My new Quadrotor project arrived


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Well that is part 1 of 2 arrived.... second order is stuck on processing.... 

 

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Lots of stuff. though except for the big parts, all the important parts are in the second order, So I can't do anything with this. Well almost, I'll be getting some black spray paint and make those red and white arms all black. 

 

 

 

And for anyone who can't tell, it's a Quad Copter, or will be a quad copter, in the dead cat/spider config. Still have to make a 3rd order which will be the battery and red green and blue LED light strips(The blue is juts in case I decide I don't like the red/green lights and want red/blue instead... they cost like nothing for a meter anyway), These I'll order from the european HobbyKing warehouse,, and they usually pack fairly fast anyway and shipping doesn't require me to chose express options not to wait a month,  :)  Ordered a SJ4000 HD action Cam on ebay to mount on it for cool multirotor videos, and eventually when I Scrooge up some more cash I'll grab a FPV video transmitter/receiver for it as well and set up a base station, unless I get a lot of money then I'll just go for a set of fat sharks :)

 

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I have that same frame.  Re-enforce the motor area - specifically the connection between the motor mount and the rest of the leg.  It breaks very easy.  Oh and by some spares.

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I'll probably end up replacing them with Flamewheel arms eventually. 

 

I'll probably crash this a few times first while I get used to Multirotors and while configuring the KK2.1 (Actually not 2.1.5 since I got the hardcase one).

 

Then I'll add on parts over time, next after FPV tx/rx is probably an OSD setup after the cheap cheap brushless gimbal from Goodluckbuy(which supposedly works very well, despite being priced the same as a servo gimbal without servos). Then some GPS which will require me to change flight controller, probably I'll go with a taulabs one after the Sparky2 is released, but that's some time in the future anyway.  Im not all that interested in waypoint flights for this anyway GPS would be mostly for logging, position hold and RTH.

 

Also looking at the Go Discover or X-UAV models to expand my airplane hangar eventually after I get the FPV gear. Fairly cheap body kits, ARF's and PNF's at HobbyKing, Foxtechfpv and  HiModel and such are kind of addictive...

 

 

But first I need to travel to Hong ong and get HobbyKing to finish packing up my ESC, Motors, Props and Flight Controller and other stuff in that package so I can start working on this thing :p  Building scratch built kits is half the fun, Seeing if you got the right motors to actually make it fly is the other half :p

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So I sent a request on hobbykings support site mentioning my order was stuck in packing.

 

I get a reply, your order appears to be stuck in packing, I don't know why(yeah, that's what I said), will investigate and come back to you.

 

Well I haven't gotten any more replies, but my package was suddenly set to shipped status and I got a tracking number :) should hopeful be here end of next week.

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Some progress while waiting for package 2(and technically 3 and 4, though 4 should have been part of 3 but I messed up, 4 is just rotor guard anyway, 3 being battery and lights) ended up orderign the battery and lights form the Hong Kong warehouse since shipping from the EU warehouse was 5 times as much and over twice the price of the battery :p and with just the battery and smaller parts, I could get the battery shipped from HK with FedEx. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Package 2 with all the important parts, and package 3 that was ordered much later (with battery and light kits) arrived today, YAY!

 

 

 

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And for the record, when I said previously I had ordered the KK 2.1 Hard Case flight controller I was wrong, I forgot I changed this order to the HK warehouse and they didn't have it, so it's the KK 2.1.5 :)

 

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Now to look up what goes where on the FC so I can bind my receiver and calibrate ESC's and stuff. 

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Done ish, I think :) at least until I try to lift off and need to replace all props and arms :p

 

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I should probably have not started with carbon proper, perhaps something more plasticy less meat grinder....

 

Also lights controlled from the controller, because... I can :p

 

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So I did a quick flight test, and it's very stable, even in a few small gusts on wind despite not having any position hold GPS(yet), might be because with this battery and 10 inch props it's got both size and quite a bit of weight. Need to look up the settings on the flight controller if there's a setting to make it compensate with more power when you maneuever since I'm losing a lot of height when doing that right now though, not sure if that's a FC setting or if I'm just supposed to have to do it manually. 

 

ordered a transmitter glove so I don't have to freeze my fingers off though, snow and all :) 

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  • 2 weeks later...

So more work, got rotor guard, mounted rotor guards, they made the quad a lot more heavy and cut battery time by at least 4 times, but more importantly they made it very unstable, so it tipped on nearly every landing, which causes the man eating carbo props to break two of them in the one 2 minute test flight. so off they went again. It looked impressively massive for a while though :)

 

Also more rear lights, to be better able to orient int he air(at a distance it's hard to tell since I see both the front arm greens and rear arm reds)

 

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And today this little thing (Fatshark Attitude v2 FPV set) dropped in my mail... no idea how that managed to order itself without my involvement at all.....  :innocent:  Unfortunately my SJ4000 camera hasn't arrived from china yet :(

 

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Also here's a video of my second and first proper test flight of the quad, before I got all the new parts and added more rear lights, Camera liked the cold less than my fingers  :)

 

I'll post some proper videos shot from the quad when my SJ4000 arrives

 

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Basically throttle response. Its a lot better on 3s batteries. On 4s however the response with this load is so high I don't have and indent on the throttle stick it hovers on, one notch up and it rises one own and it goes down. So I need to work the throttle all the time, also multi rotors tend to lose height faster than they rise unless you have a FC with barometer and altitude hold.

 

There are ways to adjust this though, some FCs (MWC and MWC based like flip) allows you to set a mid point and expo on the FC. I prefer doing it on the transmitter though, which is the main way but requires a computer controller more or less.

 

Tomorrow I'll test if I did it right on mine. I have a FrSky Taranis transmitter, which is a very powerful open source transmitter but also very nicely priced and it he a very solid digital transmitter system. Basically in the computer software for it I created a custom curve for the throttle, so the first little movement raises throttle quickly to near hover power, the I have a long gradual raise in the area it should hover and liftoff, and a slightly steeper rise after that and a really steep rise again at the end.

 

IF I put the sweet spot in the right range this will give me very low resolution in the useless low prop speed area, and high resolution with most of my stick movement in the hover range and less resolution in the high speed rise to the skies like a mad bat out of hell range ;)

 

I probably explained that terribly, I'll post a pic of the curve when I'm back on the computer.

 

Tl;dr lack of resolution in the hover range of the throttle and inexperience.

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Also here's a video of my second and first proper test flight of the quad, before I got all the new parts and added more rear lights, Camera liked the cold less than my fingers  :)

 

I'll post some proper videos shot from the quad when my SJ4000 arrives

 

 

 

is that person in the video HawkMan in the flesh :o

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Awesome, been debating starting a similar project.  What causes it to bounce like that, is that a calibration or some kind of control lag?

 

Be warned that your "low" budget quad will quickly balloon though. But you can start out pretty cheap, I just over specced a lot of parts.

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Also here's a video of my second and first proper test flight of the quad, before I got all the new parts and added more rear lights, Camera liked the cold less than my fingers  :)

 

I'll post some proper videos shot from the quad when my SJ4000 arrives

 

 

HEY!  Get that UFO outta here!

 

Don't make me shoot that sucker down! 

 

:p

 

Joking aside, good job on your project. Looking forward to the aerial videos.

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since I said I would show the throttle curve. 

 

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This is my fairly simple custom throttle curve, technically I should have been out and found out what throttle value on my controller it becomes weightless at before I made this, but for now I took a chance and guesstimated and I can tweak later. you know... provided I don't smash it into the ground because my throttle curve is way of mark :p  but the way my radio is set up, I have three flight modes, two that can be active while the radio thinks the quad is armed, with a flick of the switch I can switch form the 4S to the 3S flight mode and have a linear throttle curve again. 

 

vertical should be output values, while horizontal is stick input value. and hopefully, the hover point of my quad is somewhere in the middle between point 2 and 3. Now I do admit I may have exaggerated the expo on this curve and I have way to much resolution on that area, while the curve is extremely steep and I will have fairly low resolution from 50% and up on the stick movement. Well at least the last quarter (point 4-5), is a lot of throttle increase on very little movement, but again, it's not a throttle amount you use a lot outside of rapid ascent and emergencies... which can be one and the same :p  after all rising fast solves all potential problems with a quad :p "oh this I'm about to crash into the house 'rapid ascent to 100 meters', phew safe" :p

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I am jealous cos you got nice toy :)

 

side note:  I feel bad for that girl with a broom on the roof.  It's not nice to do that to her.

 

Hope you use that toy effectively without pulling stunt like that of the roof incident.  Use it to chase a UFO or something. :)

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  • 6 months later...

Sweet :D

Surprised I haven't noticed this thread before now.

I've been thinking about getting into this for a while.

The FPV stuff looks like a lot of fun too.

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this one has changed quite a bit since these pictures, I've been planning to up some pics of the latest iteration. but I'm having some issues getting it to fly well with my new FC.

 

I also have a nighthawk 250 based miniquad that i hopefully will learn some fpv on once i get that FC to cooperate as well, might just end up back on a naze32 since that one was pretty stable.

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