Multirotor, multicopter and quadcopter discussion - The Drone thread

Can anyone recommend a good starter radio/reciever? Pretty sure I have the quad figured out but everything else I'm not sure on.

Battery charger would be nice too.
 
Kipz said:
Can anyone recommend a good starter radio/reciever? Pretty sure I have the quad figured out but everything else I'm not sure on.

Battery charger would be nice too.
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How much have you got to spend? Will you be using the normal channels or looking at assigning channels to switches for additional features? like flight modes, failsafe, camera control, light controls?


Iv heard of people using Spektrum DX6i's which will only give you 6 channels and can be had for around £60iir (without reciever) on ebay, but not much room to move about and expand channel wise. For the price you are paying for a 7 or 8 channel Spektrum radio your getting in to the price bracket of being able to get a 16channel(32 with expansion) FrSky Taranis

These are the only radios I have had experience with so cant really comment on other brands


Battery charger I just use an Imax B6
 
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DJMK4 said:
How much have you got to spend? Will you be using the normal channels or looking at assigning channels to switches for additional features? like flight modes, failsafe, camera control, light controls?


Iv heard of people using Spektrum DX6i's which will only give you 6 channels and can be had for around £60iir (without reciever) on ebay, but not much room to move about and expand channel wise. For the price you are paying for a 7 or 8 channel Spektrum radio your getting in to the price bracket of being able to get a 16channel(32 with expansion) FrSky Taranis

These are the only radios I have had experience with.
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Was thinking around £50 for the radio/receiver. Only really wanting a 250 quad to fart about with. Don't really want crazy settings so one setting that I am comfortable with would be fine. I do want lights on it but I'd want them always on anyway to help with orientation. I don't think i'll be using a camera just yet but potentially only going to go down the gopro mobius route anyway.
 
DJMK4 said:
I think I found the one

http://www.hobbyking.co.uk/hobbykin...star_ESC_Quadcopter_Power_Breakout_Cable.html

Each ESC will connect positve and negative, cut off the Xt30 and replace with XT60, and that small plastic connector in the middle I assume is to connect to flight controller.
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The flight controller is powered by the connections from the ESCs. That extra JST on that harness is for accessories like lights or FPV transmitters.

Kipz said:
Was thinking around £50 for the radio/receiver. Only really wanting a 250 quad to fart about with. Don't really want crazy settings so one setting that I am comfortable with would be fine. I do want lights on it but I'd want them always on anyway to help with orientation. I don't think i'll be using a camera just yet but potentially only going to go down the gopro mobius route anyway.
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I've got a cheap (it was actually free off a mate) 6 channel transmitter that works fine for a 250. 4 channels for flight controls and then 1 of the shoulder switches to toggle self leveling.
 
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Skeeter said:
The flight controller is powered by the connections from the ESCs. That extra JST on that harness is for accessories like lights or FPV transmitters.
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Cheers I will add this to the list, saves messing around d with solder even though I'm OK with that (ish) now :p
 
skaif said:
I have followed this thread for the last few months and think this is awesome!
I am planning to do a school project with some students at my school in making their own quad copters, think it will be good for getting their interest up in programming/engineering!

Does anyone have any advice on what to go for? I have seen a few of the pre-made kits but would like a self build project. Don't want anything too big or complex. Any advice would be much appreciated!
Thanks in advance
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Anyone want to help out here? A prod in the right direction would be good :)
 
skaif said:
Anyone want to help out here? A prod in the right direction would be good :)
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Sure!

Something small, durable and relatively cheap is the order of the day right?

I'd definitely go for a miniquad with a Naze32 control board. You could probably even make an X frame for it out of wood (similar to the Flite Test electro hub) which would be another good step for the kids.

The small size means you can pick up motors that work perfectly well for under £10 a pop, the same with ESCs.
e.g.
EMAX 2204 2300KV motors £9.80 each
EMAX 12a ESC £7.50 each
Acro Naze32 £19.50
All from www.makeitbuildit.co.uk

For transmitter and receiver, batteries, bullet connectors, battery connectors and other small stuff go to Hobby King.
 
skaif said:
Anyone want to help out here? A prod in the right direction would be good :)
Click to expand...

Have a look at the post I dropped a few back with a list of links for various components for a mini h quad.

A good place to read up is the ZMR250 thread over on RCGROUPS. It's pretty hefty but if you can read and digest the whole thing, it will give you some pointers over what to look for.
 

in case anyone is interested in watiching 5 very boring minutes of me messing about with the MiniX on the hexacopter. FPV tests at the weekend if we get sunshine :)
 
Couple of flights with the F550 at lunch today. Checking the gain settings then testing the "failsafe" out. Bit nerve racking, switching the transmitter off. It sat there perfectly level for what seemed like an age, then slowly went up 20 or so feet. Sat there waiting i guess to see if it got a signal then slowly came home & landed. Very nice & a big relief.
 
Col_M said:
Sure!

Something small, durable and relatively cheap is the order of the day right?

I'd definitely go for a miniquad with a Naze32 control board. You could probably even make an X frame for it out of wood (similar to the Flite Test electro hub) which would be another good step for the kids.

The small size means you can pick up motors that work perfectly well for under £10 a pop, the same with ESCs.
e.g.
EMAX 2204 2300KV motors £9.80 each
EMAX 12a ESC £7.50 each
Acro Naze32 £19.50
All from www.makeitbuildit.co.uk

For transmitter and receiver, batteries, bullet connectors, battery connectors and other small stuff go to Hobby King.
Click to expand...

gandhi said:
Have a look at the post I dropped a few back with a list of links for various components for a mini h quad.

A good place to read up is the ZMR250 thread over on RCGROUPS. It's pretty hefty but if you can read and digest the whole thing, it will give you some pointers over what to look for.
Click to expand...


Fantastic, I will start reading and report back if I have any problems.

Cheers guys :)
 
Shoei said:
Couple of flights with the F550 at lunch today. Checking the gain settings then testing the "failsafe" out. Bit nerve racking, switching the transmitter off. It sat there perfectly level for what seemed like an age, then slowly went up 20 or so feet. Sat there waiting i guess to see if it got a signal then slowly came home & landed. Very nice & a big relief.
Click to expand...

We spend all this time and money and effort on trying to make our craft easy to fly... yet it always does a better job when we let it fly itself :p
 
Shoei said:
Couple of flights with the F550 at lunch today. Checking the gain settings then testing the "failsafe" out. Bit nerve racking, switching the transmitter off. It sat there perfectly level for what seemed like an age, then slowly went up 20 or so feet. Sat there waiting i guess to see if it got a signal then slowly came home & landed. Very nice & a big relief.
Click to expand...


Cool :) the failsafe was a bit nerve racking when I first tried, I tried it from high altitude, and I also tested it from an ajoining field to see it in action :p


Im getting used to flying a distance away from me now, including vertical, and radius wise, I have upped my vertical limit set in Naza from 100m to 150m for now. Radius iv kept at 100m

I will be upping them gradually
 
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Can't wait any longer for the funds for a Full 250. Just ordered another Hubsan x4 to fill the void in my life :(.
 
I only went down to Bring Your Own Drone to get an upgraded GPS unit for my A2................. gotta leave bank cards at home.

lWNaYsZ.jpg


brnTm88.jpg
 
Is there any good guides on how to build one and how to choose components?
And is multiwii pro with mkt GPs a reasonable and cheap way to enable gos and waypoint flying?
 
Jeez rilot that thing is a beast

You upgraded to naza v2? You will like :)


Lisapete said:
Good man Rilot

My 4's 5000Mah Lipos arrived today. BIG!
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Yeh the 4s 5000mah is what I'm running, they are huge

Glaucus said:
Is there any good guides on how to build one and how to choose components?
And is multiwii pro with mkt GPs a reasonable and cheap way to enable gos and waypoint flying?
Click to expand...


How much do you have to spend? What form are you looking at? 250(smaller) , 450 (bigger), or 550 hex?

Have you had a look at either the q450 kit if your on a budget with the relevant bits (escs, motors, fc, radio bits and anything else) or if you have more of a budget dji f450 kit?

If your looking at a flight controller with GPS iv only ever had the naza v2 so can only comment on that, and its worth it
 
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