Multirotor, multicopter and quadcopter discussion - The Drone thread

Urgh, stark reminder of this stuff not being toys...
Looking at the how to connect the power cable for charging the transmitter lipo battery (2650maw 1s)
Must have had the other end of the charging cables touching.
Melting cables in my hands, chuck the stuff onto the floor after pulling the battery out. Scorch mark on the carpet, lots of smoke from the cables melting. burnt finger :s OUCH.

Oh my workmate replacement charge cables for the charger I borrowed if I can't replace them. Hope the Lipo is ok too... Not sure if it has swollen or was already this size.
 
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Futuba plug on the Lipo looks quite damaged. The plastic has melted/warped. It's clearly not damaged enough for the metal pins to touch, so I atleast don't need to worry about it bursting into flames.... Think I'll replace the entire thing though.
Looks like I can at least order replacement leads form abroad.... Wouldn't have wanted to owe my workmate a new $140 charger...

edit: The JR connector on the Lipo is completely ruined. Will definitely need to replace it. Looks like I can just solder on a plug that I can pinch from a spare receiver or the one from the AA battery holder. I'm sure soldering onto live cables will be good fun, one at a time and take it slow. *groan*

Not having much luck with all this at the moment :(
 
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Skeeter said:
Has anyone mounted an 808 keychain camera on a Hubsan? Do they take the extra weight OK or do you need to mod the camera?
Click to expand...

if your going to do that you might want to get the hubsan x4 107C, It comes with a camera built in and has a larger battery and better motors. just under £50 for that one but it works out about the same and lookd far better than a ghetto mod
 
Waiting for parts to be able to progress is a killer :(

I've had a fun time with the Turnigy 9x, it arrived with something rattling around inside.. Found to be a large screw, replaced the screw, then I couldn't get anywhere on the receiver test on the KK2.0 as only the throttle would respond correctly, did some Googling and eventually found it to be a faulty 9x, did more Googling and managed to hard reset the 9x which seems to have sorted the problem out, but I'm not sure if I trust the 9x to work properly now..

As the parts I'm waiting on are only needed for extending wires and mounting I decided to set up everything on a 'test bed' and got everything running, stress tested a little and checked all the motor/ESC temps with a laser thermometer (I had nothing else to do after balancing all the props :p)

The only real problems I've had so far with actually building it was calibrating the throttle on the ESCs, so many YouTube guides on doing this are so different or skip the vital part so I ended up doing it quite wrong a few times and got quite frustrated at the motors not firing up all together, I did eventually work it out through trial and error though it took way longer than it should have done. :p

Everything else has been quite easy for me as a complete RC novice. :) I do yet have to solder the Voltage Monitor wires to the KK2.0 which I keep putting off as fiddly soldering really isn't my thing.
 
PinkFloyd said:
What do you need this for? Are you not just using the buzzer that comes with it connected to the pins? Guessing you have something more fancy in mind!
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Just so it will let me use the KK2.0 built in Voltage Monitor warning rather than add a separate one which will mean that little bit more added weight and more importantly for me I'd struggle for somewhere to mount it inconspicuously as I'm really limited in available usable space, if they made the Talon Quad main body just 10% larger it would let you put so much more 'inside' and out of the way/view, as it is now nothing will fit in the 'sandwich filling' space between the top and bottom plates, it's a bit frustrating that it's just slightly not big enough to be useful.
 
Oh you're just going to wire up the battery to the KK2.0 directly to monitor rather than using one of these then?
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__18987__On_Board_Lipoly_Low_Voltage_Alarm_2s_4s_.html

I was just planning on sticking with the piezo buzzer that comes with the KK2.0. I aim to do that along with calibrating the hole lot so the escs cut power right down so it can barely hover once the battery is low. That'll be enough to trigger me to know to charge the battery I think :)

I've got more cable on order with some extra bullet plugs to make the power harness. Also have some led strips off of my housemate who can spare 4x sections from the project he's working on. Will chuck white lights on the front and red on the back :)
 
spookywillow said:
if your going to do that you might want to get the hubsan x4 107C, It comes with a camera built in and has a larger battery and better motors. just under £50 for that one but it works out about the same and lookd far better than a ghetto mod
Click to expand...

I've already got a wide angle 808 camera to play with, and I will be learning without any camera on it before going for some video shots.
 
For sure... There isn't much RTF which will allow a gopro. There is the new Blade 350 but the phantom is a solid bit of kit. There is a v2 model out November, but the original can now be snapped up for just £350
 
Well, some stuff I needed arrived today, but the things I need to mount the KK2.0 and the power distribution board properly and battery straps are still awaiting delivery. Spent most of this evening soldering all the extension bullets on (Top tip! - DO NOT solder directly under a smoke alarm...Almost had a heart attack.) I also worked out a better way to mount the KK2.0 on to the distribution board:

3a6b.jpg


Some more foam will between them too for extra vibration control but just waiting on some longer nylon bolts and washers.

My initial plan to use an old ear-bud box as a top cover/protection was scuppered by being just slightly too narrow and not quite tall enough, it was also a bit too flimsy I think, so some food container thing was acquired instead, this was a better size and a lot stronger but also quite a bit heavier, but due to the design the base (The inverted lid) was too thick for the mounting screws to get any thread:

4j2o.jpg


The fat 'x' under the Hubsan was the problem, I could have worked around it, but the weight it added was also a point of concern, so it was binned as a canopy/protection and will be used as a small parts box instead. It was replaced by an old ice cream container which whilst looking really ridiculous (It's a printed box, not a removable label :() actually fits everything in with a bit of room to spare and is really quite lightweight and relatively strong, so I'm sure I can just paint it if I don't find anything better.

Hope the parts arrive tomorrow, can't wait to crash it take it for a test flight! :p
 
Nice stuff :)
I've had the rest of the bits I need turn up, sadly I need to head to work in a minute so won't be until tomorrow morning I get to do some more wiring. Had bullet connectors and 12awg cable arrive, that'll cover me for all the cabling I need to do now.

Also had my banggood order turn up after a few weeks, I'm not too bothered about this as they messed up the order and sent me 5 hubsan batteries instead of 1. lol. It's the blue bigger batteries I've got though, rather than the smaller ones. If the extra size/weight does become a problem due to load on the rear props I'll just tape them underneath in the centre I guess.

If anyone is in desperate need of a battery give me a shout.
 
It flies! Sort of.. Looks like I may have a dodgy ESC or Motor as the yaw on it is very bad, it hovers off the ground but flat spins*, trimming doesn't seem to affect it it is also quite scarily powerful! I really didn't expect so much ooomph from it with the 8.5/4.7 propellers on :eek:

*Worse with Self Level ON than OFF

Not sure how to check which Motor/ESC is causing the problem, they are all calibrated and all start together so I'm recharging the batteries and off to YouTube to hopefully find a guide on how to find the problem. :p
 
Are all your motors spinning in the correct directions with the right props? Flight controller definitely calibrated for what level is?
Is the gyro recognising the angle if you tilt it between each motor when in self level mode (ie spinning up the motor you are tilting towards) - you might also be able to tell if one of the motors isn't spinning up as fast when doing this.

Which motors you using with that size prop? Hopefully might be able to have mine ready to fly for the weekend :D



edit:
Wangled together one of the 2 power spiders. It's not pretty, but it should do the job. Since the picture I've plastered it in solder, will then wrap it up with tape of some form to insulate it, probably tonnes of electrical tape :)
Have 4x 3.5mm female bullets for connecting to the ESCs, then 1x 4mm male bullet that will connect into the battery. Yellow cable coming off is for wiring up the LEDs to the 12v, kinda wish I went and found some red cable now...
DaJeTLj.jpg

Will add more pics tomorrow or at the weekend once I've added the heatshrink and tape :)
 
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I've been reading about the Blade 350. It seems to be a bit crap.

It seems that if you want to use GPS hold with altitude hold (SMART mode), you have to also have heading lock (the copter's controls are relative to you, move the stick left and it moves left no matter what orientation it's in).
If you want normal control but with GPS hold you lose altitude hold.
The throttle control in GPS hold mode is an absolute height control ie. moving the stick forward a bit causes it to climb a bit and then stop. Returning the stick to centre causes it to descend a bit and then stop.

A guy on the Phantom forum has been testing one and thinks it's awful compared to the Phantom.
 
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