Jon's long delayed multiple-multi-build compilation (2014) - My year in drones

[Pfuschendennarr]

Hey guys,
So I started with drones with the start of this year!
I think it was the end of last December when I started to built my first f550 (having owned an ardrone2.0 a year prior).
It started with one drone, and quickly branched into my full fledged obsession. It grew from a big investment, to the dump of all my time and money and fun.

Bear with me, as this is essentially my full growth, from where drones plugged me into skynet, to the drone of drones I've become today. Now fully immersed in the Matrix.

My first build, i do not currently have pictures of, but everyone has seen an f550 so we will just skip ahead to where I started to branch out.

Off of RCTimer I saw the rct800 arms and decided I wanted to try upgrading to a hex 800. I didn't put the most thought into it (abut I couldn't resist the arms).
That said, I haphazardly threw this together.

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It soon became clear that this was not a good setup to use (sunnysky 2216-11 900II's)
It was too heavy with the arms and ran too hot, but this was the kickoff for things to come.
It worked and flew great, but with my only motors at the time, I switched back to the standard 550.

While eager to use these arms, my friend and co multirotor addict guru gave me an extra spider frame he had, and I soon was making plans to build a spyder 700 quad.
Sorry I cant get the photo rotation to stick.
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I started with the frame
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Got some sunnysky 3508 s 680kv motors
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Added LEDs with remote Lighting control as I waited on ESCS
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And proceeded to take a break as I learned my lessons about removing props before doing... anything
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I got a Imp 2 axis gimbal, and finally got the whole thing assembled.
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I had a bad accident where I shorted out my naza lite, and went through the gauntlet of using a kk2.0, APM 2.5, and finally settled on running it on a nazav2 because... I cant help but love naza.

Sadly i don't have any pictures of it flying right now, but all assembled this big winged monster was tearing through the skies with great run times on 4s (3700x2 zippy compact 4s or just one)
The gimbal worked great on the nose (I have some video I can upload later) but I never went ahead to balance the props and the video was shaky,
Another drawback was that try as I might, I could not remove all of the erratic dipping when using any considerable yaw on this arrangement. Still, for forward flight, this thing handled great and smooth.

From here on out, my obsession hit the fan. I no longer wanted to build using stock frames.. I wanted to make my own designs and do scratch builds.
I grew impatient of my plans to build a CNC machine, and went to harbor freight to pick up a band saw, sanding belt, and drill press.

I started small building a gimbal plate/battery/fpv holster with wire suspension.
It turned out great, but the overall clearance required by the rig has kept it grounded.

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After this, I tore pretty much everything i ever built apart for parts to keep on building.
My first scratch build was just a design practice. I decided to build a simple, small quad.

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My three tools, set up in my apartments kitchen workshop (The only non carpeted space I've got)

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So for those noticing, I was just figuring out the data link, so yes I do have the bluetooth module ON the copter briefly in this picture, but it was corrected and moved shortly after
This little guy sadly only flew for about 3 minutes before I learned my lesson about using that wood, clipped a wall, and snapped 3 of the 4 legs right off the bat.
It was a set back, but I was happier that it flew, and quite well, within my apartment before that came to pass.
It was enough to get me antsy for more.

Next, i went stupidly big.
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I took a half inch cedar board, and alumin U brackets to build the frame for this dump truck of a hex.
it did not fly anything amazing, and I didnt keep it together long enough to really dial in the gains. But it flew, and it didnt crash. WIN!
I did not like the flight characteristics of it however, and was quick to salvage everything off the frame (I still have all my frames, but most of them are just skeletons)
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Sadly this is the best picture I have of this messy mostrosity before I scavenged it for parts.

Finally I decided to take to more serious designs. I was going to build a mid size spider quad

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This was by far my most successful design and build
I made it using quarter inch cedar, aluminum, and actual planning!
It turned out great and is still my main midsize quad copter for fpv use and aerial joyriding. (I can upload fpv video from it if anyone is interested in seeing)

At this point... my friend and I started to go small. All the blackout quads really inspired us to start moving in a smaller direction.
First I built a frame for him to run some RCX motors on. He is still gearing up to mount everything on it, but it is a tiny 86 gram wood frame with aluminum arms

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This one is designed specifically for a small board cam, fpv equiptment, and to go fast!
It is either getting a set of RCX motors or the new RCTimer 1806-2300kv (awesome motors!!!!)
I cant wait to see it fly.

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Also, if anyone is interested, once we finish deciding on a design, we are probably going to start selling some really simple micro frames out of wood (The Mini H Woody)
The idea being, its light, its sturdy, and its wood components are so cheap and simple to make that they can be easily replaced and repaired without the headache of expensive broken fiberglass.
We are still on the verge of assembling and fine tuning this idea, but here is the alpha!

So by this time... I really wanted a mini quad, and I finally got some motors in! The new RCTimer 1806 2300kv motors (released a couple weeks ago)
So... with that said, I went to town all last week building my first quad using carbon fiber found cheap off ebay (fiberglass backed)
THIS IS THE SEXY BUILD (by comparison)
View attachment 18450Selfie in my shiny new carbonfiber

View attachment 18451The design

View attachment 18452The design cut best I could using my bandsaw (Rushing out of fear of dying from Carbon and Fiberglass dust despite my dust mask)

View attachment 18454Cut the top plate for protective purposes, or to work in tandem with GPS (the boom can snuggle into that nook) Holes need to be drilled

View attachment 18453this would look pretty fun as a tri, but im sticking to my plan!

View attachment 18456And the legs

View attachment 18455Some fresh air from the dusty apartment

View attachment 18461 I made the spacer plate out of cedar and gave the arms some bones to keep them rigid.

View attachment 18460I got some nice cheap sets of cf landing gear and... they fit perfect!

View attachment 18458Motor holes FINALLY drilled successfully. Shes got muscle now.

View attachment 18457My little race car, I'TS ALIVE!
View attachment 18459A little info, the lower plate was cut out of cedar, but may eventually be replaced with CF.

This was completed today with a special thanks to my buddy Jason.
Its running a KK2.1 software.
Still needs some tuning, but flies pretty great. A racer for sure. These new RCTimer motors haul serious ***.
I am running 5030 cf props (came with a set) but intend to switch to some gemfan props to keep the motors safer. These CF props run the risk of bent shafts and broken bearings from any minor mishaps.

I intend to throw my fpv rig onto it to use it as my fpv racer. BlackoutTheDrunk made me too envious of his flights.
I'll have more updates on this in the coming days as it gets finished and dialed in.

I'll have videos to share from it soon!

Im testing a few batteries
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But also need to start trimming back the frame to save weight wherever possible, just because I want it to be as nimble as it can..
The spider eyes I have on the top lid were actually drilled out so I could see the screen of the KKBoard for tunings sake.

All in all, flies great! my current pride and joy.

Nonetheless, I cant stop here. I hope to learn from every build and improve as I continue,
I have two builds lined up to begin once the mini winds down.

First I am going to make a mini spider hex
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(arms still need adjusted)

And a large quad for more serious AP and AV purposes.
(Using 450 plates (doubled), the RCTimer arms and Sunnysky 580kv motors again)

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I am keeping busy, but fully obsessed with drones, so expect to see more builds, designs, and all around fun from me.

Sorry I did not give much detail into these builds as I went through them. This is a lot to dump all at once. If you have any questions, i'd be happy to discuss. Let me know what you guys think!
I know I haven't really posted much in depth about these builds, but I'd be happy to tell you about what went into any of it, and would love to know what you guys think. Suggestions also welcome!

Cheers, Hope you enjoy,
-Jon

 

[Jindalee10368]

Thanks for the interesting story and pictures.

With the RCT 800 arms, would you be kind enough to weigh one?

The RC Timer page doesn't mention weight, and does not answer to questions about this.
I guess they are too busy and don't really want customers money.

Did you notice much flex with these arms?

 

[Pfuschendennarr]

Oh look, a reply!

Well to do my good turn, the RCT800 arms are very stiff. Very little flex, although if you're running huge motors, and dont balance your props well, it will carry the vibes.
They weigh.. (one second)... approximately 110 grams.
Pretty heavy. I ran a hex with them using sunnysky 2216 motors, and they could fly it, but the motors ran a bit hotter than I liked without any additional load.
Its no carbon fiber tube. They are really durable though. If you have big motors, go to town. They look nice, give your standard dji fit frames a nice low profile, and they are cheap for arms of their type.
I imagine them to be no less stiff than the DJI variants. The material seems much denser and tougher than the standard 450 arm material.

For the money id say they are great. I bought... 12 i think. I've run them on two quads, a hex, and they work out pretty good all things considered. If you want to make them even stiffer, ive seen videos of someone epoxying on a carbon fiber plate to it *shrug* i don't think its necessary. At all.

Best of luck. You should go for it. For ~12 a pair, they are very worth it.

 

[Jindalee10368]

Thanks for the great reply Jon.

110g for RCT800 arms - you're not wrong - they are relatively heavy.
Appreciate you weighing them.
I'm sure others will find this info handy, when they Google it!

I was looking for plastic alternatives to the Aimdroix ally extended arms.
(These only weigh 62g each and are a 100mm extension on standard DJI arms, which allows for props up to 14".)

Some suggest learning to fly with the plastic arms because if/when you crash, the aluminum arms only transfer the break point to the upper/lower plates.
... which become more of a pain to replace, rather than swapping out broken plastic arms.
This makes absolute sense.

But my whole F450 design is based upon longer than standard arms so I can use 12 or 13" props.
And I have strict AUW limit to observe (2000g, not a gram more) including camera payload.

Some plastic arms around 550-600mm would be perfect.
...thinking about it though, when I'm building my skills up, I won't have any payload anyway (that would be stoopid), so the extra weight of these RCT800 arms isn't a big deal at all.

What FC were you using?
(I am planning to go for a Wookong-M right from the very start - I like the POI feature.)
I've read here that some WK builds with extended arms misbehave.
I can't see what that has to do with the WK specifically, but more to do with overall balance and alignment issues.

Keep posting.
Will be keen to see your F450 build with double plates.
... and remember, for every one person that bothers to post, there will 100 others that are watching as well.

 

[Pfuschendennarr]

Right now I am flying mostly Naza lite, v2, and a kk2 with the 2.1 firmware.
I also bought an APM2.6, but it was dysfunctional (unlucky ebay buy, i tried reflashing the bootloader, but still cannot upload any firmware onto it) but I messaged the seller and they are actually sending me a replacement, woo! I also have a multiwii that I havent messed with much yet as well.
I have heard that the wookong has had a few incidents of unexplained crashes that have not been resolved with firmware (i don't know if this is truly true).

The v2 has been great to me though. Flies everything like a breeze although, while having a datalink, I have done most of my flying without it. I will probably do most of my videography via fpv through the gimbal, but once i switch to a 3axis gimbal I'll fly while my friend controls the cam, and vice versa with his rigs.

Once I get my current rig (I just rebuilt my f550 rig using the standard arms and the ss2216 900kv II motors. Love them. Those motors have given me nothing but happiness). I just finished building retracts, and a gimbal/battery tray assembly, and took it up for its maiden yesterday. Flies great, the retracts work great (cost about 40-50 to build including using some tarot legs I purchased at some point). I think the propwash is hitting my gopro causing minor vibrations, but I'll address that in the next few days. I may also need to tune the gains on it a bit.

As far as the 450 with double plates, I built it, and the extra space given by the side ledges is nice. In addition, its nice and sturdy, and its perfect for mounting on a set of retracts similar to the one i built.
It is however, currently grounded due to one of the motors having a minor problem that really shows during yaw. It's lost control a few times, so until I can get it repaired I am putting it on hold.

On a positive note, I do have one new build to show you. I completed it last week, though I need to tear the motors off and replace the 1804 (rcx motors) with the 1806 sunnyskies.
Either I need to reflash the escs which are getting absurdly hot fast, or the motors are just drawing too much for them to handle, but the 1806's should draw less amperage on the load I've got it running.
Let me toss some pics in.
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This is from tonight, testing out the gopro rig, This is just a screencap taken from the video I shot

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Starting build of my minihex

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I know the v2 was overkill, but the 450x2 build was on hold, and i just wanted to have gps for safetys sake. Not enough spare props for these minis.

And as a crude look at my new wip film rig.
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As for that 450 in the corner it is not mine.
Some guy asked me to repair it, left it with me, and wont take the nightmare back.
Everything about it is a pita. Some feiyu tech fc that may or may not suck, but its hard to tell because the escs are too slow, the motors have issues, and came with 3 10x4.5 props and 1 10x5.5 prop.
I just want it to leave me alone v_v.

But yeah, I wish I had some pictures of any of these in action. I will probably this weekend take a lot more video and get better pictures of the family. Constantly growing.
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The wooden quad is also still around, but I intend to convert it into a tricopter! so that should be interesting. I have some random carbon fiber arms I am going to use with it.
My quad buddy Jason gave me his tri frame with its servo to use in the build. Really nice guy, a great friend for a propeller head.

Main aim now is to really dial in the cinema quad, and refine my build process for the retracts.
Oh, and my friend got the little woody frame built and it flies great! woo!

But yeah, thanks for the encouragement. The builds will hopefully be getting better every time! I appreciate the feedback.
I dont mean to be impatient. Whenever anyone replies is good, I'll keep building regardless, but its cool to have an active community to help fuel the addiction!
Any ideas or suggestions will definitely be taken into consideration. I like to try new and weird ideas. xD