Share your drone info thread

Replies

- Cala > Gerhard Laubscher July 23, 2015 at 5:12pm
  
  I don't have that radio but here you can see my Tarot if you want to take ideas http://diydrones.com/forum/topics/my-second-cuad-a-tarot-650 I'm not an expert but if I can help with another thing, I do it ;)
Paul Atherton July 20, 2015 at 12:20pm
I've been interested in building drones and RC in general since Xmas 2014 when I got a tiny Cheerson CX-10 bought for me as a present. Well, I'm a bit obsessive when it comes to new hobbies, so I ended up doing a lot of studdying on the forums, and built my first drone. It was a:
- F450 clone frame
- Sparky v1 FC running cleanflight
- Turnigy Plush 30a ESCs and Multistar 2213-939kv motors with 9047 APC props
- 3s lipo
Looked like this initially:

Then I added landing gear and a gimbal:

and switched the configuration around a little, so now the FC was on top and the battery in the middle. I was doing this in readiness for my Pixhawk controller which was on order and knew that the Pixhawk was best isolated and up away from electrical noise etc. Well, the pixhawk (clone) arrived and I then had a bunch of learning to do about APM:

I soon learned that the Turnigy Plush ESCs flashed with BLHeli v12 didn't play well with Pixhawk (it was really random on power up which ESCs would actually initialise - due to new bootloader code in BLHeli), so I switched the ESCs for X-Rotor 25a and it flew quite well with no apparent issues.

Then I crashed! It was actually due to the PosHold doing a flakey and the copter deciding to go off flying by itself in a seemingly random direction! I tried to take control but not before it hit the deck and smasked my landing gear and the fibreglass mounts I had built to retrofit the gear to the F550 frame. So then came a new design idea!

I decided to build on an extra deck to the underside of the quad which would act as both a battery tray for 2x lipos, plus the landing gear mounts. This is what I ended up building:

Then I decided that the extra weight of the 2 x LiPos and this frame would be too much for the wee quad, so decided to go back to the drawing board with a new plan!! So the quad got stripped:

The plan was for more lift, so an extra 2 motors, ESCs and a F550 frame were ordered. I did some calculations and really needed 11" props. I knew the motors and ESCs were capable of pushing 11x47 CF props and providing enough lift for the 2 x 5800mah 3s Lipos along with the 3 axis gimbal and GoPro. I first experimented and ordered extended arms from HK. These were a disaster as they were far too weak - twisted under load, so instead I went for the standard F550 arms with CF extensions to make the hexa a 680mm frame. This is how it turned out:

I managed to crash this one too - it did a flakey on takeoff one day - the APM logs pointed at a failed ESC, and managed to trash the landing gear again, so bought some HK retracts and built new landing gear. One of the HK retracts failed after a few weeks, so I ended up buying yet another set of retracts, this time Tarot ones. These are much nicer and far smoother in operation than any of the previous ones I had. I then set to improving the gimbal mounting, so I could get the gimbal controller mounted more neatly. This is a bunch of pics of what I made and fitting the (X-Cam 3 axis) gimbal to it:

Much tidier job, but within 2 weeks the gibmal went faulty - still waiting for HK to replace it!

Anyway, the hexa flies really well. Its final build spec is this:
- F550 Frame with extended arms - making 680mm frame
- Turnigy Multistar 2213-935kv motors
- Hobbywing 25a X-Rotor ESCs (running stock f/w)
- 1147 CF props
- Pixhawk clone running Arducopter 3.2.1
- 90a Crius APM power module(feeding Volts/Amps to Pixhawk telemetry)
- UBlox m8n GPS module
- FrSky X8R Rx
- Teensy telemetry converter running Wolkstein code and LUA scripts on Taranis Radio
- MinimOSD
- 415MHz telemetry radios
- Tarot small retracts
- 2 x 5800mah Zippy Compact 25c 3s Lipos
- 2 x 5000mah Zippy Compact 25c 3s LiPos
- Custom battery tray/deck allowing 2 of the above LiPos to be slotted in place, with retracts attached plus 12mm gimbal rails and gimbal hanging underneath.
- PWM->S.Bus converter allowing control of the Gimbal from either the main radio or a slave
- Boscam 5.8GHz 600mW VTx
Some pics of final build:

After I finished this, I realy got the build bug! I started on my latest build a Tarot 680Pro. That will be another post!

Edit - I finished the tarot build and really this F550 is sitting gathering dust now, so I'm thinking about selling it. Get in touch if you want further info. Even though I have borrowed the telemetry radios from this hexa for the tarot, I have another set on order so it will be sold with 415Mhz telem radios plus the 4 x LiPos mentioned in the list above. The only thing it won't be sold with is the gimbal and associated electronics.
Gregg July 12, 2015 at 8:21pm

love the inspire, I also fly a kraken 1300 octo, TBs discoveries, one with long arms/long range,one with short arms, 3dr x8 mapping ship.
image.jpg
Oliver Wetmore June 28, 2015 at 10:42am

Hi

Strayed from the DIY approach and decided to buy a frame. This is the Aeroxcraft 670 quadcopter which is very sturdy and fairly light.

DJI Naza v1 flight controller with GPS

Turnigy plush 30a esc

Eflite 480 motors

HQ 11inch props (very good props)

3s 6000mah lipo (10+ mins flight time)

Quanum Q-3d gimbal with Gopro 3+

I will most likely migrate naza v2 equipment from my scratchbuilt hexacopter into this frame since I prefer its flight

characteristics.

20150628_191654.jpg
Paul Atkin June 1, 2015 at 1:30pm

Here is a system I was playing with for now.

It is based on the Armattan FPV v2 TILT frame, about of 350g. 'Tilt' part of the frame was ignored and replaced with a gimbal. Whole frame is a multi-plate carbon fiber construct that is able to survive a nuclear blast, if needed.

Inner frame cage part is mounted on 6 rubber bobbins and vibration isolated, FC sits on additional vibration isolation pad - was probably an overkill but works fine. Total cost of all parts in this pictured setup was under $500 including battery and GoPro, as that was the point - to see what can be done using cheapest parts available on Ebay and a solid indestructible frame.

Propulsion - DJI old red 2212 980kV motors, Mystic SimonK 30A Black ESCs, 9047 props, 5000mAh Turnigy 20C battery.

FC - APM 2.8, GPS/Compass - M8N, Taranis X8R receiver, Teensy 3.1 board for telemetry into X8R.3DR radio telemetry transmitter.

Simple cheap $40 gimbal from Ebay, GoPro 3 White, Boscam TS351.

MinimOSD was taken out due to extreme glitchiness and a practical lack of purpose.

Total armed weight of the build - 1810g, flight time with all systems powered up and GoPro filming - 15m20sec until battery goes to 3.5V per cell from 4.20v initial charge.

2015-05-31 11.04.32.jpg

2015-05-31 11.05.06.jpg
This reply was deleted.
- Mike Boland May 13, 2015 at 1:22pm
  
  To help we will need a lot more info than 'it won't take off'
  
  What motors, batteries, frame weight, props, calibrations done, version of APMCopter, and maybe a photo or 2.
  
  The more info you put in your post the more someone can help.
  - Anders Wikstrom > Mike Boland May 14, 2015 at 1:15am
    
    If you use Static Thrust Calculator
    
    http://personal.osi.hu/fuzesisz/strc_eng/
    
    you can input values for motors and propellers. It will help you calculate the lifting force the motors can manage. With this and the weight of the complete quad you can figure out if it can lift or not.
    
    You'll want a lifting force more than double of the weight of your quad.
    
    By connecting one of the ESCs directly to the receiver you should be able to run the motor manually. This can also help when measuring the force the motor + propeller can give you.
    
    When I calculated my huge octo I fixated one motor on a table and put a scale under the leg of the table. When running the motor at full speed I could see the force difference on the scale.
    
    There are many simple tricks you can do to solve the issue!
    
    Good luck!
    
    Anders
April 15, 2015 at 11:24pm

I recently bought AeroSky C6 Carbon 6 Channel RC Drone with GPS.
Dimitri April 5, 2015 at 2:54am

Frame: SK S500 (CF rod/Non PCB) (HobbyKing)
Flight Controller / autopilot: Crius AIO Pro v2.0 (eBay)
Firmware: MegaPirateNG 3.0.1 R4
ESC: EMAX 4-in-1 25A (eBay)
Motors: EMAX XA2212 980KV (eBay)
Propellers: 1047 APC CF/Nylon (eBay)
Motor to motor distance: 480 mm
Battery: Zippy Compact 3S 25C 4000 mAh (HobbyKing)
Total weight: 1.2 kgs (estimated)
Flying time: -- (not tested)
Transmitter: robbe Futaba FX-18 35 MHz Mode 2 (Already owned)
Receiver: Corona RP8D1 (HobbyKing)
Video: 2.4 GHz TX/RX 700 TVL Sony (not mounted yet) (eBay)
OSD: Crius MAVLink-OSD v2 (not mounted yet) (ebay)
Other: UBLOX NEO-6M v2 GPS (eBay)
3DRobotics 433 MHz Radio Telemetry (not mounted yet) (eBay)
Low voltage alarm (eBay)
HS-SR04 / US-100 Sonar (not mounted yet) (eBay)
Crius AIOPIO Input/Output board (not mounted yet) (eBay)

Misc (hacks/mods): Used original landing struts to make spacers in order to fit 4-in-1 between frame plates. Made a makeshift landing skid from the original barrery tray clamps and aliminum angle profile, awaiting threaded rod

Photos:

I'm still working on it, testing and fine tuning everything. Did a few test flights, chipped off a few rotor tips but flies pretty good.
- David Pulvermacher > Dimitri April 11, 2015 at 6:58am
  
  Hi Folks
  
  Here's my second build, canibalized from the first:
  
  Frame iDeaFly 4S
  
  Lid by OMG
  
  Motors: SunnySky 980Kv 10X 4.7 APC props
  
  Escs: EMax 20A Simon K
  
  5000Ma 30C 3S LiPo
  
  FC: APM 2.6, FW 3.2.1
  
  OSDMinim bridged (5V only) powered by seperate 5V Ubec
  
  3DR Telemetry with 1/2 wave dipole antenna with ground station connected to Bluetooth module
  
  and Galaxy Note 3
  
  Fatshark 600Mw Video Tx and Predator II goggles
  
  Immersion CP antennae on both
  
  HK 7" transmitter mounted monitor (Tarot bracket for Futaba)
  
  Tarot 2D gimbal Go Pro 3+
  
  TG 9X transmitter flashed Open 9X
  
  FrSky Djt module with D8R-II flashed XP for CPPM
  
  I like this frame for its ability to be folded/ reconfigured for an asymetric form. Currently quad asymetric.
  
  A bit heavy I guess, bit flies really well even in our windy conditions! (Cape Town)
  
  The Beastly Quad.jpg
  
  20150411_145347_resized_1.jpg
  
  20150411_145422_resized_1.jpg

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