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3d - Printworx

Flyduino Quadrocopter Frame Set

Started by teslahed, Monday,July 02, 2012, 14:03:17

Previous topic - Next topic

teslahed

I'm building something smaller and lighter to try and learn to do flips with. I thought i couldn't go too far wrong if i bought the same frame as warthox seems to like using in quite a few of his videos. Progress so far;



I'm waiting on some rubber gromets and more of the nylon stand offs to arrive in the post before i can finish it, but with the weather as it is at the moment there is no real hurry. I am keen to see how the PARIS board performs with the new MPU6050 sensor though.

Today i got the PARIS board hooked up and responding properly. I had problems with one of the motors lagging behind until i swapped out one of the 4 20 amp speed controllers - seems i had a faulty one.

One circlip short of a quadcopter.
 1 lobe short of an antenna.

teslahed

One circlip short of a quadcopter.
 1 lobe short of an antenna.

Gaza07

Looking good have those frame plates go the built in power distribution ?
[url="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN6zN99iLCIJea5FCQPKf_g"]YouTube[/url]   [url="https://www.printing-3d.co.uk"]printing-3d[/url]  [url="https://www.thingiverse.com/Gaza07/about"]Thingiverse[/url]  [url="https://www.3d-printworx.co.uk"]3d-printworx[/url]

teslahed

#3
They do have the built in power distribution board - it works very well at keeping the wiring tidy.

It would be very easy to run one length of LED tape up each quad arm and solder the contacts from those to the same spots used by the speed controllers if you wanted to do that.

So far i wouldn't hesitate to recommend this frame to anyone wanting a decent frame who has some experience with quadcopters. The only thing is that the design is very minimal without landing gear or nylon stand off screws or any of the accessories you might get with some other frame sets. If you've already built a quadcopter or two and know what's needed the frame goes together very easily. If you've never built one before the lack of instructions and various fittings is likely to cause some problems.

I got the one with 20cm arms.
One circlip short of a quadcopter.
 1 lobe short of an antenna.

MadMax

Thats a nice looking frame, I notice you have left the covering off your esc,s do you think the prop wash will be enough to cool them, I noticed over on RCG a few people have adopted this idea and actually think that it improves cooling getting rid of the plastic covering, because although there is a ali heat sink in there it is all still insulated under the plastic  ~~

teslahed

#5
I am sure that cooling would be better without the covering, but the cover helps to protect the speed controller from rain and misc damage. I will put mine back on and only take them off if i have a problem with overheating - they are 20 amp so i should have plenty of headroom with my motors.

One things i have done to improve cooling on my speed controllers - the heatsinks are held on to the MOSFETs with crappy thermal pads. I've replaced all the thermal pads with thermally conductive glue (like heatsink paste only it sets like silicon glue). It should result in better conduction of heat away from the MOSFETs into the heatsink and also reduces the chance of the heatsink slipping or falling off after I've removed the cover.

The other thing that you could do to improve cooling would be to replace the crappy little flat heatsink that comes with the speed controller for a computer chipset heatsink with fins. You'd be adding weight though.

In other news;

I just had my first quick test flight over my bed with the new quadcopter - it only lasted 10 seconds but it seemed to fly pretty well :)
One circlip short of a quadcopter.
 1 lobe short of an antenna.

teslahed

Progress so far;



I had to resolder the connector for the FTDI usb device to get it to fit though - it wouldn't stand upright under the protection plate otherwise;

One circlip short of a quadcopter.
 1 lobe short of an antenna.

teslahed

Well i just got a quick first flight in with my new quadcopter. I nipped out when i saw the rain had stopped but wasn't able to do any PID tuning as i didn't like the look of the sky and didn't want my laptop to get wet. Within 5 mins of getting home the heavens opened up again so i was quite lucky - don't think i'll be flying again today somehow.

I took a video of the only flight of the day. Nothing too exciting but it is my first outdoor flight with the quadcopter and third flight ever (counting the other 2 short flights over my bed).

I was surprised by how well it flew without any tuning other than increasing the control sensitivity - it seems very stable, smooth and controllable compared with what I've flown before.

flyduinoframe1

It only took 4 attempts to upload the video to youtube - my internet kept going down in the lightning storm!
One circlip short of a quadcopter.
 1 lobe short of an antenna.

Gaza07

Looking good Chris it deff looks like it flies more accurately than your other these new sensors give a more locked in feel than the older ones and the lower cycle time has prob got a lot to do with it,
are you using the new 2.1 pre release firmware on it ?
[url="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN6zN99iLCIJea5FCQPKf_g"]YouTube[/url]   [url="https://www.printing-3d.co.uk"]printing-3d[/url]  [url="https://www.thingiverse.com/Gaza07/about"]Thingiverse[/url]  [url="https://www.3d-printworx.co.uk"]3d-printworx[/url]

teslahed

Yeah it's got the latest pre release 2.1 on it. Not sure what changes there are in the new version though.
One circlip short of a quadcopter.
 1 lobe short of an antenna.

MadMax

That flies very nice you must be very pleased with the results  ~~

teslahed

I am, thanks. Although i still have quite a bit of PID tuning to do and a few LEDs to add...
One circlip short of a quadcopter.
 1 lobe short of an antenna.

teslahed

I've just been out flying as the weather is close to perfect and i managed to pull off my first successful deliberate loop the loop which I'm pretty pleased about - it's been on my to do list since i first started building quadcopters. Last time i tried it i destroyed a quadcopter in the process so i was a bit nervous on the attempt but i followed this advice;

Quote from: Gavfly high for your first attempt then with some FFF wrench back on the elevator and back off on the throttle when inverted but dont shut off completely otherwise its curtains.  Keep in a bit of throttle and wait until it is in to a dive ...keep wrenching back on elevator then max throttle till it stops decending.  You can download a modded firmware for the KK board that has higher stick scalling, so it will flip or roll on the spot hehehe.  Or edit the scalling in the code yourself and re compile if you have the know how.

which definitely helped. I didn't have any real problems.

Basically you want to be high enough that you can be accelerating downwards for half a second whilst upside down without being in danger of hitting the ground and you want to make sure your sticks are sensitive enough to let you rotate all the way around in time and confident enough with your controls to have a good feel things. I picked a spot with especially long grass to do my first practice loops over - if i had of crashed it may have helped a bit.

Once I'd done a few i found it fairly easy to manage the basic loop although I've only done them in the forward direction, nothing fancy yet. Accelerating downwards is quite exciting though :o
One circlip short of a quadcopter.
 1 lobe short of an antenna.

Gaza07

I have still got to try this  ;) Im pleased it all went well for you, and next time have the video camera on   ;D ~~
[url="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN6zN99iLCIJea5FCQPKf_g"]YouTube[/url]   [url="https://www.printing-3d.co.uk"]printing-3d[/url]  [url="https://www.thingiverse.com/Gaza07/about"]Thingiverse[/url]  [url="https://www.3d-printworx.co.uk"]3d-printworx[/url]

teslahed

Quote from: Gaza07 on Thursday,July 12, 2012, 18:21:35
I have still got to try this  ;) Im pleased it all went well for you, and next time have the video camera on   ;D ~~

thanks - got the batteries charging and the weather is still just about perfect so I'll have to take the camera and tripod with me for the next attempt, hopefully later this evening. It's a shame i don't have a decent video camera that can do high definition video, apart from the ipad, which has a surprisingly good camera but no mounting hole for the tripod. 
One circlip short of a quadcopter.
 1 lobe short of an antenna.

teslahed

The video quality isn't great but you can get the idea;

Flipping my quadcopter
One circlip short of a quadcopter.
 1 lobe short of an antenna.

Gaza07

That looks like fun it makes a good sound when you flip it and it doesn't look like it looses that much height either, did you make the controls more sensative or is it the default multi wii settings  ~~
[url="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN6zN99iLCIJea5FCQPKf_g"]YouTube[/url]   [url="https://www.printing-3d.co.uk"]printing-3d[/url]  [url="https://www.thingiverse.com/Gaza07/about"]Thingiverse[/url]  [url="https://www.3d-printworx.co.uk"]3d-printworx[/url]

Gaza07

Whats the noise at around 45 and 48 seconds  :-/
[url="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN6zN99iLCIJea5FCQPKf_g"]YouTube[/url]   [url="https://www.printing-3d.co.uk"]printing-3d[/url]  [url="https://www.thingiverse.com/Gaza07/about"]Thingiverse[/url]  [url="https://www.3d-printworx.co.uk"]3d-printworx[/url]

teslahed

Quote from: Gaza07 on Thursday,July 12, 2012, 21:39:51
Whats the noise at around 45 and 48 seconds  :-/

I installed a petrol engine booster for my quadcopter to make it go faster and that was just me reving it up...

there's some kids in the field with a motorbike :laugh:
One circlip short of a quadcopter.
 1 lobe short of an antenna.

teslahed

Quote from: Gaza07 on Thursday,July 12, 2012, 21:34:59
That looks like fun it makes a good sound when you flip it and it doesn't look like it looses that much height either, did you make the controls more sensative or is it the default multi wii settings  ~~

I've fiddled with the PIDS a little to make the thing fly better but most of them are fairly close to default except that Roll/Pitch and Yaw RATE are both up to 0.7 which makes it a lot more responsive to stick input - it's important then to fiddle with the expo until the quadcopter is controllable in normal flight.

One circlip short of a quadcopter.
 1 lobe short of an antenna.

MadMax

Well done it looks good but I doubt I will be trying that for quite some time yet  :o

teslahed

I managed to get a decent quality video of me doing some practice flips - basically taking the same easy run up and doing flips at a decent height where I've got room to make a mistake but I'm not so high i can't easily see the quadcopter.

Practicing flipping my quadcopter
One circlip short of a quadcopter.
 1 lobe short of an antenna.

Gaza07

Very good I can see your really starting to get the feel for it now, and your quad is very stable even in descent when a lot have a bit of a wobble, I see you tend to descend at an angle is this to keep out of the prop wash affect which can cause the wobbles  ~~
[url="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN6zN99iLCIJea5FCQPKf_g"]YouTube[/url]   [url="https://www.printing-3d.co.uk"]printing-3d[/url]  [url="https://www.thingiverse.com/Gaza07/about"]Thingiverse[/url]  [url="https://www.3d-printworx.co.uk"]3d-printworx[/url]

teslahed

Well I've worked out why my quadcopter was yawing to the left. One of the arms isn't on perfectly straight. There is a certain amount of wiggle until the nuts are done up tight and i must not have had the arm perfectly centered when i did the nuts up. At least i hope that's the case and i haven't bent one of them.

Unfortunately i seem to have lost the right sized allen key to make the necessary adjustments. O well - tomorrow I'll go to the hardware store and get it sorted.

A quick question on threadlock - should you reapply the stuff every time you loosen and re-tighten the nuts?
One circlip short of a quadcopter.
 1 lobe short of an antenna.

Gaza07

I always do as it looks like once you force the nuts off the old thread lock crumbles to a white powder or it looks that way,
I always use blue as it comes apart easy when needed  ~~
[url="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN6zN99iLCIJea5FCQPKf_g"]YouTube[/url]   [url="https://www.printing-3d.co.uk"]printing-3d[/url]  [url="https://www.thingiverse.com/Gaza07/about"]Thingiverse[/url]  [url="https://www.3d-printworx.co.uk"]3d-printworx[/url]

teslahed

808 #18 HD Camera at the field

Got my quadcopter down the local field where there's a bit more more room.

I've definitely still got some vibration in the video but it will do for now. I'll look in to balancing my props later.
One circlip short of a quadcopter.
 1 lobe short of an antenna.

Gaza07

Looks like a good place to fly some very nice views there  ~~
I think your camera could do with being tilted forward slightly to avoid the bright sky  ;)
[url="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN6zN99iLCIJea5FCQPKf_g"]YouTube[/url]   [url="https://www.printing-3d.co.uk"]printing-3d[/url]  [url="https://www.thingiverse.com/Gaza07/about"]Thingiverse[/url]  [url="https://www.3d-printworx.co.uk"]3d-printworx[/url]

MadMax

Well done nice vid I bet thats quite hard to do fly around your self while facing nose in  ~~
it looks like a very well kept field did you have to ask permission or is it a public park

teslahed

#28
Quote from: MadMax on Saturday,July 21, 2012, 10:20:54
Well done nice vid I bet thats quite hard to do fly around your self while facing nose in  ~~
it looks like a very well kept field did you have to ask permission or is it a public park

It's public land that's almost completely disused. I presume someone cuts the grass but i never see them.

The Gothic looking building next door is an abandoned mental institute. They have security guards and the lights are kept on but it's almost totally empty.

It's a great place to fly except the one time i crashed one of my planes in the hospital grounds, hopped over the fence to get it, then got chased back by two large dobermans and had to vault over the fence at speed (after recovering the plane, fortunately) with only meters to spare.

One circlip short of a quadcopter.
 1 lobe short of an antenna.

Gaza07

Ive altered the settings on my multi wii ready for flips does this seem right chris ?
Ive not tried to fly it yet with these settings Im thinking its going to be a handful compared to the default settings it was on  :rolleyes:

[attach=1]
[url="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN6zN99iLCIJea5FCQPKf_g"]YouTube[/url]   [url="https://www.printing-3d.co.uk"]printing-3d[/url]  [url="https://www.thingiverse.com/Gaza07/about"]Thingiverse[/url]  [url="https://www.3d-printworx.co.uk"]3d-printworx[/url]