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First tests with my Quad

Posted by François Ubald Brien on March 25, 2011 at 5:33pm

So today I finished building my first quadricopter based on APM+Oilpan and running ArduPiratesNG. I did some preliminary tests inside with no intention of flying the thing in my kitchen but just to get a feel of how it behaves up to the moment it actually would take off.

 

I noticed a couple of things:

  • Motors don't start to spin all at once. I saw a couple of posts here discussing that and everyone seem to agree it's normal.
  • Motors make strange noises (can be heard in the video)
  • The quad only begins to feel light on the ground at 75% throttle. I'm using 10x4.7 props, maybe they are too small for the quad's weight, which I can only say is heavy because I don't have a scale :P

This is my first quad and I have no background flying RC Helis (beside crashing one on first flight and giving up on it a couple of years ago) so with the money and time invested in this quad I'm kind of afraid to fly it for the first time :P

Tags: apm, ardupirates, ground, quadrocopter, test
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Comments

  • Moderator
    Hai Tran March 29, 2011 at 8:08am
    Yes the roomba is jealous. It's taken about 4-5 weeks but I got it from Sergey, I believe is he extremely busy, so it is hard to speak to him.
  • François Ubald Brien March 29, 2011 at 7:26am
    The landing gear looks much more stronger indeed. How did you get Sergey to send you that? I contacted him about one of my arms which has a bad set of holes that didn't line up, he said he would send me a replacement one and it's been more than 3 weeks and he doesn't answer any of my emails.
  • François Ubald Brien March 29, 2011 at 7:21am
    Is the roomba jealous behind?
  • Moderator
    Hai Tran March 29, 2011 at 7:07am

    Here's my hexa with new landing gears and stabilized camera mount.  I've also moved the sonar to the bottom of the camera mount which means that the sonar always points directly to the ground.

     

    As you can also see, my ArduStation (with modified code) is able to read the ArduPirate NG data, ie. Pitch, Roll, Yaw, Altitude BMP, Altitude Sonar, GPS coordinates, heading, satellite count etc.

     

    3692189144?profile=original

  • François Ubald Brien March 29, 2011 at 6:53am
    @Ike ESC's were calibrated all at once with Y-Harnesses they responded in synch when plugged directly into RX Throttle channel, but once plugged in the APM they go back to starting one after the other.

    Power distribution is made from a parallel charger harness. Battery on one end and ESC's, LED's and battery alarm all take one of the six cable pairs. Not pretty to look at, but it's hidden inside the frame and it does the job.

    I did my first "flight" this weekend. Once it was in the air I just realized how I underestimated the complexity and precision of the controls. So I was just doing take offs and landings until one time the landing gear got a bit stuck in the snow on takeoff and I wasn't able to stabilize it. XBox controller reflexes kicked in and made things worse so it crashed on the roof of a shed nearby.

    Fortunately I only broke/scratched 2 props, bended a motor shaft and cut two motor wires in the crash.

    I think I'll stick with a simulator a bit before flying it again ;)
  • Moderator
    Hai Tran March 28, 2011 at 11:50pm

    That link to the landing gear doesn't work.

     

    And the landing gears on the online gallery isn't the new one for the Quad/Hexa frame.

     

    I just received the v2 landing gear today, and I will install it on my hexa tonight, I will upload a photo when I'm done.  The new gear looks alot stronger and more rigid than the old gear.  The old gear had too much flex in my opinion.

  • François Ubald Brien March 27, 2011 at 9:14am
    They look nice but I wonder if they work with their current camera mounts.
  • Michael Krader March 27, 2011 at 9:01am

    here is the landing gear.

     you have to go to the photo gallery.

    http://rccarbon.jalbum.net/RC-CARBON%20E-Photo%20Gallery/FPV%20CF%2...

  • Michael Krader March 27, 2011 at 8:57am

    here is a video on balancing a motor.

     

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgvayWfey78

  • Moderator
    Hai Tran March 27, 2011 at 7:50am
    I think it's a prototype, will post pic when I get it tomorrow.
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