CarbonCore Hexa 950 with Zenmuse WooKong-M Sony NEX-5-5N

[CarbonCore]

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As more RC flyers and aerial photographers are getting started in Multicopters, and some are converting to CarbonCore, I’m doing this photographic build thread to talk through how I would personnel build a Hexacopter.


Setup:
CarbonCore Hexa 950
Zenmuse Z15 with Sony Nex-5 and DJI WooKong-M
4112 DJI Motors
2x 6S 5000mAh LiPo batteries (lightweight and high power rechargeable for those who don’t know)
New, tall and light weight leg set, available in the New Year.

The new leg set can also be used with the PhotoHigher AV130 and AV200.
The leg set also detaches from the Multicopter with only four clips. (Production version).

The latest motor arms now have carbon inserts pressed around the captive nuts, that all come pre fitted.

So here we go!

The very first thing I did was to bolt, with thread lock, the six motor mounts (3.0mm thick) to the TOP of the motor arms.

Then drop four 6mm long bolts, with washers, through the slots.
Next adding a dot of thread lock to the threads in the motors.
Finally fitting the motors to the motor mounts.
I also used some cable braid as the three motor cables have to go around the edge of the motor mounts.

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[CarbonCore]

The Tall leg set will be available in the New Year in a short and a tall version.
The short version only for the PhotoHigher AV130.
And the tall version for the Droidworx and PhotoHigher AV130 and 200, and the Zenmuse. Carbon tubes are included in the kit to allow for either camera Gimbal.

The complete leg set, with battery tray and Gimbal can be removed from the Multicopter with four clips. And the upper section that stays with the Multicopter can also be removed with just four short bolts.

Next I turned all the motors over so they were sat on the bench at about 45 degrees, placed the four bolts through the motor rings, adding thread lock, and fitted them to the underside of the motor mounts with a hex driver fitted to an electric drill, on slow.

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[JohnD]

This looks like a great platform you have here, thanks for all the details. Can I ask how much the whole configuration weighs? Also, what made you select the NEX-5? Does it provide FPV, can you control it remotely? I just bought the smaller 500x4 CarbonCore frame, but honestly I will need to get something a little bigger or rework this to carry a larger gimbal/camera. I like the new carbon core tall leg set, but I am fairly certain they will not have this option for the 500x4.

 

[CarbonCore]

Hello JohnD,

The Hexa 950, Ready to Fly with new leg set, Zenmuse and Nex-5N, weighs 5.9Kgs, noticeably less than the S800 with the same equipment.

The 500X4 is so small at 500mm it is probably best as an entry level multicopter. All the parts on the 500X4 are smaller and thinner than the rest of the range.
I do know that customers are using batteries as large as 3S 5000mAh, and also using the YS-X6 Flight Controller with GPS!
However the Top Dome, or "Crash Cage" does not fit over that setup and there's very little space left on the frame plate.
However, for the 500X4, 18A GWS ESCs can be fitted inside the arms, and there is the smaller YS-X4 controller.

With the 500X4 using thinner frame plates with different slots to the 650 and 950 and Octo 1000 range, the new leg set will not fit sorry.

The NEX-5 is on loan from DJ at PhotoShipOne
And the Zenmuse will work in FPV mode (Orientation lock relative to the multicopter) dampening sudden yaw movements and keeping the horizon level.
There are provisions for using an AV out from the Zenmuse control box, but of course you will also need an AV transmitter
on the multicopter (which can be fitted to the new battery tray that comes with the leg set) and a monitor to watch the video!

 

[CarbonCore]

Nose and tail arms bolted with thread lock to the lower frame plate.
The other four arms only have thread lock on the four pivot bolts.
Four bolts are only to hold the arms in place, in the folded position while fitting the ESCs. Another four bolts are only to hold the frame reinforcement pieces in place.

And the power board is test fitted before arranging the six ESC (Electric Speed Controller)

I have made up spacers to hold the power board between the frame plates.
The arms are 23mm deep, and the power board is 1mm thick.
Using 10mm threaded studs, I added two 10mm spacers and two 1mm spacers to each hole on the board.


The holes in CarbonCore Multicopter frame plates exactly match many different power boards.

 

[CarbonCore]

These are 40A ESCs, only because that’s the smallest that can handle 6S LiPo as well.
Standard 40A ESCs can be fitted between the frame plates like this, however on this build, I decided to remove the heat shrink and solder the motor wires directly to the ESC boards.

Before soldering the motor wires to the ESC, I used an ESC to gauge how wide to cut up little foam tape rectangles. Each ESC has three 3mm thick foam tape pads to snugly fit it between the frame plates. The fastest way to do this is to use a ruler and a sharp hobby knife on a cutting board.

The motor wires on the 4112 motors were not shortened – this makes it much easier to solder them directly to the ESC boards.

Here’s a HUGE TIP
The motor wires are Red, Black and Blue.
Solder ONE ESC first.
Then try it on your transmitter and receiver to see which way the motor is spinning.
If the motor is turning the correct way For That Arm, great! If not, just swap two of the wires.

Once you know the wire colour sequence for that ESC, you know the ESC for the neighbouring arm will have two wires swapped, to make its motor spin the opposite direction.

For an I-Hexa configuration, like CarbonCore, Arm #1 is the front arm, and the motor spins anti-clockwise. Arm #2, is on the left of arm one with the Hexa nose-out, or facing away from you. And the motor on arm #2 needs to spin clockwise. And so on…

Cables are fitted for the MC and batteries.

TIP:
I took the plugs off the ESC to Rx cables and fed the pins though the 10mm hole at the front of the frame, after fitting a grommet.
Replacing the plugs and adding a label with the arm number written on.

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[CarbonCore]

The WooKong-M Flight Controller comes with it’s own voltage regulator (PMU) that changes the 22.2V from the main motor battery, down to 6V for the WooKong and radio receiver system.

The ESCs I used also have similar circuits built in called BEC (Battery Eliminator Circuit) and will also try to supply the WooKong and Receiver with a regulated voltage in parallel with the DJI PMU (Power Management Unit).

This is potentially very bad! As all seven circuits (six ESC and one PMU) will all be fighting each other and something can burn out! SO, all you have to do is disconnect the pins from the red wires from the ESCs.
Before fitting the power distribution board, one pair of red and black silicone cables were fitted to go through the top plate of the Multicopter, to power the PMU. Three more pairs were soldered underneath to go to the two battery packs and Gimbal.

Only then, were all the power cables from the six ESCs fed through the power board, from underneath and soldered from the top. Then it was OK to bolt the power board to the lower frame plate.

This can also be done the other way up – for example if you are fitting a 3-Axis AV200 Camera Mount to the lower frame plate, at some point you may want to remove the lower plate to undo the big bolt that holds the pan axis to the Multicopter. In this case you would want to first bolt the arms to the upper frame plate, and bolt the power board to the upper frame plate, so the lower plate with camera mount is free to be removed.

It needs to be noted that with three pairs of power cables, all in parallel, with male plugs fitted (as the batteries have female plugs) there is the possibility of short-circuit on the edges of the carbon fibre plates once one battery is connected. So to avoid this, I fitted heat shrink to a female plug and that plug lives on the second battery lead until after the first battery has been connected. Only when connecting the second battery do I remove this insulating plug.

I used Deans plugs, no particular reason.
[FONT=&quot]To solder them I fit a male and female together, as this holds the pins in place in case too much heat is applied and melts the plug slightly! And a small bench vice is used to hold them.


[/FONT]

 

[CarbonCore]

Taking a step-back: Here’s another wired CarbonCore Hexacopter, with the same ESCs. This time they have been left in their original heat shrink and the extra lengths of wires have simply been hidden inside the arms. With short bolts top and bottom of the arms, fitting a bundle of wires inside the arms is no problem!

With the Hexacopter built and wired – time to calibrate and program the ESCs!
These particular ESCs are calibrated to the transmitter throttle range by connecting one ESC to the receiver throttle channel at a time, and simply moving the transmitter throttle stick to the top, and plugging in the motor LiPo batteries to power them. If the red wires have already been removed from ESCs with a built in BEC, then the receiver will have to be powered with a 4.8 to 6V battery.
Then after a few beeps from the ECS, moving the throttle stick to the bottom again- Done!

ESC Programming – There are lots of preferences here. The main setting is to disable any motor brake and to also set any voltage cut-off to NiMh and the lowest voltage. Let the Low Voltage Warning in your flight controller handle when it’s time to land.

In this example the WooKong IMU is mounted directly to the centre of the top plate, on double-sided foam tape, with the lead facing the front arm.
With the arrow also facing the front.
There is NO offset, making the setup assistant very easy.

And the WooKong MC can be fitted on a flight control plate also with double-sided foam tape, with the M1, M2, M3, M4, M5 and M6 connections also facing the front.

The Red ESC pins have been removed from the plugs.
The WooKong PMU is the only device to power the WooKong and Receiver. Taking a step-back: Here’s another wired CarbonCore Hexacopter, with the same ESCs. This time they have been left in their original heat shrink and the extra lengths of wires have simply been hidden inside the arms. With short bolts top and bottom of the arms, fitting a bundle of wires inside the arms is no problem!

With the Hexacopter built and wired – time to calibrate and program the ESCs!
These particular ESCs are calibrated to the transmitter throttle range by connecting one ESC to the receiver throttle channel at a time, and simply moving the transmitter throttle stick to the top, and plugging in the motor LiPo batteries to power them. If the red wires have already been removed from ESCs with a built in BEC, then the receiver will have to be powered with a 4.8 to 6V battery.
Then after a few beeps from the ECS, moving the throttle stick to the bottom again- Done!

ESC Programming – There are lots of preferences here. The main setting is to disable any motor brake and to also set any voltage cut-off to NiMh and the lowest voltage. Let the Low Voltage Warning in your flight controller handle when it’s time to land.

In this example the WooKong IMU is mounted directly to the centre of the top plate, on double-sided foam tape, with the lead facing the front arm.
With the arrow also facing the front.
There is NO offset, making the setup assistant very easy.

And the WooKong MC can be fitted on a flight control plate also with double-sided foam tape, with the M1, M2, M3, M4, M5 and M6 connections also facing the front.

The Red ESC pins have been removed from the plugs.
The WooKong PMU is the only device to power the WooKong and Receiver.

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[CarbonCore]

How Strong Are CarbonCore Multicopters?

An interested reader on another forum asked me very valid question,
“How Strong are CarbonCore Multicopters”

I have looped and rolled a Hexa950 with a Naza, in manual mode with the gains up to 240% in 100% dual rates. There wasn’t any visible flexing on the frame.
There are reports of other brands of Multicopters arms breaking when attempting a loop.

The demo Hexa950 with Zenmuse that weighs 5.9Kgs – I’m sure it’s powerful enough to loop. But the Zenmuse will sometimes “crash” and reboot, doing its three-way-spin party trick, if the multi is rolled past 45 degrees. But maybe it’s about time someone really threw around a Zenmuse … Subscribe to my You Tube Channel!
http://www.youtube.com/user/CarbonCoreModels/videos?view=0

If you stand a CarbonCore Multicopter on knife-edge, with two arms firmly on the floor, and one motor mount in each hand, and push-and-pull, it doesn’t twist. It flex’s a tiny amount but feels very supple.

The carbon fibre has some natural flex or spring to it.

The demo Hexa950 with Z15 is flying with a WooKong and I also, did not balance the propellers. I forgot to! But it flies completely sweet.

I haven’t been able to break a motor arm with my bare hands.
I have put a motor arm (for 950 and Octo) across my knee and tried to snap/crush it, and it wasn’t happening.

There are CarbonCore Octocopters flying with 2826 motors with 14” Xoar props and 2x 5S 6000mAh Packs, that weight 4.5Kgs. My MegaRadius mount weighs 1.5Kgs with its giant legs and a customer kindly flew it with a 4Kg box of sand. This customer has a lifetime discount and is doing well from Aerial Photography.

My customer has commented that the payload equals the weight of a Red Epic

However your question to me, feels a lot like the question, “what motors do I need for heavy lift” – about ten of my emails per day are almost exactly that wording. I tell customers that they need to correct setup for their application and I have to ask them a few questions. And I think this is happening because every start-up business getting into Multicopters is branding everything with Heavy Lift. I direct a lot of customers to Jeremy at ElectriFltie.co.uk because he has a lot of experience with motor, prop and battery setups.

Whenever I read “Heavy Lift” I read “Heavy Copter”. Anyone can make something strong and heavy.

My Multicopter frame plates are 1.5mm thick and no thinner because customers do not like to pick a part out of the box and feel it flex in their hands – not realizing the strength is in the assembly.
I weigh 70Kgs. So, I made this test to show you that I can STAND on a Hexa650 without anything breaking. I even had my hands on the ceiling and was maybe pushing-down a little! I even tried hopping a little. I bolted stacks of frame plates to the ends of the arms to stop the assembly sliding around. And also did this on the living room carpet to avoid slipping.

I can now say the Hexa650 is rated to 70Kgs All Up Weight lol. That’s 11.6Kgs on each arm. This would also mean you can safely put a Hexa650 (About 3Kg AUW without a payload) through a loop of about 23G.

This may show that frames can be made lighter. However they would then also flex more and that can cause other problems.

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[CarbonCore]

CarbonCore Hexa950 Following Octo1000

Raw Aerial footage from the Zenmuse on the Hexacopter

Here’s the finished build on a prototype Leg Set with the Zenmuse.
The Zenmuse Z15 controller is just mounted directly on top of the pan motor and no firmware was uploaded – there’s no receiver-transmitter connections either so the Zenmuse does just look forward for now.

The DJI for pin cable is needed to connect the Zenmuse to the WooKong.
On power-up the Zen does its spin-around party trick and then auto calibrates to level.
It seems to sometime take as long as 30 seconds to do this – I wish it would be faster.

Also on power-up, occasionally the Zenmuse with tick-tock back and forth about the pan axis if it was too far away from looking forward. It might then “crash” and re-start the whole procedure. Not a problem though.

The Leg Set allows the Camera Gimbal and extra battery tray (which has the slider rails from the Multicopter kit fitted) to be adjusted to get the CoG just right.

I’ll continue this thread with a build of the production Leg Set once they’re in about mid-January.

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