MK Hexa from stock to Droidworx AD-6 - part 1

RTRyder

Merlin of Multirotors
The original build of my MK Hexa, on the bench ready to start...

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The basic frame...

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Building the power distribution board...

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Ready to connect the motors...

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RTRyder

Merlin of Multirotors
...Part 2

Almost ready for power up...

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Hmmm, a little problem with the compass board...

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Ahhh, there's the problem, nothing a little solder won't fix...

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Finally, the first time out at the flying field with all the gear...

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RTRyder

Merlin of Multirotors
...Part 3

OK, time for some upgrades, how about a nice tinted dome and high end camera mount...

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Hmmm, not quite what I wanted, let's try this...

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While I'm at it, a couple electronic upgrades as well, I2C isolation board in the stack...

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RTRyder

Merlin of Multirotors
...Part 4

Oh yeah, almost forgot the upgrade to BL 2.0 controllers on the new distribution board...

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Might as well go all the way and upgrade the camera mount too...

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Finished (for now!)...

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RTRyder

Merlin of Multirotors
What about endurance, Batteries etc.

I don't expect it to be much different than the stock frame with mkTR mount attached the weight is about the same. Until I have a chance to get out and really fly it I won't know for sure and with almost 3 feet of snow on the ground and another 6 or so inches predicted for Friday, it's going to be a while before I can get in to any decently large open space to fly an entire battery pack.

I use a pair of 2S 5000mAh packs wired in series and I was easily getting 10 minutes flying the GoPro with FPV TX and a small lipo to power it on board, that's about as much as I want to fly before landing so it works out well.
 

baker55

Member
HI Ken: your hexa looks almost identical to mine. I had a problem the other day. motor #6 won't start. Quadrocopter says it is probably the solder on the bl-ctrl but I have looked with a magnifying glass and cannot see any problem. What should I be looking for. Lights are out on #6. Not sure how to upload pictures or I would send you one. Shaun
 

Droider

Drone Enthusiast
Hi Shaun. I cannot comment on your problem but the easiest way to upload photos is via the "go Advanced" and upload a pic from the manage attachments tab.

Other wise just sign up for Photobucket or another image handling site and just copy the link from there using the insert image icon on either the post a quick reply or the advanced option.. Hope that helps with your image upload

Dave
 

RTRyder

Merlin of Multirotors
HI Ken: your hexa looks almost identical to mine. I had a problem the other day. motor #6 won't start. Quadrocopter says it is probably the solder on the bl-ctrl but I have looked with a magnifying glass and cannot see any problem. What should I be looking for. Lights are out on #6. Not sure how to upload pictures or I would send you one. Shaun

Hook it up to MKtool and see if the F/C even sees that the BL is there, if not it's likely either a bad power connection through the capacitor legs or the board has gone belly up. If it does see it then there will likely be some sort of error code that may help diagnose what is wrong.

Ken
 



RTRyder

Merlin of Multirotors
Now back from my trip to the Lone Star state it's time to get back on track with the MK projects, here's where things are at...

The Droidworx AD-6 is now sporting a set of Pulso 2814-22 motors with APC 12 x 3.8 props and the blown cap on the F/C from my voltage "experiment" has been replaced. Of course changing over from the Graupner 11 x 5 props calls for a bit of retuning on the F/C board so I saved the current settings, did a reset back to factory defaults and then made minimal settings changes to get things as stable as I can with the limited flying space here at the house. Once again a proper test will have to wait until I can get over to the flying field where I have enough room to really fly the beast, but so far it seems very stable and a lot happier with the bigger props.

Running with a pair of 4S 5000 mAh packs wired in parallel I've flown it for 15 minutes straight so far and still not hit the 80% discharge cutoff point even with the RTF weight approaching 8 pounds. Still not happy with the way the Pro Mini mount is working on the roll compensation, just can't seem to find the right setting in MKtool though some of that may be taken care of by upgrading to the new servos which I'm still waiting on.

This weekend I'm going to try to get a few good flights in while tuning the settings and get it as dialed in as possible so I can move on to the new MK currently sitting on the shelf waiting for me to find the time to finish installing the rest of the electronics stack with Navi, compass, and GPS boards.

Ken
 


RTRyder

Merlin of Multirotors
Welcom back ken, hope you had a good trip..

Have you extended the arms on your AD6?

Dave

No, still using the standard 310 mm arms. If I ever have to replace an arm then I might spring for the extended versions and try 13 inch props, but for now I think its OK with the current setup.

I'd really like to try the Avertical camera mount on the AD6 but to do that I would need the extended landing gear plates and at $180 per set I'm not in any hurry to do that. I was on the Avertical website today and see that they now make a shorter vertical arm for the mount so I may get one of those and see if I can squeeze the mount under the standard Droidworx landing gear that way, otherwise I may hang it under the Hoverfly using the MK XL landing legs provided the quad can lift the extra weight ( I think it will ).

I just finished doing some parts swapping between the new Mk and the Hoverfly and now have a box stock MK Hexa sitting on the bench with HiSight II camera mount, built using about 75% of the parts from my original MK Hexa. I've come full circle on this one, it morphed into the Droidworx AD-6 late last year and over time I've wound up replacing enough parts to have most of the original MK sitting in the parts bin, now it's a fully functional stock Hexa again. :)

Ken
 

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