Atomrc Swordfish with Arduplane

Here's a flight with the Swordfish running Ardupilot 4.4, and a link to the parameters for those that wanted me to share them. Hopefully it's helpful, informative, and enjoyable too! lol
Parameters, read the readme for some notes! - bit.ly/Swordfi...
Atomrc Swordfish bit.ly/3JPibp8 (Use code "BONAFIDEPIRATE" for $10 off!)
Walksnail - bit.ly/walksna...
Hammer Antennas - amzn.to/3mxqOMu
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[@theflyingsandalrc]

That didn't take very long! You've been busy! ;)

[@bonafidepirate]

lol It would have been done sooner if I had more good days to fly lately, weather has been real unpredictable, mostly wind and rain with a few good evenings to fly mixed in.

[@STEDDiEFPV]

Awesome man this looks so smooth. Must have been a really calm evening this one, plus your ArduPlane knowledge and experience. You flew it like a real plane, and that flare on the landing was spot on. Well done mate.

[@johncarold]

Great flight and video, I finished my Ranger T1 last summer, and it was way too hot to fly, I have been looking at the Swordfish and thought a headtracker system would be fun. I just don't fly long-range, I'm in a wheelchair. Thanks for the video, I itching to get flying

[@wattage2007]

Another excellent video. I maidened my Killer Whale running iNav a couple of days ago. Interestingly, on any of the Mini Talon variants I've owned over the last six years, the pitch-bobbing in cruise mode was always present but doesn't happen at all on the Killer Whale.

[@bonafidepirate]

My Mini Talon always flew a little strange too, and would bob the nose a bit. I had a Vector in mine. I know the Reptile Dragon 2 had similar problems with the V-tail that went away with the conventional tail. I'm starting to wonder if it's more v-tail related than not... lol I know a few people were talking about cutting the tail off the Swordfish to put a conventional tail on, but I don't really want to start chopping mine up just yet. I don't want to see how it would fly though.

[@wattage2007]

@@bonafidepirate Indeed, never thought of the V-tail being the common factor. Did your Skyhunter bob on the pitch axis too?

[@bonafidepirate]

@@wattage2007 No, not that I remember

[@AerialWaviator]

Nice flying. For second flight seems quite smooth and stable. :) Turbulence near trees may be related to daytime trapped warmth, seeping out as the atmosphere cools off.

[@bonafidepirate]

That's possible, I hadn't really considered that. I know when the wind blows from the north it's always pretty turbulent along those trees, but I think it's because of the flood levee on the other side of them making sort of ridge lift that rolls up and back down over the trees. I know I've seen strong winds flatten the crops along the tree line more than once. For this flight the wind was more from the east/northeast, and I expected it to be smoother even next to the trees.

[@mark9328]

I am not even close to mastering INAV, but after watching this video it makes we want to try ArduPilot. Still thinking about setting up another Swordfish so maybe ArduPilot might be an option. With the little flight time I have I am pretty impressed with the way it fly’s. Thanks again for putting out these videos, tons of useful information that really helps folks with less experience.

[@bonafidepirate]

Thanks, I'm having fun with it! I found it flew really well with inav too, and I know someone with more inav experience than me could tune that pitch porpoising out of it, which is really the only thing that bothered me as far as how it performed. There's other things I like about Ardupilot that's enough to sway me... lol

[@RubyS.1]

I had the Sonic model mini skyhunter. It would fly fine in all of a sudden no matter the speed it would what I thought was stall into the ground. Change the bunch of stuff finally put a camera facing backwards it was the leading edge stickers flipping up and acting like an aileron. Ever since then I just spray paint everything

[@bonafidepirate]

I bet that was a feeling of frustration and relief at the same time. Nice to know what's going on but frustrated something so simple can cause such a problem! lol I kept looking back at the decal on the tail flapping in the wind, thinking it must be creating some drag or something, but I didn't really notice anything out of the ordinary. I can see how decals on the wing would act as a big spoiler when flipped up though.

[@jimmytheriot8978]

The second object when you turned around looks like a 💺 I zoomed in on it

[@bonafidepirate]

lol I thought that too, almost looks like a little bench or something. That would be even more strange. Now I have to go see what it really is... Might be a job for the Mavic Air since it's too muddy to walk or drive out there.

[@JPspinFPV]

Nice calm flight. Hopefully AtomRC can get my plane out the door soon.

[@dronepilot260rc]

Nice! I feel like it should have come with the 6042 props 🎉 I use those on every pretty much

[@bonafidepirate]

I agree, the 6042s are a better match I think. It's way overpowered with 7042s and will suck a lot of amps out of the battery... lol I know they recommend a 4S battery, but I wonder if those 7042s wouldn't be better on 3S even. I have a 3S pack of 5300mAh Vapcell that I was tempted to try, but wanted to stick with 4S for now. I may still try it at some point just to see how it works.

[@user-otzlixr]

I’ve have mine on order, they are on sale right now with no shipping. Your videos (and Andrew Newton) have sold me on this plane over the last year. You are the 2nd person I have seen to have reduced the size of the props. For the exact same reason. To be honest, I don’t understand that. I’m sure I will soon , but it doesn’t make sense to me now. I’ve always heard you want to go with the biggest props, that your motor (KV )can handle (for efficiency). So I would think if you are looking to dial back your the thrust response, going bigger props is what you would want to do. My money is on that YOU know what you are doing …and I am still learning :)

[@stevelhamon2031]

Do you have a tutorial on the components and installation for this plane?

[@mitchforbes3042]

Hi there, thanks for all your time and effort over the years, has always been a huge help. Appreciate you sharing parameters. It will make this settup much easier. Will take your advice and prop down also 😉. Just to clarify you were using the ZOHD 21700 4s battery while tuning?

[@qbertatx]

Wow. Video us sharp. FPV has come a long way. What hd system are you using? Us it tgus clear in the goggles? Thanks!

[@bonafidepirate]

It's Walksnail, I'm using 1080p resolution at 60fps. What you see is the feed recorded on the ground, so yeah this is what I see while flying. It actually looks a little better live, before it's encoded while recording, then again when editing, then again once KZbin compresses it. I'm using the VRX module with HDMI output, and a monitor to fly.

[@EnglishTurbines]

Great video m8, enjoyed it. Im guessing you have the camera panning on the Rudder stick? Does this mean there are no Ruddervators on this model? It may explain the heading meandering? Flew my first camera panning model yesterday with HD link..Its posted on my channel...🤔😳😀🇬🇧

[@bonafidepirate]

I'm controlling the pan servo with a slider on my TX16S. I typically do prefer using the rudder stick for pan on planes where I'm not using it, but this one does have mixing in the tail for both pitch and yaw. I haven't really looked at the heading thing yet, but will try to sort it out later. I'll go check out your video now!

[@EnglishTurbines]

@@bonafidepirate Oh, okay, I'm still learning my panning slider. It's hard to find centre on my Zorro TX...I need more practice!!....🤔😳😏🇬🇧

[@DivisionRc]

hey im building a t1 ranger, What did you use to connect the camera to a pan servo? And what type of servo? Im going to be using dji for it, nebula pro so a 19mm camera

[@bonafidepirate]

On my T1 Ranger I have a 14mm camera (Caddx Baby Ratel 2) and mounted it using the little flexible adapter that comes with that camera to fit it into a 19mm mount. I screwed the adapter thing directly to my pan servo, it works since that camera is so small and light. I used a small pan servo there too, a PowerHD DSM-44. The goal was to keep it all small and light. On this Swordfish I have the 19mm Walksnail camera mounted using a metal bracket that comes with the normal size 19mm Ratel cameras. It's mounted to a servo arm, that fits the pan servo. The pan servo in this one is a 270º 9g DMS-MG90-A.

[@codemaster442]

great video. That flight was so relaxing. what size screen you use to fly on? I fly my quad from inside on my 40" TV.

[@bonafidepirate]

For now I just have a 19" TV that I'm flying with. I do intend to get a larger one though at some point. The 19" was fine for analog, but it's lacking for 1080p HD... lol The resolution is there but I have to get up close to see the finer details.

[@codemaster442]

​@@bonafidepirate i can see powerlines on analog with a 40" HDTV, so digital is going to be awesome. you'll be very glad when you do.

[@bonafidepirate]

@@codemaster442 Yeah I've flown analog on a 42" for a while and loved it. I ended up taking that one out of the shop though to make more room. I really need a bigger shop... lol

[@matthewberry9053]

Hi awesome vid, SF flies great and thanks for the .pram file. If I'm loading adruplane do I need the standard .hex file or 'with bl.hex' ?

[@bonafidepirate]

You want "with bl" so you get the Arduplane bootloader. If it's your first dive into Ardupilot, definitely read through this ardupilot.org/plane/docs/fpv-plane.html

[@matthewberry9053]

Thanks, I’ll check it out

[@austinwalder626]

How much did this cost out the door with all the upgrades that you've done? I want to get this aircraft and set it up very similarly so my daughter can fly it around but I need to get the budget to gether so I can see the idea to my other half lol

[@North49RC]

Great flight. I like your set up. I am in the process of receiving a Swordfish. I want to set up a pan system for my FPV cam with a VTX that has the SD card option for cleaner video then from the SD card in the goggles. One question for you, How much does your battery weigh?

[@b00sted_mx59]

what kind of Servo's do you use for panning?

[@flycammexico2441]

Guau ¡ Congratulations for this outstanding setup ¡ I enjoyed the flight all the way , are you using the stock flight controller that comes on the Swordfish RTH version ? ATOMRC F405 NAVI?

[@bonafidepirate]

Yep, the F405 Navi as it comes pre-installed and wired from AtomRC.

[@stevietee10]

HI Keith, Please can you tell us which font file you used for this? I can't get the same icons as you for GNDSPD and AIRSPD. Maybe I have an option wrong in Arduplane params ? THANK YOU 🙂

[@bonafidepirate]

That one is Sneaky FPV's Nexus font. It's all dependent on the font, as to what icons are shown for those. Arduplane settings just determine whether or not the items are shown, but what they look like depends on the font you're using. drive.google.com/drive/folders/1uFSONAPUdYGZGhrlKPV4PSTYIBGk2c9d

[@stevietee10]

@@bonafidepirate Thank You

[@stevietee10]

Got it sorted, I had my font and ini files in a sub folder user_fonts, for the version of FW I was running they needed to be in the root of the sdcard 🤷‍♂️

[@MrStevegibb]

What HDMI splitter are using with this VRX?

[@bonafidepirate]

I use a 1x2 powered splitter from OREI, something I picked up cheap on Amazon some years ago and had laying around. It's worked perfect for me so far with the VRX. amzn.to/41oisVQ

[@AlphaCharlyX]

What custom OSD do you use? Conthrax?

[@bonafidepirate]

The one in this video is Nexus