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
would this be 100gr cables penality?
No, Im using arducopter APM2 ,so if anyone is using this control board and want to share PIDS of big motors and props, to start with, much apreciated!
LAN
regarding my conections remember that im puting each arm as parallel (4p). the resulting cabling is almost in the center of the axis if you locate the bateries properly in the arm to minimize cables for the paralel "line setup"..
Wow Andrew, that thing is HUGE! did you use 4 x 900mm tubes then? You M2M looks like it's close to 2 meters!
Just made this quad, and it is about 900mm wide, and here's the photo
4*5010 360kv rctimer motor
17*5.5 rctimer props
@Shyam'
Less C means you get a lighter battery for the same amount of power. A very high C, like 90C battery will weigh more than a 5C battery for the same Amps and Volts. So less weight, same power = longer flight times.
750mm was the shortest length I could use for a frame and fit 17.5" props on. Longer arms flex more and would need larger arms + more weight = less flight time.
@marcelo
I read that post today. I don't see how your going to wire the batteries as 4S4P, well you can, but there will be a ton of wires, so it's going to be heavy.
You should be able to use that ESC. I haven't used it so I don''t know for sure. I've used Plush ESC"s with no problem, and others have used many other types, check that long duration thread for what others are using for the 5010 motors.
I use almost stock PID's on a multiwii, those boards are really good out of the box! :) If you use a multiwii it should fly pretty good to test on stock PID's, then you can tune for your own flying style.
Hi LAN I do not think there will be so many cables... I'm planning a parallel 4 bats in each arm, like I (marce002) posted here:
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1880665&page=90
regarding the link for the 4in 1 is this: one
PLEASE CAN YOU TELL US THE PIDS YOU HAVE USED TO ACHIEVE GOOD HOVERING WITH THAT MOTORS AND BIG PROP?
Hi Lan,
Thanks, just to clear the air in my mind. My goal is to get flight time greater than an hour and keep experiencing something better ;) Please let me know if the below understanding is correct for (only) increased flight time requirement:
1) I shall choose a light weight battery (i.e. low C discharge rate). 1 C discharge rate is better. Could you please explain in brief, how does it lead to flight time increase?
2) Choose 4 individual ESC's, one on each arm (as per the above post). I agree on reasons for cooling.
@Lan, can you tell me how you arrived at the 750mm length M2M. I just built my frame having 850mm M2M. How does it affect the performance and why?
Thanks again.
.
@marcelo
On a configuration where you put the batteries on/in the arm tubes, how would you wire a 4S4P configuration? That would be a lot of wires!
The link to the battery is a high-C rate battery, the opposite of what you need for duration machines, my machine is running 0.75C when flying.
The link to the 4-in-1 esc goes to the battery. You can use any configuration of ESC's batteries, they will all work, it just depends on your goal. If it's duration then the items you listed will not run as long as the ones I've used.
@Shayam
1) Not sure what you mean by better? Easier to wire maybe, but ESC's on the arms get cooling so you can run smaller lighter ones than large ESC's in the middle.
2)Low discharge for duration. If that is your goal. I fly 1.5Hrs so that is already less than 1C discharge. Low discharge battery will be lighter than a high discharge battery.
3) They weigh less than a larger, such as a 30A ESC. Also my motor draw is 1.5/1.7A, no need for a 20~30A ESC.
@ Edit: When I meant low discharge 'C' rate, I referred to the LIPO batteries.
-
3
-
4
-
5
-
6
-
7
of 10 Next