Hello from Milton Keynes UK

Hi Guys,

Been lurking off and on for a bit and it's time to say hi.

I'm new to RC in general but multi rotors have really caught my attention. I've had an AR.Drone for a short while but never really enjoyed flying it until recently when I came across Miru's RC mod. Now I've out grown it as its a toy really. It's not done bad though and has just about dragged around my GoPro.

I recently got to see a MK hexa in action and that's what made be get into building a 'proper quad'.

So far I have built a sub 1kg carbon fiber quad with a Hoverfly Pro FC and am getting used to building, soldering and the hardest bit FLYING. I'm not doing too bad but I need to refine the quad a bit and get the gains all sorted before I can get some proper practice in. The plan is to add the GoPro on a 2 axis gimbal and FPV only once I'm confident in piloting the quad. Even then I'm not planning on flying with goggles, it's just so I can see if the camera is framed right.

I know a few different people making mountain biking videos and armature level and it would be great to help them out with some AV. More than that though it's about having something to do in the evenings once the kids are in bed and the mrs is studying as I'm not getting out on the bike as much recently. So far I've realy enjoyed the challenges that come along with building a quad from scratch.

Right now I'm waiting a few parts to make adjustments and repairs but here's where I'm at...



Untitled by demowayne, on Flickr
 

ZAxis

Member
Nice to see another UK MR user. Just out of interest, where did you see the MK Hexa that inspired you ?
 


Droider

Drone Enthusiast
Hi Wayno.. Welcome to MRF.

I am sure you will get all the help you need here. Ther are a couple of old grumpy buggers.. (me for one) but on the whole there aint a better plece for info and gerneral chat on MR's

I am arranging a meet / flyin / mind melt on the 22/23 October.. there are a few people traveling up from the south.. one coming from Turkey.. You would be more than welcome to come along and join us.. heres the link

http://www.multirotorforums.com/showthread.php?959-UK-Europe-MRF-Community-Meet

Again Welcome and enjoy MRF.. just holler if you need assistance

Dave
 

Droider

Drone Enthusiast
It was at twentyfour12, a 24 hour mountain bike race. Lec(?) is the pilot I think, he did the event promo vid.
That would be the guy who made... 'Home' Mark I think.. met him recentley on my BNUC course..

Check this out

 
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Thanks for the heads up on the event, I'm in. Was trying to get some locals together on rcg, I have access to a large empty (but dirty) warehouse for a short time and I am trying to negotiate with the boss to allow a few visitors too.

Is there a link missing from that last post? ;-)
 




so on a PC i ca see the vid! was on an ipad before...

That would be the guy who made... 'Home' Mark I think.. met him recentley on my BNUC course..

Check this out


Thats Glentress, i was there tuesday and wednesday riding those very trails while i was up training the guys in the new bike shop there. Got to ride to 'cheeky trails' over at Inners too, good HOT few days in the boarders.
 
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Droider

Drone Enthusiast
so on a PC i ca see the vid! was on an ipad before...



Thats Glentress, i was there tuesday and wednesday riding those very trails while i was up training the guys in the new bike shop there. Got to ride to 'cheeky trails' over at Inners too, good HOT few days in the boarders.


Ah Inners.. check out my other site

www.mtbvideos.co.uk

Matador is my favourite track of all times.. well in UK anyhow


Started thinking about using hellies for filming coz I am getting to old and busted for chase filming these days!
 
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Rebuild time

Had a total rebuild.

New centre plates cut from G10 GF buy a guy in the US on RCG, drilled out myself. The booms, motor mount and boom clamos are from the old quad. All the wireing is now internal to the booms and the main body. Much neater build. The plates are drilled for Y6 also and when the ESC's and larger props (for the bottom motors) arrive i will make the transformation.

Flew fine first time alough i did short a battery on first connection, second time ive made the same mistake!



I have also built my own landing gear and camera mount. The legs are CF plane landing gear from hoby king with 12mm booms attached with P clamps, not pretty or light but its what i had and does the job.

The camera mount is from aglhobbies, the gopro goes on the front and a battery counter balances on the rear. There are six vibration dampers conecting the mount to the landing gear, thease are also from aglhobbies. The mass of the camera and battery should help with the damping i hope.



The two are seperate right now as the drillings to join the two will only work once it is Y6, got a bit drill happy before measuring...



This is how it should look if i could mount them together. Oh well, it will do soon...




Untitled by demowayne, on Flickr

Still have a camera gimbal to mount in the future but this'll do for now.
 

The y6 build went well at the UK meet but I couldn't update the firmware there.

Did this today. It flew perfectly first time! Oh yea.

Way more stable than the quad and handled the high blustery wind really well. It's pulling way more current though (expected) and I'm gonna have to upgrade my batteries, for now I'll run two 3s 2200mAh in parallel.
 

Here you go, its looking a bit scrappy at the moment as i'm playing with the m2m distance and moving the motor mounts up and down the booms, theres way too many lose wires. It will go all internal again once i've found the right boom length.

AUW is 2kg, more than i had calculated :-S










Untitled by demowayne, on Flickr

Due to the floating camera plate and battery mount being quite long it gets in the way of the rear boom and i cant reduce the boom length as much as i want to try, i may try another solution for the camera and include the gimble. Basicly i may attach the gimbel to the landing gear directly and use the rubber anti vibration mounts between the landing gear and airframe (an great idea picked up from seeing all the MR's at the UK meet, thanks guys!)
 



Coax RULES!

Top rear prop just flew off while it was about 12' off the ground (the collet adapted is knackered it seems) but it was completely controlable and i was able to counter the rearward drift and make a safe landing with no damage! Didn't seem to yaw as much as i thought it would have with a prop out.

Its Y6, X8 or Octo all the way from here, redundancy IS needed if your using cheap gear thats not reliable (or you have rubbish building skills).

I'm very happy with the HFP board too, as im learning i'm finding out that its my build and lack of experience thats not living up to the HFP's capabilities. Not the other way around.
 

Changed again.

Rustys camera plate has gone and now the Jacubs gimbal and LG are hard connected but the LG to airframe has vibration dampers.




Untitled by demowayne, on Flickr

this was so i can try shorter booms (the battery tray was getting in the way) and to add the gimbal. Problem is now the LG and rotors are now in the shot (damn gopro!).

Roll test vid uploading now (need a servo lead for the tilt to reach, ordered)...
 

So for slow movements the roll is OK, for fast movements (about 1.40 onwards) the roll just cant keep up.


Still some vbration too, i wonder if propwash on the LG is causing it as the vibration damping is very soft and active.


Boring vid mind...


 
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