Mikrokopter Droidworx AD 8 HLE (First Build)

R

RBlax

Member
My List So Far:

Quadrocopter AD-8 Heavy Lift Kit
Motor Choice: Mikrokopter 3638
Prop Choice: APC SlowFly Prop 12x3.8 SF
AV200 Camera Mount
6.5V DC_DC Converter 1A 6.5V OUT SIP VERT
Mikrokopter Flight-Ctrl V2.1
Mikrokopter Navi-Ctrl V2.0
Mikrokopter GPS V2.1
GPS_SHIELD_11
Xbee Set, plug and play
Aluminum ESC Cooler for MK
Duo Hyperion EOS 0720i DUO3
SkyCharger Dual Power
12V Ground Station Battery (3s Lipo)
5.8GHz Patch Vitenna Gravity
Shuttercable--for Canon 5D
DX8 System with AR8000 + TM1000 No SX MD2 [SPM8800]
QuadroPower 6200+ Lipo
PassPort 5.8 Diversity Receive
Stinger 5.8 Pro 250mw AVD Transmitter

I am also going to use this thread as a scratch pad. I will be adding references below.

This could be a helpful post for those building the same setup in the future.

Good Reference Websites:
Octo Build

Firmware & Drivers
Flight Control V0.84a (from FC2.1) (MEGA1284)

Other Manuals:
Sky Charger B6AC


Tips: Take your time, be patient, do not rush to fly. There will be plenty of time for that. Calibrate, calibrate, calibrate. Balance and Charge your batteries.

Do not assemble the entire copter all at one time. Once your are to the point of installing your Flight Ctrl, start calibrating. Worry about the Navi and GPS later. Otherwise you will find yourself taking things apart multiple times.

Read, read again, take a break then re-read. Make sense? Now start applying.

Follow these tips and you will be way ahead of the game and should save you a lot of time.

When it comes to flying, if you are not familiar with RC helicopters (like me) ... You might want to take some extra - extra time preparing for your first flight. I personally have some time in rotary type aircraft, but it is about 20x more sensitive. Also you are flying with eye and hand coordination only. You will not have the luxury of "feel". So imagine how careful a pilot is prior to and during flight. Preflight your ship, and take this serious ... Unless of course your are loaded and don't mind wasting a few grand. In that case I'll happily accept a wired donation into my checking account.

I just hope that all my thoughts and efforts can help someone else. That is the purpose of a forum and we all have to do our part to help the community. Of course I'm not the only one giving these tips but since you're about to embark on my attempts, might as well see this up front.



Pictures of my progress:
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R

RBlax

Member
Powerboard & Flight Ctrl

Here's what she looks like so far. If you notice anything that needs addressing please tell!!

I have found out that I've ran out of the supplied bolts that extend the flight ctrl, navi ctrl, and GPS...

View attachment 599 View attachment 601

PS... Don't mess with my soldering abilities!!
 

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BorisS

BorisS

Drone Enthusiast
Hey RBlax,

you are planning on rapping in the pressure sensor ? It is really necessary to protect it from wind or the wind from the props.
Soldering really double check the soldering. At the beginning i didn't take the warnings to serious that through the vibrations cables, soldering loosens, but they do. Happened to me twice now luckily not on the Distribution board.
The soldering should really cover all of the of the contacts on the dist board (dont know the correct english word). Plugs for example the connection between the FC and the dist board secure it with some hot glue pistole action and other important connections.

Also not the best but all the contacts are covered.

View attachment 600
 

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O

ovdt

Member
If you're planning to control the camera while controlling the kopter, 8 channels may not be enough for you if you use PH, CH, CareFree, AH. This makes 7 channels already.

Nice setup, I couldn't see which prop you're going to use but, as far as I've seen, prop choice and prop balance is one of the most important thing that is underestimated most of the time.

I've MK electronics with Droidworx AD6-HL frame. It won't lift using standart 12x4,5 EPP CF props . (CF doesn't mean CarbonFiber here :), it's just a little stiffer than the standart EPP ones).

I'm using Graupner 11x5 props and APC SlowFly props, with which I'm quite happy.
 

BorisS

BorisS

Drone Enthusiast
hmm sorry wrap thats I wanted to say :). Gonna make some fotos have to take the boards apart anyways.
 


R

RBlax

Member
ovdt said:
If you're planning to control the camera while controlling the kopter
Click to expand...

I am!! I will look into this. Do you have have a source that makes this clearer?

ovdt said:
Nice setup, I couldn't see which prop you're going to use
Click to expand...

Sorry I didn't post the props, however - Prop Choice: APC SlowFly Prop 12x3.8 SF.
This was recommended by quadrocopter.us when I ordered.


BorisS said:
foam and than a shrink tube over it
Click to expand...

Awesome, thanks BorisS! I will get this done ASAP.

Right now I'm at a standstill since I'm out of standoff's. Just asked Quadrocopter to send me a few more with my next shipment.
 

R

RBlax

Member
Ok, I've got my copter hooked up to the PC and ran all motors. Everything seemed fine and I am now looking to provide a proper log for feedback. One thing I noticed and now looking into, I only show 4 motors in the Analog list. I updated the firmware and changed my settings in the Mixer-Setup to "Octo" and it does show all eight motors. However, the motor's 5 through 8 are not in the list to show performance. Has to be right under my nose!
 

Droider

Droider

Drone Enthusiast
Same with me.. I dont think it can log more than four.

If you are going to use an SD card for logging make sure it is a good one and formatted correctly. you should see it recognised in the nave control terminal window

DAve
 

BorisS

BorisS

Drone Enthusiast
HI RBlax,

the data and the text labeling for the MK Tool come directly from the FC. For some reasons they dont make the necessary change in the FC firmware to show all of them. Although there is one version that shows all.

(http://www.mikrokopter.de/ucwiki/Firmware-0.82_Jeti+).

-Motoransteuerwerte 1 bis 8 werden auch über die Debugschnittstelle ausgegeben, nicht nur Motor 1 bis 4.

translated

- Motor test values 1 to 8 are send over the debug interface, not only motors 1 to 4.

But I wouldn't really worry about it. If it is absolutely necessary tell me there seems to be one guy in the german MK forum that has a modified .84 version that shows all.

German Forum:

SD card. I keep on reading posts of users having issue with the SD card, of their copters reacting strangely or even crashing. Non of this has been reproduced yet, also because no one is sending in of of those SD cards to the developers of MK to test it. I never had issue decided though to not use it until its tested.

Boris
 

R

RBlax

Member
I'm about to bang my head against a wall. I know it has to be under my nose, but I have connected my spektrum and my DX8 is bound to it. I have it connected to the FC board and everything is lite up perfectly. My NaviCtrl is still showing an error due to bad compass value, but shouldn't my DX8 power up the motors? I have changed my receiver to Spektrum satellit (HiRes). MicroKopter-Tools shows the inputs when I mess with the controls of the DX8. My copter has no response.
 
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Droider

Droider

Drone Enthusiast
German Forum:

SD card. I keep on reading posts of users having issue with the SD card, of their copters reacting strangely or even crashing. Non of this has been reproduced yet, also because no one is sending in of of those SD cards to the developers of MK to test it. I never had issue decided though to not use it until its tested.

Boris
Click to expand...

I have video evidence on my Youtube channel

Dave

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAmVILCUJ7k
 


O

ovdt

Member
Dave is right, you need to calibrate your compass. And be sure that your poti switches are at zero positions so they're not activating position hold or come home functions.

Here is how to calibrate the compass:

http://vimeo.com/21602317
 

R

RBlax

Member
When I tried to calibrate I do not hear the beeps. Are they supposed to come from the buzzer or the DX8?

Thanks.
 




R

RTRyder

Merlin of Multirotors
First, the motors will start without calibrating the compass, they WILL NOT start without calibrating the gyros first, throttle stick full up and yaw left, must be done every time.

Second, the buzzer must NOT be attached directly to the flight control board, it will cause problems with the compass if you do.

I recommend removing the Navi and GPS and getting the basics working first, then add the rest of it once it has flown and everything is working correctly.

Ken
 

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