A new take on my UBMQ

[jhitesma]

Your Sparky2 is not the problem. Windows 10 is not an upgrade.

Not huge on it...but even Win7 was a big step down in performance on this ancient machine. But sticking with vista wasn't an option any longer since support for it is gone and chrome wasn't going to get any more updates. I really need to replace both of these old computers...but...keep buying RC stuff instead

Though to be fair I've put W10 on 5 computers now and it's been a mixed bag. Nothing has stopped working...and 2 of them feel slower now...but 2 feel faster...one is about the same.

The USB issue I can't point the finger at W10 yet...because all my other boards still connect just fine. Since it's only one board acting up I have to suspect the board. Really the board sits too close to the top plate, I even had to shave down the connector on my cord to get it to fit...so most likely I didn't shave it down enough and it's putting too much pressure on the connector. I'll play with it some more soon...just too hot to work in my shop or fire up the iron right now.

I have been playing with the DAL 6045s and to me comparing to HQ 6045s it's like dropping a lipo cell. I break the DALs almost as often and the loss of power, particularly when recovering from a move, just hurts too much.

Yeah, I've used their 2 blades before and it was a drop in performance...I wouldn't call it a full cell's worth of drop but it was noticeable. At the sale price I couldn't pass up trying some tri's since I've heard decent things about some of their tri's. Besides I never mind more cheap props even if they don't fly great since they're handy for bashing around when I know I'm going to break something and don't need top performance

Put the new ducted fan drone in the Mad Men section.

You should consider an article if it flies.

Pretty close...that design is a little prettier....and this one will fly...at least two of them have flown already - one was even auto tuned by dRonin:

But the others weren't printed in glow in the dark filament to really spook the neighbors

I also have it on good authority that the flight experience is very similar to the actual RQ-16 T-hawk...even if this version doesn't look quite as much like the real thing as the one you linked.

Got all the big parts printed....just working on the spacers - which are a real pain to print (not enough surface area so they don't stay stuck to the build plate well.) And have to re-print one of the vanes becuase it came loose at the end of the print job. Probably going to reprint all of the vanes and vane holder though as I was given a modified version that improves the pivots slightly.

 

[jhitesma]

Got everything printed for the singlecopter:



Had to reprint a few bits for various reasons and decided to do them in black for the contrast.

Still need to order some good digital servos...and probably a motor. I may just pull one off one of my builds to use...but I only have 2204's and the two of these already flying both used 2207 2100kv's and I hate to pull a motor off something else. But feeling impatient and it will be a few weeks before I can swing ordering a motor so may end up doing that...

 

[jipp]

very cool. do you have any more pictures of the build ( the video i can sorta guess what im seeing, sorta add some LEDS and id just say UFOs have invaded the damn desert again.. silly government secret project 000081x.. man, 3d printers rule.. heh.)
what is the diameter of the ducting.. and i have to say i did not imagine you going this direction from what you posted on the last page. hhe.

have to love when new ideas come to and you just have to follow through just to see what happens.. i love that kinda of thing my self.

hope you and the family are doing well.

chris.

 

[jhitesma]

The singlecopter isn't replacing the UBMQ...I just haven't started a separate thread for it yet because a) I'm not sure which forum it should go in - it feels like a multi but only has one rotor! b) It's going to be a few weeks until I get parts c) I haven't even been able to assemble it yet because I can't find a M3 or 4-40 tap in this town and Amazon is taking a week to ship me one

I should be ordering servos and a motor for it tomorrow if all goes well....but AC season has hit and my electric bill has doubled so harder than normal to sneak even $30 into the hobby budget. Plus we're in the middle of switching banks so funds are spread across 4 accounts and it's a bit of a pain to make sure I don't accidentally overdraw one of them as we move things around (wouldn't be so bad but the one bank has no weekend or evening hours which is a big part of why we're switching away from them...it makes closing our account and transferring funds out of it a real pain.)

The duct just barely fits a 5" prop. I don't mind buying a nice HQ prop for this since I suspect it will be pretty hard to break one...at least without breaking other stuff as well

Thanks for the well wishes...we are doing well - but summer is keeping us busy and not giving me as much time to work on my projects as I had hoped this year! Even with my old office now turned into a workshop I seldom get time to go out there and work on things.

 

[jhitesma]

Oh, and no real build photos yet...but I did post more photos of the parts on an RCGroups thread here: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2666240 And there are some good detail photos of the one in the video from the guy who inspired me to start building one.

 

[jipp]

hi jason. i hear ya on where to put it.. personally i think it belongs here. so its all good. iv always hated labels.

im collecting parts for a project that im not sure where to post.. probably here..

could you help me find 2 servos. i need them to be metal, and the specs on the one im using as my example/inspiration for my poor mans version of it uses servos with these specs..

Servomotors: 4kg.cm / 3.5lb.in (22x12x30mm / 0.8x0.5x1.2in) to 10kg.cm / 8.7lb.in (40x20x40mm / 1.6x0.9x1.6in)

the overall dimensions of the servos do not matter since ill be building the body, chair? heh.. out of 3/16" hobby grade plywood.
nice thing about my project is weight is ot a issue i figure ill want about 5lbs anyhow.. so i guess i can use a large 3s battery and lead.

the servos wont be under high Gs either.. so no snap rolls or anything.. just lazy type flying.

thanks for the link to rcgroups.. i really like the look of it, sure looks fun. very cool project.

i think if hk ever gets one of there small 100.00 desktop 3d printers in ill get one.. ill use it to learn the basics etc.. especially since it would pay for it self for all the little brackets and what not it be perfect for..
but yeah something iv been considering.

chris.

 

[jhitesma]

Wish I could help with servos, but I really don't have much experience with them and have a hard time figuring out which to use myself...usually I just use what's already worked for someone else That's one of the reasons I haven't made more progress on my Balsa Vans RV-3 project. I want to switch from one big heavy old servo in the middle with linkages to two modern servos in the wings but I'm not sure what size servo I need to run.

I ordered servos and a motor for the singlecopter today. Priority mail shipping from China so only a slight chance that they'll be here by next weekend...but should be here the week after that for sure. Went with the same parts the two working versions went with. Figure I'll get a proven design working before I even think about swapping for different parts. Why make things hard on myself with a crazy project like this. So I've got 4 ES9051 digital 5g servos and a SunnySky 2207 motor on their way.

My 4-40 tap showed up today as well, but I quickly realized that my only tap handle (I used to have a bunch...haven't see them since my last big move and won't declare them fully lost until I fully empty the shed someday.

So I hit every store in town and only home depot had any tap handles - either $16 for the handle or $30 for a handle and a few taps. Well, I have a nice tap, and just need a handle so hit harbor freight. They had a pack of three different sized t handle tap handles for $9 or a set of metric taps with tap handle and a tap wrench for $16. The handle is not horrible, the wrench...is better than nothing. The die wrench is pot metal and horrible. I haven't tried any of the taps or dies in the set yet but I don't expect much from them. In retrospect I should have gone with the 3 t handles and saved a few bucks. But the M3 tap in this set probably will come in useful if I use some of my existing standoffs for mounting the FC.

But I should really start a separate thread before I get too into this

As for the 3D printer...I use mine all the time now. Just this week things got a little hot in our pool when I left the cover on by mistake one day.



So I printed an adapter that goes on the return from the pump:



And another on the end of a short hose tied around a pool noodle.



I actually made three sprayers before I had one I was happy with. First one the holes were too small and there were two few of them so it made too much pressure and just sprayed a few tiny streams too far. Second try I went too far the other way and made too many holes and made them too big. Not enough pressure and it more oozed than sprayed. Third try is usable. I'd kind of like to make the holes just a little smaller still. But it's good enough and helps. It's still more like maintaining a large spa than a small pool though.

I'll start a thread on the singlecopter soon. Just need to make more progress so there's something to get photos of.

 

[jipp]

heck yeah.. 3d printers every home should have one just for cases like ones above.. so handy.

yeah i do not know much about servos.. and unfortunately, they do not recommend name brand models.. just specs, and then have there own logo on the servo can not even copy that. LOL.

i have the canopy ready to go tho.. went out side and tested it, it will work perfect.. 4 feet canopy. unfortunately when you pay 12.00 shipped even from the USA.. you do not get to pick any cool colors.. but whatever.. compared to 600.00 for a working unit.. i figure i should be able to build one for under 60.00.. 9-10" prop, i have a 30A ESC, and a 1000kv motor i plan on using.. so yeah my goal is to keep this project under 60.00 which would be a good goal for a poor mans para glider. or whatever they call these things.. when i saw how cheap you could get the canopy and saw the FT video and the price i was like hey tat looks fun. i can build a poor mans version

i look forward to your one thrust device. hhe. it sure looks cool visually.. i bet its fun to fly.. see that is why im working on my project something different to experience.. so i imagine your project will same thing something fun to experience and look cool doing it.
chris.

i guess ill just use these cheap 9g servos i have handy just to move my build along.. even tho i know they will strip looking a them.

if i had a 3d printer i could print the prop cowl thing.. im just gonna have to come up with a piece of pipe or something that i can cut in half. dunno, part of the fun is figuring stuff like this out.

im thinking maybe 2 of these..

http://www.ebay.com/itm/HDKJ-D3015-...f8df164&pid=100005&rk=4&rkt=6&sd=301892506959 or something close...

 

[jhitesma]

Well, while most of my limited attention this summer has been focused on the singlecopter (which I still need to start a thread about, but want to get some more progress on it before I do so) I have made some progress on the UBMQ.

First a 2nd UBMQ was printed/milled and sent to another forum member who I'm hoping will share his build experience

But mostly I've been working on getting that DTFc in there. The USB issues on the Sparky2 have not happened again so my Sparky2 seems fine...but I'm putting it in the singlecopter since the DTFc's PDB would go to waste in something with one motor.

I got a few of the dasmikro FlySky ultra tiny RX's to play with and will be using one of them on here with the DTFc. I still have to reflash the dasmikro...it has PPM out but the failsafe doesn't seem to work. Thankfully the code is available so I can tweak the failsafe to match my expectations (Right now it's a return to programmed points failsafe and I want a "drop signal" failsafe.)

The big slowdown is that when I went to install the DTFC I ran into a few issues:



Not only were my sleeved wires a bit of a tight fit...but the USB port was totally blocked by the frame

I got out a knife and made things work:



But I wasn't happy with it. So..back to openSCAD to tweak the design, then an hour or two on the 3D printer and:



Much better! I had to take out a big chunk to clear the USB port and a smaller chunk out of two other sides to clear some of the wires.

Speaking of wires...don't look to closely at the soldering job on there There is some SERIOUS copper in the DTFc's PDB layers! My poor Hakko 936 clone soldering iron is having a heck of a time keeping up since this board just sucks in the heat. Plus I wasn't really going for "finish" soldering here, just trying to get things in place enough to see how it all fits.

There is another minor revision to the frame that's not as obvious. Instead of holes for 3mm screws to pass through for the FC mounts I changed to slightly smaller holes so I could tap them with an M3 tap. I also added small risers around them about 1mm tall to lift the FC off the bottom. Between those and the O-rings under the FC I now have room to fit my battery strap around the bottom:



One thing that isn't obvious from photos is the rigidity (and lack thereof) in this frame. The black PETG 3D printed part is actually pretty flexible despite the center being printed nearly solid. But the lexan top/bottom are very stiff and once they're bolted on it's solid. This came into play last night as I was re-installing the arms into the new center. The fit was a little tight and the center started flexing making me worried I may break it. So what I did was installed all the arms I could and bolted them in adding the bottom plate - that stiffened things up enough that I was easily able to use a bit more force on the last arm without breaking anything.

So it's almost ready. I still need to put fresh heat shrink on, make a few final wiring adjustments, and reflash/mount the RX. But should be back in the air this weekend sometime I hope.

 

[airhawk]

Well, while most of my limited attention this summer has been focused on the singlecopter (which I still need to start a thread about, but want to get some more progress on it before I do so) I have made some progress on the UBMQ.

First a 2nd UBMQ was printed/milled and sent to another forum member who I'm hoping will share his build experience

But mostly I've been working on getting that DTFc in there. The USB issues on the Sparky2 have not happened again so my Sparky2 seems fine...but I'm putting it in the singlecopter since the DTFc's PDB would go to waste in something with one motor.

I got a few of the dasmikro FlySky ultra tiny RX's to play with and will be using one of them on here with the DTFc. I still have to reflash the dasmikro...it has PPM out but the failsafe doesn't seem to work. Thankfully the code is available so I can tweak the failsafe to match my expectations (Right now it's a return to programmed points failsafe and I want a "drop signal" failsafe.)

The big slowdown is that when I went to install the DTFC I ran into a few issues:

View attachment 72542

Not only were my sleeved wires a bit of a tight fit...but the USB port was totally blocked by the frame

I got out a knife and made things work:

View attachment 72543

But I wasn't happy with it. So..back to openSCAD to tweak the design, then an hour or two on the 3D printer and:

View attachment 72544

Much better! I had to take out a big chunk to clear the USB port and a smaller chunk out of two other sides to clear some of the wires.

Speaking of wires...don't look to closely at the soldering job on there There is some SERIOUS copper in the DTFc's PDB layers! My poor Hakko 936 clone soldering iron is having a heck of a time keeping up since this board just sucks in the heat. Plus I wasn't really going for "finish" soldering here, just trying to get things in place enough to see how it all fits.

There is another minor revision to the frame that's not as obvious. Instead of holes for 3mm screws to pass through for the FC mounts I changed to slightly smaller holes so I could tap them with an M3 tap. I also added small risers around them about 1mm tall to lift the FC off the bottom. Between those and the O-rings under the FC I now have room to fit my battery strap around the bottom:

View attachment 72545

One thing that isn't obvious from photos is the rigidity (and lack thereof) in this frame. The black PETG 3D printed part is actually pretty flexible despite the center being printed nearly solid. But the lexan top/bottom are very stiff and once they're bolted on it's solid. This came into play last night as I was re-installing the arms into the new center. The fit was a little tight and the center started flexing making me worried I may break it. So what I did was installed all the arms I could and bolted them in adding the bottom plate - that stiffened things up enough that I was easily able to use a bit more force on the last arm without breaking anything.

So it's almost ready. I still need to put fresh heat shrink on, make a few final wiring adjustments, and reflash/mount the RX. But should be back in the air this weekend sometime I hope.

whos that other forum member (; good to see the ubmq is making progress im still debating if i should use the dtfc or the f3fc i need to go get hardware for mine before the weekend when i get to a flying field to test it out.

 

[jhitesma]

So I'm still having fun playing with this thing in the front yard...but it's still so crazy hot out I just haven't drug myself out to the field to really push it I also haven't found time to work on a FPV pod for it yet.

But...Instructables is having a Drones contests and they've got some goPro's up for prizes so I figured I may as well go ahead and write something up and enter this little project. So I'd REALLY appreciate it if anyone who's found this thread even remotely interesting would go there and vote for me: http://www.instructables.com/id/Ultra-Budget-Mini-Quad

As part of that I also finally fixed up my thingiverse listing and took it live: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1492827

 

[cranialrectosis]

In the spring of 2004, the Warpquad hadn't been invented yet.

I think you typod the date on your post on instructibles. Also, I followed the link and don't see the UBMQ listed. I see 22 contestants but no jhitesma. I see a mat from BoomCHICKAPop and how to build a cheap quad by DerpyCyclops.

Did you change your name to DerpyCyclops?

 

[jhitesma]

Yeah, turns out the contest entry is pending moderator approval still It didn't make that obvious until I saw the e-mail this morning about my submission.

Could have sworn I fixed that date typo! The Instructables editor drove me crazy...kept showing a little "saved" indicator, yet a few times I'd loose the tab or my computer would shut down and when I'd come back a bunch of stuff was gone and not actually "saved"

I'll update again when I get word that the contest entry is approved.

 

[jhitesma]

And as I was fixing that typo I suddenly noticed a little "VOTE" ribbon in the upper right hand corner of the screen. Looks like my entry got approved

So now I can officially ask everyone to please go vote for me for real in the "Drones Contest 2016": http://www.instructables.com/id/Ultra-Budget-Mini-Quad/

 

[jhitesma]

Woah, Instructables featured me on their FB page today! (actually I guess it was yesterday I just didn't notice until now)

https://www.facebook.com/instructables/posts/10154498384221913

If you haven't voted for me yet I'd sure appreciate it if you did Winning one of those GoPro's would sure help me make more/better videos about my projects :applause:

 

[jhitesma]

Did a bit of work on a FPV pod finally:



That with 25 degrees of camera tilt...currently it will support up to about 28. I've never flown with more than about 15-20...so not sure how much tilt I want to allow for.

Also not 100% sure the camera is scaled correctly. The one I found on thingiverse I'm using for mockup was about 2' across so I scaled it to fit the HS1177 mount I found for mockup...I only have board cams currently so not 100% sure on the dimensions of these HS1177's and owls. May have to pickup an Owl Plus to try..looked pretty impressive in the last FT vlog.

Had this little guy out last Saturday and ran a few packs through it. Gave it a bit of torture testing smashing it into the ground a few times (partly due to lack of much flying lately, partly due to overdischarging a brand new pack, partly due to swapping to an older lower C pack and forgetting it doesn't have nearly as much punch!) Frame held up great and nothing has broken yet....though last crash did something to a motor or ESC and one of them is just stuttering now

Not surprised...the ESC's aren't really attached right now, I didn't put new heat shrink on after swapping in the DTFc and just wrapped the original back over them. So every crash the heat shrink went flying and ESC's were flapping in the breeze. May have been moisture from the wet field, may have been a prop strike on an ESC, may be wires pulled loose on motor...could be something else. Haven't really taken the time to look closely yet.

Anyone have any thoughts or feedback on the pod? I still need to mockup a VTX and antenna...and space is getting tight...so I may expand the bottom of the pod to reach the edges of the top plate.

 

[LitterBug]

45 Degrees would be fun! I have my 450 and 360 quads set to max 45. Comes in handy on really windy days. Any progress on the Lunar LEM?

Cheers!
LitterBug

 

[jhitesma]

I just don't get to fly FPV often enough to need high angles yet. And this thing is such a heavy pig I doubt it's fast enough to justify them either

Did do a first test print tonight to see if I'm close on things and I'm pretty happy with how it came out:



Not bad at all. Fits over the screws...but I need to make some mods to give more room for the nuts that will hold it on. probably need to design fittings to capture them since it won't be possible to get fingers in there with a camera installed too.

This was just sitting on top of the nuts to test...but I did take the nuts off and confirm it fits. Will need some longer screws though...



And if I add more tilt I may have to raise the top up a bit. But overall the print came out great. It's super strong too, I can probably make the wall a bit thinner to save some weight. Printed in PETG with 20% infill and 3 perimeters this is strong enough I can stand on it. Smacked it with a socket wrench a few times and it didn't break either



Didn't print 100% perfect, at the top I did have one or two rows droop a bit. But the next layer made up for it so no big deal.

I'll have to tweak the bottom a bit to capture nuts, probably raise the top a bit more, adjust the camera cutout to allow for more tilt (maybe close up the bottom a bit and assume SOME tilt will be used) and add some bosses for the camera to mount on...but this is looking like it will work.

The code for the design is up in my git under a branch called fpvpod if anyone wants to play along: https://github.com/jhitesma/jth_angle_quad/tree/fpvpod

 

[jhitesma]

Well, that first attempt at a pod came out better than I expected. But still had some issues. There wasn't room for the nuts that hold it on, and the extra height it adds would require longer screws (the ones I have now are barely long enough as it is. But if I make it bigger so there's room for the nuts it gets a little too close for comfort with the outer nuts/screws. So I decided to just enlarge it all the way and make it fully cover the top plate. And in fact I suspect it's strong enough I can just forgo the top plate all together with this new design which will make wiring a little easier, but means I have to mount the cam to the pod and can't get away with just bolting it to the top plate:



I also made the top a little pointier...but may change that back, haven't decided yet. I think I'm going to need a bit more height since test fitting a camera there isn't as much room as it seems like there should be looking at the design in openSCAD. With it a bit taller the larger top ball may look a little nicer and less pyramidal.

Replacing the top plate with this still worries me...that plate gives this design a lot of it's strength. This is strong...but mostly the top of it not so much the plate base...I suspect the lexan will still be stronger there. This version I designed nut traps into it and there is room for both the inner and outer nuts - so that solves some of the assembly concerns I had.

I still have to add camera and VTX mounts, but since I don't have a HS1177 camera just a bunch of older board cameras I can't really test my design...and since I still have working board cams I can't really justify the expense of a new HS1177 style camera right now. So instead I'm working on a mount for a board cam first. I have an initial mockup of a board cam done: https://github.com/jhitesma/openscad_board_cam/blob/master/generated_files/board_cam.stl so now I can work on a mount design.


In other news I determined that last weekend I did not kill a motor as I had feared. Just one of the old simon series emax ESC's that came with my original emax nighthawk that I've been running on this. Never been very impressed with those ESC's so no big loss there, will use the other three on planes. And I have a full set of 18a KISS on hand that I've been keeping as spares for my hex and twitchity 230...but will probably put on here now. So much for this being a budget build And despite my inability to release the magic smoke from a KISS in two years of trying I suspect that as soon as I no longer have spares I'll finally earn that achievement

 

[airhawk]

this thread is forcing me to get back into flying miniquads.Its been way too long.Thank you for everything