Group Build 2014, DJI NAZA/F450 Quadcopter!



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David1953

Member
First of all, thanks to everyone's responses. Especially Bartman's videos. I have a barebones 450 flying! This thread is 2 years old and still active because of my kind (novice) still needing help.
View attachment 24129
I have a short video of it flying from my iPhone, but the file won't upload
So here is where I'm going to try to contribute a little info that would only help a total neophyte:
1. COST: $1574.52
This includes everything, including small tools & soldering gun, the charger ( icharger 206b), the radio(Taranis) & receiver, the Flamewheel 450 frame, tiger motors, Turnigy ESC's with NAZA v2 + GPS, Turnigy 4s batteries(3), connectors, heat shrink, some wire.
2. What I didnt know by reading the thread: not much and maybe I just missed it
Buy a program card (about $6) for the programmable ECS
Tiger motors don't really "spin" in the NAZA assistant motor test, they only twirk. So I had a motor going backwards even though I tested them several times before a test flight. So you know how that went. You have to have the assistant setting for motor speed above normal to arm the motors
There is absolutely NO useful information that came in paper form with anything I ordered, so without forums like this and videos a novice would have no shot at building anything. Also, if you buy a Taranis radio, Scott Pages's videos are indispensable.
3. Listen to everyone that says to keep it simple and just get it flying It has been incredibly more challenging than I imagined, but I'm still glad I did it and I havent even gotten to the FPV part. David
 

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tstrike

pendejo grande
David1953 said:
First of all, thanks to everyone's responses. Especially Bartman's videos. I have a barebones 450 flying! This thread is 2 years old and still active because of my kind (novice) still needing help.
View attachment 24129
I have a short video of it flying from my iPhone, but the file won't upload
So here is where I'm going to try to contribute a little info that would only help a total neophyte:
1. COST: $1574.52
This includes everything, including small tools & soldering gun, the charger ( icharger 206b), the radio(Taranis) & receiver, the Flamewheel 450 frame, tiger motors, Turnigy ESC's with NAZA v2 + GPS, Turnigy 4s batteries(3), connectors, heat shrink, some wire.
2. What I didnt know by reading the thread: not much and maybe I just missed it
Buy a program card (about $6) for the programmable ECS
Tiger motors don't really "spin" in the NAZA assistant motor test, they only twirk. So I had a motor going backwards even though I tested them several times before a test flight. So you know how that went. You have to have the assistant setting for motor speed above normal to arm the motors
There is absolutely NO useful information that came in paper form with anything I ordered, so without forums like this and videos a novice would have no shot at building anything. Also, if you buy a Taranis radio, Scott Pages's videos are indispensable.
3. Listen to everyone that says to keep it simple and just get it flying It has been incredibly more challenging than I imagined, but I'm still glad I did it and I havent even gotten to the FPV part. David
Click to expand...

Nice!!!!
 

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David1953

Member
Thanks tstrike
Also remembered this - order extra Flamewheel legs and arms at beginning so you aren't like me now waiting 3 weeks for replacements after multiple crashes
And , I ordered EC3 connectors, but couldn't get the battery wires from the 4s batteries into the bullet. So, I returned them to Progressive RC (they were very nice folks) and ordered their easy solder EC5 which worked nicely. David
 

jimlaheysadrunk

jimlaheysadrunk

Member
hey everyone!
i have pretty much completed my build but i have run into an issue.

i have calibrated my transmitter in the Naza-M Lite assistant, but i cant seem to get it out of failsafe mode. when i flip my switches, i can see it changing modes in the RC window, but at the bottom of the assistant next to the red and blue lights it says MODE: Failsafe no matter what i have tried. if i unplug the naza from my pc, it flashes a yellow led very fast. any help is greatly appreciated.

im using a Dx6i and an AR610 with the Naza M Lite w/gps.

im really pleased with how its come along given how much of a noob i am to this scale of RC stuff. any help with this issue would be greatly appreciated. id be happy to post videos or whatever. thanks in advance everyone!!!

EDIT: i am able to get the motors up and running if i remove the lead that is going from GEAR on the receiver to the U slot on the Naza. When i program the transmitter, the switches are working as they should be according to the tutorial i followed, but i still cant get it to leave MODE: Failsafe in Naza Assistant when GEAR and the GPS puck are plugged in. not sure if i need a new reciever maybe? i cant really find much info about the AR610.

EDIT 2: SUCCESS IT FIES!!!! i managed to figure out the problem, it ended up being as simple as adjusting the gear travel distance. after that i was able to arm the motors and try to fly it.

maiden flight (well, lift off) was terrible. the qaud flipped over and broke 2 props lol. luckily through my research i knew almost immediately what the problem was most likely to be. the motors were in the wrong positions on the naza, 1 was in 2, 2 was in 1, and so on. swapped them up and BAM flying.
 
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Pumpkinguy

Pumpkinguy

Member
I can't believe I haven't been in this thread before now. Lol. This is awesome. I thought it was a group building 1 aircraft. This is really cool
 

Mario2k

Mario2k

Member
Hi Guys

UPDATE:
Throttle was reversed in Naza Assistant :) now changed to Normal and motors starts withaout any problem

My maiden flight on 11th April 2015 :
 
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Peeliewally

Member
hi there, I have a few question regarding my newly built F550. Any advice would be greatly appreciated:
1. I have a Futaba T8J transmitter & bundled 8 channel receiver. I have connected the receiver to my Naza M V2 using a single cable between the S.Bus port on the receiver and port X2 on my Naza. I have a set of LED navigation lights that I want to be able to switch on/off using my Futaba so where do I connect the LED lights to and on which port? I'm also having trouble understanding the settings when I try to setup failsafe and the three position switches C or E for my different flight modes. Many thanks, Gary
 

Mario2k

Mario2k

Member
In my case all knowledge about, how to setup transmiter I have found on YouTube , try it mate
 
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Peeliewally

Member
Thanks Mario2k. Futaba now all configured, thanks to watching some youtube videos, over and over until I got the grasp of it. Tomorrow is maiden voyage day if the weather is nice. Fingers crossed. I'll try and get a video of the event and post a link :)
 

D

David1953

Member

I hope this plays. Using Möbius camera. Too scared to put anything better on it due to crashes. No idea where I got that awful music.
Just want to thank everyone again for answering my questions.
FPV is next.
 

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Peeliewally

Member
Lovely weather, DJI 550 in the car and off to the countryside for my maiden voyage. Everything charged the night before. Arrived at a nice quiet spot, hexacopter out, futaba powered on, hexacopter powered on, GPS location calibrated, Naza LED flashing steady green....all ready to go...stand back a few metres and throttle up to 50% then ready for take off.....a bit more power and then constant flashing red LED and hexacopter will not take off. Tried several times after powering off and recalibrating GPS but will not take off. Moved a few miles away and still the same. We were in open countryside with no objects or mountains in the way. Any ideas?
Futaba transmitter set to GPS Atti mode and Home lock on
 

econfly

econfly

Member
You should not be in home lock on takeoff (IOC should be off). This may be the problem. Home lock requires 10 meters distance or more from you to the copter, and you engage it after takeoff.

If that isn't it, here are the NAZA LED codes. Flashing red is a power problem or general catch all for other errors. If you are seeing blinking green (GPS mode with good position lock) and a move to flashing red on power up, voltage settings in the assistant may be wrong. Go to the advanced -> voltage tab in the assistant and check that everything is correct (or just turn voltage checking off for your first flight to confirm this is the problem).

If compass is calibrated the only other thing I can think of is you might need to calibrate the IMU (under Tools, then click on "check IMU status).
 
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Peeliewally

Member
Thanks econfly. Two faults were pointed out to me. I hadn't set-up the voltage warning levels on the MC. I also had the props fitted the wrong way round. I thought the L & R markings on top of my props were to signal the travel direction when viewed from above. I was told that this was the case when viewing your aircraft from below and hence I had fitted all my props the wrong way round. Haven't had a chance to test today but will have a go tomorrow after work if conditions are good. Thanks again.
 


eskil23

eskil23

Wikipedia Photographer
My F550 had its maiden flight this morning. Still a lot of components missing (no gimbal, no camera, no video link, no position lights, no flight data recorder) but the frame as such flew like a charm.

Because the gimbal was missing it was a bit unballanced, so I had two flips before I figured it out. The propguards saved the day.
 

Mario2k

Mario2k

Member
Good Luck eskil23

Meanwhile I made some upgrades :
View attachment 24528

To finish my quad I just need 2 servo cables , awaiting delivery on Tuesday .
 

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eskil23

eskil23

Wikipedia Photographer
I finaly got the failsafe switch set up yesterday. Since it was non-trivial I thougt I should post how I did it to save others from futute headache.

The U-port actually has no less than seven levels:
1) Failsafe
2) GPS
3) Failsafe
4) ATTI
5) Failsafe
6) Configurable (I set this to Manual)
7) Failsafe

I connect channel 7 on my rx to the U-port on the NAZA and assign a three-way switch on the tx to channel 7.

Next I hook up the NAZA-assistant to view the input on the U-port and use the trim and endpoint functions on the tx to align the levels to GPS, ATTI and Manual.

So far all quite straigt forward. But I want to be able to switch to Failsafe as well. I did that by creating a "condition" named "Failsafe" in the tx and assign a two-way switch to switch between "Normal" and "Failsafe".

Then I configured a channel offset of +25% on channel 7 when condition "Failsafe" is active. This unalignes the levels on the U-port.

The result is that when switch C is off, I have GPS-ATTI-Manual on switch A. When switch C is on, I have Failsafe-Failsafe-Manual on switch A.
 

eskil23

eskil23

Wikipedia Photographer
eskil23 said:
My F550 had its maiden flight this morning. Still a lot of components missing (no gimbal, no camera, no video link, no position lights, no flight data recorder) but the frame as such flew like a charm.
Click to expand...
Second flight last friday. Still no gimbal or video-link, but working position lights, Flytrex flight data recorder and my Nikon1 J3 zip-tied to the frame between the front arms. Unfortunately, the video is to large for me to publish. I'll have to get some video editing software to cut and downsample it first.

Flytrex data:
http://www.flytrex.com/mission/johan-fredriksson-ZFjImiYn/

I decided to try the Failsafe-function too. It worked well. As soon as I hit the switch it stopped to respond to commands. A bit scary, especially since I could not regain control by flipping the switch back. It was a few anxious moments while it flew around randomly by itself until it decided to land at the very spot it took off from (no more then a feet of, even with the nose pointing in the same direction).

After reading up, I realized that I can not go from Failsafe to GPS-mode. I have to go from Failsafe to ATTI.
 

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