DIY Arducopter with QR X350 body shell frame

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I decided to build a new DIY drone, after my previous $10 balsa quad was flying (still fly) successfuly for me. And is still doing her job for aerial panoramas as you can see on AerialTasks. That will be converted into an X8, by adding another 4 motors on the samed frame, for a bigger camera.

This time I decided to go with am existent shell body frame and I optioned to use the QR X350 which is $30. It is the same size as Phantom.

You can see below step by step the progress with this quad.

It is designated to load a Hero3 with Tarot for FPV also (new pictures will follow soon with FPV gimbal).

Hope this is job which could inspire some other guys.

I am in the process of tuning this new quad.

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  • Some update on my project.

    I did cut the canopy and now I have access from top. The canopy is fixed with velcro.

    I can add some spacers on hot days between canopy and body in order to have some ventilation for heat or even flying without the canopy. Access to USB is easier from the side.

    Some 1$ lights (green and red) on each side was added and are removable (when flying FPV)

    Also external compass is on the rear-right leg, at 10cm from APM, visible on movie below.

    And 2 different LEDs to monitor GPS fix (blue) and the armed status (orange), see on next movies.

    Gimbal is following. Then FPV gear.

    Test flight was done, I will post soon some details. 

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  • Hi criro,

    Sorry on the first one, it was a mistype I didn't catch.

    Corrected the motor type, I tried to figure it out from your Pictures, but was a bit off.

    And put in a link to the HK props as well.

    Also put in a link at the end back to this Blog article.

    Thank You,

    Gary

  • Hi Gary, Thanks, looks good.

    Please correct the ID, should be criro1999 instead of criro199

    Also the correct motors I am using are those below:

    http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idproduct=...

    And props are those:

    http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idproduct=...

  • Hi criro,

    I have installed your build on my site here:

    http://dronesarefun.com/BuildAQuadcopter.html#Qx350FrameBuild

    Please let me know anything you would like to change or add.

    Thank You,

    Gary

  • @Gary: Sure, I am glad to share my information.

    @John: I have some small spaces under ESC to circulate air. And each arm has holes on top and bottom to allow heat dissipation. Maybe I will replace the CD rom plate with an aluminum plate. And I can create new holes on the existent body.

  • Hi John, my experience with 4 in 1's is that they work as well as they do because the top plate is an aluminum plate.

    If you are using them primarily in the low end of their amp rating they are no problem, but if you are mainly using them towards the top end (usually not on a quad anyway) you might want to glue a short finned heatsink.on to the aluminum pate side.

    There is some special silicone heatsink glue you can get on EBay for this, but the name escapes me at the moment.

    Generally because normal hover throttle for a quad is below 50% the built in heatsink plate is plenty sufficient even in an area without much airflow.

  • How is the heat management of the Quatro ESC that you are using as it's installed? I'm using a similar and know that even in the open air it doesn't get 'hot' but it does get quite warm even when pulling about 10-12 amps per motor.

  • Hi criro,

    This is a really nice project.

    It shows a really innovative use of an off the shelf copter frame to make your own copter.

    It should serve as a template to others desiring to do so.

    Would you mind if I included it on my dronesarefun.com informational website?

    Happy to collaborate with you regarding instructional text as well.

    Best Regards,

    Gary

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