My first acro & MultiWii quad

[Tepaja]

So, finally I got the time and intrest to build my first acro quad.

Here is specs:
-Warthox 40cm MTM quad
-NanoWii (Multiwii 2.1)
-T-Motor MT2208 1100kv
-Flyduino 10A esc
-Gens Ace 1800 mAh 25C
-Gemfan 8x4.5 gf
-AUW 629g

It was hard to build, because I didin´t want to cut those motor wires any shorten. So It´s a bit messy looking and not so clean build that I was going to build. But that you get when you don´t want shorten any wires  ::)
Main thing about leaving wires so long is because, I´m thinking Y4 frame so there would be better to have little longer wires. But maybe I get bored about messy looking and clean this frame soon and I must cut those wires...

MultiWii is new experience to me, but it went well together. Google help me alot, but many hours after I got it armed and pre-tuned. Yesterday I fly first five batteries whit this quad and it flies so smooth and it´s so damn quiet. I only did practise orientation, because it´s been a while when I fly multirotor.

I did small changes PID section RATE values, I lifted a little bit from 0.00 to 0.15 both roll/pitch and yaw. Yaw is still a bit slow.

[nub]

quiet and damn quick! nice build.

the nanowii is great wee board.

[Tepaja]

quiet and damn quick! nice build.

the nanowii is great wee board.

Thanks.

Yes, I was i impressed how NanoWii can be so stable. Because I have Naza on bigger multi-rotor and that cost a lot more. I wonder what is the biggest multi-rotor that NanoWii could handle. I have read somewhere that NanoWii is only for small frames...or so I remember..

I just place a new order to Flyduino and now I ordered those frame plates that have power distribution boards. So hopefully I will have those by the weekend.
I now have problems placing battery under the frame because of wire harness mess. But that will be history soon..

[teslahed]

The NanoWii is just a small well designed multiwii board. It will handle any multirotor any other multiwii board will fly - it';s not just for smaller quads.

Compared to the Naza you';ll find multiwii requires a lot more work to get a stable quadcopter - it doesn';t handle vibration issues as well. But if you';ve got everything setup properly you can get amazing stability with a simple multiwii board - they are just less forgiving of marginal setups and don';t have all the fancy GPS position hold stuff.

[Tepaja]

The NanoWii is just a small well designed multiwii board. It will handle any multirotor any other multiwii board will fly - it';s not just for smaller quads.

That´s good to know. Thanks for the info.

I did balance propellers, but not the motors. They seem to be balanced enough. I did place MultiWii controller on small vibration grommets, to prevent even smallest vibration on gyros.

Here is my short video about testing, practising orientations and flying. After I pump the quad up, I switch the level mode off and it stays off until I start to land to my hand.
http://youtu.be/VdgixFvtYfw

[nub]

looking good

why have u mounted the battery on top, is it going to stay there?

[Tepaja]

looking good

why have u mounted the battery on top, is it going to stay there?

Thanks.
It will stay there until I receive frame plate with power distribution board and re-build frame. Now under the frame is small wire harness, that will prevent mounting battery. So hopefully this weekend I have those new frame plates and I can tidy wire mess a lot 

[Tepaja]

So I desided to rebuild my quad last week. I reseived those frame plates with pdb and rearrange those messy wires.
It look much better, but it gain weight. I blame that pdb frame plate. Now auw is 659g.

Last monday I crashed in to tree, but luckily no damage, I just lost orientation.

This week it has been a good weather. Last three days I have flew 12 batteries and have gained much more confident flying fast despite that little crash. I raised yesterday pitch/roll rate up to 0.43 and yaw 0.24. And did my first flips yesterday  I flew four batteries last night and did few flips each battery. Just getting to know how to handle sticks when flipping.

This video is from monday. No flips in this, but learning to flying fast, figure eight etc..
NanoWii acro quad practise part 2 with tree crash

This is onboard video from yesterday with two flips at end of the video. I was pretty nervous because I just placed GoPro top of the quad and I don´t have Layer Lens or similar to protect lens. Just flying safely  ;D
NanoWii quad, first flips with GoPro onboard

[nub]

oops no damage at least

well done on the flips, they';re kind of like pringles once u get started.

[Tepaja]

Well, so far I have managed crashed few more times. Only three props has been snapped. And I should change bearings in one motor, because I can feel my fingers tiny slop. But those bearings are sold out everywhere I search.

Here is video from couple days back. Now more flips and rolls. Still can´t deside should I pump up the throttle when performing flip or not. Rolls are bit exciting, cause they are slower to perform than flips. And I don´t know why is that..

First flip ain´t good, because speed stops accidently. But after that those are smoother.
NanoWii acro quad GoPro onboard. MT2208, Flyduino

[JT]

 Very cool, you are getting really good at those flips and rolls The rolls do look slower but it may be that the camera can always see the horizon so it just gives that impression? Your quad looks very agile in the turns too.

[Riggsbie]

+1

Very cool.....

Those rolls are fast......

[Gaza07]

+1 Very nice 

[nub]

u should start trying to do 1/4, 1/2 turn pauses in your flips, also slow the flip down and give it some throttle for some big ass loops

i prefer to flip forward for some reason, if it coming at me backwards, it seems more a habit from my heli flying

think it just depends on the momentum u have wither u need to punch the throttle a little before flipping IMO, like what i said above, when i do that i don';t have to its just flips.

[Tepaja]

Thank you all!   

Very cool, you are getting really good at those flips and rolls The rolls do look slower but it may be that the camera can always see the horizon so it just gives that impression? Your quad looks very agile in the turns too.

Thanks. Yes, I think you are right. It may just look slower because of horizon.

u should start trying to do 1/4, 1/2 turn pauses in your flips, also slow the flip down and give it some throttle for some big ass loops

i prefer to flip forward for some reason, if it coming at me backwards, it seems more a habit from my heli flying

think it just depends on the momentum u have wither u need to punch the throttle a little before flipping IMO, like what i said above, when i do that i don';t have to its just flips.

I have thinking of practising those, but I´m a bit scared to do so. I would probably do 1/2 of a flip and then give full throttle and it would be a drilled to the ground  ::)
I was a bit nervous to do my first forward flips, because I thought it would easier to crash. But it wasn´t and I was suprised. I have noticed that it´s a little easier to keep the momentum doing front flip. Because usually when doing back flip, it´s very often that speed stops. I just turn it too much and it´s going a little backwards. Just like first flip on the video.

I´m charcing my batteries at the moment and going to practise.. something  ::) I don´t have much spare props so I need to take easy this time.

[nub]

same here i had mental imagines of it ending up in pieces but its quite surprising how it handles what u throw at it

great setup for throwing around

[Gav]

Nice one, Tepaja!

Looks like you have the multirotor bug bad.  Loops n flips looking good, you have a stable quad mate. :)

Gav

[Tepaja]

Nice one, Tepaja!

Looks like you have the multirotor bug bad.  Loops n flips looking good, you have a stable quad mate. :)

Gav

Thank you Gav! This quad is much more fun to fly than big Y6. Easier to carry along and batteries charge quick.

So I have been flying few times since last post. I have trying to do sliding backflips, but I can´t do those properly. It won´t slide enough. I won´t lower throttle enough I guess.

Nub mention big loops. I decided practise those also and they aren´t so easy than appear. Throttle timing is everything to do nice loop.

Here is video from yesterday. I was practising flying inverted.. well sorta  Just almost free falling upside down. I was affraid lower throttle all the way down. Because I did have some proplem while ago when lowering throttle down. I wasn´t able to spin the motors anymore. I have to do some test with quad in hand sometimes. Video is bit edited, because I thought it much nicer to see the "best" parts only ;D A bit boring perhaps, because just practising big loop and (almost) free falling.

NanoWii acro quad. Big loops.. MT2208, Flyduino 10A

[nub]

getting better, nice flying

[barneyg]

Here is video from yesterday. I was practising flying inverted.. well sorta  Just almost free falling upside down. I was affraid lower throttle all the way down. Because I did have some proplem while ago when lowering throttle down. I wasn´t able to spin the motors anymore.

Do you have MOTOR_STOP defined in config.h ? and is your MINTHROTTLE set appropriately ?

Personally I don';t like MultiWii';s default that the motors spin as soon as they are armed and the throttle is set to MINTHROTTLE.  So I defined MOTOR_STOP ... trouble with that obviously is that the motors can completely stop if you drop the throttle too low.  So what I did on my TX (9xr running er9x) was to set up a mix so that the throttle switch fixes my throttle at -100 when off but when it is on the minimum throttle was just enough to spin the props.  Initially this was at about -75 which meant there was a lot of dead travel at the bottom of the throttle stick.  I wasn';t content with this so I did a little digging.

If you watch the TX values in MultiWii Conf and see what value the throttle is at when the motors start spinning it was at about 1100 for me ... on my TX a setting of -100 for the bottom of the throttle stick was showing as about 992 which meant there was a lot of travel before the motors kick in ... a quick search for 1100 in the MultiWii code and in MultiWii.ino I found :

#define MINCHECK 1100
#define MAXCHECK 1900

I changed MINCHECK to be 1000 ... now when my Throttle channel is set to about -95 the motors just spin up with the throttle stick at the bottom of its travel.

This way I get the best of both worlds ... on the ground I put the throttle switch in the off position ... my blades don';t spin and I can arm and disarm to my hearts content.  But to fly I have to flick the throttle switch on and from that point on my motors don';t stop giving a little bit more stability in the air and I can';t accidentally disarm in mid flight :).

[Tepaja]

Thank you Nub for kind words 

Do you have MOTOR_STOP defined in config.h ? and is your MINTHROTTLE set appropriately ?

Personally I don';t like MultiWii';s default that the motors spin as soon as they are armed and the throttle is set to MINTHROTTLE.  So I defined MOTOR_STOP ... trouble with that obviously is that the motors can completely stop if you drop the throttle too low.  So what I did on my TX (9xr running er9x) was to set up a mix so that the throttle switch fixes my throttle at -100 when off but when it is on the minimum throttle was just enough to spin the props.  Initially this was at about -75 which meant there was a lot of dead travel at the bottom of the throttle stick.  I wasn';t content with this so I did a little digging.

If you watch the TX values in MultiWii Conf and see what value the throttle is at when the motors start spinning it was at about 1100 for me ... on my TX a setting of -100 for the bottom of the throttle stick was showing as about 992 which meant there was a lot of travel before the motors kick in ... a quick search for 1100 in the MultiWii code and in MultiWii.ino I found :

#define MINCHECK 1100
#define MAXCHECK 1900

I changed MINCHECK to be 1000 ... now when my Throttle channel is set to about -95 the motors just spin up with the throttle stick at the bottom of its travel.

This way I get the best of both worlds ... on the ground I put the throttle switch in the off position ... my blades don';t spin and I can arm and disarm to my hearts content.  But to fly I have to flick the throttle switch on and from that point on my motors don';t stop giving a little bit more stability in the air and I can';t accidentally disarm in mid flight :).

MOTOR_STOP was not defined. (it was grey). But I did defined now. I must try how that feel. But I don´t mind if motor start spinning when board is armed. I may switch that back if I don´t like that. I may get in trouble in flight.

I have read that some people uses trim when board is armed. So they adjust throttle range so that they cannot stop motors by accidently when lowering throttle. But I don´t like to use trim. Example when crashing, you cannot stop motors immediately.

I have set MINTHROTTLE. My TX values in MultiWii Conf are for throttle 1106 when motors star spinning. Throttle stick has little dead area at bottom, maybe 15%. In Arduino Config.h page I have set MINTHROTTLE 1088. I just can´t get rid off that dead zone in throttle stick. I don´t know how I did have problems a while ago when lowering throttle in mid flight. Motors just didn´t response. Maybe it was a glitch.

btw. you wrote throttle stick and throttle switch. What do you mean by throttle switch?
And sorry my bad english.

[barneyg]

I have set MINTHROTTLE. My TX values in MultiWii Conf are for throttle 1106 when motors star spinning. Throttle stick has little dead area at bottom, maybe 15%. In Arduino Config.h page I have set MINTHROTTLE 1088. I just can´t get rid off that dead zone in throttle stick. I don´t know how I did have problems a while ago when lowering throttle in mid flight. Motors just didn´t response. Maybe it was a glitch.

If I understand things correctly there are two sets of values at play here ... what your FC board gets from the receiver and what it sends to the ESC :
MINTHROTTLE is the minimum value the FC will send to the ESC.
MINCHECK is the minimum value that the FC expects to see from the RX before it will send MINTHROTTLE to the ESC.

that 15% dead zone at the bottom of the Throttle stick range is because to get the RX to send over 1100 you need to move your stick that far.  You have 2 options to remove it either change the MINCHECK value in the code or change the bottom end of the range of the throttle channel in your TX.  I chose the former method :)

btw. you wrote throttle stick and throttle switch. What do you mean by throttle switch?
And sorry my bad english.

On the 9xr there are several 2 position switches ... one of these is marked Throttle ... I';ve used this one for my mix :)

[Tepaja]

If I understand things correctly there are two sets of values at play here ... what your FC board gets from the receiver and what it sends to the ESC :
MINTHROTTLE is the minimum value the FC will send to the ESC.
MINCHECK is the minimum value that the FC expects to see from the RX before it will send MINTHROTTLE to the ESC.

that 15% dead zone at the bottom of the Throttle stick range is because to get the RX to send over 1100 you need to move your stick that far.  You have 2 options to remove it either change the MINCHECK value in the code or change the bottom end of the range of the throttle channel in your TX.  I chose the former method :)

Oh yes. You are right. I have even noticed those MINCHECK values. They are in wrong place. I have only changed values from Config.h page. Now I have throttle that response low. I think it´s quite the same than yours now, about 5%. Thank you  I think I will now have to practise with "new" throttle stick.

I did earlier quick test. And now I can shut down motor in flight and they start again. Whooray!! I think sliding backflips etc. is now easier to perform. I also find setup that allows to ROLL arm/disarm board. So I undefined that. I only like to arm/disarm with yaw stick.

On the 9xr there are several 2 position switches ... one of these is marked Throttle ... I';ve used this one for my mix :)

I have never even seen a 9XR live before. And never heard that kind of switch before 

[barneyg]

There isn';t really anything special about it ... I could just have easily used the one labeled Ail :)