The MicroQuad Prototype


Thought you guys might enjoy this. It's a MicroQuad that can payload a GoPro HD Hero. It uses a KKMulticopter Brain and uses the same motors and ESCs as Jose Julio's tiny ArduCopter (Thanks for the feedback Jose!) Check my blog for the "Crash Test" video. http://www.utahaerials.com/2011/01/microquad-prototype.html
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  • That is exactly what I'm looking for!!! Thanks!
  • Hi everyone! Thanks for the great response! Let me answer some of the questions that have come up.

    Flight time with a naked GoPro is a little over 7 minutes with the current battery. The GoPro in its housing can fly for a little over 5 minutes.

    Props are these: http://hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=10033 battery is a 3S 850mAh 25C Hyperion. You are exactly right Jose.

    The bikes are an old Cannondale R400 (with an awesome Spinergy RevX on the back) and my wife's K2, not sure which model, she's riding it right now.

    The advantages of the tiny quad are: It's super fun, it's safer, cheaper, and more durable than larger aircraft. This all means that it can be flown indoors and around people, which would be riskier with larger aircraft. And it looks cool, IMHO.

    Regarding flight handling. It flies really well without the camera. With the camea you get a fairly serious pendulum effect, it MAY be more stable for stationary shots or smooth motion, but it's definitely less agile and harder to manage when flying anything more complicated than a straight line or a hover. My tests on other quads suggests wider prop spacing leads to more stability up to a point, but there are trade-offs, like slow yaw response. I will probably mount the battery on top in the next revision to counter some of the pendulum effect. @Sebastian I'm not sure that the algorithms make any assumptions about the mass distribution of the aircraft, I believe they are simple PID routines that simply react to sensor and control input... unless you meant that the PID values are tuned to an aircraft that has a more central mass, which I'm sure is true.

    Yes, all props are CCW, and the front back arms are twisted to offset the torque of the motors. This is less efficient, but necessary as tiny CW props are hard to find. It's also nice only having to buy one kind of prop. I'm not sure just HOW inefficient it is though. I'm going to do a test soon on my bigger quads to determine just how much power is wasted. If it's fairly small (say <10%) I'll probably build my bigger aircraft that way too in the future.

    As far as the smallest quad that can be made. Mine is 7.5" motor to motor so 12" should be fine. Mine does use a smaller brain than the APM/IMU, but I think it would fit. Re: FPV: I have a 2.4Ghz camera/TX that weighs 1.3oz and an integrated 900Mhz camera/TX (semi-crappy quality though) that weighs only 0.5oz. I don't think you'd have much trouble payloading stuff like that. The GoPro in the housing is 6.6oz.
  • That is perfect. Exactly what i wanted. I read your build log and have a few questions.

    1) why does it need to use modified code?
    2) can it carry any payload? If not then what would be the next scale up so it could carry a small fpv cam setup fixed type.
    3) where can i get those kite parts?
    4) can i use magnetometer, gps on it or otherwise set up the electronics like the current kit?
  • Developer

    @F11, look at this setup: http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/indoor-fun-with-a-tiny

    Jose.

  • What is the smallest quad that can be made with the current APM/IMU? What would be a good motor and prop size? I'm wanting to make one as small as possible for indoor use. Does the stability really become and issue when the prop to prop distance is short? Is it possible to do one that is 12" motor axle to opposite motor axle?
  • you have counter rotating propellers on larger quads

    twisting the propellers is suboptimal

  • Is this twisting helpful with the larger quads also or does the algorithms assume a level prop?
  • "is the frame or motor mounts twisted with two legs giving CW yawing, and other two legs giving CCW yawing?"

    yes it is

  • Developer

    Great video Michel, Nice work !

    It´s very interesting to see the potential of this little machines... I assume that you are using 3S lipo and 5x3 props, right to carry this weight, right?

    Jose.

  • that is very neat and TINY!      In your picture of it here, http://www.utahaerials.com/2011/01/quadcopter-collection.html  it looks like the props are all symmetrical, they look all counter clockwise.  How do you control yaw that way?  is the frame or motor mounts twisted with two legs giving CW yawing, and other two legs giving CCW yawing?
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