Lupus Flys

It's been a few weeks since posting but have been getting on with the build, although its been a staggered process. Waiting for parts to arrive has been the main bug bear. Even so, the build has progressed nicely and my prediction of having the quad in the air by mid January 2015 has been spot on. So, what has been happening? 

The FC has been moved to the bottom plate. Reason being that all the electronics are protected and also the Receiver (Rx) can sit on the bottom plate too. One of the problems I've encountered with the plates on the quad are that there is not enough room to just lay parts on. Careful consideration is required. 

The arrival of the Turnigy x9 Transmitter (Tx) also arrived in the first week of January. It comes with an 8 channel receiver. Really excited and set about connecting the Rx (as in the image above). I had already downloaded the Ground Control Station (GCS), updated the FC firmware to the latest release 14.10 - Mini Me!

Going through the wizard setting up the 9X was a breeze until I tried setting the switches. A bit fiddly and very confusing especially to a novice like myself. programming the switches would give me control of different flight modes and a few other functions. Even after a visit to my brother who has the same transmitter, couldn't resolve the issue. Solution, bought a modification for the 9X called a 9x Solderless Programmer Board from SmartieParts.com. As the name suggests, no soldering, just open the transmitter, follow instructions (available on the web via Youtube) and connect to a computer via USB and change settings - easy (well sort of)! Had a two week wait but in the main time I was able to test fly the quad with basic controls and conjure up mess about with some mods of mine, like the receiver mod in the photos below.

As the Receiver module came with the aerial as a floppy cable  I had a brainwave to made a support so it stood in a vertical position. Using an old bit of packing from some long unpacked item, I thought this bit of plastic tubing would do as a base.

Cur tube to length and ground out a groove for the floppy bit of the aerial cable to fit in. Bottom of the red section fitted snugly into the tube. 

Sanded the transmitter to give a rough surface for a bit of glue gun action.

Finished off with a bit of electrical tape for a smart finish ;).

As a precaution and from a previous experience of losing a micro, I bought a battery alarm from makeitbuildit.co.uk (excellent service if I say so myself). They are cheap and very useful in more ways than I can describe. Also added a Bluetooth module which is great for wireless connection to the FC via a computer or an android device. For the time being I connected via USB to configure. More on this later.

After basic settings & configurations, I then balanced some of the 10" props I had bought. Prop balancing is a tedious process but from research, seems a good exercise to be undertaken. My understanding is that it helps with reducing the wear and tear on the motors and reduces vibration in the craft, allowing for a stable flying experience. If anyone else has a better explanation, I am willing to edit this post - after all, I am just learning and cannot profess to know everything. 

The 10" props have still not been fitted to the quad yet as I have been having issues sourcing a set of clockwise rotating props, and the ones I had wouldn't fit properly. 

Checking the Hobbyking UK warehouse, at the time, stated that they were out of stock. In the mean time, I was given a couple of sets of 9" self-tightening props buy my brother to get me started. To date, I am still using the 9" props and enjoying them, although I am now down to one set of 4 and a few spares.

First test was conducted to see if the quad fired up correctly, it didn't flip due to improper motor or prop rotation and not magic puff of smoke. Very short test and successful it was - Yay!

Gosh, didn't have to move the throttle too much and realised this was much more powerful than any RC model I had played with before. By the way, the rasping sound near the end was NOT the kitchen furniture being cut to size but was the battery strap flapping due to prop wash lifting it up towards the props. Took it as a time to stop test and too out the very next day for its maiden flight. Not forgetting the missus moaning about carving up the kitchen furniture :).

Following day, I headed off to Tottenham Marshes for the inaugural test flight.

Video quality was not very good as I was using an old handheld 720p camera sitting in my breast pocket. Working on a different solution that will be attached to a cap. Anyway, as I'm just a novice full of excitement, it didn't take long for me to crash. Within minutes (more like seconds), the aerial mod had fallen off. Tucked it into the frame and carried on. Hoovering was the game and learning how to control the quad. Learning its characteristics and throttle movements. Step by step! Inevitably, I crashed it again. This time snapping off a chunk of a rear prop. Battery alarm sounded almost immediately - I hadn't charged the battery after spending time setting the quad up. Off home I went. Later, chatting to fellow experienced RC pilots on the forum, I was told height was my friend - more time to recover and less prop wash to affect the stability of the quad. Sound advice, but when your confidence is reminiscent to a bag of nerves, height is worry and not a consideration. Confidence is the luxury of the experienced. Coupled with patience the confidence grows.

About two weeks after ordering, the Smartiparts board arrived. Hastily fitted the board and then set about installing the custom firmware. I chose the er9x firmware and eepe EEPROM editor combo, mainly because that's what my brother had installed and also came very highly recommended as stated earlier in the post and others. Always try and go for what everyone else is using - the tried & tested method. If something goes wrong, there's always support. 

Setting it up was supposed to be simple but hit a few snags. Firstly, use a Windows PC to do the initial configuration. I have several PCs with several Operating Systems (cause that's how I roll), and at the time I was working on my newly installed Debian Wheezy laptop (64bit architecture). That failed to load up the editor, then moved onto my Macbook Pro. Everything loaded but no communication or other requiring extra patches etc etc. Long and short of the matter, it was easier and quicker to use Windows. As Windows is one of the OSs I'm moving away from, I had to 'borrow' the missus's laptop. After this setup, I could then go back to the Macbook Pro.

Setting up mixer channels, it is now much easier and quicker to configure the added switches and dials on the transmitter. So, the three position switch was one of the controls set. Now I have three flight modes. Next was a test flight in the back yard.

No test flight is worth it if there isn't a crash. Another lesson learn't. Avoid testing in a yard if its anything like mine. Its narrow but long. I could have gone further into the yard where its wider but I opted for the concrete section and it cost me another blade. Again, so focused on one element and didn't consider other factors. All further test flights would have to be conducted in open areas with little or no obstructions.

Art builds a Quad

I am a novice to this hobby of model flying. Previous experience in RC flying was via a birthday present from the missus. A micro helicopter with a spycam. Indoor flying only, but got the hang of the fairly simple controls, then the camera stopped working by the time I got fairly good at it. Still got it and once in a while fly. The next thing I bought was a Hubsan X4 107C with standard camera. flew this indoors quite regularly and outside in the back yard when the weather was fine. Took it to the local park and had an interesting time. Dropped it into a nice bramble hedge. Had to climb in, well more over the top, laying my jacket down and crawling over. still got stabbed though. After this, I upgraded the propellers and swapped out the standard video module for an High Definition one. Took it out for a fly in the same park. Although a sunny day there was a breeze. A breeze I thoroughly misjudged! It was on the third battery that my beloved X4 was taken by a sudden gust of wind. I  watched haplessly as it was spirited away. Spent almost an hour looking but alas, I came home alone. Lost a modded micro on its maiden flight. With it, the HD video I was shooting on a 4GB SD card. Surprisingly for me, I wasn't even angry. All I could think of was that I had a frame I had sourced from an online supplier. I had the bug!

Talking to my brother (who is quite experienced in quads and the hobby), reading articles and watching videos wetted my appetite even more.... 

One of the first things to do when getting into this sort of past time is to go join a related forum. The wealth of expertise & information out there is mind blowing (let alone the vast banks of Youtube offerings). If you don't know, just ask (or watch)!

The aim is to build a quadcopter from scratch and I will document it here through a series of photos & words. The intended of the quad primarily is as a camera ship, thats right, Aerial Photography/Video (APV or AP for short) and FPV (First Person View).

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Its been a few weeks now since I've started the build. Had to take a break due to the festive holidays and most importantly - awaiting parts! 

First things first, I started by making the battery power cable using 14AWG Silicon wire. I have a lot of past history with soldering, but had not done so in a while. Therefore this was the thing to start with.
I asked on the forum about the length of cable and promptly got a response of about 12.5cm. This is not necessarily a hard and fast measurement, but seems adequate as a starting length and with future builds this could be reduced or lengthened based on what I want to do. 

Could not find my little soldering clamp, so I used a small G-Clamp to hold the connectors (XT-60 female) to be soldered to. Worked a treat as the above picture shows. 

To finish off, shrink wrap was added around each soldered terminal to give a neat finish.

The opposite ends were then soldered onto the bottom plate printed circuit board (PCB) of the frame.

After stepping back to admire my simple handy work, I realised that I had not put a shrink wrap sleeve over the two cables to give that extra bit of tidiness. I have since used black electrical tape to rectify the minor issue. It is a minor issue, but I'm a picky type!

The Assembly...

The frame was sourced from Hobbyking.com. It is the Q450 (a clone of the DJI F450 frame) for around £10. It is the Version 3 frame with the integrate PCB, so no extra wire looms. 

Started by attaching the top plate to the legs.

Then attached the bottom plate.

Mounted the motors, just so I can workout the lengths of the motor cables positioning. As I did. No screws were added at this stage as I did not have any thread lock. Thread locking the motors to the frame is a sure way to not losing a motor or two due to vibrations during flight.

The ESC (Electronic Speed Controllers) where then laid on top to work out where they would be fitted - on top of the frame arms or underneath. Conversations & research on the where to put the ESCs were a matter of personal choice. As I would be using 10" props, the downdraft would be sufficient to keep the ESCs cool, regardless of positioning. I chose to go with placing them underneath as it gives a cleaner look. On future builds I may chose to place them on top or even within the body of the frame.

ESCs used for this build are the Afro ESC 30Amp Multi-rotor Motor Speed Controller (SimonK Firmware). I have it on good authority that SimonK series ESCs are the way to go for their stable flight characteristics. There is a wealth of ESCs that can be flashed with the SimonK firmware. As a beginner, I just want to know they work, popular and for now, I am not interested in getting too bogged down in extra geekery.

Still without thread lock, I temporarily mounted the motors as I was rather impatient (having kids had taught me patience but not a lot) and wanted to solder the ESCs to the frame.

First I cut the bullet connectors off before realising that I could have simply removed the heat-shrink, then desoldered the connectors, leaving already tinned ends. Then to top it all off, I threw out the bullets in an already full dustbin, which I could have saved for use later for something else - In this game you save everything, cause everything costs money and money ain't something you throw away unless you're rolling in it. Nevermind!

The next sequence of photos document the soldering and mounting of the ESCs to the frame.

Remembering to put heat shrink on before soldering the power leads to the bottom plate power board.

I did not completely remove the legs from the power board. I left one screw in and turned the leg 90º to leave enough gap to get the soldering iron in.

Mounted the ESCs with good old fashion cable ties that were donated to me by a customer I had done a favour for during my day job a while ago - before I even contemplated building a quad. He though I would need them more than he did and they sat in a box for quite a while till I remembered.

Since mounting the ESCs, I have modified the way I strapped the ESCs to the frame. The dual cable ties around the ECSs have now been removed and just tied on at the cable ends of the ESCs. And with the motors connected, they seem sturdy enough, leaving the sides clear for when or if I choose to add LEDs etc to the build.

The Flight Controller

The Flight Controller (FC) is the part that translates the command signals from the receiver to the ESCs which in turn controls the motors with the correct signal - thats as basic as I can describe the process. This is the very heart of the quad. Choosing the right FC is very important to what you want the quad/RC model to do. For example, if you are building a racing quad, like the popular 250 framed models, you would choose a FC that is suited to that purpose. FCs come in various forms, from plug-n-play to highly customisable varieties. As a beginner, the wealth of information on FCs are staggering. All I need for this build is something that would get me in the air asap without too much faffing about with configurations etc. Therefore, without too much fanfare I simply went for the best on the hobby market - the Naza! Well, in fact, The Naza Lite to be precise. But at £107 - £114, it can wait a while. I am hoping to get one in the next couple of months. In the main time, my dear brother has lent me his Open Pilot CC3D FC. This will get me up in the air sharpish, and would be a help whilst I sharpen my flying skills. No point in waiting money at the novice stage. Seems a really good FC and it was one of the first boards I had looked at during the planning stage of the build.

The CC3D FC was attached to the to plate as in the photos below with industrial strength double-sided foam sticky tape. My brother had given me the FC case without screws. Scavenging in the cupboard of bits & bobs (every household should have one), I came across an old El Cheapo wireless radio transmitter I used to use whilst camping to play music from an mp3 device. The self-tapping screws from the casing fitted perfectly on the CC3D casing - Woohoo - and they call me a hoarder!!!

El Cheapo Transmitter - only need the screws

Mounted CC3D Flight Controller with DS sticky pad - Firm!

Connecting ESC & Reciever cables  

This is as far as the build has gone to date. I am currently waiting with anticipation for the arrival of my Transmitter - The Turnigy 9X. This is a fairly cheap Tx and again very popular amongst hobbyists. Seems fairly straight forward to set up, so looking forward tinkering with it. Also, batteries!!! Nothing goes nowhere without one of these. Researching a good supplier, preferably in the UK. 

In the next instalment, I shall document the coming together of the motors & propellers. This was a major snag just as I was about to start balancing the props. I'll leave you with this image: