2704.08] Curry: module or some new pair of goggles. Painful. And Jack's still not going to get digital system, [2711.5] Frank: he's going to say analog. For life. However long that may be. [2721.34] Frank: There's been a load of analog stuff been around for sale in the southeast. Jack, [2725.66] Jack: have you picked any of it up? I shot a message at one and had no reply. I think it was insulted by [2735.26] Jack: my offer. I'm keeping my ear to the ground. Turns out you can't trade five gallons of [2744.86] Jack: bicarbonate soda for analog FPV gear. It's only 250 gallons now I use half of it. [2755.26] Curry: What do you need? I've got a box that's labeled VTX slash cameras over on my left. [2762.73] Jack: I've only even got mini written on them. Yeah, no, that's probably micro. [2774.41] Jack: If anyone's got a weak flight controller, a little mini one, Tom needs one of those. [2779.61] Frank: Andy LC is in the chat. He's been posting videos again. Have you noticed? [2783.85] Frank: Yeah. He's been posting videos of a glass cockpit and his head tracking aircraft that [2798.01] Frank: works apparently not just at nighttime, which is the exciting new set for these, [2804.81] Frank: where they've got a little screen that connects your flight controller or whatever and displays [2810.09] Frank: the flight information. Pretends to be a little dial or a gauge or whatever. They've traditionally [2818.33] Frank: been quite dim. They've been okay indoors and then as soon as you take it outdoors, [2823.85] Frank: you can't see anything. Andy's been flying it. It's still at dusty time, but still, [2831.77] Frank: it's better than it has been in the past. It's an improvement. He posted that video for the first [2839.61] Frank: time in ages, and then loads of other channels got wind of it as well. He's been posting other [2846.25] Frank: videos on YouTube. Andy LC's big comeback on its way. You've been dearly missed, my friend. [2856.65] Frank: Oh, Andy LC posted his wireless head tracking video. Excellent. He was telling me about this [2862.97] Frank: the other day. I was hoping he'd do it before I got around to building my head tracking unit. [2869.61] Frank: That's good. I will keep an eye out for that and maybe skip a whole section of building my [2878.97] Jack: head tracking. No, he's just cock teasing you. He says no, it's just a teaser. Zero, what are you [2885.61] Jack: doing in August? Do you want to come over and come to the LDO 10 year? LDO no, not again. Because it [2896.73] Jack: would feel wrong without you. I don't know what we'll have to do. We'll have to figure something [2902.49] Jack: out. But if I have to personally pick you up from Gatwick, I'm getting cold as well. So it can be [2913.13] Curry: done. Gary, what are you saying? I am replying to Zero FPV who asks, would this open IPC VRX work [2921.93] Curry: with my Dominator HD3? There are only 800 by 600 do have HDMI in, which I said, in theory, [2929.13] Curry: the goggles should scale the input. I'd have to check out my Dom V3s, which are only 640 by 480. [2934.25] Curry: I'm basing that on the fact that before we had HD0, do you remember the bite frost? [2945.21] Curry: Before it was sharp bite, it was bite frost. And I borrowed one of those. And that's when Greg [2951.93] Curry: said, whatever that company is, fat sharks upset me about it. But I was able to put that in. That [2958.89] Curry: was 720p input. And it sort of just scaled down and looked okay on my low res goggles. So I think [2966.65] Curry: it would work, but I'd have to check it. What was he upset about? He was upset because I said it [2973.13] Curry: wasn't a very good system. Because the breakup is, there's a lot of it. And it didn't have any range. [2982.73] Curry: And he posted a comment saying, well, it says all sorts of things, really. So they didn't [2988.73] Curry: contribute to this hobby at all, blah, blah, blah, etc, etc. Like, okay, five years later, [2998.17] Jack: still on LDO. Yeah, that's true. My sentence, no real contribution. [3005.29] Jack: Slime in this year. [3007.21] Curry: That's what I mean. [3007.85] Jack: Slime in that area. [3010.25] Frank: Before we go, I do have to let everyone know about that there's still spaces for the Pop'em [3022.01] Frank: Tiny Whoop racing going on on May the 10th and 11th in the big top tent that's at Pop'em [3032.49] Frank: over the summer for their events. And there's a big chunk of that just taken over for Tiny [3037.05] Frank: Whoop racing. There's 12 hours of Tiny Whoop racing over the course of the weekend. And yeah, [3043.45] Frank: they've still got a bunch of spaces available on the back to sign up for. There are trophies, [3051.05] Frank: I know, because they're currently sitting on my windows in my front room. So they exist. [3056.57] Frank: There's camping available. And there's all sorts of other stuff that happens over the weekend as [3064.25] Frank: well. I will be going there on Monday to help set up. That is my plan for the bank holiday. [3074.41] Curry: I feel like it would be playing an outdoor whoop race just to see if they can make it all the way [3081.29] Curry: out without running out of battery. Or being blown away. Wind. [3089.05] Curry: It's an insurance test. [3091.29] Curry: Yeah, that sounds right. I will look forward to finding out what you guys are doing tomorrow [3097.05] Curry: because there's going to be smoke involved, some of it purposeful. But I have a feeling [3101.69] Curry: there's going to be smoke involved, which isn't on purpose somehow. I don't know why. [3106.41] Frank: Yeah, I'm slightly nervous that there will be smoke coming from where we don't want it and not [3110.81] Curry: from where we do want it. Have you got your lens ready to capture it? [3118.25] Frank: No, I've got a different lens, but not the one I accidentally spent money on. [3124.81] Curry: I've got the Bosch lens, yeah. [3126.01] Jack: No, what? Have you accidentally spent money on a lens? [3132.25] Frank: Guys, I forgot. I'm not fully full-time employed anymore and spent money that I probably shouldn't [3137.29] Jack: have done, but I'm sweaty now. Oh, Jesus. Well, do I owe you money? [3144.25] Jack: Well, yeah, but it doesn't have its pay back yet. Got a while to go, yeah. [3149.21] Jack: So if anyone wants to become a lovely Patreon, [3154.33] Jack: you can donate to us so that we can pay Frank back so Frank can eat and LDI can pay an editor. [3166.33] Jack: Oh, God, this is a very, very, very tangled web. [3173.53] Jack: If you'd like to help Rob Peter to pay Paul or Frank, whatever your name is now, [3180.89] Jack: please consider joining our lovely Patreon who, without your years of support, we would have not [3186.57] Jack: been able to carry on and we wouldn't have been able to have all these laughs and we had Andy RC [3193.69] Jack: and it was, oh, it's been great. But yes, we love you guys. If you're a Patreon, [3201.13] Jack: you're amazing. If you want to listen to this podcast without the awkward silences, [3206.17] Jack: hopefully, the bits where Jack is totally depressed. If you've had enough of the un-swear [3212.89] Jack: words, consider having a nicely edited podcast to listen to that might be safe enough to have [3221.69] Jack: others in your vicinity listen to this podcast with you. Yes. Then, yeah, Patreon, our link's in [3230.89] Jack: the description, patreon.com forward slash let's drone out. And, you know, it gets you an invite [3236.65] Frank: to the LDO know. Yeah, not again. Much to the surprise of NaughtyProk81, who I see in the [3244.57] Frank: chat this evening, who came across us the other week on a recommendation and was very surprised [3250.65] Jack: we're still going. Yeah, I love that. I was like, are you guys dead? Yeah, like you expected like me [3259.69] Jack: or Tony to like kill each other. I don't know. Yeah, survival of the fittest. I love your ferret. [3270.25] Jack: You've been joined by everyone's favourite curry kitten. [3274.33] Jack: Bye. The very poor Frank. Bye. And I don't know how he hasn't killed himself, Jack. [3284.97] Jack: Bye, everyone. Thank you and good night. Telemetry lost.