Anyone seen the Mantis Octocopter from FOXTECH?

[Hazel1994]

After I get my X650 quad project finished I want to move up to the next level. I want to use the Mantis Octocopter frame in conjunction with the cinistar 3-Axis gimbal, 4007 high efficiency motors and ardupilot with telemetry.

http://www.foxtechfpv.com/mantis-x8op-octo-rotor-p-802.html

Trouble is, it's such a big frame, how are you going to transport and store something that size. Does one know of a nice big octo frame that folds?

What do you all think?

[MrBen]

Certainly is a big boy, I couldnt find anymore vids on youtube though, is anyone flying this frame?

[Hazel1994]

Hi Ben,

I think this is a copy, not a clone, of the Cinistar 8 frame.

Take a look at the similarity's.

http://www.quadrocopter.com/CineStar-Revolution_ep_63-1.html

http://www.foxtechfpv.com/mantis-x8-octo-rotor-p-801.html

What has peaked my interest is that you can possibly use the cinistar 3-Axis gimbal with the Mantis Frame! In theory, I could make have the frame and gimbal for under 750 quid! Incredible!

Apparently the Mantis is made of 3K carbon fiber. Obviously 15Kg take-off weights are unrealistic, but I am sure a payload of approx 4Kg wil be no problem.

THis could be a very viable solution to professional and affordable APP.

[bigMouse]

Don't think they are copies or clones! Designs tend to follow two common paths, square/lattice arms or round ones.
This is one I designed and made over a year ago, which was probably before these frames were in existence! Yet look at the similarity!
The round tubular arms are a pain to make, hard to mount the motors, a pain to clamp them true in the center frame, and hard to repair!

[Balders]

And the most obvious difference that's a hexa not an Octo

I've got a Spider D6 800mm hexa on the way from Bevrc. Foxtech sell the same thing under a slightly different name but it does fold.

[Hazel1994]

Hehe, ok, point taken  . I was just pointing out that they use the same landing gear and motor mounts.

My main qualm would be the overall quality of the frame as compared to a Cinestar.

Also, would the 3-Axis camera mount fit?

Either way I'm gonna bang off some Emails to Foxtech and RCTimer and report back for duty...SIR.

[bigMouse]

At the risk of sounding boring, I suppose the point being made was that none of this general design is revolutionary, it all follows a conventional path, placing motors at the extremities of a wheel doesn't qualify for a several hundred pound price tag. Especially when compared to a home-made one costing £40 minus gimbal. with spares available from any local hardware store... Replace round tube with square tube and it becomes very easy to make without needing any special tools.

An octo using APM will have eight of its ten outputs driving motors, this leaves only 2 left free for other purposes. Might not be an issue to others but it would for me.

The 1~3 channel auto gimbal and Camera trigger channel is taken off a different port, but that would normally only function in mission mode. Not sure what controls someone filming might need!

Think it's a case of looking into exactly what controls are needed for filming. Then seeing if apm will fill the requirements! APM is designed for UAV work, it might not make the ideal filming platform...

[Hazel1994]

The folks at Steadidrone use the APM for AP. But you are right, probably not an Ideal APP. Well, the APM is always improving!

http://www.steadidrone.com/

I must say, I have one concern. Would it be possible to drive the Cinestar gimbal with the APM 2.5? Surly those big servos take some current?

Also, does the APM support 3 Axis gimbal movement? I think I read somewhere it does.

Night 

[bigMouse]

Large servos are no problem, the output end of the apm can be separated from the rest of the board making it possible to give the servos their own supply! I would tend to stay with 5v though.

What works and what don't constantly changes, There is 3-axis provided for the gimbal! The gimbal was working on FW versions 2 and older, then it stopped working, recently gimbal is working again on later 3 series FW. But Camera trigger has failed, ROI doesn't work, Relay no work, servo no work.

ROI might work now providing gimbal is enabled, no weather to test here! Probably not for Arduplane though! (there are two separate developer teams so things corrected in one are normally not corrected in both)

The next update of Arducopter should be getting the servo and relay commands working again, probably not yet on ArduPlane.

I guess you could use extra Tx channels to over-ride the auto gimbal, haven't tried it! or know how effective that would be for photography. Probably hit and miss!

Usual to have pan on Arduplane, but normally not required with Arducopter  as multis can yaw while flying in a different direction.

[Dusty]

Large servos are no problem, the output end of the apm can be separated from the rest of the board making it possible to give the servos their own supply! I would tend to stay with 5v though.

that's right, there's a jumper on the board... if you keep the jumper installed then you can feed the board with 5v from either input or output rails. so you can plug the apm right between the RX and the servos/ESC. the power from the esc plug goes through the board and powers your RX

if you remove the board you have to supply power at both sides. This is useful for the applications you talk about here. It's not voltage you have to worry about, the servos will all need around 5v, but it's the current they'll be drawing. best to power the output side with a higher output UBEC