I've been looking forward to this for about a month MultiRotorMini's contacted me and asked if I had got my hands on a Naze32 yet as they were looking forward to seeing me do a build with one. I replied that I had just got an afromini and had been playing a little with an acro Naze32 on my friends 450...but no, I didn't have a Naze of my own to experiment with yet. (Ok to be totally honest, I do have one sitting on my desk but it's got a hole through the STM32 so it's not good for much more than mocking things up!) MRM then replied back asking if I'd be interested in trying a new frame they were getting and that they'd send me a full kit along with a full FunFly Naze32 if I'd write up the build and share what I learn about hooking up and using GPS on the Naze32 hardware.
Well, I'm a sucker for anything free so while I was a little worried about whether I'd have time to do the build justice or not they did say it would be a few weeks until they had the frames. And I do want to experiment with Naze32 and GPS. Alright I'm in! I'd like to be totally upfront and transparent about this - this build is only possible due to the generosity of MultiRotorMinis who sent me the full kit as listed on their website: http://shop.multirotorminis.com/EMAX-250-Pro-Mini-Quad-Bundle-E250ProMiniQuadBundle.htm With the one notable upgrade of a FunFly Naze32 instead of the Acro that's included in their Bundle. I'm supplying my own RX, my own GPS, and my own FPV gear, and my own batteries of course.
When I agreed to the build I had no idea what the frame would be. It was only after I said "sure send me free stuff!" that I learned it was a new hybrid G10 with Carbon Fiber veneer "250 FPV" frame. The only real info I found about it on-line was from their post on RCGroups. Once I read that and learned it was a G10/CF hybrid design I got really excited. I've felt for awhile that G10 is underrated as a frame material and that a lot of the CF frames out there may as well be made from G10 with the CF being mostly for looks. I also know that laminates can add a lot of strength and my own experiments with making hybrid laminate from 1/8" ply and hotel room key cards impressed me more than I expected. So the idea of G10 with CF veneer sounded like a GREAT idea to me. Should keep the costs down, the CF could help stiffen the G10 but still keep some of the G10's flexibility, and has that cool CF look everyone loves.
So the main point of this thread is supposed to be to share info about GPS on Naze32...except I'm thinking I'll probably start a second thread dedicated to that once this is built and in the air. So this may be more of a straight build/review thread with a touch of GPS with a follow up thread condensing the GPS info down once this is in the air and I've got things working well.
Anyway, I got an e-mail from MRM on last Friday saying there was just one last thing they were waiting on but the kit should be out to me on Monday and sure enough I got a follow-up ship notification on Monday saying the box was in the mail and should reach me by today. USPS actually did that one better and showed up at my door yesterday. Unfortunately they showed up while I was at work and my wife was at the gym and since they wanted a signature I had to wait until my wife could pick it up at the post office today.
When I came home for lunch today this rather densely packed little box was waiting for me:
I wanted to dig right in...but I did have to eat a bit of lunch first A quick turkey sandwich and apple which I ate in record time later and the unboxing could begin:
Once I got those instructions out of the way I was greeted by some shiny CF in a bag
And proceeded to take inventory:
Everything was there and packed securely in the box tight enough nothing was damaged without having to use any packing materials, very nice! The box was heftier than I expected but was only 1lb 11oz according to the label so it really wasn't that heavy - and there is a good bit of packaging material on the individual components. 2 of the motors are CW and two are CC which is nice since the prop shafts are an integral part of the bell and having the two different threads should help prevent prop loss even without nylocs.
So let's dig in to this cornucopia of quadly goodness!
Well, I'm a sucker for anything free so while I was a little worried about whether I'd have time to do the build justice or not they did say it would be a few weeks until they had the frames. And I do want to experiment with Naze32 and GPS. Alright I'm in! I'd like to be totally upfront and transparent about this - this build is only possible due to the generosity of MultiRotorMinis who sent me the full kit as listed on their website: http://shop.multirotorminis.com/EMAX-250-Pro-Mini-Quad-Bundle-E250ProMiniQuadBundle.htm With the one notable upgrade of a FunFly Naze32 instead of the Acro that's included in their Bundle. I'm supplying my own RX, my own GPS, and my own FPV gear, and my own batteries of course.
When I agreed to the build I had no idea what the frame would be. It was only after I said "sure send me free stuff!" that I learned it was a new hybrid G10 with Carbon Fiber veneer "250 FPV" frame. The only real info I found about it on-line was from their post on RCGroups. Once I read that and learned it was a G10/CF hybrid design I got really excited. I've felt for awhile that G10 is underrated as a frame material and that a lot of the CF frames out there may as well be made from G10 with the CF being mostly for looks. I also know that laminates can add a lot of strength and my own experiments with making hybrid laminate from 1/8" ply and hotel room key cards impressed me more than I expected. So the idea of G10 with CF veneer sounded like a GREAT idea to me. Should keep the costs down, the CF could help stiffen the G10 but still keep some of the G10's flexibility, and has that cool CF look everyone loves.
So the main point of this thread is supposed to be to share info about GPS on Naze32...except I'm thinking I'll probably start a second thread dedicated to that once this is built and in the air. So this may be more of a straight build/review thread with a touch of GPS with a follow up thread condensing the GPS info down once this is in the air and I've got things working well.
Anyway, I got an e-mail from MRM on last Friday saying there was just one last thing they were waiting on but the kit should be out to me on Monday and sure enough I got a follow-up ship notification on Monday saying the box was in the mail and should reach me by today. USPS actually did that one better and showed up at my door yesterday. Unfortunately they showed up while I was at work and my wife was at the gym and since they wanted a signature I had to wait until my wife could pick it up at the post office today.
When I came home for lunch today this rather densely packed little box was waiting for me:
I wanted to dig right in...but I did have to eat a bit of lunch first A quick turkey sandwich and apple which I ate in record time later and the unboxing could begin:
Once I got those instructions out of the way I was greeted by some shiny CF in a bag
And proceeded to take inventory:
Everything was there and packed securely in the box tight enough nothing was damaged without having to use any packing materials, very nice! The box was heftier than I expected but was only 1lb 11oz according to the label so it really wasn't that heavy - and there is a good bit of packaging material on the individual components. 2 of the motors are CW and two are CC which is nice since the prop shafts are an integral part of the bell and having the two different threads should help prevent prop loss even without nylocs.
So let's dig in to this cornucopia of quadly goodness!