Multirotor, multicopter and quadcopter discussion - The Drone thread

More interested in building it's half the fun. Was thinking 450 and keeping it cheapish to start with, can always upgrade parts if I get really into it. saying that 250 would be easier to carry but surly larger ones cope better with wind.
 
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Glaucus said:
More interested in building it's half the fun. Was thinking 450 and keeping it cheapish to start with, can always upgrade parts if I get really into it. saying that 250 would be easier to carry but surly larger ones cope better with wind.
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Cool can't comment on things re building the frame from scratch, others can though possibly . I would go 450
 
Had a bit of a productive evening soldering led strip lights blue at the front of the f550 and red at the back want put some white on each arm on the underneath but couldn't be bothered do anymore that's tomorrow's night project

There wired straight to the battery at the moment but I want to have them controlled off the apm board if I can find a control unit so the blue led will flash with the led on the board to indicate gps lock
 
I'm flying a 450 clone with Multiwii and GPS. It's a cheap way to get in to things and quite an enjoyable build, however you have to be careful about placement of the board as it is effected by interference from the built in distribution board. not too difficult to fix and away you go. I'm still tuning mine in a little at a time when I get the time to do it and it's getting better. If you want something which should work out of the box then the Naza is your approach, otherwise the Multiwii is a good start.
 
I priced up an RC Explorer Tricopter and came to the conclusion of "hmm, that's pretty cheap, I could afford that..."

Then I realized I need a new radio so managed to talk myself out of buying it.

So... what's a good cheap but decent radio? If I'm honest I'm confused about what satalite means? It feels like there are a number of different flavours of 2.4Ghz?
 
Skeeter said:
I priced up an RC Explorer Tricopter and came to the conclusion of "hmm, that's pretty cheap, I could afford that..."

Then I realized I need a new radio so managed to talk myself out of buying it.

So... what's a good cheap but decent radio? If I'm honest I'm confused about what satalite means? It feels like there are a number of different flavours of 2.4Ghz?
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If cheap is your primary concern you can't really beat the Turnigy 9X or 9XR radios. My brother has a 9X and it does everything he needs and the bonus is that it has a module bay so you can add JR modules like a FrSky 2.4 module or a LRS system at a later date.

A satellite describes a module that plugs into your receiver that allows you to position your antennas elsewhere. This allows you keep your receiver itself close to your flight controller while putting the antennas somewhere with better signal reception.
 
Cheers.

I thought Satalite meant "remote" in the way you describe, but I keep seeing places refer to transmitters as being satalite or compatible with satalite, which confused me. So do satalite recievers use a specific flavour of the 2.4GHz frequencey?

Edit: ppm, pcm, DSMX, DSM2, FHSS, DSSS, FASST, omg, wtf, lulwut, BBQ....
 
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Skeeter said:
Cheers.

I thought Satalite meant "remote" in the way you describe, but I keep seeing places refer to transmitters as being satalite or compatible with satalite, which confused me. So do satalite recievers use a specific flavour of the 2.4GHz frequencey?

Edit: ppm, pcm, DSMX, DSM2, FHSS, DSSS, FASST, omg, wtf, lulwut, BBQ....
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DSMX, DSM2, FHSS, DSSS, FASST - These are protocols used by different manufacturers for transmitters to communicate with receivers. They're all slightly different in the way they encode the data and frequency hop.

PPM, PCM, PWM - These are the types of signal that come out of your receiver to your flight controller. PWM is the traditional output that requires an output cable per channel. The other two combine the signals and output it on one channel, the data is in a "frame" of pulses in the case of PPM and a digital code signal in the case of PCM.
 
Still not been paid by a certain person, which means my new build buying will have to wait, god damn it, I dont want to delve in to regular cash or savings

Ah well, hopefully my black landing skids for my current flyer will arrive today or tomorrow
 
Brilliant! Thanks.

So in terms of transmitters and recievers you need to ensure they are compatible for protocols. These seem to be brand specific predominantly (Futaba is FASST, Spektrum and JR are DSM2 and DSMX, Turnigy are dependant on whatever module you put in the transmitter). Is there a 'best' protocol?

PCM, PPM and PWM is more about reducing cabling on a multirotor and doesn't really matter as you can set the control board to match the reciever, correct?
 
New 6" carbon props on and it is so much smoother on throttle. very pleased and she flys great. need to solder the orientation lights and then I think all is pretty much done.

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I'd say that the FASSTest by Futaba is the most robust. I use FrSky which has been very solid for me for the last year that I've been using it. Cheap too.

PCM, PWM, S-But etc, you are correct that it's just for reducing cabling. I have a single S-Bus connection from my FrSky X8R receiver to my Naza, A2, CC3D, whatever.

Sweet tri-copter Kanifee.
 
Skeeter said:
Brilliant! Thanks.

So in terms of transmitters and recievers you need to ensure they are compatible for protocols. These seem to be brand specific predominantly (Futaba is FASST, Spektrum and JR are DSM2 and DSMX, Turnigy are dependant on whatever module you put in the transmitter). Is there a 'best' protocol?

PCM, PPM and PWM is more about reducing cabling on a multirotor and doesn't really matter as you can set the control board to match the reciever, correct?
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Yup, you've got it!

Well Futaba's FASST is good and used in industrial applications so it's pretty bombproof and the industry standard. However for RC applications most of the others are very good too like FrSky's ACCST, lots of people are using that with their Taranis (I'm one of them) or a module in a Turnigy radio with no problems. Hitec and Graupner are also good too.

The only one with a slight question mark over it is Spektrum's DSMX, it isn't actually bad at all and using it with my old DX6i I never had a problem, the reason some people don't like Spektrum is that the older DSM2 was a bit pants.

You can't really go wrong with any of the modern 2.4 protocols IMHO.
 
Great, thanks guys!

So with my cost reducing hat on I should look at a Turnigy transmitter and add a module that uses a protocol that has a wide range of affordable recievers available?
 
Would need to be second hand, but ill look.

Why is it so good? In reality I'm only going to be flying a 250 and a tri, and don't plan on adding loads of bells and whistles. The only reason I'm upgrading is because my current transmitter only supports a single model and it's own receiver.
 
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