DIVE fast - CRASH hard! Drone proximity in awesome mountains and horrible crash

I started to do more training flights with the Black Bullet (see the copter here) and had 2 sessions in the "Höllental" again - since it features the best accessibility of wonderful rocks and cliffs in good range.
On the 2nd day I found more tight lines down between cliffs that were still LOS. Unfortunately the 2nd flight on that day ended in an disaster. I guess that one motor or ESC burned to death up there - suddenly it fell out of the sky. I still have the Marco Polo beacon live up there so there's a chance to locate it - but I have to find a good climber to actually recover it from this remote location.
It's hard to find the reason for the crash - but overall I wasn't so satisfied with the T-Motors used here. Had to replace a few of them because magnets slipped, and also on my test field I had a burnt motor before (over save ground, no real damage back than).


You see different cams used here:
On the poor light shots (overcast, shadow) I used SJCam M10+ in 2k mode with stabilizer and also the Foxeer Legend in 1080p60.
On the 2nd day with good sunlight up there and shadow below I used only M10+ in 1080p60 mode + stabilizer.
See my M10+ review
Had to do a lot of color correction to make it look better (especially on the overcast day).

Thanks to BackyardAirways for spotting and supporting me up there!

Black Bullet FAST dives and proxy in the mountains (Höllental revisited)

This has been so much fun! I was tuning the Bullet for quite some time (since it was an prototype) to get it to dive for me. This particular location is perfect for this kind of diving. Now I'm really sorry that back in summer I didnt use the Gopro (and had no cheap 60fps cam).

I hope I can continue to DIVE soon enough - definitly the most fun!

(filmed with RuncamHD in the first part, and on the field also with Xiaomi Yi some shots)

Secret 2nd version of this video
(only works if you're outside Germany)


▼Music▼
Kids Cover Sober By Tool / O'Keefe Music Foundation

Black Bullet - fast DIVES with drone down the hills and trees

As promised in my review (https://youtu.be/jh4Q7wWlNg4) of this copter here's the first fast paced diving video. A friend did visit me in Summer and I needed to test this prototype. We had some really nice FPV sessions on my favourite places. If you know my video your should recognize these two spots (it's near "Ruine Klamm", Schottwien and 2nd part is at my standard hill the "Eichberg").
First part here was filmed with RuncamHD (30fps) and 2nd was with Gopro3+ in 60fps. Settings were suboptimal and I had some jello, but performance of the quad was brutal and the flight feeling there was really good.
On the first location we only could do one flight until the farmer asked us to leave ;-)

Black Bullet unboxing, build, Review and fast testflights Miniquad, Racecopter

This is my first really fast Quadcopter. The Trincopter was quite fast also, but this smaller one here has tilted motors - which makes all the difference! It's just so cool to feel this "urge to fly forward fast" from the quad! Nice option here to change a few screws and have the motorarms straight or angled (3 steps: 0°, 10° or 20°).
The build was fairly easy, you have a good ammount of space in the quad. Battery compartment is large enough to hold an 2250 4cell - maybe even larger. But the best performance is achievable with small and extreme Lipos (1300mah Gensace 75C).

see more details over there in my "Hangar"
►buy the quad here: Globe-Flight

Update 2015/11: Landingpads, Arkbird AAT and OSD, XUAVOne, Hover82

Landingpads
Zoom H1 Mic 1:08
Polaroid LED Light 3:06
Arkbird AAT 3:21
and OSD/RTH 7:00
X-UAV One Plane 8:00
Mini FPV Cam 12:22
DALRC Qosd! 12:48
FPVers Intro: Hover82 14:28

SnapperXS realworld testing the FOXEER Legend 1 (proximity Miniquad flights in autumn scenery)

Black Snapper XS Autumn Treesurfing in 60fps SJ5000+

Black Snapper XS Maiden, Buildpics, Tipps, Thoughts and some fine Autumn Treesurfing

Please check this article in my "Hangar" for more details on this new Quad

SJCam SJ5000+ vs Xiaomi Yi vs Gopro3+Black 60fps review

►important Tech Specs:
1080p60 Mode!
170° FOV
16MP stillimage resolution
Ambarella A7LS75 DSP
Panasonic MN34120PA 16 Megapixel 1/2.33″ CMOS Sensor
WiFi Connection for iOS / Android device
Support AV out while recording with specific USB-to-AV cable
Multiple photo shooting modes: Single shot, Snapper, Time-lapse
Support HDMI HD output function
DVR Car mode (dash cam)

►Recording time:
20min ~ 3,5GB clips 24MBit Datarate in 1080p60fps mode
~52min in 60fps mode (with no Wifi - LCD turned off most of the time)

►Firmware-Updates:
it's confusing that there seem to be many different versions of SJCam5000. The plus, the wifi...
Mine is SJCam 5000+ (with hardware version 3 and initial firmware 3.1)
you can find firmware for all versions here:
http://techtronic9000.blogspot.co.at/2015/05/sj-cam-firmware.html

How to upgrade:
Download the correct FW from above. My download had 3 Files in a 7zip archive.
I copied the file "SJCAM_FWUPDATE_V3.bin" from the subdir with chinese letters to the ROOT of an empty SD card
start cam with powercable attached
go into the menu and move "up" to get to the firmware version (mine was 3.1)
then hit the rec button there and it asks you to upgrade FW (but it does this there only if you have a SD card with firmware file inserted)
It takes only a few secs and then reboots - you can confirm in the menu that you have upgraded (3.2 in my case as of 22.Sept.2015).

►official support here:
http://www.sjcamsupport.com/sj5000/
http://www.sjcam.com/content/16-how-to-upgrade-the-sjcam-sj5000-action-camera-firmware

►Competition (1080p60fps cams):
The Foxeer Legend 1 looks interesting, also features the Ambarella A7LS processor but differs on the chip - with using a sony one. So here it's Sony Exmor Chip vs Panasonic - and I couldnt find details on which should be better...
Sample flight: https://youtu.be/LkkK6qs9gWk

The Xiaomi Yi isn't only hard to pronounce but also hard to focus ;-)
I might try the mod to get it sharper - then it could be a good and cheap alternative.

The Gopro (3+ or even 4) are still top notch - but their price range is terribly high. Maybe the Gopro Session could also be interesting for Miniquads - but it's also expensive.

►other reviews of this cam:
TECHMOAN Test: http://www.techmoan.com/blog/2015/2/7/the-big-sj5000-action-camera-review.html

Easy Antenna tracker - review and fieldtesting (ImmersionRC ezAntennatracker V2)

Immersion sent me their ezAntennatracker V2 some time ago. First I was sceptic if I want to use it, since tracker setup sounded way to complicated for me when I saw it in use by other FPVers.
But since they have "ez" (for easy) in many of their products I thought I'll give it a try.
I opted to use only the PAN-Servo - TILT is only needed if you fly really high or if you have a very directional antenna. I use the 13dbi Spironet with 35° horiz and vertical beamwidth - so I dont need to TILT with the tracker.
This makes the mechanics way easier - just a big "plate" directly on the huge sailwinch servo where I placed the antenna.
To get this on my tripod I just taped all together (doublesided tape) - the ezTracker with DiversityRX and servo.
Of course the diversity here is overkill - if using a tracker you shouldnt need a diversityRX.

Summary:
If you have a copter or plane with ezOSD onboard - this tracker is really nice and easy to use. It gives you 360° of really good video signal quality!
The fact that you have to have telemetry however is a showstopper for me on many FPV vehicles (I have many quads and planes and only few of them have telemetry).

For me: I packed the diversity and the tracker on one groundstation and I can switch between: tracker operation - or just diversity.
Recently I made this quite modular with some gopro mounts (i can plug in antenna and monitor additionally if I want to).

In a next video I will try to compare the use of a tracker to my normal use of diversity RX with different antennas - most noteably the new Pepperbox high gain, high beamwidth antenna!


►Info
Tracker: http://www.immersionrc.com/fpv-products/ezantennatracker-v2/
Pan-Servo: HS-785 HB Sailwinch Servo
Antenna: Spironet Patch 13dbi
you also need some SMA Antenna Extension cables!

►Startup (5mins!):
- set home (FPV vehicle with enough SAT acquired and with ezOSD telemetry running! standing next to the groundstation
- BEARING Calibration:
I found this to be the easiest way. You just move the copter away in one direction (20 or 30ft) and make sure the antenna is pointing in the right direction - if not - adjust.

►Requirements to get this tracker running:
Quite simple - you just need their ezOSD (or maybe some other compatible telemetry downlink?). the OSD sends GPS position and other telemetry info encoded in the audiochannel of your normal FPV downlink (one audio channel).