I hope there's room in here for another Quadrotor build thread, I guess I'll find out!
Anyways, after much deliberation, and a somewhat larger-than-anticipated tax return, I'm finally ready to go order a bunch of parts and make my first attempt at a flying machine.
I've settled on the following parts, based on availability and wanting a large, stable 'copter with a fair flight time:
[table][tr][td][img]http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/catalog/22781(2).jpg[/img][/td]
[td]Frame: [url=http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__22781__Turnigy_Talon_Quadcopter_V2_0_Carbon_Fiber_Frame_550mm.html]Turnigy Talon V2[/url]
It's a little on the expensive side, but it's in stock at the moment, as well as being about half the weight of the other frame I was looking at. I'm also picking up a pair of spare arms, just in case a particularly hard crash manages to break one of them.[/td][/tr]
[tr][td][img]http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/catalog/910.jpg[/img][/td]
[td]Motors: [url=http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__18229__Turnigy_D3536_9_910KV_Brushless_Outrunner_Motor.html]Turnigy D3536/9 910KV[/url]
These have a rated max current draw of 25.5A, and are relatively slow compared to some other typical Quadrotor motors, but they're torquey enough to handle the somewhat oversized propellers that I'm after.[/td][/tr]
[tr][td][img]http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/catalog/TR-P30A.jpg[/img][/td]
[td]ESCs: [url=http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__2164__TURNIGY_Plush_30amp_Speed_Controller.html]Turnigy Plush 30A[/url]
From what I've read, these are pretty good ESCs for quadrotor use, and along with a [url=http://hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__2169__TURNIGY_BESC_Programming_Card.html]programming card[/url], I won't have to fiddle with flashing a new firmare or configuring it via the magic of beeps and control wiggling. The 30A continuous duty rating should give me a nice safety margin over the rated draw of my motors going flat out, so I won't have to worry about smoking one of these while learning to fly, or lifting whatever I can think of to strapping to this thing. As a nice little bonus, they also supply 5V at around 2A each, so I can light my quadrotor up like a Christmas tree for night flying.[/td][/tr]
[tr][td][img]http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/catalog/25827.jpg[/img][/td]
[td]Propellers: [url=http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__25827__12x4_5_SF_Props_2pc_Standard_Rotation_2_pc_RH_Rotation_Red_.html]12x4.5 Slow-fly set[/url]
They're big (30cm!) and shallow pitched, in theory resulting in a somewhat less "Angry cloud of bees" sound from the Quadrotor. Plus they come in sets of four, both clockwise and counterclockwise rotation. I'll be buying a few sets of these in various colours, so I should have plenty of spares for a little while, as well as being able to tell which way is forwards while learning to fly.[/td][/tr]
[tr][td][img]http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/catalog/T5000-3-25.jpg[/img][/td]
[td]Battery: [url=http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__9183__Turnigy_5000mAh_3S_25C_Lipo_Pack.html]Turnigy 5000mAh 25C[/url]
Nice big batteries for a reasonably long flight time, as well as a big safety margin so as not to risk overdrawing the batteries. 25C at 5A gives me 23A rating to spare when the motors are going flat-out, and I don't think they'll be doing that all that often regardless.[/td][/tr]
[tr][td][img]http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/catalog/24723.jpg[/img][/td]
[td]Flight Controller: [url=http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__24723__Hobbyking_KK2_0_Multi_rotor_LCD_Flight_Control_Board.html]Hobbyking KK2.0[/url]
The price is right, and the things I've read about it online point towards it being a solid beginner's quadrotor brain. Once I learn to fly it well, I'll probably drop in an ardupilot as a replacement, but in the meantime, this will do nicely.[/td][/tr]
[/table]
I've got a handful of tools and whatnot to order along with this, mostly boring stuff like wires and connectors, as well as a [url=http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__7028__Turnigy_Accucel_6_50W_6A_Balancer_Charger_w_accessories.html]charger[/url] and [url=http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__24903__Turnigy_6XS_FHSS_2_4ghz_Computer_Transmitter_w_6_Model_Memory_Inc_7_Ch_Reciever_Mode_1_.html]cheap TX/RX[/url], but with any luck I'll be getting everything together and failing to fly soon enough! Any advice you guys can offer is more than welcome, as this is my first foray into R/C, and while you have to make mistakes to learn, I don't want to make mistakes that are /too/ expensive.
The programming card may not be needed in your case, it's typically used for plane applications.
Not sure what generation plush's you have but re-flashing them with proper multirotor firmware like SimonK will perform best. The card just disables features not used for multirotor applications rather than removing them like a re flash. My friend talks a bit more in depth about the reasoning in his thread.
I think the older era of plush ESCs use a AVR brand micro while the new ones use something else. This will affect what firmware you should use.
Another big tip, balance the shit out of your props.
I guess we'll see about reflashing the ESCs, I hadn't really though about that when doing the initial parts-picking. Mind you, my soldering skills aren't anywhere near your level, so even if they're reflashable, I don't know if I'd be able to pull it off without breaking something horribly.
As far as balancing the props goes, there was indeed a prop balancer in my order. the one thing I read everywhere as far as building a quad goes is to balance the damn things before you so much as think of putting them on the motors.
Balancing is important. For one, it can cause the props to break in the air, which is obviously bad, but it also causes vibrations that will fuck up the gyros and make it unstable.
Its good to mount the moard on vibration dampening material, like sorbothane.
I've always wanted to make one of these, but I don't really know anything about electronics, so it's a little intimidating
[QUOTE=Disco_Potato;39689727]Balancing is important. For one, it can cause the props to break in the air, which is obviously bad, but it also causes vibrations that will fuck up the gyros and make it unstable.
Its good to mount the moard on vibration dampening material, like sorbothane.[/QUOTE]
As annoying as it's going to be to balance all 16 props [Might as well get the spares balanced as well], the effort will be totally worth it when they don't blow apart mid-flight, I suppose. As far as mounting it, I'm not sure how exactly to go about it, I guess I'll figure that out when it gets here.
[QUOTE=jaredop;39693540]I've always wanted to make one of these, but I don't really know anything about electronics, so it's a little intimidating[/QUOTE]
Well, to be honest, I know precisely zero about R/C flight, so it's about as intimidating for me as well. The electronics is going to come into it more once I start to get a feel for flying it and venture into flashing the ESCs and seeing what interesting stuff I can mount onto a flying platform.
Well, most of this stuff is plug-and-play nowadays, so there's hardly anything to be intimidated from. Stuff that absolutely can go wrong is when you try to connect things together that aren't compatible.
So, I got to pick this up at the post office today!
[t]http://i.imgur.com/ggXsCOh.jpg[/t]
A little beat up, but not bad for having just come 1/3 the way around the planet in a week and a half.
Everything arrived undamaged thanks to the hobbyking's apparent propensity for massive amounts of bubblewrap.
[t]http://i.imgur.com/uzKuAMo.jpg[/t]
Worked on it over at a friend's place for a while, got the frame together and soldered up a charging adapter and
one ESC's worth of bullet connectors to test the receiver, batteries, and motors without having to fight off visiting
younglings at my place, but I finally got everything home. Now I've got a pile of props to balance while I wait for my
batteries to get a final balancing and discharge to storage levels tonight.
[t]http://i.imgur.com/njo9q3Z.jpg[/t]
Any updates?
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.