Blogs

I've been building a new Arducopter recently. Here are the ingredients:

• RC Timer X650 frame (with Xaircraft cowl iso the supplied transparent dome)
• RC Timer 30A ESCs with SimonK firmware
• AX-2810Q 750KV motors with integrated prop adapters
• GF1245 (12x4.5) props
• APM2 with disabled GPS
• LEA-6H GPS
• XBee 2.4 (will be replaced with XRF module)
• FrSky RC transmitter (8ch)
• 3S 4000mAh battery

This setup is intended for hovering and endurance. Although I did not select the parts on color, I like the fact that it is all black ;-) A camera mount will be added to the setup after the initial test flights. Some things encountered during the build:

• Weight: 1129gr (without battery), 1447gr (with battery)
• Although space is available near the motor mounts for ESCs, this will only hold smaller ESCs. I decided to mount the ESCs under the cowl.
• The arms can be folded in for transport. The legs are removable, but doing this often might weaken or break the plastic clamps I fear (see next point).
• The curved landing gear legs are made of fairly stiff plastic, I will probably add some rubber bands or wire between the legs to prevent them from bending out too far.
• The supplied transparent dome is nice, but the cowl from the Xaircraft original on which this frame is based looks way better in my opinion. It is lower and wider than the dome though.
• Another advantage of the cowl over the dome is that the cowl locks the arms in place in both normal and folded configurations.
• Compared to the Xaircraft original this kit misses one part: a relatively small rectangular piece of carbon intended as 'battery tray'.
• The motors are low-kv, and are selected due to similar performance to other pancake-style motors.