Queensland

Hello guys,
Well having waited and waited for HK to get their mail service into gear, I couldn't wait much longer, as I need to be up and running, and proficient to use the hexa for a youth camp for the upcoming holidays. I've alerted them to the big delay and they are looking in to it.

I'd timed the purchase of this device and all the parts to arrive well in time so I can build it and get used to it. Trouble is... I'm a little Gen X Gen Y and I 'want' it so... So I got a little bit out of control... In the end I bought a Futaba T8J and the cheapest battery (30C 2200mAh 3S LiPo) and a cheap charger from mildtowildrc.com.au in Arana Hills. Good service and lots of RC stuff to chose from.

So, last night I put it all together and did a quick test flight in the lounge room (game I know), but it went up a little. Success! :D

The main reason I went with the Aurdu board was because of it's "openness" and I figured an open source device was going to be better supported with upgrade ability, rather than one of the closed propriety systems currently on the market.

This has also given me the ability to "fix" it when it breaks or similar because I now know how it all works and goes together - rather than the pre-built, off the shelf options.

Tonight I took the machine for a spin in a big park up near Chermside, and I was soooo surprised. The hexacopter flew amazingly. It stabilised, auto-levelled, went backwards and forwards. I'm super impressed.

I'd originally used velcro sticky dots to hold the APM board down in the frame, but for the levelling/stability I thought this wasn't the brightest ideas, so instead I cable tied it flush to the frame. The GPS and the RX is still cable tied down though.

Even though I have a million switches on the TX handset, I only have one switch available, because the cables that came with the copter only have 5 wires. This means I'm going to have to find a few more cables to be able to add the whole return to base and things like that.

Not sure if anyone else has had this too, but the battery I bought has a Deans connector on it. It looks like this | --- trouble is the battery connector I got with my APM has the XT60 plugs on it. I just lucky I found the videos about the "jumper" pin that is available with the APM.

One thing I did have a slight issue with, the hexa frame kit came with a missing screw for one of the motors. I haven't told 3DR yet. What are they going to do? Send 1 screw from the USA? Instead I just made sure that the single screw holding the motor in was tight. Tonight's test flight however I noticed loosened that screw - so without screwdrivers on hand, I called it a night and didn't go up again.

I'm sure I could share more, but it's been a HUGE learning curve for me, and has suffered some budget blow-outs along the way... Like everyone, I'm looking to refine and make it better along the way.

I plan on updating my blog with a full write up in the near future.

Cheers,

Steve

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Steve Monro June 5, 2013 at 6:33am

Hello guys,
Well having waited and waited for HK to get their mail service into gear, I couldn't wait much longer, as I need to be up and running, and proficient to use the hexa for a youth camp for the upcoming holidays. I've alerted them to the big delay and they are looking in to it.

I'd timed the purchase of this device and all the parts to arrive well in time so I can build it and get used to it. Trouble is... I'm a little Gen X Gen Y and I 'want' it so... So I got a little bit out of control... In the end I bought a Futaba T8J and the cheapest battery (30C 2200mAh 3S LiPo) and a cheap charger from mildtowildrc.com.au in Arana Hills. Good service and lots of RC stuff to chose from.

So, last night I put it all together and did a quick test flight in the lounge room (game I know), but it went up a little. Success! :D

The main reason I went with the Aurdu board was because of it's "openness" and I figured an open source device was going to be better supported with upgrade ability, rather than one of the closed propriety systems currently on the market.

This has also given me the ability to "fix" it when it breaks or similar because I now know how it all works and goes together - rather than the pre-built, off the shelf options.

Tonight I took the machine for a spin in a big park up near Chermside, and I was soooo surprised. The hexacopter flew amazingly. It stabilised, auto-levelled, went backwards and forwards. I'm super impressed.

I'd originally used velcro sticky dots to hold the APM board down in the frame, but for the levelling/stability I thought this wasn't the brightest ideas, so instead I cable tied it flush to the frame. The GPS and the RX is still cable tied down though.

Even though I have a million switches on the TX handset, I only have one switch available, because the cables that came with the copter only have 5 wires. This means I'm going to have to find a few more cables to be able to add the whole return to base and things like that.

Not sure if anyone else has had this too, but the battery I bought has a Deans connector on it. It looks like this | --- trouble is the battery connector I got with my APM has the XT60 plugs on it. I just lucky I found the videos about the "jumper" pin that is available with the APM.

One thing I did have a slight issue with, the hexa frame kit came with a missing screw for one of the motors. I haven't told 3DR yet. What are they going to do? Send 1 screw from the USA? Instead I just made sure that the single screw holding the motor in was tight. Tonight's test flight however I noticed loosened that screw - so without screwdrivers on hand, I called it a night and didn't go up again.

I'm sure I could share more, but it's been a HUGE learning curve for me, and has suffered some budget blow-outs along the way... Like everyone, I'm looking to refine and make it better along the way.

I plan on updating my blog with a full write up in the near future.

Cheers,

Steve
Steve Monro May 28, 2013 at 3:59am

Hey Richard,
I'm still waiting for HobbyKing to ship the battery and controller... Been 2 weeks. :( Getting a little antsy in a way. I would have thought they would have been here by now...
I'd be keen to meet up with people when the thing is flying though. :)

This reply was deleted.

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