After ENDLESS trouble I finished this tonight. Almost flew it in the living room, but decided discretion was the better part of valor, and I'll just fly it in the morning someplace where I won't cause massive damage.





I piled it together in a mad hurry between work and classes over the last few weeks. I needed to get it in the air so that I could put this on it:







I machined reliefs out of the sides of a spare arm and strain gauged it. I'm using an Arduino to measure force output from one of the motors in flight for a Principles of Measurement project.



Once I get real data off of it (and probably fly it around some) I'll tear down the chassis, machine some more material out of the arms, weld them together, and redo mounting plates out of carbon fiber much smaller than they currently are. I'll get an accurate weight tomorrow, but it's tubby now.

 

So where does everyones project stand?

I've been flying indoors (once outdoors so far... snowy/cold here) a WLtoys V222 prebuilt... its a blast.

 

With the unseasonably dry and warm weather right now in California I pulled out all my stuff to go flying this last weekend, only to remember that I stopped flying because all my ****'s broke.

Started building a rectangle/box quad because I still have all my FPV stuff. I need more damn tools.

 

I havent flown in a couple of months. I acquired a little gopro brushless gimbal, so Im going to change my frame design up a bit so I can use it. I dont even have a gopro though so Im in no hurry.

 

I played hell trying to get my Multi Wii to cooperate, but I finally finished the project with my quad. I can't find any pics online, but here is the video we shot for the project report. The data was... less than conclusive. But I learned a bunch, and I got a 100 on the report portion and a 94 on the whole project.


https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v...0385495&type=3


I have since crashed the **** out of it a bunch of times flying it over parking lots. The controls are really sluggish, and it's pretty overweight. I'm not sure if I need to screw with my trims and PIDs more, or if there's an input delay in the speed controller or MultiWii, or if the weight itself is the problem. It seems to respond to small inputs really well but doesn't like large inputs.

I'll try to put up some more pictures tonight.

 

In my experience if you dont keep thrust to weight ratio up around 2:1, these things get hard to fly in the way you describe.

So are you using a 6V lantern battery?

 

Might as well be a lantern battery. I needed a battery right then, so I used a 4 cell Ballistic that I had for my supermoto. It's a 2300mah 4S Li-Fe that weighs 400g. It could be useful without the case, but it sucks the way it is.

I can't remember specifics off the top of my head, but I think it makes 8lb of thrust on the 10x4.8 props and weighs right at 3.5lbs. It's been 6 weeks since I measured everything, though, so those numbers could be totally false.

 

I got tired of trying to fix my homebrew wood shitframe so I broke down and got a solid used 3DR quad frame from a dude on one of the RC forums. Time for more fail! Need to figure out how to stick all my FPV **** on it, then I can make epic destruction videos.

 

^Thats exactly what happened to my first scratchbuilt dollar tree foamy.

 

Hurm... Turbo Ace X830 Quad Copter

I want it... really shouldn't. Seems like a damn good deal though? If someone wants it, I can probably swing picking it up and getting it to you (unless he has rest of gear.... might not be flight testable).

 

I will close that link before i spend a lot of money that would be more usefull elsewhere.

 

Heh, i am still thinking about picking it up for myself. Of course I'd then need a brushless gimble... a decent RX... some big batteries... a real camera...


Anyone want to buy some .22lr?

 

Need your guys input... that quad + Devo 10 (w/ rx) + batteries and I have a pretty nice lifter... its rated for 2lbs of lifting ability.

Yay or Nay?

 

Finding some mixed info on issues with the FC1212 controller and the older AHRS... asking for details but that might kill it for me.

 

The "solid used" 3DR Quad frame turned out to be a "new in box" Rev D (current) frame!

I slapped it together with some HK 750KV D2836, 20A ESCs, 10x4.5s and a KK2.0. With a 3s 2200 pack it came in at 1091g. Had a blast flying around until it got too dark to be safe. After that I pulled the flashlight out of my car and strapped it in with the battery and kept flying. Flying it directly at myself in the dark with the flashlight was like something out of the X-Files

Hovers at about 60~ish% throttle but I'd like to see better. This frame is decently light for what it is but my old beater wood quad weighed nothing compared to this thing. I've got a set of SunnySky x2212 980kv that I may throw on there to see what happens. The KK2.0 stock settings leave much to be desired, so I need to tune that out as well.

On a sad note, my Flip flight controller is just... dead. I fired it up once to put firmware on it then stored it in the static bag. It was cheaper than an ESC so I'm not going to mourn its loss that much, but its still a bummer.

Too bad its raining now, no more flying for a while

 

Pics and cost to put that one together? The itch is just asking to be scratched...

 

Turnigy D2836/11 750KV Brushless Outrunner Motor (USA Warehouse) $12.55 x 4

Hobby King 20A ESC 3A UBEC (USA warehouse) $8.12 x 4

Hobbyking KK2.0 Multi-rotor LCD Flight Control Board (US Warehouse) $30.18 x 1 (I'd probably buy the KK2.1 if you were going to buy a KK board)

10x4.5 SF Props 2pc Standard Rotation/2 pc RH Rotation (Orange) $3.14 x several

ZIPPY Compact 2200mAh 3S 35C Lipo Pack (USA Warehouse) $17.86 x however many you want

3DR Quad D Frame Kit (2013 Version) $49.99 x1

So that's super roughly $185 into the quad before bullet connectors, power distribution, battery straps, zip ties and other little crap. If you are already flying you can use the same RX, TX, batteries and charger you already have. Personally for a TX I'm running a 2.4ghz Turnigy 9x flashed with OpenTX and whatever RX comes with it. I pimped mine out with a backlight and LiPo because I'm awesome like that.

I flashed SimonK firmware on my ESCs, I wouldn't run a generic fixedwing ESC without a reflash. I'd recommend getting something pre-flashed, or something like the AfroESC even if you aren't able to take full advantage of the refresh rate, simply because they respond oh so much faster. I would ABSOLUTELY NOT buy the D2836 motors again unless I was really stuck. Don't cheap out on the motors. The only reason I'm using them is that I had them already from my failed tricopter mess.

I paid less for the frame, but I'd have no problem buying one new for $50 to save the hassle of building something yet again. It's not a huge frame but it should take a 11" prop no problem. The frame is really strange, it has a lot of weird cuts and protrusions on it that make no sense... probably because it was designed with a specific hardware set from 3DR. Its super robust and cheap as hell at $50 so I ain't complaining. I picked up and extra set of legs for it just in case. I slapped it together quickly so I could get flying so its not pretty and I have no pictures, but I'll see if I can grab some for you tonight.

 

Not bad for a custom build though, it will obviously do more lifting that my v222.

I wonder how that Turnigy 9x compares to something like the Devo 10. Especially at a third the price...

You have me thinking I might still sell off some .22lr and then just build a next step for myself. Thanks for the breakout/details.

 

Splitime,
Check out some of my posts at the beginning of the thread. I am using the 9 transmitter with upgraded firmware and a backlight. It is an awesome tx for the price.

 

I wonder what it would cost me to put together a unit that can handle a GoPro Hero3+ + Tarot gimbal... Hero just bought... holding on gimbal... and an order for transmitter... and argh... this is so bad.