Ultra budget quad build.

[jhitesma]

Did a quick test with the freshly balanced new props this morning...didn't notice a huge difference. Didn't try with the camera yet though. Took it out at lunch for a bit more and turned my P up just a bit more...but think I've got it as high as I can go and need to back it back down a touch now.

Rain is threatening but holding off for now. Bigger threat is my LLC came in at lunch! I've only got about 30 minutes of daylight after work to head up to the park and do some real flying in....and now I've got parts calling to me from the bench! Parts will have to wait until this evening though. After work I'm hitting the field for a bit more tuning and flying. Then tonight I'll hopefully be adding the baro and compass so tomorrow I can test fly with them

 

[jhitesma]

If I was wise I would have responded to the sun already being below the horizon with "Guess I was too late" instead of "Cool, sun won't be in my eyes!"

When I throttled up the quad and one of the spinners and props flew off - maybe I should have just said "not meant to fly tonight" and gone home instead of "I guess that's the "something wrong" for tonight!"

The new battery has the altitude feeling much better, and the new props just had everything feeling good. So I figured I'd try angle mode. Hmm...actually, this seems to be making sense. Yeah, I can move it about on command finally. It's still light enough to get a few mistakes high...maybe I can see how quickly it responds and if it's quick enough to flip...



Well I was planning on taking it apart tonight to install the baro and mag sensors anyway....

I'm also really thinking about trying to flash simonK on the multistars ESC's. The 10a's don't have pads but from what I've read should be compatible. I've soldered smaller things...just not a big fan of it especially for temporary connections. Might still try..if I fry them it would give me an excuse to get something better. I don't like the way these multistars stall if they get even a slight prop strike. I've had issues taking off in deep grass with them stalling just from the blades of grass around them. Raising the min rpm's may help...but I'd like to try simonk.

But I also really want to try 2.3. I just don't want to do all of these things at once!



So with the frame coming apart I'll be adding the new sensors tonight and repairing the broken boom (I've already replaced the broken zip ties on the other side.) I was hoping to paint that one before putting it in...but now it's raining out. Then if it's still flying good I'll try and save my settings and upgrade to 2.3. Once it's feeling good there I'll get serious about flashing the ESC's.

I really should have spent more time in HORIZON mode before switching over to ACRO and more time in ACRO before trying to push it like I did. For as hard as it hit the ground there was remarkably little damage at least. That's 3 outer booms so far. Guess those are the ones I need to carry spares of when I go camping. (remember I'm using 12" outer booms and 10" internal booms since I'm not using motor mounts.)

I do want to come up with a better way to mount the motors though. The zip ties come loose too quick the way I'm doing it now. I have a few alternatives I'm thinking about trying.

Oh yeah - other assorted damage: popped the case of my lipo alarm open. Bent 2 unused pins on the strip of pins I use to connect the servo extensions to the mega board. Broke the negative socket off the wire on the bluetooth connector. Snapped a prop.

 

[jhitesma]

Myth confirmed. 100 zip ties is not enough for your first multi. Save yourself a trip and buy 2 packs the first time.

Thankfully I planned ahead on this one. Repairs almost complete. Still have to cook dinner before I can warm up the soldering iron and start on any upgrades. And with the rain we're getting - no test flights tonight. Maybe none tomorrow

 

[cranialrectosis]

lmao. 100 zip ties is not enough for your first multi...

No, not even nearly.

 

[jhitesma]

Another one for my list of "Knew I shouldn't have cut that corner" items. Gluing the wires on the motors to reinforce them. Sure enough this morning when I went to test fly it after last nights reconstruction....rear two motors that had broken their zip ties don't fire up. Swapped them up onto the front ESC's and they don't run there either. Took a close look...both of them broke a winding wire.

Thankfully in stock in the US warehouse for only a few cents more than the international price. I'll probably end up trying to rewind them - but don't know if I'd trust them in the multi after rewinding them myself. May relegate them to plane use.

Tempted to take the two 24g motors on my low power pod's and swap them over...but they've got 3.5mm bullets instead of 2mm (Though I could whip up some adapters...) and they've both been used and abused quite a bit, not sure they're really in good enough condition to be worth putting into the quad.

I did finish the wiring harness for the baro/mag sensors last night - but it was too late and I was too tired to get any photos. Will try to grab on later. It's way too long but until I figure out where and how everything is going to mount I wanted some extra length to play with. Just worried about it degrading the signals. I ran my ground wires between the two data lines but it's just ribbon cable so I can't really give them a twist to try and help.

Guess I'll play with the sensors and software for a few days while I wait for new motors

Unless I get impatient tonight and try rewinding (I have the right gauge wire on hand) or decide to go ahead and try swapping the motors from my plane pods.

Oh and going to mix up some epoxy for the two surviving motors before I forget again!

 

[jhitesma]

So I got new motors and a new rx in my cart on HK. All in stock ready to ship. Checked the bank account...and found that $60 worth of kids clothes that had been refunded to our account earlier this week were suddenly charged again this morning Nuts.

Well, I've wound torroids before....


Well there's yer problem.


Bottom pole on the inside, look close. That's the other end of the break.


Back together.

And...it works! No clue if it's as good as it was before since I don't have a tach so no way to really test the motor. But it sounds the same as the other two. I only replaced the one winding that was broken - though I have to say the original windings aren't very pretty and have a bunch of nicks in the insulation. Rewinding this from scratch wouldn't be all that hard and could make for slightly nicer motors. Just don't know if I have THAT much wire on hand and I'm really not in the mood to rewind motors just for fun.

Overall it wasn't that hard once I got the hang of it halfway through the second pole. And then when I stopped and cut my wire off with one pole left to go forcing myself to start over it went really easy the second time.

Just about an hour to do that one. Little late for me to start a second right now even though I suspect it would go quicker since I hopefully won't have to do it twice.

Oh yeah...here's the test harness for the baro/mag sensors and llc board.


If I can find time to rewind this last motor in the morning I may get to fly...if it doesn't keep raining. If it does keep raining I need to get a camera plate built ASAP because I'd love to get some video of the washes north of me with water in them.

 

[jhitesma]

Meh, what the heck. Wife isn't ready to go to sleep just yet. Took a look at motor #2. Damage wasn't as obvious. Red lead felt loose but with the motor apart I didn't see a break. Then I spotted it.



Can ya see it? There in the middle. Black wire. Ah ha!

Just cut the wires apart, cleaned the ends of the black wire bits, soldered it back together, covered it in shrink wrap...and it works as well!

Going to pick up some 10 minute epoxy tomorrow and give all four a bit better of strain relief before flying again. Still thinking about ordering some spare motors and a replacement RX.

I did replace the antenna on my RX - but I've had major range problems with these guys when the feedline is shortened. I have 3 9x RX's on hand right now:

1) Has just a 32mm piece of wire on it - haven't had a chance to range test it yet.
2) Has the antenna from a HK 3 channel RX on it. Not as nice, but for the range I fly my foamies at has worked fine.
3) This one which I just cleaned up the coax and re-soldered it to the main board exactly how it was originally just with a shorter bit of coax.

I suspect that the coax is a tuned length though based on my past experiences. We'll see. I'll have to range check all of this tomorrow before flying.

Knew this fix could be cheap!

 

[jhitesma]

It flies, both the rewound and the quick fix seem fine. But one of the other two motors appears to now have a slightly bent shaft. Which is causing a nasty wobble.

And replacement shafts are only available from HK. Looks like I may be swapping one of my plane motors over...or...hmmm......wonder if I have any 3mm shafts laying around...

 

[Cyberdactyl]

There's a good chance your home improvement store has something that will work. A stainless (or not) bolt with only the end threaded, or any number of other things in the store that has the proper diameter and 3 inches of smooth shaft. The only hobby skill required will be to slice a thin groove in the end for the clip.

 

[xuzme720]

Check Heads up rc. They might have a comparable shaft for your motor.

 

[jhitesma]

Upon closer inspection it doesn't appear to be the motor shaft. With the prop and collet removed the motor has no easily detectable runout. I didn't get out a dial indicator or anything but to my eye it's straight. With the collett added it still looks straight. The prop balances well on my improvised balancer. But the top spinner of the collet seems to bring back the vibration.

Don't see any huge obvious scuff marks on the spinner...but for some reason it seems to be the source of problems suddenly. Digging to see if I have a spare of the same to try. Might just try tightening it a bit more to see if it's just that there's a slightly heavy side...

Was really hoping to play with the new sensors and maybe try 2.3 today. Looks like I'll be a bit busy tracking down this new vibration first.

 

[Foam Addict]

Nice flights! You look like you are coming along great.:applause:

At least its just the Spinner, I've destroyed a few motors changing shafts.

 

[jhitesma]

Actually not sure what it was but it's gone now. Hit the LHS to look for a replacement spinner...$5! And it wasn't a match and no clue what the prop shaft size was. No thanks. Did grab some fuel line tubing to experiment with on a camera mount though.

Came home and tried moving the left rear prop and adapter to the right front motor (RF was the one having the vibration issue) they ran smooth as could be. Swapped the original RF prop onto the LR adapter and put them on the RF...smooth. Put the LR prop on the RF adapter and mounted them in the LR...and four corners are smooth again.

Must have swapped them around when I had it all apart and they just balance happier this way I guess.

Too windy outside to do any meaningful testing today though. And my wife is off for work. So while the kid enjoys the last of her quiet time I'm going to see about hooking in these new sensors and updating the firmware to use them and see how that goes.

 

[jhitesma]

New sensors connected, firmware updated to know about them...and they seem to be working. Not sure if I have the orientation on the compass sensor right, my X may be backwards...but I'm not sure it really matters due to the way I believe it works.

Just wish it was less windy or I could go to the park to try it out now.

 

[jhitesma]

Ugly but working:


That's a magnetic compass module next to the main board and a barometric sensor on the front boom, the little red board near the corner of the top plate is a 3.3v-5v llc to let the two new sensors talk with the 5v arduino. Ran the calibration and everything seems to be reading correct in the GUI...except the compass points north 90 degrees off. Shouldn't affect it's use for headfree and head holding though. The baro sensor is really quickly mounted, it should be shielded from light but it detects the difference between the quad on the floor and on the table. So seems to be a go.

Hope the weather is nice tomorrow so I can test it all out.

 

[Foam Addict]

It's functional. My falling-apart-more-tape-than-foam EZ star was beautiful because it flew. No problem.

 

[colorex]

The baro sensor is really quickly mounted, it should be shielded from light but it detects the difference between the quad on the floor and on the table.

Was just going to ask.

 

[jhitesma]

It's functional. My falling-apart-more-tape-than-foam EZ star was beautiful because it flew. No problem.

Most of my vehicles are more functional than beautiful. And those I put the most effort into making look nice tend to have a way of making themselves ugly quick

So I did get to do a bit of testing on Sunday. But not much. It was 9-10mph gusts all day. I went up to the park twice when it was "calm" and tried to do some flying...but without much luck.

The compass does seem to give it a much better head lock...but I found headfree to be VERY confusing and hard to fly with. I saw how I could come to like it...but the quad was not flying well and HF didn't make it any easier. Something was still wrong.

Since the big crash it's just been "off". I've figured out that part of it was due to some motors coming loose causing vibration - I've got to come up with a better mounting setup it seems. Either that or make a set of front/rear booms last long enough for the wood to stop deforming from the zip tie pressure For now I'm leaving longer "tails" on the zip ties so I can try to give them an extra notch before flight. But It just seems zip ties aren't working well for me on the BW mount...may need to come up with something different.

Second time out on Sunday I had enough room to give the baro a try - but the quad just wasn't flying well ... it did seem to be holding altitude fairly accurately. But with the breeze and the quad feeling funky it was just really hard to hold it in one place.

And I ended up doing a cartwheel into a tree trying to fight the wind snapping another boom. I'm noticing a pattern here:



I always seem to break the front left or rear right corner

I also knocked the baro sensor off, it was just attached with a tiny dot of hot glue, so tonight I went to remount that. I figured I'd mount it inside between the two plates to help shield it from light. Looking at my mounting options I noticed between the two plates just what I had started to suspect from how it was flying....my gyro/accel boards had shifted!

I had actually suspected this since the first time I put it back in the air after rewinding the broken motor. It just felt like it was trying to fly crooked and I guess it was. So I took the plates apart to do that - and in so doing discovered I really didn't do a very good job on final connections of the baro/mag harness. The rubberband for the RX is no longer removeable since it's kind of woven between the wires from the original parts of the IMU and the new additions. It's also impossible to remove either as the original wires go through the holes in the top plate but the new ones don't...despite them all being soldered together. Doh. Looks like I'll have to do some better wiring soon.

Still I was able to get it all back together with the gyro/acc boards correctly oriented and the baro now at least somewhat shielded.

The bummer is I was actually planning on upgrading the firmware to 2.3 tonight. But now I want to do a test flight with it before I make that kind of change. I don't like changing too many things at once and a change like new firmware is one that I'd always do by itself.

So if test flights go well tomorrow then maybe I can get 2.3 loaded. Or maybe I'll focus on a better camera mount......

 

[jhitesma]

Amazing what a small thing like your sensors being misaligned can make in an aircraft that's entirely dependent on those sensors to stay airborne

Did a little test flight over lunch today. It was at least as windy as Sunday...maybe even a bit windier. But the quad handled so much better today! I can really feel the difference the mag sensor makes now, it's locked in on yaw now big time.

Still not a big fan of headfree. Gave it a try for a few minutes and just found it confusing and disorienting. I can see how it may be nice if you're flying FPV and loose video and need to get home...but for just flying around I find it way more confusing because I'm so fixed on the idea that "Forward is the way the thing is pointing" instead of "forward is THIS way".

So I may give 2.3 a try tonight. I got it all configured and ready to go last night...but didn't want to load it up until I was able to test fly. With the test flying going so well I figure I'm safe to jump to 2.3 now.

Hey, gotta do something for another week while I wait on my GPS

 

[jhitesma]

I kind of hated to do it since it flew so great at lunch...but I really wanted to give 2.3 a try. So I bit the bullet and set it up tonight.

Seems to have gone smooth. The GUI I like has a new version for 2.3 but I found it wasn't stable on my computer and kept crashing. I was able to use it to re-load my PID settings but that was about it. The new GUI is looking nice though can't wait to see some of the bugs worked out of it. The GUI on my phone and the stock GUI both worked fine and everything seems to be responding correctly.

I did rotate my compass 90 degress so it now reads north when the quad is pointed north...but I'm not sure if I have the X/Y axis setup right. Not finding a lot of detail about the mag setup. Seems most people are using pre-built IMU's or full FC's and don't have to worry about which way the individual chips are aligned Seems to be reading well now though so we'll see how it does.

Looking forward to a quick test hover in the front yard before work tomorrow if I can sneak it in. Fingers crossed that things still work.

Oh yeah...still putting off adding it all up. May wait until I get the GPS working so I can include it in the figures