Hello guys,
This post has gotten a bit long... Skip the first part (marked #) if you dont have much time for my life-story:
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I'm looking at this hobby for 1-2 years now and really want to get into flying multirotors. I had a coax-heli a few years ago, but it was broken from the beginning on and the shop I bought at was bankrupt when I wanted my money back...
But now I want to try again! And this time, I wanna be building one on my own. I've watched every single video (not really, but I've seen too many hours) on youtube about multirotors and KK2 boards and FliteTest and so on and so forth. I'm really excited, that you can fix most things for a few bucks if something doesn't go to plan (unlike the coax I bought, 140€ trash)
##################################
I came here to get some advice of people knowing much more about things as I do. Here's my part list + some annotations for my Tricopter build (inspired by RCExplorers Tricopter V3). I had to change a few things from David's list, because I want to order them from HobbyKing Europe, and many things aren't available. Maybe you guys could have a look at it, so I don't buy useless or wrong stuff or I am missing something important. As I have to ship nearly all things I want to have, I don't want to be waiting weeks and weeks for that one single part I forgot.
1x Spektrum Dx6i + 1x AR610 Reciever - Do the recievers probably break and ordering a second one from the get go would be a good idea? Do you think 6 channels are enough for the mid-term? HobbyKing do not sell these, but I saw them on ebay for around 100€ (reciever included).
5x NTM Prop Drive Series 2830-1100KV Motor + mounting accessory - I really need advice here. I didn't find any of the propsed motors at HobbyKing EUROPE (they should be ready to ship, as I have heard that it takes weeks to backorder...). Is buying 5 of them enough, or too many to start with?
5x Afro Slim 20Amp (SimonK Firmware) - Heard the afros are good. Are 20 Amp enough? The normal 20Amp afros with BEC are out of stock now. How do I power my KK2 and reciever without BECs?
3 x 4S 3000mAh Zippy 20C - Are 3 enough, too many or do I need more of them to have fun?
1x battery charger - I really have no idea what to buy. Can u name a good one (available at HK Europe, not too expensive)
2x Turnigy Digital high torque bearing servo 15.8g/3.9kg/0.13sec - The closest servo to the ones proposed by RCExplorer that I could find available at HK. Is this okay? Are 2 enough?
4x set (3 pieces) 8x5 Props - I have no idea wich props to use, I know I should use plastic ones, not carbon. Can u show me props that I can use (they have to be CW & CCW,right?)? Is 4 sets enough for the beginning? Or should I more like buy 8 sets or so?
1x KK2.1.5 - Should be good for beginners. I like being able to configure it on the field.
10x pair of bullet connectors 3.5mm - 10 should be enough, right?
10x 60cm and 10x 10cm servo leads - HobbyKing is out of stock on all servo leads. I will get them off of ebay or something.
18 AWG cable - Have that laying around.
Soldering iron, solder, hot glue, wood glue i have laying around.
I want to build a simple Tricopter frame out of wood, glue and zip-ties, as long as you don't strongly recommend not to do so.
Is there something I'm missing? Do you disagree with anything I want to buy? I'm really thankful for any tip you can give me on my way to my first self-made Tricopter!
Sorry for this wall of text. Thank you in advance for your reply!
- Nils (aka 1387)
Edit:
Hello guys!
I finished my Build and been flying for about a month now. Everything went far better than expected and I learn fast. I want to keep my promise to document my build here, so if you are interested, please read:
I layed out the components on the table. I later bought the stuff for the frame (thin wood, aluminium tubes and screws) from a hardware store. As David Windestal doesn't really recommend aluminium i was sceptical at first, but I liked the idea to hide the cables and my Afro Thin ESCs in the tubes nicely protected. My father said the arms should hold up pretty well and he was right! I had no copter -> wall high speed accidents but some major crashes and I only had to replace 1 arm so far when my father maneuvered the copter into a very high tree and it fell down 15m.
The first thing I did was to flash the KK2 board.
I think many people fear this step, because if something doesn't go to plan, there is a small chance to brick the microcontroller. But as I had some experience (hence the STK500 board) with Microcontrollers I figured I could save the money and not buy a USB Programmer and flash it via the programmer on the STK500.
For all you who just getting started: Don't worry if you don't know what I'm talking about. You just need a device to conect the KK2 to your computer and install the latest software. You just need to buy a so called AVR ISP (In system programmer) with 6 Pins. With the Software KKMulticopter Flashtool, you can't really do something wrong. You just select your connection type in the list (e.g. USB or the COM Port), then select the board that you got (e.g. KK2.1.5) and click "flash" or something and a few seconds and a few blinking LEDs later, your done! Remember to plug your ISP into your computer before starting the tool, because otherwise your connection may not appear in the list (my USB->COM Adapter had to be plugged in first, otherwise the COM Port didn't appear in the list).
I put together a testing circuit very quick and dirty to test if everything worked as I expected. It was a tiny bit harder for me, because the Afro Thin ESCs don't have a battery elimination circuit. This means that the don't give power to the KK2 and from the KK2 to the reciever for your RC link. So I had to use an external BEC (the black thingy on the bottom of the picture). I tested if it is possible to plug the ESC in the DATA/BND port on my Reciever, because if I wanted to use all 6 channels of the reciever, there wouldn't be a port free to power KK2 and reciever otherwise. But the DATA/BND port works for power supply. It really would not have been a problem if it didn't, it just had required me to solder a Y-connector that I can put power into e.g. the throttle Servo Cable between KK2 and reciever.
A quick information for all you Tricopter builder:
You need to get 5V to the KK2, the reciever and your servo. On the reciever, every 5V and ground pin is connected to one another, so it doesn't matter to wich pin you put the power. On the KK2 on the other hand, the power+ground input pins are connected to one another. The input pins (on the left) can provide power to the KK2 aswell. The M1 output port on the top right is conected to that aswell. So if you have a ESC with BEC connected to your M1 port, it will power the KK2 and from there your reciever. Power+ground from M2-M8 on the other hand are not connected to M1 or the KK2. So you can't power the KK2 from there. This is, so you can split the power circuit for the KK2 + reciever from the power circuit for servos. What that means for you is, that you need to provide power to one of the M2-M8 ports for your servo to work. I just made a Y-harness for my UBEC and connect that to the BIND/DATA Port on my reciever to power reciever + KK2 and the second plug goes into the M8 port on the KK2 to power my servo.
This is my tilt mechanism. Nothing really to say about it. You can get further details and where to buy the white joint thing on rcexplorer.se. This is a 1:1 copy from his earlier copter designs (V1 - V2.5HV i think, haven't checked though).
This is a very cheap prop balancer. The screw thing is off HobbyKing for a buck or so. The black things are from a LEGO-like set (it's called fischertechnik, don't know how popular that is outside of germany). It is very cheap but suits my needs I think. A had very much luck with my copter/camera setup. I don't really have jello in my image even without balanced props. I know you should balance your props and motors, but as I can't seem to see a difference, I have to say that I don't really balance them anymore. I just chuck a new one on after I crash.
I really forgot to take pictures half way through. This is the first Version of my finished Tricopter. It flew very well without touching the KK2 Gains one bit. The wiring is a heavy mess and I cleaned that off and cut it shorter after I maidened it. I firstly wanted to make sure that everything worked before I cut cables. Since then I rebuild my copter 3 times, I will show you later on.
The ESCs are so small that they can fit inside the arms. I think it is very nice as aluminium should transport the heat away very well and they are nicely protected. With this setup, I didn't had to extend the servo wires or power wires from the ESCs, all I had to do was solder a 20cm 3 pole extension cable 2mm bullets -> 3mm bullets to connect the ESC (2mm bullet) to the motor (3 mm bullet). It is a very easy and clean setup. It has a few bullet connections wich could have been soldered instead of plugged, but I like that I can swap out motors without a hassle. I can just plug a new one in. At first I plugged the ESCs into a Y-harness aswell. But the Y-harness was too long and it was a mess all around. So now I have soldered all the ESCs together and used only 1 pair of bullets for all of them. This is much cleaner as you will see on the last few pictures.
As I said: the wiring is a mess. It is definately cleaner now. My servo extension cables came 3 weeks after this foto. So I had to make my own using the three blue cables u see on the left. It worked luckily, though it was very risky. The thing would have crashed if I couldnt move the tail servo... I have extension cables now and put the cable for the back servo thorugh the booms aswell.
These are my landing gears. Using really big zip-ties as a landing gear has proven a very good idea for me. It doesn't look as nice as other landing gears, but they are a little bit springy that they absorb a lot of the impact when crashing right side up. They are cheap, easy to replace and you can decide wether you want a really big loop and high ground clearance or a smaller loop, a little more stiffness and less ground clearance. I like them.
The motor mount is an old version. I now screw my motors directly to the arms. It is far more stable, less weight and cleaner all in all.
Version 2: I swapped the wooden frame plates with aluminium ones, as the wooden ones suffered too hard from the pressure of the screws. It was the wrong wood.
The aluminium plates look far better, are more stable and are only a little bit harder to cut and drill. The design of the plates is from David Windestals site rcexplorer.se. You can get the plan for free there or spend the money for a complete frame out of carbon. The carbon frame is maybe 100-200g lighter than my DIY aluminium frame. But repair cost is higher aswell, though carbon should last a lot longer than aluminium in crashes. I really wanted to make it myself, so I could repair it with stuff I can get locally.
For Version 2.5, I attached light strips to my copter I bough off of hobbyking for a few euros. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!! For a beginner, these lights (if you give every arm a different color) the help immensely with orientation. I didn't think it would make such a big difference but it did. I was far more comfortable flying a little bit farther away when I got these lights. Later I even attached a headlight to the front of my copter. After maybe 100m you can't really see the LEDs on the arms anymore (you shouldn't be flying that far away if you don't know what you're doing) and the copter gets really small. The headlight helps with orientation for a much greater distance.
I even added a remote controlled switch that I can turn the lights on and off with my transmitter. It is the small thing next to the BEC in the next picture.
This it what it looked like in version 2.5. I since then have rewired my copter 2 times. The wiring is messy and you shouldn't do it like that.
Today, the wiring is minimal and maybe 50-80g lighter than what you see on the video. It is benefitial to take your time and do it right like I did later. I don't have a foto of it though. I may add that later on.
It looks really nice, doesn't it? I don't want to brag, but I'm really happy how it looks in the dark. With the headlight I am comfortable flying in my garden in complete darkness. I want to know how that works out with a FPV setup But thats for later testing. As I said: I highly recommend attaching a few LED strips for orientation purposes, even in the day, if you are a noob. It is only about 50g weight and orientation is one of the biggest problems you have flying when you just start out. It is so easy to accidentaly touch the rudder stick when giving throttle and losing orientation.
These are the only up-to-date pictures:
A little trick is: you don't need 5 servo cables from the reciever to the KK2. It is enough to connect all Signal pins to one another and add one connection between power and ground of the reciever and KK2 (and any other flight control board really). This is the version like it is right now. It has a wiring setup that I am very content with. I used excess wires (the servo extension wire from the tail servo was too long, and the wire from the light switch aswell) to wrap them around the other wires to keep them tidy.
What you can see below the bottom plate is a tiny camera that I already owned. It is nicely protected (the battery is attached below the camera, so it is protected from all sides) and captures good enough video. I was surprised how little jello I got without even balancing props or motors. Im really happy how it turned out.
This is it! The all up weight with a 3700mAh 3S LiPo and the camera and lights and everything is just over 1kg (1030g), with 2200mAh batterys its 100g lighter. It flies nice with that weight, though it is a little bit more acrobatic with my 2200mAh 3S batterys, no big deal though. You can flip it easily with 1kg of weight.
With the 2200mAh batteries i get 8 mins flighttime (normal flying, a few flips and loops, but just flying around aswell) and about 12 mins with the 3700mAhs, this is with the lights on. You can add about 20 seconds when you turn the lights off. I ordered 2x4S 3000mAh to test how it feels with a 4S setup, I can't wait for it.
If you wanted to purchase Fatshark Attitudes from the EU Warehouse from HobbyKing: Be angry at me now. I got the very last set. It may be a little early to start FPV, but I really can't wait for that experience. I would've waited 1-2 months before buying them, but I saw that Hobbyking was out of stock soon and I knew that it can take months to restock. On ebay and all the other stores i've seen them (in europe, I don't want to have the hassle with toll fees and such...) they were much more expensive. Even used on ebay they cost the same as new from HobbyKing, so I bought them there.
I was surprised that the FPV gear only adds about 40-50g of weight, so it shouldn't be noticeable.
I will report how FPV flying goes when I get to it!
Last but not least, I made a little video: http://youtu.be/iL8pwV0AHH0
It shows pretty much the same pictures like here (it is a bit outdated...) so just scroll ahead to the part where I put the onboard footage from my little camera! I rendered it with a little low quality. The footage itself looks a bit better than it is on the video, but I have a very slow internet connection and uploading this video took me about 1.5h...
It is no spectacular video but it shows what I could do with about 1-2 weeks of flight experience. These parts are auto-level only, but only because I was intimidated crashing my copter in an open area. I kept the acro-mode practice in my garden mostly.
These are just normal practice flights, so the footage is not that great because of the fast actions. It looks much better when you fly slowly and turn slowly, but as I say in the video: I focused on learning and not capturing great video.
Today I feel like I'm much better, e.g. I fly acromode only and don't get confused by orientation as much and I can fly facing every direction and I'm able to perform basic aerobatics. I use the self level switch only as an "oh crap, I'm about to go down"-switch, to rescue myself from time to time, wich is another good tip for a beginner learning acro mode: Keep a finger on your mode switch, it can come in handy.
When you begin, remember to let the copter face away at all times. Remove the rudder pretty much out of the equation. Add it later, when you get a little bit more experienced.
A last word for all beginners out there:
YOU CAN DO IT, TOO!
It is really not that hard at all (sadly, just a little bit expensive...), and you can get all sorts of information, inspiration and help on youtube and forums like this one. The size of a process like building a Tricopter seems intimidating at first, but once you get to it and ordered the parts (let the forums help you pick the right gear, if you aren't sure!) everything should come together smoothly. I was surprised how well it went for me. You only see the "help-my copter doesn't work"-threads on the forums so much, because guys who have a working copter, don't need the forums. So I think people with problems are not the majority.
The build process just takes a couple of hours, and I'm not the greatest solderer and mechanic either. Learning to fly heavily depends on you. I play computergames from time to time and already had the feeling for a "controller", so it didn't took me as long as expected to learn some things at all. I don't consider me an experienced pilot, but I can maneuver my copter pretty well I think.
My father seems to have a bit more problems with e.g. moving the throttle without touching the rudder, but in a while, he will have figured it out, too.
Thank you very much for reading! If you have any questions regarding anything you just read or see, please feel free to ask. I will be monitoring this thread. I will also keep you updated on my journey to FPV flying! I also missed to add an offboard video from the copter flying. I may add that later.
I would really like to know, if beginners read this thread and maybe got a little bit of inspiration of my work. If so I would be very happy to get a comment from you!
Thanks again for all your support and kind words! I really appreciate it.
If I have made any errors or something should be taken out or so, please point that out. I'm a bit short on time and I don't know if I can proofread this post in time.
-1387
This post has gotten a bit long... Skip the first part (marked #) if you dont have much time for my life-story:
##################################
I'm looking at this hobby for 1-2 years now and really want to get into flying multirotors. I had a coax-heli a few years ago, but it was broken from the beginning on and the shop I bought at was bankrupt when I wanted my money back...
But now I want to try again! And this time, I wanna be building one on my own. I've watched every single video (not really, but I've seen too many hours) on youtube about multirotors and KK2 boards and FliteTest and so on and so forth. I'm really excited, that you can fix most things for a few bucks if something doesn't go to plan (unlike the coax I bought, 140€ trash)
##################################
I came here to get some advice of people knowing much more about things as I do. Here's my part list + some annotations for my Tricopter build (inspired by RCExplorers Tricopter V3). I had to change a few things from David's list, because I want to order them from HobbyKing Europe, and many things aren't available. Maybe you guys could have a look at it, so I don't buy useless or wrong stuff or I am missing something important. As I have to ship nearly all things I want to have, I don't want to be waiting weeks and weeks for that one single part I forgot.
1x Spektrum Dx6i + 1x AR610 Reciever - Do the recievers probably break and ordering a second one from the get go would be a good idea? Do you think 6 channels are enough for the mid-term? HobbyKing do not sell these, but I saw them on ebay for around 100€ (reciever included).
5x NTM Prop Drive Series 2830-1100KV Motor + mounting accessory - I really need advice here. I didn't find any of the propsed motors at HobbyKing EUROPE (they should be ready to ship, as I have heard that it takes weeks to backorder...). Is buying 5 of them enough, or too many to start with?
5x Afro Slim 20Amp (SimonK Firmware) - Heard the afros are good. Are 20 Amp enough? The normal 20Amp afros with BEC are out of stock now. How do I power my KK2 and reciever without BECs?
3 x 4S 3000mAh Zippy 20C - Are 3 enough, too many or do I need more of them to have fun?
1x battery charger - I really have no idea what to buy. Can u name a good one (available at HK Europe, not too expensive)
2x Turnigy Digital high torque bearing servo 15.8g/3.9kg/0.13sec - The closest servo to the ones proposed by RCExplorer that I could find available at HK. Is this okay? Are 2 enough?
4x set (3 pieces) 8x5 Props - I have no idea wich props to use, I know I should use plastic ones, not carbon. Can u show me props that I can use (they have to be CW & CCW,right?)? Is 4 sets enough for the beginning? Or should I more like buy 8 sets or so?
1x KK2.1.5 - Should be good for beginners. I like being able to configure it on the field.
10x pair of bullet connectors 3.5mm - 10 should be enough, right?
10x 60cm and 10x 10cm servo leads - HobbyKing is out of stock on all servo leads. I will get them off of ebay or something.
18 AWG cable - Have that laying around.
Soldering iron, solder, hot glue, wood glue i have laying around.
I want to build a simple Tricopter frame out of wood, glue and zip-ties, as long as you don't strongly recommend not to do so.
Is there something I'm missing? Do you disagree with anything I want to buy? I'm really thankful for any tip you can give me on my way to my first self-made Tricopter!
Sorry for this wall of text. Thank you in advance for your reply!
- Nils (aka 1387)
Edit:
Hello guys!
I finished my Build and been flying for about a month now. Everything went far better than expected and I learn fast. I want to keep my promise to document my build here, so if you are interested, please read:
I layed out the components on the table. I later bought the stuff for the frame (thin wood, aluminium tubes and screws) from a hardware store. As David Windestal doesn't really recommend aluminium i was sceptical at first, but I liked the idea to hide the cables and my Afro Thin ESCs in the tubes nicely protected. My father said the arms should hold up pretty well and he was right! I had no copter -> wall high speed accidents but some major crashes and I only had to replace 1 arm so far when my father maneuvered the copter into a very high tree and it fell down 15m.
The first thing I did was to flash the KK2 board.
I think many people fear this step, because if something doesn't go to plan, there is a small chance to brick the microcontroller. But as I had some experience (hence the STK500 board) with Microcontrollers I figured I could save the money and not buy a USB Programmer and flash it via the programmer on the STK500.
For all you who just getting started: Don't worry if you don't know what I'm talking about. You just need a device to conect the KK2 to your computer and install the latest software. You just need to buy a so called AVR ISP (In system programmer) with 6 Pins. With the Software KKMulticopter Flashtool, you can't really do something wrong. You just select your connection type in the list (e.g. USB or the COM Port), then select the board that you got (e.g. KK2.1.5) and click "flash" or something and a few seconds and a few blinking LEDs later, your done! Remember to plug your ISP into your computer before starting the tool, because otherwise your connection may not appear in the list (my USB->COM Adapter had to be plugged in first, otherwise the COM Port didn't appear in the list).
I put together a testing circuit very quick and dirty to test if everything worked as I expected. It was a tiny bit harder for me, because the Afro Thin ESCs don't have a battery elimination circuit. This means that the don't give power to the KK2 and from the KK2 to the reciever for your RC link. So I had to use an external BEC (the black thingy on the bottom of the picture). I tested if it is possible to plug the ESC in the DATA/BND port on my Reciever, because if I wanted to use all 6 channels of the reciever, there wouldn't be a port free to power KK2 and reciever otherwise. But the DATA/BND port works for power supply. It really would not have been a problem if it didn't, it just had required me to solder a Y-connector that I can put power into e.g. the throttle Servo Cable between KK2 and reciever.
A quick information for all you Tricopter builder:
You need to get 5V to the KK2, the reciever and your servo. On the reciever, every 5V and ground pin is connected to one another, so it doesn't matter to wich pin you put the power. On the KK2 on the other hand, the power+ground input pins are connected to one another. The input pins (on the left) can provide power to the KK2 aswell. The M1 output port on the top right is conected to that aswell. So if you have a ESC with BEC connected to your M1 port, it will power the KK2 and from there your reciever. Power+ground from M2-M8 on the other hand are not connected to M1 or the KK2. So you can't power the KK2 from there. This is, so you can split the power circuit for the KK2 + reciever from the power circuit for servos. What that means for you is, that you need to provide power to one of the M2-M8 ports for your servo to work. I just made a Y-harness for my UBEC and connect that to the BIND/DATA Port on my reciever to power reciever + KK2 and the second plug goes into the M8 port on the KK2 to power my servo.
This is my tilt mechanism. Nothing really to say about it. You can get further details and where to buy the white joint thing on rcexplorer.se. This is a 1:1 copy from his earlier copter designs (V1 - V2.5HV i think, haven't checked though).
This is a very cheap prop balancer. The screw thing is off HobbyKing for a buck or so. The black things are from a LEGO-like set (it's called fischertechnik, don't know how popular that is outside of germany). It is very cheap but suits my needs I think. A had very much luck with my copter/camera setup. I don't really have jello in my image even without balanced props. I know you should balance your props and motors, but as I can't seem to see a difference, I have to say that I don't really balance them anymore. I just chuck a new one on after I crash.
I really forgot to take pictures half way through. This is the first Version of my finished Tricopter. It flew very well without touching the KK2 Gains one bit. The wiring is a heavy mess and I cleaned that off and cut it shorter after I maidened it. I firstly wanted to make sure that everything worked before I cut cables. Since then I rebuild my copter 3 times, I will show you later on.
The ESCs are so small that they can fit inside the arms. I think it is very nice as aluminium should transport the heat away very well and they are nicely protected. With this setup, I didn't had to extend the servo wires or power wires from the ESCs, all I had to do was solder a 20cm 3 pole extension cable 2mm bullets -> 3mm bullets to connect the ESC (2mm bullet) to the motor (3 mm bullet). It is a very easy and clean setup. It has a few bullet connections wich could have been soldered instead of plugged, but I like that I can swap out motors without a hassle. I can just plug a new one in. At first I plugged the ESCs into a Y-harness aswell. But the Y-harness was too long and it was a mess all around. So now I have soldered all the ESCs together and used only 1 pair of bullets for all of them. This is much cleaner as you will see on the last few pictures.
As I said: the wiring is a mess. It is definately cleaner now. My servo extension cables came 3 weeks after this foto. So I had to make my own using the three blue cables u see on the left. It worked luckily, though it was very risky. The thing would have crashed if I couldnt move the tail servo... I have extension cables now and put the cable for the back servo thorugh the booms aswell.
These are my landing gears. Using really big zip-ties as a landing gear has proven a very good idea for me. It doesn't look as nice as other landing gears, but they are a little bit springy that they absorb a lot of the impact when crashing right side up. They are cheap, easy to replace and you can decide wether you want a really big loop and high ground clearance or a smaller loop, a little more stiffness and less ground clearance. I like them.
The motor mount is an old version. I now screw my motors directly to the arms. It is far more stable, less weight and cleaner all in all.
Version 2: I swapped the wooden frame plates with aluminium ones, as the wooden ones suffered too hard from the pressure of the screws. It was the wrong wood.
The aluminium plates look far better, are more stable and are only a little bit harder to cut and drill. The design of the plates is from David Windestals site rcexplorer.se. You can get the plan for free there or spend the money for a complete frame out of carbon. The carbon frame is maybe 100-200g lighter than my DIY aluminium frame. But repair cost is higher aswell, though carbon should last a lot longer than aluminium in crashes. I really wanted to make it myself, so I could repair it with stuff I can get locally.
For Version 2.5, I attached light strips to my copter I bough off of hobbyking for a few euros. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!! For a beginner, these lights (if you give every arm a different color) the help immensely with orientation. I didn't think it would make such a big difference but it did. I was far more comfortable flying a little bit farther away when I got these lights. Later I even attached a headlight to the front of my copter. After maybe 100m you can't really see the LEDs on the arms anymore (you shouldn't be flying that far away if you don't know what you're doing) and the copter gets really small. The headlight helps with orientation for a much greater distance.
I even added a remote controlled switch that I can turn the lights on and off with my transmitter. It is the small thing next to the BEC in the next picture.
This it what it looked like in version 2.5. I since then have rewired my copter 2 times. The wiring is messy and you shouldn't do it like that.
Today, the wiring is minimal and maybe 50-80g lighter than what you see on the video. It is benefitial to take your time and do it right like I did later. I don't have a foto of it though. I may add that later on.
It looks really nice, doesn't it?
I don't want to brag, but I'm really happy how it looks in the dark. With the headlight I am comfortable flying in my garden in complete darkness. I want to know how that works out with a FPV setup But thats for later testing. As I said: I highly recommend attaching a few LED strips for orientation purposes, even in the day, if you are a noob. It is only about 50g weight and orientation is one of the biggest problems you have flying when you just start out. It is so easy to accidentaly touch the rudder stick when giving throttle and losing orientation.These are the only up-to-date pictures:
A little trick is: you don't need 5 servo cables from the reciever to the KK2. It is enough to connect all Signal pins to one another and add one connection between power and ground of the reciever and KK2 (and any other flight control board really). This is the version like it is right now. It has a wiring setup that I am very content with. I used excess wires (the servo extension wire from the tail servo was too long, and the wire from the light switch aswell) to wrap them around the other wires to keep them tidy.
What you can see below the bottom plate is a tiny camera that I already owned. It is nicely protected (the battery is attached below the camera, so it is protected from all sides) and captures good enough video. I was surprised how little jello I got without even balancing props or motors. Im really happy how it turned out.
This is it! The all up weight with a 3700mAh 3S LiPo and the camera and lights and everything is just over 1kg (1030g), with 2200mAh batterys its 100g lighter. It flies nice with that weight, though it is a little bit more acrobatic with my 2200mAh 3S batterys, no big deal though. You can flip it easily with 1kg of weight.
With the 2200mAh batteries i get 8 mins flighttime (normal flying, a few flips and loops, but just flying around aswell) and about 12 mins with the 3700mAhs, this is with the lights on. You can add about 20 seconds when you turn the lights off. I ordered 2x4S 3000mAh to test how it feels with a 4S setup, I can't wait for it.
If you wanted to purchase Fatshark Attitudes from the EU Warehouse from HobbyKing: Be angry at me now. I got the very last set.
It may be a little early to start FPV, but I really can't wait for that experience. I would've waited 1-2 months before buying them, but I saw that Hobbyking was out of stock soon and I knew that it can take months to restock. On ebay and all the other stores i've seen them (in europe, I don't want to have the hassle with toll fees and such...) they were much more expensive. Even used on ebay they cost the same as new from HobbyKing, so I bought them there.I was surprised that the FPV gear only adds about 40-50g of weight, so it shouldn't be noticeable.
I will report how FPV flying goes when I get to it!
Last but not least, I made a little video: http://youtu.be/iL8pwV0AHH0
It shows pretty much the same pictures like here (it is a bit outdated...) so just scroll ahead to the part where I put the onboard footage from my little camera! I rendered it with a little low quality. The footage itself looks a bit better than it is on the video, but I have a very slow internet connection and uploading this video took me about 1.5h...
It is no spectacular video but it shows what I could do with about 1-2 weeks of flight experience. These parts are auto-level only, but only because I was intimidated crashing my copter in an open area. I kept the acro-mode practice in my garden mostly.
These are just normal practice flights, so the footage is not that great because of the fast actions. It looks much better when you fly slowly and turn slowly, but as I say in the video: I focused on learning and not capturing great video.
Today I feel like I'm much better, e.g. I fly acromode only and don't get confused by orientation as much and I can fly facing every direction and I'm able to perform basic aerobatics. I use the self level switch only as an "oh crap, I'm about to go down"-switch, to rescue myself from time to time, wich is another good tip for a beginner learning acro mode: Keep a finger on your mode switch, it can come in handy.
When you begin, remember to let the copter face away at all times. Remove the rudder pretty much out of the equation. Add it later, when you get a little bit more experienced.
A last word for all beginners out there:
YOU CAN DO IT, TOO!
It is really not that hard at all (sadly, just a little bit expensive...), and you can get all sorts of information, inspiration and help on youtube and forums like this one. The size of a process like building a Tricopter seems intimidating at first, but once you get to it and ordered the parts (let the forums help you pick the right gear, if you aren't sure!) everything should come together smoothly. I was surprised how well it went for me. You only see the "help-my copter doesn't work"-threads on the forums so much, because guys who have a working copter, don't need the forums.
So I think people with problems are not the majority.The build process just takes a couple of hours, and I'm not the greatest solderer and mechanic either. Learning to fly heavily depends on you. I play computergames from time to time and already had the feeling for a "controller", so it didn't took me as long as expected to learn some things at all. I don't consider me an experienced pilot, but I can maneuver my copter pretty well I think.
My father seems to have a bit more problems with e.g. moving the throttle without touching the rudder, but in a while, he will have figured it out, too.
Thank you very much for reading! If you have any questions regarding anything you just read or see, please feel free to ask. I will be monitoring this thread. I will also keep you updated on my journey to FPV flying! I also missed to add an offboard video from the copter flying. I may add that later.
I would really like to know, if beginners read this thread and maybe got a little bit of inspiration of my work. If so I would be very happy to get a comment from you!
Thanks again for all your support and kind words! I really appreciate it.
If I have made any errors or something should be taken out or so, please point that out. I'm a bit short on time and I don't know if I can proofread this post in time.
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