Group Build 2014, DJI NAZA/F450 Quadcopter!

Motopreserve

Drone Enthusiast
Maybe @Motopreserve; will jump in and give his $0.02 cents worth.

I would say without a doubt it is the best bang for the buck. Also, although there is a learning curve - it is because the thing can do far more than any other Tx, in terms of programability - and the chice to do that right in the computer. In my opinion, it has the potential to relaly change the game in regards to how we set up our radios and how much a full featured (in fact FULLER featured radio should cost.
 

Thanks for the info. I looked at hobby king and it was $179 so I am going to go for that. It was twice as capable as the dji for $20 more.
 



Here is my home made landing gear. It is carbon/ Kevlar hybrid, with aluminum angle iron. It's fuggin stiff. I should have it on my f450 tomorrow or so.

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austinC5

Member
Well I've been flying for a few weeks now without the gimbal and camera. I finally received the gimbal and mounted the camera. I have about four or five flights using them both and made a little video that I thought I would share. Grab a beer, have a look at let me know what you think. Sorry about the length but the family wanted me to include it all.


austinC5
 
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RobBurn

Member
Well I've been flying for a few weeks now without the gimbal and camera. I finally received the gimbal and mounted the camera. I have about four or five flights using them both and made a little video that I thought I would share. Grab a beer, have a look at let me know what you think. Sorry about the length but the family wanted me to include it all.


austinC5

says the video is private
 
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austinC5

Member
AustinC5

Which gimbal have you bought?

I bought the Zenmuse H3-3D gimbal. It appears if you use it with the Naza M V2 you only have access to the camera pitch. I am assuming that if you go with the Wookong-M or A2 that you will get the option of pitch and pan functions but I will leave that for a DJI expert or someone with more knowledge on the subject to answer that part.

All that being said, I am very pleased with what I have built and I couldn't have done it without this group project.

For what it's worth let me share some information I have on batteries. I first went and got a pair of Turnigy nano-tech 4S 5000mAh batteries that weigh 585g each. They were ~$65 each at Hobby King. Before I added the gimbal I was getting about 12~13 minutes of flight time. When I added the gimbal it went down to 10 minutes. I then connected both batteries in parallel for 10,000mAh and I got about 15 minutes of flight time. I was hoping for a doubling effect but I knew that the additional weight was going to bite me but I didn't know how bad. I then went and bought a single 4S 11,00mAh, 895g battery from MaxAmps.com and took it out for a test. With the telemetry on my TX I decided to bring her back at 14.8V just to be safe and the video tells me I flew for 20 minutes. I think I could've pushed it a bit more but I was flying over asphalt and didn't want to risk it coming down hard.

The only caveat against the MaxAmps battery was the price. It was expensive but as of right now I am totally pleased and will buy another pair if this one continues to provide the same performance. Money well spent IMO.

Here is a link to some more video. This one is only 2min long and I didn't add any sound.


austinC5
 
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Sandgroper

New Member
Greetings all. !!

I have read every post on this mega-useful thread and now I am busily building my F550 with the A300 motor upgrade. I propose to begin with a basic config. (no FPV) using Wookong M.)...FPV will come later when I know I can fly the beast with some level of competance !
Now I must think about ordering some batteries for the beast and I need to get my head straight before I jump in....
As I understand it from DJI information, each motor (E300) will draw about 8 amps flat-out, thus I should make provision for a total amp draw of 48 amps.
Using the calculator model that I found here, this suggests a "C" rating , on a 5000 Mah battery could be as low as 15 and still deliver enough amps. Therefore, if I buy some quality, genuine 25 C rated batteries (say Thunderpower or similar) I should be good to go.
BTW after flying elec. helicopters on Thunderpower for 10 years now, I dont want to change...brand loyalty (haha)..plus all my chargers and balancers are for Thunderpower gear...
 

....this is a great thread guys and full of loads of useful information for complete beginners like me. I have started buying bits for my project...DJI 550, T-Motor MT2216 v2, DJI 30A OPTO ESC, my next purchase will be a DJI NAZA-M V2. One question that I do have is that I want to buy a Spektrum DX9 transmitter and a Spektrum AR9350 receiver. Are they both compatible with a DJI NAZA-M V2 flight controller?
Many thanks.
 

coreyperez

Member
Most transmitters are, I would only think that a surface based version wouldn't and probably some weird non-brand versions may not work. If I remember correctly, you need 6 channels. I really run out of channels even with a 8channels receiver.

I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND, since this will be your first build and probably do not have a lot of experience, find a radio that had tutorials on the internet.

It will save you days of heart ache.


I personally love the Futaba but the Turnigy or Tryanis (I think is how it's spelled) have a lot of upgrades and are inexpensive right the bat.

While they do lack in quality and feel compared to Futaba, they will work great as a beginner radio. My 9xr only pulls simulator duty now (especially with the availability of FASST comparable RX atRXobby king, it's nice still have (Turnigy 9xr)

Corey
 

Most transmitters are, I would only think that a surface based version wouldn't and probably some weird non-brand versions may not work. If I remember correctly, you need 6 channels. I really run out of channels even with a 8channels receiver.

I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND, since this will be your first build and probably do not have a lot of experience, find a radio that had tutorials on the internet.

It will save you days of heart ache.


I personally love the Futaba but the Turnigy or Tryanis (I think is how it's spelled) have a lot of upgrades and are inexpensive right the bat.

While they do lack in quality and feel compared to Futaba, they will work great as a beginner radio. My 9xr only pulls simulator duty now (especially with the availability of FASST comparable RX atRXobby king, it's nice still have (Turnigy 9xr)

Corey

Thanks very much. I'll have a look at those other ones you mentioned. I hope to also use it for FPV when I can afford to buy myself a GoPro early next year.
 

coreyperez

Member
As far as a GoPro, you can look at the Mobius as an alternative. If you look at my videos on YouTube www.YouTube.com/coreyperez13 all the plane videos are shot with a Mobius, The ones with me recording the helicopter (align) are shot with the GoPro. I don't see a significant difference, especially with the significant price difference.

Corey
 

here's another thing that's unclear to me. If I want to go down the FPV route, what equipment would I need for my DJI F550 with the NAZA-M v2 flight controller and Futaba T8J transmitter? I know that I would need a camera and gimbal and an FPV screen as discussed earlier in this thread

Would I need these - 2.4G bluetooth datalink? DJI IOSD Mk2?

Is it the bluetooth datalink that sends the video feed from the hexacopter to the base station?

Your help is very much appreciated.
 

coreyperez

Member
There are a few different ways to go about this. Let me start by saying "You don't save money by saving money"...

That out of the way:

I initially purchased a Boscam Transmitter & Receiver from hobbyking. (All of the FPV stuff can be stand-alone or integrated (IOSD, Antenna Tracker, etc)). That equipment didn't last too long before they started giving me trouble. I later found out that I had a bad 90deg connector and that could by why they failed, although my Immersion stuff held up.

I initially went 5.8ghz, mainly to say within line of sight (LOS) have have just recently got my Long Range System (LRS) together, and I intend to use the 5.8 on the backside of the 1.3gHz stuff (1.3 TX on the aircraft and 1.3 RX connected to base station, 1.3 video out into a 5.8gHz Transmitter and my goggles will receive the 5.8. Plus then I can use my 5.8 stuff for local flights.

You don't need to purchase the DJI datalink, you can use just good ol' (Immersion is what I use) 5.8gHz (600mw) transmitter and their receiver. This can very easily tie into the DJI iOSD, I've got two (One on my TBS Discovery and one on Tarot 690). They get the information from the DJI and overlay it on the video camera's image. You can go with the much less expensive DJI iOSD, (vs. the Mk2). Search Ebay, I think I got both for around 75$ ea.

As far as video screen, I just initially obtained a 7" screen on Amazon. (Link below).

I put everything in a tablet pelican case. (Link Below)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00C17FS52/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
(Signstek 7 inch TFT Color LCD Car Rear View Camera Monitor Support Rotating The Screen and 2 AV Inputs)

Base Station and component list:
http://www.multirotorforums.com/sho...-boy-with-a-Base-Station&highlight=coreyperez

Corey
 


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