Multirotor, multicopter and quadcopter discussion - The Drone thread

Col_M · 9 Feb 2015 at 12:38

Hobby King have a sale going on for the UK warehouse, it's a good time to save a bit of money.

Just picked up a couple 4S 3300mAh batteries, YEP 100A ESC, laminating iron and a few small bits for my next build (not a multi as you probably guessed), saved about £15 in all.

gandhi · 9 Feb 2015 at 12:40

Regy53 said:
Are there any good drones that have pre built cameras in that are reasonable, it seems its either budget £50 jobs with 0.3 mega pixal or £300 parrot.

Anything for around say £150 - £200?

first time flyer too

Depends if you plan on building it yourself and what sort of camera you want?

A self build FPV quad could be done for £200 but you would then need either goggles or a screen to view the feed and that will double the cost. If you just want to video that you're doing, you could probably buy a 250 sized kit and a mobius action camera for around £200. You would need a transmitter and receiver but they can be picked up for around £40-50.

something like this

gandhi · 9 Feb 2015 at 12:41

Oh, I forgot Batteries and charger too.

gandhi · 9 Feb 2015 at 12:41

Col_M said:
Hobby King have a sale going on for the UK warehouse, it's a good time to save a bit of money.

Just picked up a couple 4S 3300mAh batteries, YEP 100A ESC, laminating iron and a few small bits for my next build (not a multi as you probably guessed), saved about £15 in all.

Always the bargains when when I'm broke lol

TheOtherOption · 9 Feb 2015 at 14:17

100A ESC?!?! What on earth do you need that for on a mutlirotor?!

Typo surely ...

gandhi · 9 Feb 2015 at 14:24

Right. It flies.

Well, it didn't fall out of the sky/flip over/attempt to decapitate me. It is very sloppy though and obviously having some issues with either the gains, vibrations or the "spider" layout. I can't access the flight log at work, so any debugging will have to wait. Hrumph. I had big expectations for this FC.

I suspect the mix is the biggest culprit.

DJMK4 · 9 Feb 2015 at 14:25

Wondering if I should start buying bits for a Q450 build, or for something different, I like the look of the model Ghandi and a few others have, what are the performance like on these?

Col_M · 9 Feb 2015 at 14:33

TheOtherOption said:
100A ESC?!?! What on earth do you need that for on a mutlirotor?!

Typo surely ...

It's not for a multi, it's for a wing, even for that it's a bit OTT with the motor drawing ~70A but it's going to be out of the airflow in the wing so I want it to be as cool as possible

TheOtherOption · 9 Feb 2015 at 14:41

Ah fair enough - I guess the HK sale does apply to more than just mulitrotor parts (/narrow minded mode).

My new setup has 45a escs now despite the motors only drawing 26a odd max but they were cheap!

gandhi · 9 Feb 2015 at 15:05

DJMK4 said:
Wondering if I should start buying bits for a Q450 build, or for something different, I like the look of the model Ghandi and a few others have, what are the performance like on these?

The 250 H quads and 300ish mini hex's are generally very quick. If you think of the 550 and 450 as Harley Davidsons with all the bells and whistles, the smaller ones are more like the street-fighters the oil-stained bloke with the bandana, who lives down the road, builds. Stripped back, stupidly quick and need a lot of tinkering to keep them going as they will inevitably end up in a hedge or a muddy ditch at some point! A lot of fun though.

You could put GPS on them. I did on one of mine but the jury is still out. I have plans for it beyond close-proximity FPV flying though that will probably involve a simple gimbal and GP4!

Skeeter · 9 Feb 2015 at 15:13

That looks great Kanifee. Howcome you went for smaller arms?

I'm considering one as a summer project.

Col_M · 9 Feb 2015 at 15:14

DJMK4 said:
Wondering if I should start buying bits for a Q450 build, or for something different, I like the look of the model Ghandi and a few others have, what are the performance like on these?

It really depends on how you set them up and how hard you fly.
This was a guy flying a 450 at a meet a while back and this was actually one of his more relaxed flights. You can really chuck them around, not as much as a 250 but still not bad.

Lisapete · 9 Feb 2015 at 17:21

Hobbyking UK has a sale currently. If you wait on the page of the item you want it'll then discount this more. I just bought 6x Turnigy 5000mAh 4S 20C Lipo. should have been £24,37, Current UK Sale £21.94, waited about 40 seconds pop offers it for £20.28 saving me £1.66 more but £4.09 over all. It does log your IP so I had to use TOR as I've a static IP. Word of warning the site will default to the routing of TOR so reset the locations and go with it. Paypal also defaults but will be okay. £133.50 delivered for 6 and direct shipment in the UK

DJMK4 · 9 Feb 2015 at 17:27

gandhi said:
The 250 H quads and 300ish mini hex's are generally very quick. If you think of the 550 and 450 as Harley Davidsons with all the bells and whistles, the smaller ones are more like the street-fighters the oil-stained bloke with the bandana, who lives down the road, builds. Stripped back, stupidly quick and need a lot of tinkering to keep them going as they will inevitably end up in a hedge or a muddy ditch at some point! A lot of fun though.

You could put GPS on them. I did on one of mine but the jury is still out. I have plans for it beyond close-proximity FPV flying though that will probably involve a simple gimbal and GP4!

Cool cheers, I wouldnt mind building one. Its a toss up between a cheaper 450 which I can throw around abit, rather than throwing around my DJI with all the expensive flight controller stuff, or building something smaller and faster.

Col_M said:
It really depends on how you set them up and how hard you fly.
This was a guy flying a 450 at a meet a while back and this was actually one of his more relaxed flights. You can really chuck them around, not as much as a 250 but still not bad.

That does look like he is throwing it around quite a bit

I have the DJI F450 at the moment but wanted something that was a bit cheaper (Hence Q450) that I can use as my faster run around that I dont mind chucking about a bit.

Or I could go down the 250 route.

We shall see.

DJMK4 · 9 Feb 2015 at 20:28

Can someone with the 250 a few pages back kindly supply me with a part list if available? Are these things any good with climb rates, and can hold up in a little bit of wind?

Stop pondering over another 450 build or 250

Hutchy · 9 Feb 2015 at 20:32

QAV250 build

DJMK4 said:
Can someone with the 250 a few pages back kindly supply me with a part list if available? Are these things any good with climb rates, and can hold up in a little bit of wind?

Stop pondering over another 450 build or 250

This is what I did

----------

Gemfan 5030 Multirotor Propellers One Pair CW CCW (Black)
Gemfan 5030 Multirotor Propellers One Pair CW CCW (Green)
Afro ESC 12Amp Ultra Lite Multi-rotor Motor Speed Controller (SimonK Firmware) Version 3 x4
AfroFlight Full Naze 32 Flight Control Board
Emax 2204 2300KV Motor (MT2204) x4
CC1333-B Board Camera Sony Super HAD CCD with 600TVL (IR Blocked CC1333)
Lumenier QAV250 3K Carbon Fibre Mini FPV Quadcopter Frame
Turnigy nano-tech 1300mAh 3S 45~90C Lipo Battery Pack x3
MinimOSD OSD For Naze 32 With MultiWii OSD & KV Team Mod
ImmersionRC 5.8GHz Circular Polarized SpiroNet Antenna V2 (RP-SMA) x2
Turnigy 3A UBEC w/ Noise Reduction
OrangeRx R615X Spektrum/JR DSM2/DSMX Compatible 6Ch 2.4GHz Receiver w/CPPM
Boscam TS5823 5.8GHz 32CH A/V 200mW Mini FPV Transmitter

I already owned a Spectrum dx6i and I also I got some Skyzone goggles from Hobbyking

Video of it flying about, although I was being steady with it (2nd flight): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXhlRY4P-c4

DJMK4 · 9 Feb 2015 at 20:42

Cool cheers for that, it looks fun to fly

Did you pay circa £120 for the frame?, hmm put me off a little there, I was going down the router of a cheaper build to what I have now but this is likely to work out just as much

Skeeter · 9 Feb 2015 at 20:46

The smaller the craft the more its affected by wind. But then with something like a 250 your not going to be trying to hold it in a stable hover

Hutchy · 9 Feb 2015 at 20:51

I was going to go for plastic as the cost put me off as well. But when you watch videos like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hI6BJuU8G_g

It makes you get the wallet out.

Nothing wrong with going with a plastic frame.

Skeeter said:
The smaller the craft the more its affected by wind. But then with something like a 250 your not going to be trying to hold it in a stable hover

I don't really have any problems keeping a steady hover in the wind to be honest. When I used to fly 450 helicopters it was a lot harder and a lot less smooth and they are about twice the size.

DJMK4 · 9 Feb 2015 at 21:01

Hutchy said:
I was going to go for plastic as the cost put me off as well. But when you watch videos like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hI6BJuU8G_g

It makes you get the wallet out.

Nothing wrong with going with a plastic frame.

I don't really have any problems keeping a steady hover in the wind to be honest. When I used to fly 450 helicopters it was a lot harder and a lot less smooth and they are about twice the size.

That YouTube video is pretty sweet

I'm just after a decent condition but not a bank braker frame, is any of the hobbyking 250 frames worth it?