Eric Monroe's angle arm Drachen (eMaaD) MiniQuad

JohnRambozo

Posted a thousand or more times
The eMaaD as I'm calling it, is an acronym for "Eric Monroe's angle arm Drachen" and was featured in the wonderful and informative FliteTest Naze 32 Setup video.

Here is one of Eric's videos 'playing around' doing endless flips low to the ground. So cool! eMaaD Race Quad Acro.

eMaaD Components:
  • FT Electrohub kit
  • FT Angle Arm brackets
  • FT "E" Race Quad Power Pack
  • Naze32 Flight Control Board
  • Spektrum AR610 Receiver

Transmitter:
  • Spektrum DX5e

This is a bit of a placeholder at the moment. I will be adding details about my build and inviting questions, of course.


The kit and all components arrived in a very compact box. I was impressed before I even opened it. Once I did, it was a beautiful sight to behold.

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I mounted the ESCs inside the Electrohub. I don't think I needed it but I had a battery voltage alarm laying around so I threw that in, too. The blue tape marked the front/center.

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Orange arms indicate the front. Pigtail out the back. The Naze32 is mounted with double sided tape as close as I could get to center. I carefully twisted all of the wires going to the receiver to keep it clean and neat and to add strength in case of a crash. The receiver is a Spektrum AR610 because that's what I had. I have since remove the aux 3 and aux 4 wires that had no place to go to clean up the build even more.

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Close up showing the motor mounted at the end of the arm, just beyond the angle arm bracket.

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Close up showing where the arm mounts inside the hub. The second hole on the bracket starts just outside of the hub (at the edge).

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Top view to show alignment of angle bracket to the hub again.

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I like symmetry so the wires were run like this.

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I just used a tiny piece of tape to hold the antenna down on the hub and carefully fit it under the zip ties. So far so good.

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And finally... I don't know if this was intended in the design or one of those flite test happy accidents but the battery mount fits snugly between the bolts holding the arms on with the perfect overlap for the bolts to catch it nicely. If you have a lot of weight, I'd suggest putting washers on before you snug up the nuts. I also shortened the length of the battery/camera mount since I have no camera.

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Frog Habitat Dome acquired! I'm going to paint it for easier orientation. I'm thinking White Front, Blue Back, Yellow Left and Red Right.

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Frog Dome sanded for texture. The red area was sanded and painted inside for a nice glossy look. The black was sanded and painted on the outside for a matte appearance.


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Here is the very short video I took while flying one handed. Needless to say, I had to ditch the phone due to a light breeze that had her drifting toward some large trees.



I'm also tracking my quest for the perfect tuning here: eMaaD Mini Quad w/ E Power Pack & Naze32: Tweak Log
 
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earthsciteach

Moderator
Moderator
I'm sure Eric would approve. Although, you haven't colored all of the wires black with a Sharpie. Haaa haaaa haaaaaa!
 

JohnRambozo

Posted a thousand or more times
I'm sure Eric would approve. Although, you haven't colored all of the wires black with a Sharpie. Haaa haaaa haaaaaa!

Hahaha, he saw it on facebook and he did approve. I was honestly waiting for a black sharpie comment but he let it slide. lol!
 

JohnRambozo

Posted a thousand or more times
What length did you end up with for each of the arm segments?

The arm segments closest to center are 3 inches and the outside segments are 3.5 inches.
Mounted, that gives 5.25 inches from the edge of the hub to the tip of the arm.

I can put some closeups of the mounting position if you'd like.
 
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JohnRambozo

Posted a thousand or more times
Thank you, cranialrectosis. I added the video with a description to the first post.
 
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amishboy

Junior Member
The arm segments closest to center are 3 inches and the outside segments are 3.5 inches.
Mounted, that gives 5.25 inches from the edge of the hub to the tip of the arm.

I can put some closeups of the mounting position if you'd like.

Closeups would be nice but those measurements is what i was looking for. Thanks
 

cranialrectosis

Faster than a speeding face plant!
Mentor
Sounds good. The phone hitting the ground not so much but the copter sounds and looks good.

Nice build.
 

JohnRambozo

Posted a thousand or more times
Sounds good. The phone hitting the ground not so much but the copter sounds and looks good.

Nice build.

Thanks, man. The phone was fine. I dropped it low to the ground. I almost forgot about when I was done flying.

I'm excited to finally get some serious practice time in this weekend. So far it has only been 10-20 minutes after dinner and before it gets too dark while battling mosquitoes. Not the best conditions. :)
 

jipp

Senior Member
congrats looks great.. i say heck with the sharpie.. paint pen all the way. laughs.. just be sure to test it before you leave the store.. i bought one and the thing was empty.. by the time i got around to use it.. it was not worth the gas to return it.. blah.

look forward to your next build.
chris.
 

JohnRambozo

Posted a thousand or more times
congrats looks great.. i say heck with the sharpie.. paint pen all the way. laughs.. just be sure to test it before you leave the store.. i bought one and the thing was empty.. by the time i got around to use it.. it was not worth the gas to return it.. blah.

look forward to your next build.
chris.

Thanks, Chris and great tip on checking the pen. Lol! I am going to get the frog habitat dome cover to complete the build, soon, too. Hopefully before I smash the Naze board.
 
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JohnRambozo

Posted a thousand or more times
So, I had a little issue with orientation yesterday...

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I decided to try repairing with some large "Hobby Sticks" that I had picked up from Walmart a while back. Its a couple of dollars for a pack of 75 of these large tongue depressor looking things. I traced out an angle bracket and made 4.

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I also made an alignment jig based on one of the good arms then gorilla glued them and put some weight on. Good as new.

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Actually, after mounting them, they're more perfectly aligned than the first time I built them. :)
 
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