Unboxing the Gaui 330X Quadcopter
[UPDATE: I've now flown this a bit. A few tips, which I learned the hard way:
1) Don't connect the green wire (gain) to your Rx. That disables all the onboard buttons and the little pot. Better to set these manually when you've first starting. Later, once you've got it flying well, this may be something you want to control from Tx, but not at the start.
2) Make sure you check the little addendum (if you've got the old manual, like me) about how to set the ESC curve. Make sure the green wire is unplugged and the gain is at zero, then power on the quad when your Tx throttle is at high, then bring the throttle down.
3) CA glue all the fiddly little plastic retaining rings. They fall off all the time and you'll end up leaving bits of this quad on the field]
Now that we're getting into the quadcopter business, I thought I should get a better feel for the competition. First up, the new Gaui 330X quadcopter that we wrote about here. At $400 it's in the same price range as ArduCopter, but it doesn't come with a full autopilot. It's just an airframe, motors/ESC and a 3-axis gyro unit (no accelerometers, so it's not an IMU). No GPS or any ability to program it--it's just an RC quad, not a UAV.
They say you can upgrade it to GPS navigation someday, but there's no clue how.
It comes very nicely packed in an surprisingly small and stylish box:
That the gyro unit at left and the four ESCs.
Here are all the parts. Lots of bolting bits together.
When you're done, it's supposed to look like this:
If you want to upgrade to a bigger body (plywood and fiberglass), you can:
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Moderator Comment by Gary Mortimer on June 29, 2010 at 1:12am -
Ah you missed the new version, the S which for $50 more has Scorpion motors and bigger ESCs. It flies pretty well for what it is. A very simple thing.
Heres the control unit unboxed courtesy of RCG
I flew mine for 16 hours and 10 minutes before the dreaded ESC failure, luckily on the ground. I am waiting for my free replacement from the UK dealer that I bought the unit from.
It seems there is a pent up demand for cheap Quads, GAUI can't make enough.
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Comment by David Ankers on June 29, 2010 at 1:23am -
> They say you can upgrade it to GPS navigation someday, but there's no clue how.
What you do is take the frame and put OpenPilot on it ;-)
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Moderator Comment by Gary Mortimer on June 29, 2010 at 1:36am -
It would have been nice if they included decent skids for it as well, the wheels are just a pain and look what they are, cheap!!
Very much a nearly there product in my opinion, Chris is right about the box being small. This next statement might seem extravagant, but when you are operating somewhere miles from hobby stores it would be very handy to have a couple of complete spares sat on the shelf for in case.
Photo Ship One have made a very simple camera mount.
Gaui 330X Quadcopter Aerial Video from PhotoShip One on Vimeo.
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Comment by Chris McNair on June 29, 2010 at 8:56am -
I like mine for messing around. It would be very nice to have at least altitude hold.
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Distributor Comment by Jani Hirvinen on June 29, 2010 at 10:42am -
in generally that frame design is rather nice looking. hmm maybe i need to get one to my self too to study it a bit :P
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Comment by Bob Hern on June 29, 2010 at 6:34pm -
looks like they stole sms86 from mikrokopter's forum design....wonder if they pay him any royalties?
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Comment by Charles John on June 30, 2010 at 8:35pm -
i bought one i give it a 8 out of 10 because they did what no other maker could made a pretty good quad for under 400.00 very durable i have not had any problem with motor or esc. i only have two compliants the landgear and the propeller nut should be replace with locknuts that what i did works perfectly. because even with locktite they will come off, and last thing you want is to be 300 feet in the air and a propeller pops off.
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Moderator Comment by Chris Anderson on July 2, 2010 at 11:27pm -
I'm assembling it now. First impression of the silly little wheels with springs that serve as landing gear: ridiculous. What were they thinking with the wheels? How can you even move on the ground with a quad???
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Distributor Comment by Jani Hirvinen on July 3, 2010 at 12:00am -
maybe after a crash you can drive it back to your location with 2 left over props?? :) hahah
yeah that sounds a bit silly.
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Comment by Charles John on July 3, 2010 at 5:16am
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i hope these photos upload they are of the locknut i use to replace gaui prop. Propeller will not come off using these nuts
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