DJI Avata or...what?

I’ve been looking watching the various Avata posts on here, I really want to try FPV and the Avata for it’s all in one package simplicity, with a mortgage renewal due in 6months and everything else, having to hold back on any ‘unnecessary’ purchases

Darwin have just dropped me an email about this.

Looks like a tidy little machine. I’m not entirely convinced of the quality of their electronics though.

Having been a DJI boy from the outset I cant comment on other systems, that said it does intrigue me as the the quality of the footage you get from other systems. Must say cost plays a big part of it, since I started vista’s have shot up in price and contrary to @notveryprettyboy previous comments that I have share’s in Caddx this is untrue I just crash a lot :rofl:

As for Whoops love em, I have a Beta85 which I cant fly round my close/local park without upsetting anyone to much :thinking: and a Protek25 which is brilliant. Iv changed the board in this to a Mamba which gives is Soooooo much power when needed.

My recommendation to anyone looking for a whoop would be the 25 built like a tanks will carry a gopro and fantastic for cinematic stuff. Not forgetting with a little tweeking will go like :poop: off a shovel, but be warned they are very noisy :grimacing:

I am starting to think EVERYONE crashes a lot - and with this I mean all those slick FPV videos are done on Lord only knows how many takes and parts!

Thanks for the recommendation of the whoop:-) I’m going for flying rather than cinematography as I’ve realised there’s another disadvantage to DJI FPV: There’s no expo for the throttle and it just ain’t FPV without THAT! Oh, and I have to learn how to fly first :laughing:

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Wha?

Experienced FPV pilots don’t use throttle expo. Its a crutch for beginners.

Lol. It’s the smoke and mirrors. All FPV pilots crash all the time.

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I’ve not used throttle expo at all on any of mine, though did start playing with it a little for the indoor whooping the other week. Each to their own when it comes to expo and rates, that’s a personal thing, and experimenting the key. The DJI FPV. I’ve done a lot of flights, and touch wood… Not crashed that one yet :wink: (Only cos I fly it like a wimp, due to the replacement parts cost!)

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I’ve been trying to find a video I watched a while ago where the Rotor Riot team spent about 12 hours trying to do a single trick. Needless to say, I can’t find it now.
But yes, crashing is inevitable. :grin:

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I’ve noticed the way the experienced FPV’ers fly which led me to believe they’ve tuned the throttle expo- in Mode 2, with the pinching method (this is beginning to sound like a self-help on using a vibrator!) the stick movement for large acceleration is fairly small and the drone seems to be accelerated like a catapult the it’s weight takes it up and over. Does that make sense?

And if I’m wrong, I’ll post for y’all to headslap and laugh:-)

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My belief with throttle expo is to find the forward throttle percentage, and put some expo around that. So whatever you angle is a “flat” forward flying might be around… let’s say 35% throttle. So you find what stick input you need for flat flight and add some expo around that.

That’s why in racing it may be more useful so you have more control with height, and racing flat lines. That’s my take on it. I get expo on roll/pitch and even yaw (and do use it), but throttle… I change angle a bit, even gets knocked and changes a bit, so… In controlled environment (i.e. a SIM), I do use it with good results :slight_smile: for racing, not freestyle!

So I just did a few searches looking for whether “experienced pilots” used throttle expo.

  • Bardwell says for sure he doesn’t in one video.
  • Steele… in all the videos I could find he never discusses throttle expo, despite mentioning other throttle related things. My conclusion is that he does not use it.
  • Vanover, I found a video where he’s talking rates with Bardwell… no mention of throttle expo in there at all.

General searches in reddit (etc), show that some pilots do use it, but nobody notable and a lot of the posts that say they use it are old.

So I think if it ever was used then it has gone out of fashion… and here’s why I think it has.

It only helps around the defined MID point. If your MID point is in the wrong place then it actually makes it much harder to fly. That MID point will change a lot depending on what is on the quad, how fast you are trying to fly, what the wind conditions are, what voltage your battery is outputting, etc,

Now I’m certainly not an expert pilot and I certainly used it when I first started to fly, especially with tinywhoops, but I don’t any more. The reason being that moving throttle MID point.

Exactly. I know bardwell has said a few times doesn’t use. I think in racing it might be helpful, but freestyle… No thanks :wink:

And there are many pros and cons of the DJI FPV, the lack of throttle expo (I’ve not checked mine whether has or not, I’ll take your word it doesn’t) I wouldn’t consider either way!

It just occurred to me to check MinCham Kim… his rates/tune are in Betaflight… no throttle expo. So not even used by the top racers.

So… I did notice one setting fly past in that “Throttle Boost”. MinCham does use a little bit of this. I saw 2 go past. I have 5 on my quads (the BF default). It may be what you’re seeing…

Bardwell discusses it here:

I use it an I am old. :rofl:
But as you have said, I’ve only fiddled with it on the whoop and it was mainly the midpoint that made the difference.

I’ve only used throttle expo, around the mid-point, when flying collective pitch quads, this makes the transition from upward thrust to downward thrust a little less violent.

A quad with collective pitch sounds fascinating - can I ask what it is?
Speaking of collective pitch I was looking at helis (again) and I miss my 500. Years ago a friend had a Henseleit Three-Dee (flybarless). If sex had collective pitch- that was it!

First of all - thank you all very much for making the effort for all this which I am finding really interesting.
The video which got me thinking expo is used on the throttle is this one at 4min 22 sec:

Just looks like normal to me…
Nothing there to make me think that. Maybe the throttle boost is making the props burst more with the little twitches, but nothing to make me think Nurk is using throttle expo.

However… on here back in 2015 he uses throttle expo in LiftOff,

One thing to note is that Nurk is generally a cinewhoop pilot, not freestyle or racing, so throttle control for smooth flying close to people is very much his thing. Maybe he carefully adjusts the throttle expo and midpoint on his quads for that.

Which is a point. MinChan Kim tends to run at 100% throttle almost all the time. So much so that he runs a custom version of Betaflight that puts “Kaack” instead of 100% throttle in the OSD… so chances are throttle expo is not a consideration… (On disarm he gets a report of his percentage time at Kaack as well as the number of Kaacks, lol)

If I did that I’d definitely KAACK my kecks. :laughing:

Holeee sheeeeit than MinChan Kim’ reactions. Too late for me: I’m too old and I like booze too much!
And again - thanks for another interesting video. Once I have built mine (fingers crossed I can do it!) I’ll have another look but I have my doubts as to whether getting to kaack will ever happen. Although I might say it once I’ve hit something:-D