New Firmware For The DJI A2 Flight Controller Released

Source: http://www.fpvmodel.com/blog/new-firmware-for-the-dji-a2-flight-controller-released_show36.html

DJI has just updated the powerful A2 flight controller to include more features than ever before. You can enjoy following powerful features by updating the lastest V2.4 firmware.

1. Added a "Home Fence" feature that prevents the aircraft from entering the area directly around the Home point.

2. Support for F-Channel and Action settings in the DJI PC Ground Station.

3. Support for the Dropsafe system.

4. Added the ability to control the aircraft during Return To Home procedures.

5. Emergency position of the mode switch is set to Atti. Mode by default instead of Manual Mode.

6. Added flight limits and airport No-Fly Zones.

7. Obtain initial receiver coordinates more quickly, in cold starts, low satellite signal (foliage/canopy) areas, and loss of satellite signal conditions (indoors, under tunnels, etc.)

8. Greater satellite tracking reliability in poor visibility conditions (in urban areas, between tall buildings, under bridges/underpasses, etc.)

9. Home Lock and Point of Interest performance upgraded.

Review On Sharp Vision 7 Inch High Bright LED Monitor

Reviewed by BMSWeb: Overview and first thoughts on the Sharp Vision 32Ch LED Backlit Monitor. This is without a doubt an amazing monitor with quality performance. Would have loved to have reviewed the DVR version but I must say this is an impressive monitor. Will follow it up with some field testing.

This monitor Features
1. Dual Antenna Connector
2. Support all 32 Channels
3. Diversity Receiver
4. Folding Sun Shade
5. Auto Channel Scan With Channel Frequency Display
6. 700Lux Brightness
7. Auto Brightness Adjustment

Product link: http://www.fpvmodel.com/sharp-vision-7-inch-high-bright-led-monitor-built-in-5-8g-dual-receiver-no-dvr-_g774.html

Original Post: http://www.fpvmodel.com/blog/review-on-sharp-vision-7-inch-high-bright-led-monitor_show34.html 

FPV Model's Own Brand Multirotor Motors Launched Soon

FPV Model is proud to inform all, 28 models of multirotor models with its own brand will be launched soon.  

As one of the leading B2C sellers of FPV systems and accessories in China, FPV Model benefits from direct access to the suppliers, raw materials, and young, creative talent pool necessary for sustained success. Drawing on these resources, we have grown from a single small office in 2010 to a global team. As a privately owned and operated company, FPV Model focuses on our own vision, supporting creative, commercial, and nonprofit applications of our technology.

Manufacturing the products with FPV Model's own brand might be a nice try to strengthen its competition. On one hand, it will reduce the competition for selling same products as others; one the other hand, FPV Model can set up a distribution network and establish a long-term business relationship with some potential customers. Besides, we can promote company image thru our own brand.  

Motor is an important part of multi-rotor that with a great market demand. Due to FPV Model has the marketing experience for its Dragonfly mini motors, choosing motors as the initial products that made with our own brand will be much easier and safer in the market promotion.  

At the initial stage, FPV Model will launch a series of motors with 28 different models, covering most of common uded mini motors for multirotors, including quadcopters, hexacopters, octocopters.

FPV Model's Multi-Rotor Motors provide high end performance for multi-rotor airframes such as the ZMR250, QAV250, Free Flight X4, Free Flight X8.  These motors use the high quality Japanese bearings and are wound by hand, offering a more affordable motor with slightly lower quality bearings and machined windings.  

All these multirotor motors are now asking the 3rd party reviewers for test. FPV Model will also invite some qualified testers from RCgroups and FPV Lab to test the performance.   We believe quality is our life. By now, these multirotor models have been CE certfied and RoHs compliant.   

All FPV Model's multirotor motors come with two months satisfaction guarantee. The longest guarantee in the FPV community. For any reason that you are not satisfied with the motors within 60 days, you can return the motors back and get a full refund.  

For the detailed information of FPV Model motors, please visit us at http://www.fpvmodel.com for more details. 

Free Shipping Policy of FPV Model

Here’s the free shipping policy for FPV system and FPV components at fpvmodel.com.

1.) Free shipping on all items more than US$200 and under 3Kg. The orders will be posted via EMS, DHL, TNT or Fedex. Foam planes will be posted by EMS.  If receiver’s address is considered as remote area by the shipping couriers, the order may be changed to ship via EMS or China Post.

2.) Free registered airmail shipping for orders less than $200 and under 2KG. The delivery time for China Post is can be 14 days to 45 days depending on location of delivery. This option is just for those who are not very sensitive with the speed. But if fast shipment is really important to you, we don’t recommend it to you.

3.) Batteries need to be shipped separately. Thus, we can not offer free shipping.

Package posted with free shipping by China Post must not exceed 60cm.

Free shipping is only offered to retail customers. We sincerely hope all our customers will get your favorite FPV systems and FPV components as soon as possible.

For more details, please contact fpvmodel.

PID Setting of ZMR250 for Reference

Here is a ZMR250 PID setting. For your reference only. Please accept my apology that the parameters are in Chinese. Hope you can still understand what it means.

The offer for ZMR250 ARF still available at US$199.00. Please check it at http://www.fpvmodel.com/zmr250-250mm-mini-quadcopter-fpv-arf-rtf_g762.html. Any comments? Please do not hesitate to let me know.

Free Flight X4 ARF Combo Sold at $1999

Free Flight X4 and Free Flight X8 are now avaiable in ARF and RTF package sale.  For more information, please visit http://www.fpvmodel.com/free-flight-x8-x4-fpv-rtf-combo_g766.html. 

Free Flight X4 ARF Combo: US$1999.00

Free Flight X4 RTF Combo: US$2449.00

Free Flight X8 ARF Combo: US$2299.00

Free Flight X8 RTF Combo: US$2749.00

Free Flight X4 RTF Combo:

Free Flight X8 RTF Combo:

The RTF combos for both Free Flight X4 and Free Flight X8 contain almost everything for RTF at a discounted price. High performance, reliable flight, easy to carry and use. 

If you are looking for a multirotor combo for your FPV aerial photography, don't miss this. It will totally satisfy you. As our test, X8 with two 6s 10000mah batteries and total flying weight  6.5kg, the flight time can reach to 27 min..

Note: the ARF combo doesn't include the batteries and assembly, you have to do the assembly yourself.

For RTF, you can choice a radio from our website and we will help you to assemble together. If not, we will assemble it as BNF.

Your package includes:

Free Flight X4 or Free Flight X8 （optional）
NAZA-M V2 flight controller 
Skyzone SKY-700D 5.8GHz 32CH Diversity 7 inch LCD FPV Monitor Built-in DVR
Aomway 1000mw 15ch transmitter
Boscam cloud spirit 5.8g antenna
X-CAM 140b 2-axis brushless gimbal
DJI mini Iosd
Aomway 5.8G 14dbi panel antenna
AOK 2 in 1low voltage alarm x 2
servo extension cable x2
and plugs,shrink tubes,cables etc.

Battery (not included in ARF):

Dupu 6s 10000mah 25C li-po battery x2
DUPU 3S 850mah for transmitter x 1

UAVS FLEX THEIR ARTIFICIAL MUSCLES – IEEE SPECTRUM

From IEEE Spectrum:

Until recently, a defining characteristic of robots has been their rigid mechanical nature. Most of them are made up of hard structural elements, motors and actuators, electronics, sensors, and batteries, none of which are compliant. The future, though, promises to be softer, and we’ve seen lots of different robots that are either partially or completely soft. Soft robots have the potential to be much more adaptable, portable, and durable than rigid robots do, so ideally you’d want them for field applications where there might be a lot of crashing involved. Like UAVs. That would be a good idea, wouldn’t it?

Landing is hard for UAVs. It’s hard for the winged variety especially, since they can’t zero out their horizontal velocity before they hit the ground. Small UAVs can be made out of foam, with mostly integrated components, but they’ve still got fragile external bits that are vulnerable to damage. Namely, the elevons that the wings use for pitch and roll control. The Laboratory of Intelligent Systems at EPFL has developed a UAV that uses dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs) as elevons: it can fly perfectly well, but the actuators are so compliant that you can literally bend them in half:

Here’s what the researchers have to say about the approach:

We have flown the MAV numerous times and found the DEA actuators allow for excellent controllability of the aircraft, as well as being very resistant to harsh handling.

In case you missed the brief “let’s bend this actuator completely in half” clip in the video, here’s a picture of the entire actuator being bent completely in half:

One advantage of this actuator is the near imperviousness it confers to the aircraft thanks to its inherent softness and stretchability. Or at least, to the elevons. What’s potentially more exciting (I think) is the potential to make an aircraft that can be folded up and stuffed into a bag, or even into a pocket, and then pulled out and tossed into the air whenever you need it.

DEAs aren’t a new thing, even if this particular implementation is a novel one. EPFL has also adapted them for other robotic applications, like this adorable little gripper:

“A Foldable Antagonistic Actuator,” by Jun Shintake, Samuel Rosset, Bryan Schubert, Dario Floreano, and Herbert Shea from EPFL, will be published in a forthcoming issue of IEEE Transactions on Mechatronics.