mmurfitt
Member
I've been thinking about posting this for a while and have decided to put pen to paper (so to speak) and note down some of the things I know now which I'd have loved to have known before embarking on my new project of buying, building and flying a DJI F550 for the very first time.
This is meant to be a working 'document' as I'll add to it as my experience grows, if other people reading this have suggestions then please comment, lets share the love!
Experience is great, and unless it's shared then it's wasted, so here are some of things I've learned the hard way and some of the things I've learned the easy way. Below are some thoughts and suggestions for anyone who's looking to get in to multirotors regardless of whether it's business or pleasure.
I want to reiteriate, I'm in many ways not the best to dish out advice, and this isn't really advice, it's more the mistakes and things I've been learning over the past month or so..
Where I'm coming from:
To start with I have no RC experience, absolutely none!
When I started I didn't know any of the acronyms jargon, terminology, methodology or anything about multirotors. I didn't know my ESC from my FC, my lipo from my brushless motor.
However I didn't let this stop me...
I decided to get in to multi-rotors after watching a few videos online of some amazing footage produced by a group of guys who go under the name of 'Dedicam', all of which was recorded with an Octocopter (http://so.ee/bay). As well as that a few interesting job possibilites came my way all of which ushered me to 'ebay' some photography kit I had lying unused and buy a multirotor.
I researched, procrastinated, worried for around 4 months before deciding on a DJI F550 Flamewheel.
The motivation behind choosing a DJI F550 was I wanted something strong, easy to handle, easy(ish) to build, to be able to buy it in the UK, cheap(ish) and something I could use to create a showreel for prospective clients, the F550 came the closest to ticking each of these boxes.
Why a F550 (6 rotors) and not a F450 (4 rotors)? Well, I figured that should I lose a motor for some reason then theoretically I stand a better chance of getting it on the ground, whereas if you lose a motor when you only have four to begin with, then well, it ain't going to be a happy ending.
Buying and Build - advice and experience:
- I found this video a good introduction on what's what as far as multirotors are concerned:http://so.ee/Pwm. If you're in any way experienced then this will be a little too basic for you, however if you're getting quote confused with what's what then this video should prove helpful.
- I won't go through what I bought for the kit, just what I bought extra, or after buying the kit which I wished I'd have bought at the beginning.
For starters I bought the Graupner 10x5" props, there's enough horror stories of props snaping on this forum without me having to go in to why. I decided to go for the larger 10" after reading a thread here which recommended the larger props as being more stable and having greater lift capacity as well as the Graupner props being much stronger.
- Silly as this may sound I wish I'd ordered a jig to help me solder the deans connectors for the lipo battery terminals as well as the power terminal on the F550, this is what I bought, which unfortunately arrived after I finished all my soldering (http://so.ee/eCf)
- Get a good soldering iron, the solder kit I had was good (bought especially for the job) but the 'iron' part was rubbish, or rather the tip of the iron was rubbish, I got a new 'tip' and it transformed its effectiveness. What took me hours to solder should have taken minutes.
If you're not used to soldering, or don't have much experience then practice. It's not too hard to solder, but it does take a bit of practice to ensure it's not too messy. There's plenty of YouTube videos on good soldering technique, I found this helpful:http://so.ee/nRd
- I used this video (http://so.ee/tqr) whilst building F550, it's great for component placement as well as the correct order everything should be done.
Flying:
-I've only just started flying, literally! And the second flight (yesterday) resulted in a crash (http://so.ee/TVt) which snapped two arms and the little GPS pole (miraculously nothing else was damaged).
However, as I learn I'll update this part of the thread with some observations and experience.
If you have any experience you think others would benefit from why not add to this, lets share the love and do the community thing..
This is meant to be a working 'document' as I'll add to it as my experience grows, if other people reading this have suggestions then please comment, lets share the love!
Experience is great, and unless it's shared then it's wasted, so here are some of things I've learned the hard way and some of the things I've learned the easy way. Below are some thoughts and suggestions for anyone who's looking to get in to multirotors regardless of whether it's business or pleasure.
I want to reiteriate, I'm in many ways not the best to dish out advice, and this isn't really advice, it's more the mistakes and things I've been learning over the past month or so..
Where I'm coming from:
To start with I have no RC experience, absolutely none!
When I started I didn't know any of the acronyms jargon, terminology, methodology or anything about multirotors. I didn't know my ESC from my FC, my lipo from my brushless motor.
However I didn't let this stop me...
I decided to get in to multi-rotors after watching a few videos online of some amazing footage produced by a group of guys who go under the name of 'Dedicam', all of which was recorded with an Octocopter (http://so.ee/bay). As well as that a few interesting job possibilites came my way all of which ushered me to 'ebay' some photography kit I had lying unused and buy a multirotor.
I researched, procrastinated, worried for around 4 months before deciding on a DJI F550 Flamewheel.
The motivation behind choosing a DJI F550 was I wanted something strong, easy to handle, easy(ish) to build, to be able to buy it in the UK, cheap(ish) and something I could use to create a showreel for prospective clients, the F550 came the closest to ticking each of these boxes.
Why a F550 (6 rotors) and not a F450 (4 rotors)? Well, I figured that should I lose a motor for some reason then theoretically I stand a better chance of getting it on the ground, whereas if you lose a motor when you only have four to begin with, then well, it ain't going to be a happy ending.
Buying and Build - advice and experience:
- I found this video a good introduction on what's what as far as multirotors are concerned:http://so.ee/Pwm. If you're in any way experienced then this will be a little too basic for you, however if you're getting quote confused with what's what then this video should prove helpful.
- I won't go through what I bought for the kit, just what I bought extra, or after buying the kit which I wished I'd have bought at the beginning.
For starters I bought the Graupner 10x5" props, there's enough horror stories of props snaping on this forum without me having to go in to why. I decided to go for the larger 10" after reading a thread here which recommended the larger props as being more stable and having greater lift capacity as well as the Graupner props being much stronger.
- Silly as this may sound I wish I'd ordered a jig to help me solder the deans connectors for the lipo battery terminals as well as the power terminal on the F550, this is what I bought, which unfortunately arrived after I finished all my soldering (http://so.ee/eCf)
- Get a good soldering iron, the solder kit I had was good (bought especially for the job) but the 'iron' part was rubbish, or rather the tip of the iron was rubbish, I got a new 'tip' and it transformed its effectiveness. What took me hours to solder should have taken minutes.
If you're not used to soldering, or don't have much experience then practice. It's not too hard to solder, but it does take a bit of practice to ensure it's not too messy. There's plenty of YouTube videos on good soldering technique, I found this helpful:http://so.ee/nRd
- I used this video (http://so.ee/tqr) whilst building F550, it's great for component placement as well as the correct order everything should be done.
Flying:
-I've only just started flying, literally! And the second flight (yesterday) resulted in a crash (http://so.ee/TVt) which snapped two arms and the little GPS pole (miraculously nothing else was damaged).
However, as I learn I'll update this part of the thread with some observations and experience.
If you have any experience you think others would benefit from why not add to this, lets share the love and do the community thing..
