Quadcopter details:
-Custom CF frame built from 12mm tubes and 1m~3mm CF plate.
- RCTimer 17x5.5 CF Props
- Turnigy Plush 12A ESC's running BLHeli firmware
- RCTimer 5010 - 360Kv motors
- Panasonic NCR18650 13,600A battery pack
- Bareduino Arduino FC with MPU6050
- OrangeRX DSM satellite RX
- AUW 1296 grams with battery
- Frame AUW is 499 g
Everything is COTS (standard, off the shelf) equipment.
More details to be posted on the massive thread and amazing duration quadcopter's built and posted by EoD here.
RCGroups current all-time duration multicopter thread
- RCTimer motors had original 18awg wires replaced with 24awg bringing the total weight to 79.9g
- Props were sanded and balanced, motors balanced.
- Motor-prop screws are 3mm aluminum.
- Motor screws are 4 x per motor and nylon. All 16 screws are less than a couple grams.
- Super light frame came in at 66 grams
- Barduino Arduino board from seedstudio along with an MPU6050 breakout board was used to build a tiny Multiwiicopter flight controller.
- A Spektrum satellite RX was used for the radio link. A larger MWC board was used to tune the flight parameters first then the bareduino was installed. You have to load the firmware, edit the PID"s using the MWC software, then again reflash the board to enable Spektrum support on Arduino's with one shared serial port.
- The Plush ESC's are running BLHeli firmware, and were stripped of one voltage regulator each. Heatsinks were added.
- Most "data/esc" wires are ~36awg.
- The battery pack is the awesome Panasonic 18650 cells as posted by EoD on his duration quadcopter flights.
The flight:
- It started at about 11:30am. Battery pack was charged at 2A for about 7 hours. Rested for 30min, then flown.
- I installed a small battery voltage monitor so I could land before the pack got to low. 5grams, cost me a minute.
- About 30 minutes in I was at about .400mv down, I had about 4.2V of power. Looking good!
- 1 hour in. Still lots of power, however the voltage started to drop a bit faster. Every 0.01v ticked by and I could tell it didn't last as long as when the flight started.
- 1.15 minutes in. Still looking good, starting to realize maybe we won't make 120 minutes.
- 1.25 minutes in. Wow we are dropping faster and fast, I still need 11 minutes. After flying for almost 1.5hours I hoped I would not be seconds short of the record. Going for it!
- 1.30 minutes in. I can't remember where it was, 3.15 per cell I think. But I was able to quickly calculate how long a 100mv was lasting and what I had left to 2.7V (my personal cut-off point) and it I'm not sure if I will make another 6! minutes.
1.35.45 . The longest 5 minutes, 45 seconds ever.
- 1.36 minutes 2.80v per cell, some at 2.79, one at 2.75. I knew here I beat the current "hi-score" record! Pushing ahead.
- 1.37 minutes Started hitting 2.7 on some cells, decided to land. According to EoD he had a "couple" minutes at this point. Not wanting to damage my battery I landed it here.
Could this design fly longer? 100 minutes? maybe. I could remove the heatsinks on the ESC's, they didn't add any minutes and 'cost' me 5 grams of time, copper enameled wires, direct solder the battery instead of connectors, and not use the battery voltage monitor. This would save at least 20~30grams and I think you could safely fly to over 100 minutes. Maybe 101!
The 97 minute video!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ScZ8zDsVvk&feature=youtu.be
Some pictures inserted into the video. Any questions just ask. Sorry for the "Alien Autopsy" quality video it was hard to capture this indoors in poor lighting and it has been to windy outdoors.
contact: cptfrazz(at)gmail
Comments
Hi Lan,
I have the same question as Marcelo.
1) 4 in 1 ESC a better bet?
2) Low discharge 'C' rate or high discharge 'C' rate? Which you think would be better and why?
3) I see you used a very low, 10 Amp ESC any specific reason for that.
I must appreciate you for your great work and sharing your results :) Keep the good work going!
I do not understand why uneve discharge might exist, in a pack 4s4p, it is exactly the same as yours lan, but distributing t in the arms...Also this lipo is an option, expensive but very light in weight.... but 3s wont be good for my 5010-14 .... http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__24310__Turnigy_nano_tech...
Also do you think this 4in1 ESC will work ok with 5010-14 motors and panasonic pack?
True, you make a good point. Uneven discharge would prove fatal to the copter...
IMHO, I think this may rather increase the flight time in theory. Not a mega battery at the bottom center, individual battery at each of the arms. But again, this would be difficult to analyze and manage individually and unsafe for the quad as one of the arm batteries may run out before the others..and the quad falls..
Well it would look nice that way, no giant battery pack hanging off the bottom. I can't see why you couldn't do that...
and what do you think about using alum tubes 20mm diameter, 750mm lenght, put panasonic bateries x 4 into each arm?
apm2.0
Andrew,
Cool, are you building for flight time or distance? or something entirely different? :)
Is that your Scout btw?
I am using the same motor and prop, building a huge quad this weekend.
It's almost exactly 750mm
Hi Ian,
Can you tell me the M2M (Motor to Motor) distance for your build ?
Thanks.
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