DJI F550 (650 extended arms) mini heavy lift build...

Blake Ebsary

New Member
Hi Guys,

New to the forum and I thought I would share how my build is going so far. As usual a few little hiccups along the way but I really wanted to share how I stuffed a heap of DJI gear into the F550 frame to make a compact aerial mapping machine.

I work as a surveyor in the Australian mining industry and have had a real desire to create my own mapping machine, that is;

- Cost effective
- Easy to deploy
- User friendly
- Gets results

I did a fair amount of research and decided on the F550 with some extended arms so I could fit a larger propulsion system to try and extend flight times. Essentially wanted to keep the frame as small as possible for ease of transport.

What I did have trouble with was finding some in depth information on mounting hardware and how people got around stuffing a decent amount of good gear into this DIY frame. Components listed below;

- DJI F550 top and bottom plates
- AeroXcraft extend arms
- DJI E600 propulsion system
- DJI WKM FC
- DJI IOSD Mini
- 2 BEC modules (One for the IOSD and the second as a spare)
- Multistar 12,000MaH Battery
- AeroXcraft landing gear
- DJI H33D gimbal for GoPro (This is interim as I'm waiting to find a Sony NEX5-7 or an A6000 camera.)
- Hitec Aurora 9x transmitter and Optima reciever

I just wanted to show people how I have setup my machine and I also want critical feedback as to how I could do things better. Will keep this updated as I progress through the build.


Got the XT90 connection soldered along with the WKM PMU and 2 UBEC's. For anyone who has used the E600 propulsion system you will know that the power cabling is very long so I shortened all of these up to keep it as clean as possible 'under the hood"
20161016_153631.jpg




Just for reference this is an XT60 connector up against the XT90 tha I have installed.
20161016_153730.jpg



Trying to keep my soldering clean and tidy, I don't ever want to go back under here for any reason!
20161016_153640.jpg



Got all of the main components soldered in, now comes the fun part of trying to run everything to keep it nice and tidy... Covered up all of my exposed soldering just to be on the safe side.
20161016_192314.jpg
 

Attachments

  • 20161016_153631.jpg
    20161016_153631.jpg
    134.7 KB · Views: 2,174
  • 20161016_153730.jpg
    20161016_153730.jpg
    171 KB · Views: 1,886
  • 20161016_153640.jpg
    20161016_153640.jpg
    138.2 KB · Views: 1,848
  • 20161016_192314.jpg
    20161016_192314.jpg
    149.3 KB · Views: 1,867



Blake Ebsary

New Member
A little more progress on the build...

Installed;

- Zenmuse GCU for the H33D (Will be removing this at a later stage when the new camera arrives)
- IOSD mini
- DJI Data link
- WKM hardware and the Hitec reciever
- DJI CAN BUS

I didn't want to try and cram everything in between the top and bottom plates, the mounting hardware for the AeroXcraft landing skid protrude up a little from the bottom plate, I could space hardware up with double sided tape, but decided to mount the receiver and the WKM FC on the top plate. My thinking was that it will be a lot easier to;

1) Plug the mini USB into the FC when tuning and changing parameters in the assistant software
2) Easy to fiddle with the receiver and channels

20161017_143711.jpg


20161017_143715.jpg


20161017_143740.jpg


Tidying up the wiring wasn't as bad as what I thought It would be, most likely because I didn't try and stuff everything into the one space. I think this will work out ok the way I have the hardware mounted.

20161017_150722.jpg


After all the setup and before I screwed everything together, I grabbed my 12,000mah Multistar battery and took everything outside to power it up. Went outside purely in case I had wired something up wrong and it decided to burst into flames on me... Haha.

All went as planned and I didn't have a flash fire! Proceeded to fire up the assistant software and get down to it with a few configs and setting up switches and fail safes.

It was at this stage that I decided to test the motors were working correctly.... Unfortunately I't looks as though I have a faulty ESC attached to one of the motors, so I have ordered a few more. Will update once I have the new ESC installed and take this thing for a fly!!
 

Attachments

  • 20161017_143711.jpg
    20161017_143711.jpg
    148.9 KB · Views: 1,771
  • 20161017_143715.jpg
    20161017_143715.jpg
    151.2 KB · Views: 1,795
  • 20161017_143740.jpg
    20161017_143740.jpg
    139.1 KB · Views: 1,795
  • 20161017_150722.jpg
    20161017_150722.jpg
    151.6 KB · Views: 1,801

Top