Multirotor, multicopter and quadcopter discussion - The Drone thread

It works again. Turned out to be the prop adapters on the motors. Long story but a couple of the old ones were bent and one of the new ones was seriously off kilter around where the screw hole is. Off flying in the am post f1. Sweet.
 
d_brennen said:
Bog standard lock nut works for me
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Yeah, me too. It's the actual adapter that screws onto the top of the bell that is out. You can see when it's screwed on as the screw drops way down into the the countersunk hole, almost passing right through. Casting issue I guess.

Anyway, it flies now :) So that's a success. Didn't manage to get out today due to massive hangover so Project Hex has started now.....










Frame quality is ok, haven't weighed it yet, but will do when I can. I won't be using the lower "dirty" part of the frame as it serves absolutely zero purpose. You can't mount a gopro to it and my battery isn't exactly sensitive to vibrations. So this will end up being built like a classic 250, with the battery on top with the mobius.

The FPV Cam bracket is exactly the same as the one from my ZMR 250.

Motor mounts are really designed for 1806 motors I think. The screw slots are tight for the 2204's as is the center hole. Both will need embiggening before I mount the motors properly. The little dip at the end of the arm also leave the motor a little exposed in the event of an "event" but I'm really going to try not to play lawn darts with this one as the arms aren't really replaceable without buying another frame at the moment.

FC mounting holes are rubbish for the naze, so it's either an adapter plate, or sticky back plastic. makeitbuildit have an adapter plate for £3 ish, so will order that and see. I'm too lazy to make one and rubbish with precision drilling so don't want to start modifying the frame plate.

The CF looks real, roughly the same dimensions as the 250 frame thickness wise.

Just need to start soldering now :)

Oh, and decide whether to go SuperX or Naze for the build. The SuperX with GPS, IMU, IO Unit and OSD weighs in at around 200g vs about 10g for the Naze32. Might give it a go and see if I can shoehorn it all in just for the added confidence of flipping on the GPS if things go wrong.

Weight shouldn't be a problem with around 2.4Kg of thrust with 5030 props and around 1kg at 50%

5040 props will give me 3kg of thrust with around 1.3Kg available at 50% throttle.

AUW with superX will be around 950g, with the naze; 750g :D

Gonna use my X8R rx regardless as cleanflight works with SBUS and I mullered my other D4RII, one of the antenna is loose and the other one has detached completely, taking most of the track where it was soldered on with it.

I must stop breaking things really.
 
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Those Emax ESCs? If so might want to get hold of the programming card foe them. If the voltage drops below 3v/cell, even for a moment, they turn off, which is fun.


E: Worth pointing out that I had a LV alarm onboard both times which wasn't phased at all. Cell voltage after resting was ~3.7v, these Zippy 35c batteries might just be telling porkies about their abilities...

E2: Can I be really cheeky and ask for a side by side shot of that frame with the 250?
 
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Gandhi, the makeitbuildit FCB adapter is a piece of poorly 3D printed garbage. I wouldn't trust it dropping it off the table. I've gone with sticky fixers (or double sided foam tape) and its been brilliant.
 
d_brennen said:
Those Emax ESCs? If so might want to get hold of the programming card foe them. If the voltage drops below 3v/cell, even for a moment, they turn off, which is fun.

E: Worth pointing out that I had a LV alarm onboard both times which wasn't phased at all. Cell voltage after resting was ~3.7v, these Zippy 35c batteries might just be telling porkies about their abilities...

E2: Can I be really cheeky and ask for a side by side shot of that frame with the 250?
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Yeah, Emax 12a ones. Seriously chunky compared to the KISS ones :) I'll bear that in mind. Apparently you can do some sort of mad stick waggle dance to set some of the options so I might try that first. It looks like it should be set to a soft cutoff at 3.2v as the default but that does need to be switched off!

I've had the same problem with the zippy compacts. I have the 25c 1500mah ones which should give me a continuous discharge (yeauch) of 37.5 amps. With 5030 props and a sub 500g quad my LV alarm is going off on punch outs that aren't even full throttle, so probably only drawing around 25 amps.

I'll try and get a comparison shot tonight when I get back from the pub hahahah!
 
Skeeter said:
Gandhi, the makeitbuildit FCB adapter is a piece of poorly 3D printed garbage. I wouldn't trust it dropping it off the table. I've gone with sticky fixers (or double sided foam tape) and its been brilliant.
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Cheers for the heads up. I think I might go that route now then. Shame really as I wanted to use my simplePDB and put the headers under the board to keep the wiring tidy.
 
gandhi said:
Yeah, Emax 12a ones. Seriously chunky compared to the KISS ones :) I'll bear that in mind. Apparently you can do some sort of mad stick waggle dance to set some of the options so I might try that first. It looks like it should be set to a soft cutoff at 3.2v as the default but that does need to be switched off!

I've had the same problem with the zippy compacts. I have the 25c 1500mah ones which should give me a continuous discharge (yeauch) of 37.5 amps. With 5030 props and a sub 500g quad my LV alarm is going off on punch outs that aren't even full throttle, so probably only drawing around 25 amps.

I'll try and get a comparison shot tonight when I get back from the pub hahahah!
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Half the weight in them is shrinkwrap! Mine are naked, but the capacitor is a little vulnerable
 
Not sure I'd trust mine unwrapped against a carbon frame. Not with at least a covering of liquid electrical tape. I've been in some very damp grass before!
 
Hi guys, I've been lurking in this thread for a while now with very jealous intentions. I'm needing some advice for a new quadcopter for my work!

I'm a marketing co-ordinator for an Outdoor Company based in Scotland and I'm looking to create some awesome marketing videos using a quadcopter. I'm thinking along the lines of the recent #TheRidge Danny Macaskill video - mountains, big drops and featuring all of our Outdoor Products.

Can any of you recommend a ready to fly quad copter that's going to be up to the task? I really wouldn't have the time to tinker with it and I'd want to be able to get and fly straight away. GPS routes and return would be an added bonus too.

Cheers!

Mark.
 
Depends what you want to film with. If you're happy with the footage from a gopro 4 then you could probably get away with a DJI Phantom and a decent gimbal. If you need dSLR quality then you are probably looking at £5-10k to get a decent system if you want someone else to build it for you.

You will also need to get permission from the CAA for aerial work, via either the bnuc-s or other accredited route.

You may be better off employing the services of an outfit already trained/licensed/running and filming.

There is no easy/cheap route to commercial aerial work I'm afraid.
 
A couple of days of professional filming from a trained crew is going to be far cheaper than buying a decent quad yourself, investing the time and effort into learning, and they fighting the law suit when you crash it somewhere you shouldn't have the CAA find out you were using it commercially without the proper licensing.

Russ should pay is commission :)
 
Thanks for the input guys. I think a paid film crew would be the way to go. I'd love to do it myself but I do realise I'd need a lot of learning. I was very much into my model planes when I was a teenager and have built and flown quite a few but I know this is a different ball game altogether.

The only problem I foresee is getting the costs past our MD. In comparison to hiring a helicopter however it must be much cheaper!
 
The main blocker will be regulations for commercial work. As they guys have suggested you would have to get the right level of certification.

Otherwise if you want to tinker, the DJI Phantom with a gimbal and a GoPro camera is a very good platform despite the bad press (mostly due to the ignorance level of the pilot and unimaginable capacity for stupidity in the human race :) not the kit!). If you had the time and really want to learn go down the build route.

If time to market is a consideration, hiring services will be the way to go. Not only MUCH cheaper than helicopter work (especially if you factor in camera crew) you will get much closer to your subject with a multirotor platform.

Russ should be able to help! :)
 
Phantoms are "plug and fly" but even sideskirting the commercial work certification for a moment, getting usable, professional shots will take practice.

That said, multisrotor flying (and RC in general) is a great pastime, helps you learn all kind of skills by proxy and can take you to weird and wonderful places, usually at an unearthly hour, that you'd probably not go if just out for a walk.
 
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