DumbThumbsRC
Junior Member
I posted this in another forum earlier this week.
Bear with me hear and please direct if this should go elsewhere. This will be a long post
A few months ago I decided to build my first quad. I have a couple already, but this is my first build. Now let me just say this. I am cheap!!!! I have the delusional idea that sometimes you can get the same quality out of cheap as you do expensive. I still have that perception, but not so much anymore.
I bought one of those cheap $85 150 size kits from ebay. You know what I'm talking about. We all have thought about getting one. It's okay if you won't admit it. So I waited patiently for 2 weeks for my package to come from that magical place where everything is made. China. It finally arrived and I couldn't wait to tear open all those little clear gray bags of electronic and get to building.
- frame- check
-esc's- check
-motors - check
- fc - check
-pdb - check
-hardware - check
It was all there and everything looked great. I put together the bottom frame/standoffs. I then cut my motor leads to length and removed the motor leads from the esc. Away I went with soldering. Except the solder wouldn't take. I need to scrape the enamel off the motor leads. That took a while before I figured that out. Cool, all motors and esc's are attached. Next I got the esc and battery plug all soldered onto the pdb. Something doesn't look right though. Oh yeah the 12amp esc do not have any BEC. So now how am I going to power the Flip 32 Mini FC? The PDB is a single layer one that only outputs the voltage input.
So I get on trusty old Internet and order a new pdb. Except this time I am smart and get one and also a 5v pololu down step. No problem here. So I get that in the mail and am looking forward to hooking this fc up and seeing those pretty red and blue lights. Except somehow I managed to mess up my soldering job with the pololu. I hooked that fc up and plugged in my battery expecting the sweet sounds of esc arming and instead I saw one quick show of lights and little sizzle and a puff of blue smoke. It was gone. The FC was toast and I am out more time and money.
I decide to take a break for awhile and decide what I was going to do. So after a bit I went online asked more questions and decided to go the diatone usa site. There I got a new pdb with built in 5v down step. I also got myself a spf3 fc board.
I got to watching the painless 360 videos and let me tell you, they are great. Please check them out. I got everything all hooked up and downloaded cleanflight. I powered up the board with the USB and all was working as it should.
At this point all errors were my fault in cleanflight. I had issues after I set up my satelite rx not binding. It would bind, it just wouldn't engage any flight modes or the arm switch. After two days I decided to disconnect everything and start over. As soon as I disconnected the esc's the fc was working again. I connected them back up and now we are back in business. A few other hiccups with cleanflight and I was ready for maiden.
With everything working and endpoints set I took it outside, armed it and it lifted off nice and easy. With the exception of reversing a couple directions it went great. I didn't do anything crazy just some left and right and forward and back.
The next day I go to fly my new toy arm it and lift off. Half a second later it flips forward to the right and noses in. I try again and the same thing. I take a look at it and now the #3 motor is only twitching when powered up. I am not sure why this happened all of a sudden
Today I tried to recalibrate the esc's. In the process of doing this the #4 motor started to smoke. At this point I am so aggravated as I have spent more time on the computer and soldering iron than even attempting to fly this thing.
So here is my advise on buying a cheap kit
1.Make sure that all components are correct. Hence my experience with the lack of BEC on my esc and having a pdb without a downstep.
2. Make sure the pdb is adequate for what you are doing.
3. Expect to make errors that cost money. I guess making errors on cheap things is better than making them on expensive parts.
4. Review a good blog or YouTube site and learn all you can.
5. Expect to have cheap parts burn up on you. Motors and possibly esc.
I am bound and determined to get this going and I will. But it will take time to get even more money saved to replace the cheap motors that came with the kit. The cheap option is not always really the cheapest option. At this point with new motors, 2 pdb, and a new fc I am out an extra 80 some bucks. This doesn't include the camera/vtx setup I am putting in since it did not come with original kit.
Buyer beware and do your research.
Bear with me hear and please direct if this should go elsewhere. This will be a long post
A few months ago I decided to build my first quad. I have a couple already, but this is my first build. Now let me just say this. I am cheap!!!! I have the delusional idea that sometimes you can get the same quality out of cheap as you do expensive. I still have that perception, but not so much anymore.
I bought one of those cheap $85 150 size kits from ebay. You know what I'm talking about. We all have thought about getting one. It's okay if you won't admit it. So I waited patiently for 2 weeks for my package to come from that magical place where everything is made. China. It finally arrived and I couldn't wait to tear open all those little clear gray bags of electronic and get to building.
- frame- check
-esc's- check
-motors - check
- fc - check
-pdb - check
-hardware - check
It was all there and everything looked great. I put together the bottom frame/standoffs. I then cut my motor leads to length and removed the motor leads from the esc. Away I went with soldering. Except the solder wouldn't take. I need to scrape the enamel off the motor leads. That took a while before I figured that out. Cool, all motors and esc's are attached. Next I got the esc and battery plug all soldered onto the pdb. Something doesn't look right though. Oh yeah the 12amp esc do not have any BEC. So now how am I going to power the Flip 32 Mini FC? The PDB is a single layer one that only outputs the voltage input.
So I get on trusty old Internet and order a new pdb. Except this time I am smart and get one and also a 5v pololu down step. No problem here. So I get that in the mail and am looking forward to hooking this fc up and seeing those pretty red and blue lights. Except somehow I managed to mess up my soldering job with the pololu. I hooked that fc up and plugged in my battery expecting the sweet sounds of esc arming and instead I saw one quick show of lights and little sizzle and a puff of blue smoke. It was gone. The FC was toast and I am out more time and money.
I decide to take a break for awhile and decide what I was going to do. So after a bit I went online asked more questions and decided to go the diatone usa site. There I got a new pdb with built in 5v down step. I also got myself a spf3 fc board.
I got to watching the painless 360 videos and let me tell you, they are great. Please check them out. I got everything all hooked up and downloaded cleanflight. I powered up the board with the USB and all was working as it should.
At this point all errors were my fault in cleanflight. I had issues after I set up my satelite rx not binding. It would bind, it just wouldn't engage any flight modes or the arm switch. After two days I decided to disconnect everything and start over. As soon as I disconnected the esc's the fc was working again. I connected them back up and now we are back in business. A few other hiccups with cleanflight and I was ready for maiden.
With everything working and endpoints set I took it outside, armed it and it lifted off nice and easy. With the exception of reversing a couple directions it went great. I didn't do anything crazy just some left and right and forward and back.
The next day I go to fly my new toy arm it and lift off. Half a second later it flips forward to the right and noses in. I try again and the same thing. I take a look at it and now the #3 motor is only twitching when powered up. I am not sure why this happened all of a sudden
Today I tried to recalibrate the esc's. In the process of doing this the #4 motor started to smoke. At this point I am so aggravated as I have spent more time on the computer and soldering iron than even attempting to fly this thing.
So here is my advise on buying a cheap kit
1.Make sure that all components are correct. Hence my experience with the lack of BEC on my esc and having a pdb without a downstep.
2. Make sure the pdb is adequate for what you are doing.
3. Expect to make errors that cost money. I guess making errors on cheap things is better than making them on expensive parts.
4. Review a good blog or YouTube site and learn all you can.
5. Expect to have cheap parts burn up on you. Motors and possibly esc.
I am bound and determined to get this going and I will. But it will take time to get even more money saved to replace the cheap motors that came with the kit. The cheap option is not always really the cheapest option. At this point with new motors, 2 pdb, and a new fc I am out an extra 80 some bucks. This doesn't include the camera/vtx setup I am putting in since it did not come with original kit.
Buyer beware and do your research.
