I just got the Walkera QR Ladybird nanoquad and it's just frankly amazing. For $140, you get the quad, a 7 Channel 2.4 digital Devo 7 RC set with graphic backlit LCD display, a 240MaH LiPo and a LipPo charger. It can fly inside and out and has much better range than a Parrot AR.Drone (thanks to the proper RC gear). The RC gear alone is worth nearly that price (you can buy additional receivers for it here)!
Walkera says that it includes RC telemetry for battery and flight controller status:
1). Onboard telemetry system enables real-time monitoring of receiver, gyro, mix control and speed setting.
2). In-built telemetry function also enables and simplifies flight battery voltage monitoring.
We had a great time flying it around the living room. It's very stable, but as you would expect from a quad, very maneuverable. The transmitter starts up in regular mode (not dual rate or exponential, both of which are options), so it requires a very light touch on the sticks. A couple clicks of the trim and it will stay in one place. Because it moves fast and is so small, it's pretty easy to lose control in a small space, but the airframe seems quite robust. We crashed it lots of times, and just had to superglue on one of the motor holders after it cracked. Good as new!
Here are some shots of the incredible integration on the single flight controller board. It says it has a "six-axis gyro", but I think that must be a mis-translation from Chinese. It's probably a three-axis gyro and a three-axis accelerometer. Alternatively, it could just have a three-axis gyro, like the simple KK boards (in which case I don't know that the other three axes are supposed to be)
Top of the board, showing the flight computer and RC receiver
Bottom of the board, showing the motor controller microprocessors and four speed controller circuits.
Here's how the LiPo fits on the bottom:
A sense of the RC transmitter display
And a video in flight:
Comments
George, you'd save some space by using one processor that's fast enough to control 4 motors, and you would not need any regulators for the BEC, since the main board would have a beefy one that can handle the electronics. You'd also optimize the circuit to minimize the size of PCB you need. There would be some advantage to having 4 escs on one board.
The disadvantage is that any failure means replacing the entire board even though some of the motors are still working.
@Dez Socks
Not possible.
Ladybird use brushed dc motors and the ESC for this type of motor is very simple: Only one MOSFET and the PWM signal from microcontroller.
4 motors = 4 tiny MOSFETs (see on the bottom side of PCB) and 4 PWM ports from microcontroler.
And that was it.
Ηowever a brushless motor need very complex control and therefore each brushless ESC need:
1) Its own microcontroller with built-in 3-phase motor control hardware.
2) At least 6 MOSFET.
3) 3 half bridge IC drivers
4) Sensorless rotor possition detect circuit.
5) Tight current monitor circuit
6) Voltage monitor circuit
7) Linear BEC or at least 2 voltage regulator circuits.
If on one PCB you have 4 b.l. ESCs with all the above parts x4 and one Mosfet or other sensitive part burned, then entire PCB and the other 3 operational ESCs is out of use.
Dave Wicks:
You can use the 1s ladybird battery. Camera & tx works well in 3 - 4.5V range.
Ruwan:
If the camera tx use a different channel, no, it not intefere with ladybird's radio.
Check and the tx in the follow link. Come with 4 selectable channels and weight only 0.6g.
http://fpvhobby.com/90-6-gram-50mw-24ghz-tx.html
Compine great with this tiny 1g camera:
http://fpvhobby.com/170-new-15-grams-camera.html
in the words of some half wit "Its a bit of a toy" when talking about the Ariel Atom this toy looks to be much more than that! Sign me up for telemetry!
@George, wouldn't it interfere with radio control? It is also 2.4GHz?
@George, would you need another lipo to power that mini fpv system or could you power it via the ladybird lipo?
Any way of making a all in one speed controller like pictured above?instead of 4 individual ones.Would shave some weight off some quads.
It is possible to attach a 1g super mini camera & 50mW 2.4GHz transmitter compo for fpv flying:
http://fpvhobby.com/143-sub-nano-combo-set.html
Thanks @Ellison & @Sam
@ Ruwan, they seem to be the same thing, my cameras were not from that seller. Just search for 808 #11 and make sure they specify 720p HD and that they ship from Hong Kong (most of those sellers do). Video quality is good for the price.
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