Staceman FPV

I have been off of Discord for a bit, and so imagine my surprise when I get back on, and there's an update for my favorite mode on HDZero. Yeah, they updated the 1080p30 mode to fix it's issues so we get the actual 1080p video into the goggles, and not just recorded in the DVR.

I gave it a short test yesterday evening flying a pack around the house, and it was so much better. I am going to test it again today at the park to see how it really does. It felt smoother, and the breakup felt like it was better overall, but I want to test it at the park to see if some of that could have been from flying at golden hour, and the shutter being slower.

I have adjusted to the slower frame rate, but I can tell when the frame rate is slower. Yesterday evening though, it didn't have the same feel. It just felt right. I have seen that before when flying in lower light, so it is possible it was just a slower shutter from the lower light. I just want to confirm that, and I want to see how it does with break-up at the park as well.

Storms moving out today, and likely back to normal later today or early tomorrow. Thankful we didn't see much of anything.

Power has been good, and the storm has basically been a mild rainstorm for us. Farther north the devastation is bad. Thankful to be where we are located. Praying for those farther north in the Big Bend area of Florida. They will have lost everything.

If I go dark on here, know it is because I am without power and/or internet. I will keep posting each day as I can, and when power and internet are back up, I will update everything.

The plan for today is to get some flying in at lunch. I have everything ready for the storm as best I can. We likely won't feel the worst of it. As it is right now, we will see tropical storm force winds, but likely not hurricane winds. Still, it is hard to know for sure at this point.

I really wanted to make a video today. I went out and flew a bit, but didn't care much for what I recorded. I did have fun, though, and found that I can turtle the acrobrat pretty well because of the way that the frame is made and how it keeps the tiny motors elevaed when it is upside down.

And the hurricane is definitely strengthening. Might even reach Cat 3 status, but it's still a bit unknown as to where it's actually going to go. Current predictions are a bit north, but that was the same last year with Ian, and it made a last minute turn eastward. It's still up in the air.

It is looking very likely to have a serious storm hit Florida. I am still hoping it doesn't intensify like it is looking like it might, but I am preparing for the worst. It does look like it will be moving quickly which is good for flooding and and such. Slow moving storms are the worst.

I went out this morning and filled the gas cans so we will be prepared if the power goes out. Current indications is that it will be a strong tropical storm, possibly a Cat 1 hurricane (low chances currently). The power going out is my main concern so I want to alleviate that problem if possible. Later today I will get the generator out, and fire it up, and make sure it's all good to go. We need to get a few things at the store as well to make sure that we are stocked up and don't need to go anywhere, particularly as it gets closer to the time it could hit. That's when others set in panic mode.

On the drone front, I want to get out a bit and fly some this weekend. I am trying to think of some video ideas that could be interesting to make. My main focus though is just adjusting to flying this sub 250g build. I want to determine if this is something that I could fly as my main setup or not. I tend to like to stick to one setup. Switching back and forth usually just leads to medicore flying. My buddy RanHam made the comment on my recent video that it didn't look all that different from a 5 inch based on how I fly. I think he's right. For my style of flying, it's about the same. The drone feels a little different, but there's really nothing that I need a bigger drone to accomplish.

I like to give things a solid month before I determine what I want to do. The interesting thing with doing that is that by the end of the month, I have found that I usually like it. Long before the month would be over I would know if I didn't like it, and if I was just pushing through to finish the test. I don't usually try something to just be trying it, though. I have a genuine interest to see something work for me before I even embark on the journey to try it. And with that in mind, if I make it a month, I will have adjusted anything that I need to change in order to kep doing what I set out to test.

One last note: Happy Anniversary to my parents. They have been married for 54 years. Kim and I will be celebrating 25 years in October. Time sure flies!

The odds are increasing that we will have a hurricane hit central Florida by the middle of next week. I will be getting everything prepped starting tomorrow to make sure that we are ready in case it does come to fruition. I figure the more prepared that I am, the less likely that it will happen. At least that seems to be the case most of the time for me.

We went to Hollywood Studios this evening, and got a few rides in. I honestly wish that Disney would remove Lightning Lane entirely. It only causes the lines to be much longer than they would be if they had no Lightning Lane. And if they won't remove it, at least change the merge point. Alternate 1 for 1 with the standby queue. Lighning Lane would still be very fast, but the standby lane would not be at a standstill for exceptionally long periods at times.

I am trying to finish the year strong, and reach 3,000 subscribers on my YouTube channel. Odds are looking good for it to happen, but we'll have to wait and see how it goes.

I finally got out and flew some, and actually created a new video. It felt good to get out and fly some. There will definitely be more in the near future. Be on the lookout.

We went to EPCOT, and got our regular Guardians ride in. We also got Test Track in. We have been using the single rider line a lot on this ride. It is pretty fun to ride with different families, many who have never been to Disney.

I keep wanting to go out and fly a bit in he morning, but I just can not seem to find the motivation these days. I am not sure why.

I have flown and tuned the Acrobrat a bit more, and I am really starting to think that I might ditch 5" for this thing. I found a 3d model of the Acrobrat that I could use to get pieces made out of carbon for it, so that makes it very viable to continue using. It seems that so many times when I pick a frame I like, it becomes very difficult to find parts for it, so having the model to make my own eliminates this problem.

The acrobrat flies well, and I have found that I like flying it on 3s strangely enough. The GNB 650mah 120c 3s packs are very nice, so I think I will pick up some more of those as my go to lipo for it. I just need to find good reliable motors, and a reliable stack. The HDZero Race V3 VTX works well for it, though they are going to be releasing a 1 watt small form factor VTx, so it could be a possibility. I typically don't need much output power though, so the Race V3 might be what I go with long term.

A reliable stack will be the trickiest part to find. The Speedy Bee stack looks promising, but I am still evaluating options. For now, my iFlight stack is working, but who knows how long that'll last. I do have a replacement FC for it, but I don't think I have a spare ESC. If the ESC goes, I will be looking for a full stack to replace it.

Today was a busy day. I started the day with a bit of flying. After that, we headed to BJ's to do some grocery shopping. When we returned our couch from Wayfair had arrived, and I had to assemble that. We went to get a bite to eat at Dairy Queen, and then we headed to Lowe's to pick up the hardware for all of our cabinets. Kim has been on to me for a year to get the handles on the doors and drawers, and today was the day to finally mark that off of the honey-do list. We picked up the hardware, and a template, and I got those installed. After that, it was starting to get dark, and the temperature was nice so I got the yard mowed, and trimmed. Finished the day with polishing the granite countertops. A lot accomplished, but man I am tired.

Well, I did not fly today. I was too tired in the morning, and did not feel like getting out early, and later in the day it rained. Flying is on the agenda for tomorrow, and I think I will have better luck in accomplishing it since it is a Saturday.

The Camry is really shining on the gas mileage so far, if the fuel gauge is to be believed. Over 300 miles, and just shy of hitting the half-way mark. As it stands right now, if the gauge is correct, I will get over 600 miles on a tank of fuel. For a non-hybrid, this is crazy to me.

Our Traverse never had good fuel economy. It never acheived the rating from the EPA. Typically fuel mileage for it was 17-20 mpg no matter how I drove it. So, I guess in that respect it was consistent. Consistently bad, but consistent. EPA rated it at 25 highway and I don't recall the city rating. I think it was 17. So maybe they got that right. There were times though that I got like 15mpg. It was just always bad.

But this Camry I think is going to be phenomenal on fuel. It's rated for 39 highway, and I think I am ging to get that with more city like driving. I can not wait to take it on a longer highway drive to see how it performs.

I have not flown in almost a week. Things have been a bit hectic for me and my family this past week. I miss flying. I am going to fly tomorrow.

We picked up our new car yesterday. It feels so good to be free to get out of the house again. The new ride is pretty nice. It has been 14 years since we purchased a new vehicle. So much has changed in cars since that time. While we don't have all the bells and whistles, we have plenty for me to enjoy.

For those wondering, it is a 2023 Toyota Camry SE with the XP package. So far the radio, and incredible gas mileage are topping my list. Even with the incredible gas mileage it still has plenty of pep when you need it.

Pixel 6 is here, and I have it all setup now. Doesn't feel any different from the 7, so I think it was a good choice. The battery definitely seems to be better though, and that will be a nice benefit.

I spoke with our salesperson earlier, and the car is at the dealership, and he's going to put a rush on PDI, so we can hopefully get that delivered to us today. It will be great to be able to leave the house again. Cabin fever is in full effect for all of us.

My Google Pixel screen bit the dust from a drop. The scren protector saved the screen, but the case didn't handle the drop, and the shock from the drop messed up the screen internals. It still came on, but after a day, almost all of the pixels are dark now.

Thankfully, it was paid off. I have ordered a replacement (Google Pixel 6 this time instead of the 7), and it should be here today. I got a better case (I bope) this time, so hopefully it'll do better.

The reason it fell was a janky livestream setup. I spent some time this weekend, and got that all sorted out. I will make an update video on that in the near future. I also will be making a video on the Acrobrat as well. I am just waiting for the phone replacement to get here.

And we are still waiting on our car to be delivered. It should be ready for pickup in a day or two (hopefully not 2 more days). I really didn't want to have to get a new car. I was so used to the Traverse, but honestly, this is going to be so much better. We'll have a much better ride, better gas mileage, better looking vehicle, more features, etc.

But you know what my favorite thing will be? The radio! We have been without an actual radio in our automobile for a few years now (maybe 4 or more). Yes, the Traverse had a radio, but the speakers were all malfunctioning. So we have had to make do with the audio direct from the phone. So I am excited to be able to blast some music, and feel some bass! It's the little things that make you happy.

Yesterday's post was a bit short. I was at the point of frustration with updating firmware on the flight controller of the acrobrat. I will talk about it in the video that I make about the build, but suffice to say it was quite annoying.

I was able to test the acrobrat yesterday. My buddy RanHam came by, picked me up (yes, we are still waiting on our new car), and we went out flying. We both did some live streaming (RanHam's first time, and he gets a superchat), and had a great time. As we were packing up, the police showed up to run us off. The officer was pretty cool though, and we probably talked about drones for 20 or 30 minutes.

While the acrobrat flew great, I am running the stock tune. I didn't notice any bobbles or anything that needed direct adjustment, but I do need to work on the feel a bit. So I am going to work on that today, and see where I can get it to. If all else fails, I know that the stock tune is not bad.

Let me just say, I hate technology. That is all.

We bought a car yesterday. Prices sure have changed since the last time I bought a new car. Talk about sticker shock! On the plus side, I have an excellent warranty, 10 years bumper to bumper. Doesn't get much better than that. Aside from the sticker shock, though, I had a great experience, and I would highly recommned the dealer I used.

And who is that? Miracle Toyota. And if you use them, ask for Michael V., and tell them I sent you.

Yesterday was not a good day. We have had a Chevy Traverse as our primary (and more recently over the past 3 years, only) automaobile. Today, it died. We had put 250,000 miles on it. We have had a lot of parts and pieces replaced over the past 14 years. It had become like a member of the family. We hated, and loved it all the same. But today, the engine finally gave up the ghost. So we have to determine what we are going to do next.

We had been planning on getting another vehicle (not replacing our Traverse). We wanted to keep it as a backup, but that will not be happening. It will cost too much to replace the engine, and honestly with as many miles as it has on it, I am sure the transmission will be going soon anyways. I think it is in our best interest that this happened, but still it's not easy to deal with.

On the positive side, it did happen while at home, so we weren't stranded out somewhere. So many things recently have died on it while at home. We had the battery go out. We had the alternator go out. We had the starter go out. We had part of the suspension break. The A/C died, but I was able to get it going. All of these things at home.

We kept saying we need to get another vehicle. The Traverse can't last much longer. I had always said I was going to drive it until it died. I never expected it to actually die. I just figured it would get to the point that I didn't want to deal with it anymore, and I would just trade it off for a few dollars. It definitely isn't worth much in it's condition. I am hopeful I can get a bit out of it for salvage.

I am hopeful to get a replacement very soon. I have to get a replacement soon. I don't have any other option. I am hopeful to have a more positive entry tomorrow.

We went to EPCOT yesterday evening. When we go there, we always make sure to get a Virtual Queue for Guardians of the Galaxy:Cosmic Rewind. It is our favorite ride. We are always late for our boarding group, but that is never a problem for this ride as they let you enter after your alloted one hour window. We would probably go to Magic Kingdom more and ride Tron if they allowed that for it as well, but currently they are vry strict with that one.

So, when you enter after your alloted time, and you scan your pass (Magic Band in our case), the scanner will light up blue, and blink, and alert the ride personnel. They usually just tap it, and it goes green, and you are good to go. This time however, for my son and myself it blinked blue for a bit, and then just went off, so we went ahead and entered, and no one said anything. My wife's turned green. We go on our way and I think nothing of it. It's happened before, so no big deal.

So, we are almost through the queue line, and my son whispers to me, "I think we can ride again." I reply back, "What do you mean?" He goes on, open your Disney My Experience app, and look at your queues. So I do. Sure enough, our party still shows me and him as not having entered the queue, but my wife has been removed from the queue. Here we are almost ready to get on the ride, and it still doesn't think we have entered the queue. We tell my wife, and she is like, "Do it!"

So when we get off of the ride, my wife heads over to Ratatouille, and my son and I head back to the Virtual Queue entrance to attempt to ride again. We scan, it goes blue, and blinks, and a second later, turns green. Boom! We are in for a second ride! Woohoo!

So, it turns out that my FC is borked. Replacing it fixed the voltage reporting problem. I am not sure which part is broke on the old FC, but it doesn't report voltage. FC works in every other respect as far as I know. I'll keep it around as a backup if needed, but not planning on using it unless I absolutely ned it.

Thinking about this problem had me looking for what other options there are for 20x20 stacks, and it saddens me to see the prices of things these days. Everything is going up in this hobby (and everything else for that matter). COVID really messed up things in so many ways. There have been a few good things to come out of it. Mobile ordering being available at so many places now. There is so much convenience with that, particularly at the Disney theme parks. Instacart, and other delivery services for things like groceries. Never thought I would use this, but being sick a few times, it has proven to be very useful. Silver lining in everything.

Well, I got home last night, and noticed that my tires on the front (which I knew needed to be relaced sometime back) wre way past the point of needing replaced. I could see the threads. Yep, it was THAT bad. So I went this morning, and got those replaced. I am just glad that I noticed it had gotten that bad before I had a blow out on the road.

In other news, I am ging to swap the FC on the sub 250g build, and check that. Hopefully that solves the issue. If not, then I am not sure what I am going to do. I don't necessarily need the voltage in the OSD, but it is nice to have that pece of mind to know how the voltage is doing, particualrly since I am flying a drone that will be far different efficiently than my 5 inch builds.

Some of my woes continue. For some reason, I am not getting voltage from the FC on my sub 250g build. I have a spare FC that I am going to swap in to see if it is the FC or not. I am getting power just fine, and everything else is fine, but no voltage. It is showing 0 in betaflight as well as the OSD.

Today didn't start out so great. I dropped an egg and broke it inside of the refrigerator. I went out to fly and livestream it, and forgot my box for the screen, and then when I flew, I had awful video, I crashed, and my ESC appears to be dead. At this point, I very seriously considered ditching the hobby. I have had these ditch the hobby moments before. Sometimes they come and go in a few hours, and other times it is a few weeks. Today, it was a few hours. When I decided I wasn't going to ditch it, I decided to start on the Acrobrat build. I found that I actually enjoyed building again. I'm not sure why. It sure wasn't because it was easy. It wasn't. This thing tried my patience, but for some strange reason, it was the therapy I needed.

We went to Hollywood Studios yesterday evening. We go to a Disney park several times a week because we have passes, and I like to get my money's worth. But also, we enjoy riding a few rides, and just walking around and such. I used to like Disney a long time back, but wasn't a huge fan. I'm stil not a fan of the company in general, but there are a lot of good people who work for them. Most cast members go out of their way to bring little sparks of joy to visitors. Yesterday, while getting ready to get on Smuggler's Run, the cast member noticed my son's SeaWorld shirt, and she had to have a little fun giving him a hard time. We enjoyed the banter, and he's usually pretty introverted. It was fun to see him engaging and giving her just as much of a hard time as she was giving him.

We watched Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol 3. on Disney+. I saw lots of reviews saying it was awful. Those people are morons. It was a great movie! Perfect ending to the franchise. I am glad that I can think for myself, and make up my own mind without being swayed. If you have not seen it because of what someone else told you about it, ignore them, and watch it. Well worth it.

Well, the video idea turned out to be a bust. My FC blew a 5v regulator mid-update, and then the Nano RX kicked the bucket shortly after. Some days things just don't work out all tha well.

I finally updated the firmware on my crossfire setup yesterday. I have been using version 3.74, and for those that don't know, that is over 3 years old. Well, I got a new receiver the other day (several weeks ago actually), and it required the update. So what did I do? I didn't update because I figrued it would be a huge pain in the rear. Turned out, it actually wasn't too bad. I thought (from what I had heard and read), that I would have to access the bind button. So, I took my drone apart, and removed the heat shrink from the Nano receiver. Turns out that you don't have to do that all. I think I might make a video about it.

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