Birth of Octocopter :)

Almost there!
After countless hours of fitting and soldering, the thing is starting to look like something that will
actually fly! I had to make custom 3 degree mounts for the motors as they are too big for the frame.

Amazingly enough, the whole build was without any serious issues. Just niggly little gremlins that
were thwarted quickly.

Setup the APM1 board and all the esc & RC connections.
Loaded the latest firmware using MP.
At first it wouldnt arm, so I re-did the radio calibration and all worked flawlessly.
Im quite surprised as I had ENDLESS trouble with my arducopter but then again those were the
fresh n00b days. Im definitely on the road to not-so-fresh n00b :)

Thanks everyone who helped!

One thing I did notice is with the copter powered up, when I connect the USB to the PC. The
one motors spun up for like 100ms. Shouldnt be a problem. Havent connected via the xbee yet.

Today I plan to loctite all the motor screws and CAREFULLY give it a little test flight this
afternoon, as long as the wind dies down.

Hoping im not going to have too much stability issues.

One last point on vibration. The motors vibrate a little, and in turn vibrate the frame.
The electronics bed (clear polycarbonate) is mounted on 4 anti-vibration mounts.
They work alright, halving the vibration. The APM is mounted with 3 layers of foam double
sided tape. Im happy to report theres virtually NO vibration on it! W00t!

Will post some videos later!

G:)

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Comments

Michel Dias Arouca de Souza October 13, 2012 at 11:29am

I need a diagram on autocad dwg octocopter arducopter, only the center plater.
helping me
Gareth Rens April 9, 2012 at 11:54pm

@Emiliano, from the outside :)
Emiliano Fortunati April 9, 2012 at 1:22pm

Hi Gareth,

Great job!

I'm assembling a similar arducopter (octo) following these instructions:

http://code.google.com/p/arducopter/wiki/AC2_Multi

To give a correct 3 degree rotation are you looking the motors from inside or outside?

Thanks a lot.

bye!
Gareth Rens January 16, 2012 at 1:41pm

@Ellison: I just put the props on for show :) I dont think theres a way to use all single direction props....
Ellison Chan January 16, 2012 at 1:30pm

Ok, I was just going to say that I noticed all the props were counter clockwise, and wondering if you came out with some new way to drive them, which doesn't require alternating directions.
Gareth Rens January 16, 2012 at 10:25am

Just shout if you need any more :)
BoBo Flight January 16, 2012 at 10:13am

Thanks for the extra info!
Gareth Rens January 16, 2012 at 9:59am

@Don: I just popped them onto the shaft for the pictures. I ended up having to make custom prop adapters as the ones from HK came with a shaft that requires a prop hub hole of 8mm. Any prop with a hole that big is WAAAAY to big!

This is what I made:

and torqued on with:

:)
Gareth Rens January 16, 2012 at 9:43am

The next frame I build is going to have larger (15-20mm) square CF tubes that I can actually run the wires IN for neatness :)
Gareth Rens January 16, 2012 at 9:40am

@BoBo: With pleasure! Anything I can do to make any1 elses build go smoother! The centre plate diameter is: 180mm. I made a polycarbonate plate 150mm wide to hold all the electronics. Its 60mm above the base plate mounted on stiff anti-vibration mounts.

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