JAB1a Posted December 17, 2012 Author Posted December 17, 2012 Yeah, but did you notice this bit: This item is only to be supplied to our customers who have already purchasedeither the X525 Kit or Deluxe version from us, and want to upgrade to the PRO Version. No i didn't see that, Its was more of an example to show PCStru what I ment. cheeky....Its silly because they could make a packet if they sold it on ebay saying its a UK produced upgrade for the X525 frame. This is however another layer you would have to add to your quad = extra weight, if we could make a modified bottom plate then there is minimal extra wieght added @pcstru cheers for the CNC/printer info, I was not sure how easy/complicated it would be. I will get my ideas to you asap to see if you think it can be done. what do you want, .jpg with my plan drawn over the top with measurments or is there a bit of software I can use to make your job easier? (google sketchup maybe)
pcstru Posted December 17, 2012 Posted December 17, 2012 @JAB1a Any CAD or modelling software which deals in accurate dimensions would do (libreCAD. inkscape?). I can at a push use a jpeg/bmp to produce DXF output and then scale it. As far as I can see in a quad frame the only critical dimensions are mounting holes (dia and placement). sketch-up would certainly give all the dimensions but I really need to get to a 2d plan view (dxf/ai/eps) which I can use to generate tool-paths against. Start with a scan + drawn is probably easy ... What material do you have in mind?
JAB1a Posted December 17, 2012 Author Posted December 17, 2012 Ok I will see what I can get together for you. I was thinking some 2mm material.... Real Carbon Fibre/Fiber Flat Sheet in 2mm A4 (Rigid Panel Not Vinyl Wrap) | eBay or 400mmx300mmx2.0mm Fiberglass Glass Fiber Plate Sheet | eBay can you CNC mill either of this stuff?
pcstru Posted December 17, 2012 Posted December 17, 2012 can you CNC mill either of this stuff? Shouldn't be a problem. I've never done carbon fibre (quite nasty dust I think) but circuit boards are glass fibre and go through fine. 1
JAB1a Posted December 17, 2012 Author Posted December 17, 2012 Wicked ok, I will put the plan into action, quite excited about this might get started when I get home
teejay Posted December 21, 2012 Posted December 21, 2012 This looks tempting, a lego quadcopter:cool: Drone made of Lego takes flight. | sUAS News
JAB1a Posted December 21, 2012 Author Posted December 21, 2012 Haha brilliant, looks like hes using it for full FPV aswell, the posibilities are endless! get some lego technic in there aswell and you are laughing. The grey centre sections look weird, not quite lego styled bits
JAB1a Posted December 31, 2012 Author Posted December 31, 2012 (edited) Some extra bits you might want aswell as these have been purchased by my friend while making his build: 16 AWG Silicone Wire Pair 50cm 500mm Black & Red 16AWG 16 AWG Silicone Wire Pair 50cm 500mm Black & Red | eBay 10 x PAIRS Of RC 3.5mm Gold Bullet Connector INC Heat Shrink For Motor ESC (get two of these) 10 x PAIRS Of RC 3.5mm Gold Bullet Connector INC Heat Shrink For Motor ESC UK | eBay 50pcs M3 x 6mm-6mm Nylon Hexagonal Female and Male Standoff Spacer HTS-306 50pcs M3 x 6mm-6mm Nylon Hexagonal Female and Male Standoff Spacer HTS-306 | eBay Edited December 31, 2012 by JAB1a 1
FragglePete Posted January 5, 2013 Posted January 5, 2013 Ooo! Frame turned up today - ESCs ordered, will do the motors in a day or so. Doing it bit by bit as finances allow; still aiming for spring! Pete
JAB1a Posted January 7, 2013 Author Posted January 7, 2013 Ideal Pete, Hope you had a good xmas and new year, if your building the quad then you are definutly gonna have a good year I say Here is a photo of the finished Hexacopter and my quadcopter that was built from this parts list apart from the frame and 2x extra motors. Maiden flight on the weekend went very well apart from the pilot needs more practice, all six props damaged in the first day of flying, hence why I would say get many...many props.
FragglePete Posted January 7, 2013 Posted January 7, 2013 Thanks. Early days yet. I got the Frame, and put it together, although I'm sure not enough washers and nuts were supplied - still, it's built. Spurred me on to look into other bits. The Flight Controller is the biggest conundrum I think at the mo, just looking at various forums and getting a feel. I'm going order the motors this week and a few bits and bobs; I liked to look of the Power Plate thingy that Hobby King do to distribute the power to the ESC, it would certainly save a lot of dodgy soldering but they seem out of stock at the moment. Pete
JAB1a Posted January 7, 2013 Author Posted January 7, 2013 Hi Pete, If you order the Rabbit Flight Controller then it comes with a much better made power distro board hence why I did not add it to the parts list, the hobby king one is very cheap and nasty one (I brought one not knowing the rabbit came with one). When it comes to flight controllers the Rabbit is the best I have found and researched for the price it even supports a 2axis gimble while controlling a Hexacopter (other boards do this too). A nice cheap very reliable board is the KK2.0, its so cheap and very well made but does not have a Baro or compass but does support autostable and does not need a PC to setup or change settings. The CAIO Pro is an amazing board but the Rabbit beats it on features and recent updates to firmware. The only board I would recommend other than the Rabbit would be the DJI Naza but you will be looking at more like £200 once you have all the extra bits needed. Another board which is good is the APM 2.6, its got more features than you can wave a stick at and everything is changable and expandable. My money would be on the Rabbit everytime unless money was not a problem then the Naza is my choice. Frames from China are a nightmare, they never come with instructions so you have to search for forums or photos of peoples frames that are already made. I liked this as I could build the frame to match my needs rather than following the ridgid norm. Please keep me updated on your progress Pete, I am excited for you 1
JAB1a Posted January 8, 2013 Author Posted January 8, 2013 @FragglePete well I did it, brought a Hubsan x4 from Nitrotek £31~ delivered and also brought a ton of spares from Banggood.com for £11 delivered. It should arrive on Thursday......im very excited. Also my Spider frame turned up for my big Quad today so my weekend is going to be very busy and definutly fun
Zimmer Posted January 31, 2013 Posted January 31, 2013 (edited) Hi guys, I started my quadcopter project a few weeks back and I've been all over Google researching and it was nice to find a thread on here about the subject. So far I've got my frame, FC, FPV kit, and LiPo's & PDB. I really can't wait to get mine in the air after watching all the YouTube FPV videos! Just waiting for payday to arrive and I'm going to order my motors, ESC's and props... I feel like a kid again I'm that excited! If your new to this then I recommend watching the following clips, they will be sure to get you hooked on this hobby... Best multirotor pilot I've found so far: best toy ever (multicopter) - YouTube Team Black Sheep do London (These guys rock!): Another TBS Video but it really does sell the FPV craze: Edited January 31, 2013 by Zimmer
JAB1a Posted February 1, 2013 Author Posted February 1, 2013 Thats good to hear @Zimmer, if your feeling excited now wait till your first full FPV flight happens! WOW what a rush. Thanks for the links. So what FC and FPV gear are you using and what motors/props are you gonna be using? I hope you keep us posted on your progress. Check out FPVHub if you are really into FPV. I am currently adding FPV gear to my Hubsan X4 so I can fly around the house full immersion just waiting on bits Watch this video of a Hubsan X4 full FPV flight.....EPIC!!!! FPV Hubsan X4 Part 1 - YouTube
Zimmer Posted February 1, 2013 Posted February 1, 2013 Not had much time to get on here today, I'm two men down and we're having some issues with our macs and to add to the mix our main software distribution point for SCCM has decided to have a heart attack... At least it's Friday! I bought myself a HK MultiWii Lite with the 2.0 firmware, probably not the best decision I've ever made because it is pretty basic. But I've got myself a magnometer and barometer from SparkFun and I'm going to add them to the I2C bus as soon as I figure out all this 3v3 to 5v conversion stuff! As far as FPV goes I'm actually using something a little different, I have a 2.4Ghz CCTV camera/monitor which I've stripped down to bare minimum, but I'm sure there will be too much noise on the video feed but I won't know for sure until I actually do a test flight. If it is pants I'll then look to buy a proper 5Ghz solution, it's worth a try though I guess. Motors and ESC's are starting to really get on nerves, the minute I think I've found the right combination for the right price I then see something else and completely change my mind! I really want some Turnigy G series motors but the price on them is ridiculous! I've found some E-Max 2212's that look nice, apparently they are the same motors that DJI ship with their FlameWheel F450 just rebranded and they get some really good reviews. But yeah, nice video there, those Hubsan's look really nimble don't they
FragglePete Posted February 1, 2013 Posted February 1, 2013 @JAB1a - Show off! Can't believe you've got all that squeezed onto one of those 'ickle things.... ! For me; Frame built, motor's soldered & mounted, ESC's soldered, Props delivered, spare cable delivered. Looking for FC after my holiday (off to Florida just before Easter) so that's gobbled all my finances at the moment. Giving me time to look into things a bit more. It will live one day, oh yes, it will !!! Pete
FragglePete Posted February 2, 2013 Posted February 2, 2013 Here's my attempt so far, not the best image but coming along nicely. Bit miffed as I ordered 4 x Prop sets in total, with 2 of the sets being black as my idea was to have the red props on the front and black on the back, but for some reason the black ones are a different pitch (9 x 4.7) so I'll keep it all red for now. Pete
pcstru Posted February 2, 2013 Posted February 2, 2013 Here's my attempt so far, not the best image but coming along nicely. Looking good!
Zimmer Posted February 4, 2013 Posted February 4, 2013 Looking good indeed, are those frames heavy? Are you using Mystery motors there? What do you think of them?
JAB1a Posted February 4, 2013 Author Posted February 4, 2013 @FragglePete There is some great progress right there, damn shame about the props coz it would be good to have different colour props on, my friend ordered 6 pairs of 9x4.7 and one of the packs was 9x4.5, pure lazzyness of the supplier I say because they look so different. I would of thought you were going to take the quad to Florida to have a good fly in the sun to grab some sights @Zimmer cheers for the info, be careful about range issues if you are using the 2.4Ghz vTx, you didn't mention what your radio gear was using? is that 2.4Ghz aswell? if so I would suggest you go straight to 5.8Ghz. Ive not played with the MultiWii boards yet but I have seen some increadable flights with them so I wish you all the luck. I have heard few good things about the DJI motors and lots of bad things about them, from poor construction to complete burn outs......motors and props are a hard choice, trial and error is a great way but I like to find solutions to that people already use, say 2212 1000Kv motors with either 8x5, 9x4.5, 9x4.7, 10x4.5. Depending on the size of your frame and payload then each of these has its advantage, I would stick in the middle with 9x4.5's. So order yourself a load from China along with a stack of props but be willing to wait at least 20days for them to arrive. The Mystery motors and brilliant, for the price they are well made, come with prop adapters and all fixings needed, cost less than a tenner each, get them from a good place and they will come with 2.5mm shrink wrapped bullets. I am using Turnigy motors at the moment but have a load of Mystery motors on order. The X525 frame is brilliant! so tough and super stable. I have modified mine by adding an undercarrage as real estate is at a premium for camera and batteries, I have replaced all the arms with thicker ali which has added a total of 80g to the flight weight but the advantage is no twisting or movement at all. Get rid of the landing feet as they weigh alot, break easy and get stuck in the ground on hard landings which will cause you to flip on takeoff. This is one of the rare frames (V3) that comes with a third plate on top of the center plate that keeps the whole frame rock solid and completly flat at all times. Without camera my frame comes to a flying wieght of about 998g and soon shoots up to 1.2Kg after all FPV gear is added. Another frame would be a flamewheel or a similar clone but I don't like these too much as there is alot of plastic on them.
JAB1a Posted February 4, 2013 Author Posted February 4, 2013 It is strange that people (me included) spend hundreds of pounds and 10's of hours to build these multicopters and then rely on a £5 motor and a £2 prop to keep it all in the air. P.S I would not recommend using a CD or DVD case to protect your flight controller, on my first design I used it and it gives little to no protection in a crash as it splits and shatters which might go striaght into the very thing you are trying to protect. Tupperware, its the future...I've seen it, its water proof and large branch and heavy fall resistant.
FragglePete Posted February 4, 2013 Posted February 4, 2013 Thanks @JAB1a - I'm more than likely going to order the bits sooner rather than later; every time I pick it up to do some work on it I just want to get it built. I leaning towards either the APM2.5 or the Crius AIOP v2 for the flight controller - I like the fact it's open source and seeing (and reading) some good things - may even push for the GPS module from the start! Just knowing the best place to get it from, the cheapest for the APM seems to be RCTimer. Pete
JAB1a Posted February 4, 2013 Author Posted February 4, 2013 I agree about the APM2.5, hell of a bit of kit! the GPS side is a must on that if you have the option along with the telemetry kit (think its 433Mhz) so has some great range. RCTimer does seem the cheapest and give you the different pins to solder on, they also sell cases for it which is good. keep me posted
MYK-IT Posted February 5, 2013 Posted February 5, 2013 I am absolutely enjoying this thread about Quadcopters…it should have its own forum! Yet more ‘drone’ footage used on last night’s The Plane Crash - Channel 4 Keep expecting to see @JAB1a on the TV anytime soon!
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