Blackout Mini H Quad Build Log

[FinalGlideAus]

I've had this little bundle of joy sitting in a box now on my bench for over a month and decided it was time to pull it out and start building. I ordered the mini quad early because I knew the stock levels would drop dramatically when it started popping up on the Flitetest shows. I was biding my time because I wanted to wait until the Fatshark Dominator HD's came out to buy my first set of goggles so I wasn't pestering others to borrow theirs but have got impatient waiting and will see what I'll do when the quad is done. Because of this and some other parts still on order it may drag this build out but I should at least have it flying LOS fairly soon.

My planned specs will be:
SunnySky 2204 2300kv Motors
BS12a ESC's but changing to KISS esc's when they come out
Gemfan 5030 but trialing HQ 5x4 Props
1500 3s 45c battery
Naze 32 Acro FC
AR600 rx
600TVL super had Board camera
ImmersionRC VTX
Super Simple OSD

I love my SS2204's on my Warpquad so happy continue on the BO quad. The 5030 gemfans are pretty standard but I''m interested to try the 5x4 HQ props. HQ makes a nice prop and should give the BO quad a bit more boggy. I have plenty of BS12a coming in the mail but am really keen to try the KISS esc's when they start production. I love the simplicity and light weight of just adding a satellite rx but because of the distance this thing can cover you need a full range rx and because of all that carbon you really need an rx with long antenna's and the ability to use diversity wisely. The AR600 has twin antenna with diversity and the antenna are long which allow smart placement. I'm planning on installing a basic OSD for battery voltage only.

First up the kit comes packaged very nicely and a nice touch is it being wrapped in "blackout" bubble wrap. Parts are individually packaged in ziplock bags and are in perfect condition. I must say the Carbon sheet used is some of the nicest looking I've seen and the cross section of the 3mm thick arms shows a very high quality multiple layer carbon layup. Those arms are not going to break anytime soon. On top of all this, the quality of the cnc cut's are of a very high standard which is a credit to Blackout's cutter. It is really hard to notice any cutting marks on it at all. Nice work Blackout! The PDB (Power Distribution Board) though is the star of the box. You can see the effort put into the design with many small great features that don't jump out straight away that make you think "good idea". Pretty much everything you need to wire up can be soldered direct to the board making things much simpler. The bolts and so on are of a high quality also which one would expect. A nice touch when you begin to assemble is to find the spare bolts in case you loose or break something for whatever reason. Although plans or instructions are not included, a business card is included with a link to the webpage where you can download them.

Tonight I did the basic assembly of the quad to get familiar with it but first I did some finishing of the carbon edges. The finish is really good and doesn't really need it but it's good practice to take off the corners as they are very sharp and can cut through the silicone shielding of wires and make bad things happen. This took a while to do as it always does but the end result is worth the work. Putting it together is rather simple and just a matter of bolting things together. Before I knew it the frame was pretty much together.

So far I'm really impressed with what I've experienced. The only downsides so far which are very minor are firstly the manual is not up to date showing the PDB and it's connections. There is plenty of info on the website but it is all geared towards the frame without the PDB. To be fair it's not hard to work things out but a diagram of the PDB and it's connections would be good. Secondly, there are no O-rings in the kit that go on top and bottom of the FC . I'm not sure if these were missed in making the kit or if they are not included at all it would be nice if they were included as they're not easy to find in small amounts like that.

Anyway, I'll update as I progress some more.

 

[cranialrectosis]

"I've had this little bundle of joy sitting in a box now on my bench for over a month"

How do you stand it? I can't let a build sit for more than a day or two even when I don't have all the parts. A BO frame would be calling to me in my dreams.

The integrated PDB in the lower plate is the most interesting aspect of this build to me. Were this available on the BO mini-hex, I would likely have built a BO instead of a Polakium.

Doesn't the Naze 32 support voltage telemetry by itself or is an OSD still needed? I will be following this aspect of your build VERY closely.

Where oh where do you Aussies get all the SunnySky motors???

 

[Mustang7302]

So you're going to put a Acro board on the FPV craft and fly the full feature board on a Acro craft?

Seems a little backwards, but then again things are a little backwards in the land down under... Queue the video clip from the Simpsons where Homer is in Australia and flushing a toilet contraption to reverse the swirl in the embassy. I know it isn't true, but that scene is so ingrained from my child hood.

 

[jhitesma]

Curious why you picked the super simple OSD. Yeah, it's cheap...but for just a few bucks more the minimOSD gives a LOT more and will talk to the Naze giving you a much more full featured OSD with artificial horizon (and if you run the full Naze compass, and if you hook up a GPS an arrow to home) along with altitude info, FC status, link status (if your RX supports it) and pretty much everything else.

It also lets you make field changes to your FC through the sticks/OSD so you can tweak PID's and Rates quickly and easily.

Yes, you do have to load custom firmware onto it but it's really a slick little OSD for <$20 on MW and Naze FC's.

 

[FinalGlideAus]

"I've had this little bundle of joy sitting in a box now on my bench for over a month"

How do you stand it? I can't let a build sit for more than a day or two even when I don't have all the parts. A BO frame would be calling to me in my dreams.

The integrated PDB in the lower plate is the most interesting aspect of this build to me. Were this available on the BO mini-hex, I would likely have built a BO instead of a Polakium.

Doesn't the Naze 32 support voltage telemetry by itself or is an OSD still needed? I will be following this aspect of your build VERY closely.

Where oh where do you Aussies get all the SunnySky motors???

It certainly wasn't through choice Cranial. I just didn't have the time to build it till now. The Warpquad had kept me busy for the last couple of weeks. Changing to BLheli FW on the ESC's has been a drawn out proccess and since I've killed an esc and can't work on it I decided to start on the BO quad.

I hate to tell you this but the Blackout Hex DOES have the PDB and it's BEWWWDIFUL.

The Naze does have a telemetry option but you still need an OSD to put info on your screen. Jthitesma, I may end up using the minim OSD. I have one on my other tri and like it. I haven't ordered anything yet so not sure yet. I only want an OSD for battery voltage as I may be too far away to hear the alarm. Not interested in GPS or other functions. Trying to keep weight down and keep the screen simple. It's hard to dodge tree branches when you have a million useless numbers cluttering the screen. I must say I had a chuckle when you mentioned it's only a couple buck more. You're that last person I'd expect to hear that from .

Mustang, it's good to see someone is taking notice of what I've been writing . The full Naze was meant for the Blackout but the Warpquad turned up first. I don't intend on using the full Naze functions on either quad but just bought it I case the need arises for some future project. I may end up swapping them out anyway as I have an idea on the Warpquad I want to try with a new pin layout.

As for the SunnySky's, it was matter of keeping a close on the net for the last two months and pouncing the moment they were available. I have 10 now and am keeping a close guard on them

 

[jhitesma]

The Naze does have a telemetry option but you still need an OSD to put info on your screen. Jthitesma, I may end up using the minim OSD. I have one on my other tri and like it. I haven't ordered anything yet so not sure yet. I only want an OSD for battery voltage as I may be too far away to hear the alarm. Not interested in GPS or other functions. Trying to keep weight down and keep the screen simple. It's hard to dodge tree branches when you have a million useless numbers cluttering the screen. I must say I had a chuckle when you mentioned it's only a couple buck more. You're that last person I'd expect to hear that from .

I'm more interested in "best bang for the buck" than absolute cheapest Technically I need to have my callsign displayed to stay legal so having a more full featured OSD makes that easy. I haven't found the display distracting at all - in fact I have a hard time remembering to look at it when I'm flying FPV and forget it's even there. I like having a lot of options available since I can always disable them if I don't want them or find them distracting. One of those rather have it and not need it than find out I need it and not have it things.

I've been running the TeamKV firmware on my minim and it's not bad. Though the one function I need (the callsign) doesn't seem to be working correctly in the latest official version. I was pleasantly surprised at being able to adjust PID's and such through the OSD - I wasn't expecting that and found it really useful. Better than coming out of the goggles and fiddling with my phone to make adjustments. There's a new MWP based firmware out though that looks really nice. I'm looking forward to trying it when I get my new TX. And I'm not a fan of KV anymore since the lead dev has basically responded to the new option by taking his toys and going home saying he's going to release a .hex only for the next version and close the source. Not that he's been good about fixing bugs or keeping up with his current release already. But it's worked reliably for me so I haven't been in a rush to switch firmware.

 

[FinalGlideAus]

I forgot about adjusting PID's through the OSD which may tip the scales. I still don't understand how you can actually adjust them but haven't really researched into it yet.

 

[jhitesma]

Well, you don't adjust them while flying

Use you a stick command like mid-throttle/right rudder/full pitch forward and it brings up the OSD menu. In there you can use the right stick to go forward back and up and down, and the left stick to select. Move the left stick down to save and exit. It's a little tedious if you're making big changes - but for fine tuning adjustments it's pretty easy.

 

[FinalGlideAus]

Ahh right ho. That's a pity you can't change in flight. On the. APM you can set a parameter on a separate channel and put that channel on a knob on the TX and adjust as you fly. Once you're happy you plug it into the computer to see the value. Mind you the APM also has the auto tuning function. That's pretty cool. Set it in altitude hold and flick a preset button and it does own thing

 

[trigger]

It certainly wasn't through choice Cranial. I just didn't have the time to build it till now. The Warpquad had kept me busy for the last couple of weeks. Changing to BLheli FW on the ESC's has been a drawn out proccess and since I've killed an esc and can't work on it I decided to start on the BO quad.

Can I ask why you decided to change to BLheli ? Is there anything wrong with SimonK ?
...
... Please tell me that 2013-05-15 SimonK works fine with the SS X2204 and you just wanted to try BLheli out... I really don't want to flash my ESCs, soldering wires to the atmel chip pins looks like a major PITA...


Anyway, most of my BO Mini H parts have arrived, I'm just wanting for the frame, on-board camera and vTx. Can't wait to get started with the build

 

[FinalGlideAus]

Generally SimonK works fine on the SS2204's with that fw but when you put a prop on it that it really should have like the 6x4.5 I am having slight sync issues with fast full throttle hits. The 5x3 props on that mini H should present no problems, mind you it's a pity longer arms are not available for it as they would really make the little quad scream.

BLheli just offers more tuning features that I would like to try.

 

[FinalGlideAus]

Regarding the O-rings, I asked Blackout and they are not included in the kit so no mistake was made. I just assumed that all FC's were mounted like the Warpquad's are as it is such a good idea. Not to worry, I had to pick up an esc tonight and picked some from Soma. Thanks again mate.

 

[jhitesma]

Ahh right ho. That's a pity you can't change in flight. On the. APM you can set a parameter on a separate channel and put that channel on a knob on the TX and adjust as you fly. Once you're happy you plug it into the computer to see the value. Mind you the APM also has the auto tuning function. That's pretty cool. Set it in altitude hold and flick a preset button and it does own thing

There are people who've modified MW so you can use an aux channel tied to a slider to adjust PID in flight. But it hasn't made it into the regular releases yet. Should be possible to add that to baseflight as well for Naze - but would take a bit more work due to the changes between MW and Baseflight. I've been thinking about trying it on mine but haven't seen it implemented 2.3 and don't feel like going back to an older version or trying to get the code to work on 2.3 - but when I get my new motors and need to retune...I might find myself inspired to mess with it....

I've seen a few people working on auto tuning for MW but none that have had much success.

 

[FinalGlideAus]

Ok so I should have been working on other things but I couldn't help myself after seeing how good it looked. After my last build I was impressed by how well the purple aluminum fasteners on the Warpquad looked with the Carbon Fiber so thought maybe the Blackout quad could do with a tart up. I had to pick up an esc from Soma's place yesterdy and in passing mentioned using those bolts on my next build. He said he had some for me to try out. Well after the first few went on I couldn't stop till I had finished as I knew it would look awesome. After finishing I took some quick photo's but they didn't do it justice so whipped out the DSLR and made the pictures worthwhile. I've attached a few below.

I give you Soma Bling!

The other cool thing is it's 12 grams lighter than the standard fasteners. While not dirt cheap (probably double the cost of the standard fasteners) these nuts and bolts are not only light but very high quality and will last, not just look good. If people like the look it would be easy for me to ask Soma if he wants to do up a little upgrade kit. He has all these sizes for the Warpquad anyway.

Anyway, let me know. Enjoy the pics...

 

[cranialrectosis]

Beautiful copter.

Maybe BO will start offering colored nut/bolt options like green, red, yellow and blue???

 

[kah00na]

The purple hardware looks good on the black frame.

 

[Mustang7302]

I am not personally a fan of purple, but it does provide a nice look against the CF. I'd be content with gun metal grey anodized hardware. Or maybe, just maybe, a bright florescent orange anodizing.

 

[jhitesma]

Looks nice...but yeah...I'd love to see color options other than just purple

 

[kah00na]

The purple reminds me of Kansas State University!! Woohoo!! I'm in for 10 sets.

 

[cranialrectosis]

The purple reminds me of Kansas State University!! Woohoo!! I'm in for 10 sets.

http://www.warpquad.com/magento/hardware.html

In stock!!