Remote controlled flying things-Quads, Hex, Octo or anything

[Mandrake]

These ones - http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=68693

[Marschy]

Yep, same as mine but yours have CW and CCW prop nuts. Good motors at a great price. When they first came out they had green prop nuts/spinners.

[CBRK]

I'm not a fan of 3.5 bullet connectors. The number of times I've pulled the F450 apart and disconnected the motors from the ESC's, the bullet connectors now feel a little bit loose.

I'm also trying to eliminate any potential points of failure with the Alien560, so the less connectors, the better.

That's fair enough, I considered it for the mini quad but I thought I'll break stuff so I'd go with easy replacement strategy.

[Marschy]

I've just spent my allowance for this month on a FPV camera with a 2.1mm lens (150 degree FOV) for the mini quad. I also bought a 2.5mm (130 degree FOV) and a 2.8mm (115 degree FOV) lens. It will be interesting to see what the different lenses look like through my goggles and the ground station. They also have a 1.8mm lens (170 degree FOV) which I may give a go at some point in the future.

It took me a while to find a supplier that had each of the above lens sizes as well as a Sony Effio CCD board camera, so probably not the cheapest one I could have bought. Getting them all from the same supplier I can combine shipping and hopefully get them during my holidays over Xmas.

I've also got 16 pairs of Gemfan 5030 props coming from Hobbyking. I'm planning on breaking a few on the mini quad.

Edit:A good number of the camera's with these size lenses also mention the magic FPV three letter acronym, and along with that the price seems to increase accordingly. What I find interesting though is that the demand for these camera's by the RC fraternity must be so high that suppliers stick the FPV tag on these products, even though they are designed as security cameras. It gives some measure of the level of demand.

[CBRK]

I've also got 16 pairs of Gemfan 5030 props coming from Hobbyking. I'm planning on breaking a few on the mini quad.

Seems we are thinking along the same lines, I some HK clear ones (12), I have 12 coloured GF on the way and I have some ebay specials on the way (another 12).  I just want to make sure that a broken prop wont ruin my day.

Mine are two bladed, are you using 2 or 3 bladed props?

[Marschy]

Seems we are thinking along the same lines, I some HK clear ones (12), I have 12 coloured GF on the way and I have some ebay specials on the way (another 12).  I just want to make sure that a broken prop wont ruin my day.

Yep, lots of reading of the ZMR250 thread on rcgroups has lead me to this conclusion. I've ordered 8 pairs of orange props and 8 pairs of black. This is what I use on my F450 and Reptile. It helps with orientation no end.

I tend to break the front props more than the back ones due to me rolling the quad over when I land with any forward motion. This is why I'm doing away with the crab landing gear on the X-mode Alien once I've finished swapping over all the hardware from the F450 frame. The high centre of gravity on the F450 made it really easy to roll over, but I don't think this will be as much of a problem with the low centre of gravity with the mini quad or the X-mode Alien once its finished.

Are we going to see any build progress pictures of the mini quad Chris? Very keen to see what your doing with regard your build, I may be able to steal ideas from you. I'll post pictures as well once I make any progress other than just dry fitting the frame before I pull it apart again to start fitting electronic hardware.

[CBRK]

Are we going to see any build progress pictures of the mini quad Chris? Very keen to see what your doing with regard your build, I may be able to steal ideas from you. I'll post pictures as well once I make any progress other than just dry fitting the frame before I pull it apart again to start fitting electronic hardware.

I can do that tonight, I'll take some pics tonight even if my bullet connectors aren't in yet (tonight is the first date on the expected arrival time - so I'm not realistically expecting them to be here since there is Christmas packages flying around.

[Marschy]

Finally got the motors to arm. Dodgy bloody Multistar 30A Opto ESC's. Connected the Blue Series 30A ESC's and they all make the appropriate beeps and the motors spin up as soon as it arms. Yippee.

Just have the video transmitter to hook up then I'm ready to rock and roll.

[CBRK]

Hi,

Had some success with the build of the mini quad.  I've got it to arm and I've been able to do a motor test which is great.

So here are some pics:

The camera that will be mounted, it has great low light abilities, seems to transition well between dark and light quickly:


Overall build pics:




Pics of motor, esc and cable management:




I plan to put all the cables underneath and running through the body with mesh guard (like I've done with the camera).

Motor test went well, I removed the props for that part.

Chris

[CBRK]

I was happy when I got home, there was a couple of envelopes with 2mm bullet connectors.

Got lots done as can be seen.  I built the wiring harness and added the bullet connectors.  I added the bullet connectors to the ESC's.  Used miles of shrink wrap.  I think I should buy shares in cable ties and shrink wrap......  Did a rough setup with the APM and gave it a go.

I had one motor that wouldn't work with the motor test, I noticed that the ESC's didnt sing, so I swap two wires (thank god I spent the time to put the bullet connectors in).  I removed the props at this stage.  I rebooted it and it I had some music from the ESC's and the motor tests then were successful.

I had a few arming check issues, so I took the props off and told it to skip the checks (since it was going to stay on the table).  I was able to arm it, I was getting good telemetry data.  Only data I wasnt getting was the power module data, so I'll need to track that down.

Still lots to do with the wiring, to make it look nice.  Will be good when I can get the Mini APM it will fit in the square spot.

Chris

[Marschy]

Looking great Chris. You must be itching to try those Multistar Elites out. What do the windings look like?

 I know what you mean about the cable ties, I don't know how many cable ties have ended up in the bin after cutting them off to reorientate something on the Alien560.

Here is a handy link for you. I'm looking at the datasheet for the MAX7456 chip to see if I can work out what pin the 5 volt supply is connecting to by the 'via' on the back of the board

Installing MavlinkOSD to ArduFlyer 2.5 without releasing Magic Smoke

I've got a few ESC's lying around now that I am going to pinch the thermal film and aluminium heat sink from to make into a heat sink for the MAX7456 chip on the MavlinkOSD when I'm ready to install it on the mini quad.

[Marschy]

Ok, the picture in the rcgroups thread with the enamelled wire running from the 5 volt pin to the via on the back of the board is soldered to the track that runs between pins 21 and 24 of the MAX7456 chip.

Pin 21 - Analog Power-Supply Input.
Pin 24 - Driver Power-Supply Input.



So all in all, a pretty simple mod to power the whole board via the 5 volt supply from the flight control board.

[CBRK]

Looking great Chris. You must be itching to try those Multistar Elites out. What do the windings look like?

 I know what you mean about the cable ties, I don't know how many cable ties have ended up in the bin after cutting them off to reorientate something on the Alien560.

Here is a handy link for you. I'm looking at the datasheet for the MAX7456 chip to see if I can work out what pin the 5 volt supply is connecting to by the 'via' on the back of the board

Installing MavlinkOSD to ArduFlyer 2.5 without releasing Magic Smoke

I've got a few ESC's lying around now that I am going to pinch the thermal film and aluminium heat sink from to make into a heat sink for the MAX7456 chip on the MavlinkOSD when I'm ready to install it on the mini quad.

I will most likely still run the Mavlink with a mix of 5v and 12V.  The two minim's I've got on order I'll do the 5V conversion (solder the pads).

Thats a good thread, I started reading it today at work but didnt get very far (when people know your leaving everyone has a question for you), had a chance to really look at it tonight after your link reminded me I had only had a cursory look at it.

Interesting it was pin 4 and pin 5 that has signs of damage (mostly to pin 4).  According to the datasheet pin 4 is DGND and 5 is a Clock input....  I'll have to recheck the wiring harness for the telemetry and OSD, something seems odd there.  Sadly I wont get to check on that till tomorrow night.

I'm thinking of trying the heatsink idea too.

Chris

[CBRK]

Looking great Chris. You must be itching to try those Multistar Elites out. What do the windings look like?

Thank you, I want this one to be right from the get go, so happy to take my time but not too long....

They are nice motors, nice and tight windings, when I did the arm test I spun them upto 50% power with no props and man they make some noise, a good kind of noise that is.  The motors and ESC's seem to be very responsive.

Lots to do but should be up in the air with camera but no OSD later this week.

[Marschy]

Thank you, I want this one to be right from the get go, so happy to take my time but not too long....

They are nice motors, nice and tight windings, when I did the arm test I spun them upto 50% power with no props and man they make some noise, a good kind of noise that is.  The motors and ESC's seem to be very responsive.

Lots to do but should be up in the air with camera but no OSD later this week.

I know what you mean about the noise. Happened to me last night when I finally spun all 4 motors up at once. Great feeling after all the effort you go to build these things.

I put my finger on the bell housing to see which way the motors were spinning and got a surprise at the torque. Actually burnt the tip of my finger.

The good throttle response would come from how well the motors are matched to the ESC's. Gotta say I'm very happy with the Blue Series ESC's. So far from my brief experience with them with the Emax 2280kv motor for the mini quad and the Emax 650kv for the Alien the ESC's and motors are getting along very well. The 650 motors sounded really sweet.

[Mandrake]

Hooray and hallelujah !!!!
Finally got the OSD FPV working ...yeehaaa doing the happy dance...

[Marschy]

That's my next task, and hopefully final one before the Alien's maiden flight.

[Mandrake]

Now I can finish the top deck stuff !! - Might get the new motors today with a bit of luck ...

[Marschy]

Looks fantastic Steve, I'll get mine up and running this weekend hopefully and post some pictures. Now that the Alien quad is close to completion, with the top plate removed, I removed each and every screw below the top plate and added a drop of Loctite 222 (purple stuff). Didn't see any point in doing it earlier. The I'll add a drop when the top plate goes on, hopefully for the last time.

After the top plate is attached, all that will be left to do is temporarily remove the motors from the mounts and use my 1 metre long steel ruler to level all of the motor mounts.

[CBRK]

Looks fantastic Steve, I'll get mine up and running this weekend hopefully and post some pictures. Now that the Alien quad is close to completion, with the top plate removed, I removed each and every screw below the top plate and added a drop of Loctite 222 (purple stuff). Didn't see any point in doing it earlier. The I'll add a drop when the top plate goes on, hopefully for the last time.

After the top plate is attached, all that will be left to do is temporarily remove the motors from the mounts and use my 1 metre long steel ruler to level all of the motor mounts.

Hi,

I'm thinking I'll loctite the motors but not sure about the frame.....  Might do the downwards facing bolts, the top plate I figured I'd be able to easily inspect those and I figure I'll be making some adjustments after the first couple of flights.

Might do the top plate after I'm sure I'm happy.

Chris

[Marschy]

Hi,

I'm thinking I'll loctite the motors but not sure about the frame.....  Might do the downwards facing bolts, the top plate I figured I'd be able to easily inspect those and I figure I'll be making some adjustments after the first couple of flights.

Might do the top plate after I'm sure I'm happy.

Chris

Anything that screws in metal should ideally have thread locker, not so important if you are screwing into nylon, i.e. spacers. Saves having to check screws every few flights as well.

[Mandrake]

Well - After all my good work getting the OSD up and running - When fitting to upper deck I must have reversed the GPS plug - GPS gone to Quadcopter parts heaven !!! This stuff is so touchy about +ve and -ve - Sheesh --- So a new GPS module $130 odd OR a complete Naza M Lite kit - $169 odd - Hmmmm - Looks like I'm making inroads into my next quad

[Marschy]

Well - After all my good work getting the OSD up and running - When fitting to upper deck I must have reversed the GPS plug - GPS gone to Quadcopter parts heaven !!! This stuff is so touchy about +ve and -ve - Sheesh --- So a new GPS module $130 odd OR a complete Naza M Lite kit - $169 odd - Hmmmm - Looks like I'm making inroads into my next quad

If you have fried the Naza GPS, for the sort of money you are talking about replacing the GPS or a complete Lite kit, I would be giving the APM flight controller some serious consideration. They just work, have more flight modes, you can add stuff to them like sonars which will impress your friends and there are at least 2 blokes here on myswag who have a pretty good working knowledge of how to set them up who I am sure would be willing to give advise.

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/APM2-6-NEO-6M-GPS-Compass-Power-Module-Minim-OSD-915Mhz-915-Telemetry/32223424473.html

Alternatively, see if there are GPS modules that can be reflashed to work with the Naza Lite. But I don't think there is. The Naza GPS is about the only piece of hardware that you can't reflash with new firmware in the Assistant software.

[CBRK]

Well - After all my good work getting the OSD up and running - When fitting to upper deck I must have reversed the GPS plug - GPS gone to Quadcopter parts heaven !!! This stuff is so touchy about +ve and -ve - Sheesh --- So a new GPS module $130 odd OR a complete Naza M Lite kit - $169 odd - Hmmmm - Looks like I'm making inroads into my next quad

Mandrake Nooooo.  That's an expensive bit to fry.  Having you tried opening it to see what has gone boom?

I think Marschy's got some good advice, I'd also recommend you switch to APM, GPS's are only $30-40 if you break one :-)  You can do 3 to 4 of them for the price of one Naza GPS.....

You know I fried a bit the other night (MinimOSD), you just did the Naza GPS.  Marschy I've got bad news, it's your turn 

Chris

[Marschy]

Mandrake Nooooo.  That's an expensive bit to fry.  Having you tried opening it to see what has gone boom?

I think Marschy's got some good advice, I'd also recommend you switch to APM, GPS's are only $30-40 if you break one :-)  You can do 3 to 4 of them for the price of one Naza GPS.....

You know I fried a bit the other night (MinimOSD), you just did the Naza GPS.  Marschy I've got bad news, it's your turn 

Chris

Nah, I fried an ESC the other day and a motor remember? Where's Crispy?