Flat4
Senior Member
Hey guys, for the past month or so I've been amassing components to start another zmr build. It originally started as a backup for when I inevitably crash and break my go to quad. However in the time it took for me to acquire everything needed, I had plenty of time to null over some changes I would like to make on the new build. Mainly I wanted to use some spacers to separate the bottom plates and have my naze, pdb, receiver, and transmitter all stuffed between them. I knew it was going to be a tight fit, but in my head it seemed promising.
Here a list of the components used in my build.
Frame - http://us.banggood.com/Wholesale-Warehouse-H250-ZMR250-250mm-Carbon-Fiber-Mini-Quadcopter-Multicopter-Frame-Kit-wp-Usa-933185.html
Motors - http://www.myrcmart.com/rcx-h2206-2250kv-multirotor-outrunner-brushless-motor-motion-balanced-p-8395.html
ESC's - http://flyduino.net/KISS-ESC-2-4S-18A-v11_1
PDB - http://www.banggood.com/CC3D-Flight-Controller-5V-12V-BEC-Output-Power-Distribution-Board-PCB-p-973352.html
FC - http://www.readymaderc.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=76_156&products_id=3066
TX - http://www.banggood.com/AOMWAY-MINI-5_8G-600MW-32CH-Wireless-AV-Transimitter-Module-p-978277.html
RX - http://www.getfpv.com/frsky-x4r-sb-3-16-channel-receiver-w-sbus.html
On to the build itself.
I started off by just laying out my equipment and seeing if it was truly possible to fit all that gear between the two plates, and how I was going to run the wiring from the pdb. After a good hour of visualizing I began to solder up the wiring on the pdb, mainly give me a better idea of the space I had to work with. I also lined up and bolted on the bracket for the fpv cam, so I knew where material needed to be removed from the top bottom plate. This is what it looked like.
Next I got out my dremel with a router bit, and started hacking up the top plate for the camera to go through. While I had the dremel out I also opened up all the motor mounting holes on the arms to accept m3 screws, as well as the rear most hole on the top bottom plate to allow room for an sma bulkhead for my antenna. Next I used a 90 degree sma connector as the bulkhead, since I really didn't have room to run the standard coax extension most people use nowadays to save their TX in a crash. This required sanding down a prop adapter ring to give me proper amount of bulkhead sticking out of the plate to attach my antenna to. Basically the antenna is what locks the 90 degree adapter to the bottom frame.
I made a ton more headway, enough to start hover testing and tuning, but didn't get any pics. I'll take some more when I get home tonight and finish writing up the build. In the meantime here's a couple pics more that show some mock-ups I did during the first night of the build. I also already have the fc soldered up and mounted in the next few pics.
More to come!!!
7/22 Updates
Unfortunately I'm terrible at remembering to take pictures as I build something, so I don't have much to show other than some close to finished build pics. From where I left off all that was really left was to solder the escs to pdb leads, and motors to escs. I also had to run some wiring for the video tx and camera. The dremel with router bit was then used once again to hack the back two thirds off of the top plate since the battery will now sit on the top bottom plate, it was no longer needed.
Once everything was soldered up it was time to remove all the arm bolts and standoffs, so I could flip the bolts upside down leaving the lock nuts on the bottom of the frame and not the top. Just trying to get all the wiring positioned where I wanted it while putting the bottom plates back together was probably the hardest part of this build. Everything was a very tight fit to begin with, and on top of that I was basically putting it back together upside down from how it was built, just to orient the bolts correctly. After struggling with that for a little while all that was left was to mount the camera to it's pre-installed bracket, and figure out a place for the receiver as it was a bit to big to fit in between the bottom plates.
I'm still not completely done, the pictures below are currently how I have it setup just to start a basic tune on it. I'm still waiting on a few things in the mail to finish her up. The receiver isn't going to stay there, and that blue velcro is going to go as well. I'm also going to try a different material for mounting what's left of the top plate, instead of more nylon standoffs. I should have everything I'm waiting for by Friday, so hopefully this weekend I'll have some completed build pics, and possibly a maiden video. Enjoy my crappy cell phone pics!
Here's how she currently sits for tuning.
A shot with the cut up top plate just floating on top of the camera and receiver.
This is the insanely bright led panel that is probably going to go as well, it gets way to hot for me to be comfortable with it. Still on the fence though, it might be tolerable once some air flows over it.
Here you can see the hole I cut out of the top bottom plate to let me change the dip switches on my vtx.
Finally a shot of the front, again those top standoff are going to be replaced, and that receiver will be moved.
7/25 Updates
I decided to try something different than just standoffs for the camera tray. I grabbed some silicon fuel tubing to see if it was enough to dampen vibrations, plus it gave me the ability to put some angle on the top plate, which standoffs wouldn't let me do.
The fuel tubing itself wasn't tight enough against the screw I used to mount the top plate, so some CA glue was added to help hold it together. Not sure how well this will do in a crash, or to remove jello. I have a feeling it's a bit too soft though, we'll see later today.
I didn't like how much space the headers, and servo connection were taking up on my receiver so I de-soldered all the headers and just directly soldered what I needed to the board. You can also see the green wire I soldered to the a-hole on the x4r, that let's me bypass the sbus inverter, allowing the naze to talk to the receiver without the need for an inverter cable.
I believe that about covers all the changes I made to this frame, here's a few more shots of the final product. The only thing I added since I took these pics is some double sided foam tape under the escs, and receiver.
This quad came out 50 grams lighter than my previous build, and it's using larger motors.
Old vs. New
Well that about wraps it up, hopefully should a have a maiden video up later this evening.
Cheers!
8/3 Updates
Got a chance to maiden it last weekend, and I was getting terrible interference from my vtx sitting right under the battery leads. I decided to add in an lc filter and relocate the vtx to the bottom of the frame. This solved all my interference issues.
My silicon fuel tubing idea, as I predicted it was a bit too soft, and introduced vibrations into the recording cam. Luckily I found 4 20mm black nylon standoffs that were the perfect height, no idea where they came from but I'll take it. Slapped them on and added some Kyosho gel under the camera to give it some angle. There are still some vibrations, but I think they are more from my tune than the mounting of the cam. The props aren't the freshest on her atm either.
I also had a bit of a tumble on the maiden because my video feed was so poor, and it caused a kiss esc to go up in smoke, well fire if you want to get technical. It also took the motor out with it. I like to completely scrub these esc's down after I'm finished with the soldering, but unfortunately I forgot before shrunk the heatshrink on this build. Being lazy, decided to roll the dice, bad idea. So while I had the frame apart to relocate the vtx and add the lc filter, I opened all the esc's and gave them a good scrubbing with a toothbrush and rubbing alcohol.
Finally got her back together and had a chance to test out the video feed, tune, and vibrations in front of my parents house for a bit this morning. I don't really fly here often, and wasn't comfortable at all with the power lines everywhere, but did get a chance to punch it a couple times in the second clip of the video. This thing absolutely hauls, I will have to get out to a spot I'm more familiar with to really open her up, but this video at least gives a taste of it. Going to have to learn to fly all over again on this one.
I'll get some pictures of the changes I made to the build later tonight.
Here a list of the components used in my build.
Frame - http://us.banggood.com/Wholesale-Warehouse-H250-ZMR250-250mm-Carbon-Fiber-Mini-Quadcopter-Multicopter-Frame-Kit-wp-Usa-933185.html
Motors - http://www.myrcmart.com/rcx-h2206-2250kv-multirotor-outrunner-brushless-motor-motion-balanced-p-8395.html
ESC's - http://flyduino.net/KISS-ESC-2-4S-18A-v11_1
PDB - http://www.banggood.com/CC3D-Flight-Controller-5V-12V-BEC-Output-Power-Distribution-Board-PCB-p-973352.html
FC - http://www.readymaderc.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=76_156&products_id=3066
TX - http://www.banggood.com/AOMWAY-MINI-5_8G-600MW-32CH-Wireless-AV-Transimitter-Module-p-978277.html
RX - http://www.getfpv.com/frsky-x4r-sb-3-16-channel-receiver-w-sbus.html
On to the build itself.
I started off by just laying out my equipment and seeing if it was truly possible to fit all that gear between the two plates, and how I was going to run the wiring from the pdb. After a good hour of visualizing I began to solder up the wiring on the pdb, mainly give me a better idea of the space I had to work with. I also lined up and bolted on the bracket for the fpv cam, so I knew where material needed to be removed from the top bottom plate. This is what it looked like.
Next I got out my dremel with a router bit, and started hacking up the top plate for the camera to go through. While I had the dremel out I also opened up all the motor mounting holes on the arms to accept m3 screws, as well as the rear most hole on the top bottom plate to allow room for an sma bulkhead for my antenna. Next I used a 90 degree sma connector as the bulkhead, since I really didn't have room to run the standard coax extension most people use nowadays to save their TX in a crash. This required sanding down a prop adapter ring to give me proper amount of bulkhead sticking out of the plate to attach my antenna to. Basically the antenna is what locks the 90 degree adapter to the bottom frame.
I made a ton more headway, enough to start hover testing and tuning, but didn't get any pics. I'll take some more when I get home tonight and finish writing up the build. In the meantime here's a couple pics more that show some mock-ups I did during the first night of the build. I also already have the fc soldered up and mounted in the next few pics.
More to come!!!
7/22 Updates
Unfortunately I'm terrible at remembering to take pictures as I build something, so I don't have much to show other than some close to finished build pics. From where I left off all that was really left was to solder the escs to pdb leads, and motors to escs. I also had to run some wiring for the video tx and camera. The dremel with router bit was then used once again to hack the back two thirds off of the top plate since the battery will now sit on the top bottom plate, it was no longer needed.
Once everything was soldered up it was time to remove all the arm bolts and standoffs, so I could flip the bolts upside down leaving the lock nuts on the bottom of the frame and not the top. Just trying to get all the wiring positioned where I wanted it while putting the bottom plates back together was probably the hardest part of this build. Everything was a very tight fit to begin with, and on top of that I was basically putting it back together upside down from how it was built, just to orient the bolts correctly. After struggling with that for a little while all that was left was to mount the camera to it's pre-installed bracket, and figure out a place for the receiver as it was a bit to big to fit in between the bottom plates.
I'm still not completely done, the pictures below are currently how I have it setup just to start a basic tune on it. I'm still waiting on a few things in the mail to finish her up. The receiver isn't going to stay there, and that blue velcro is going to go as well. I'm also going to try a different material for mounting what's left of the top plate, instead of more nylon standoffs. I should have everything I'm waiting for by Friday, so hopefully this weekend I'll have some completed build pics, and possibly a maiden video. Enjoy my crappy cell phone pics!
Here's how she currently sits for tuning.
A shot with the cut up top plate just floating on top of the camera and receiver.
This is the insanely bright led panel that is probably going to go as well, it gets way to hot for me to be comfortable with it. Still on the fence though, it might be tolerable once some air flows over it.
Here you can see the hole I cut out of the top bottom plate to let me change the dip switches on my vtx.
Finally a shot of the front, again those top standoff are going to be replaced, and that receiver will be moved.
7/25 Updates
I decided to try something different than just standoffs for the camera tray. I grabbed some silicon fuel tubing to see if it was enough to dampen vibrations, plus it gave me the ability to put some angle on the top plate, which standoffs wouldn't let me do.
The fuel tubing itself wasn't tight enough against the screw I used to mount the top plate, so some CA glue was added to help hold it together. Not sure how well this will do in a crash, or to remove jello. I have a feeling it's a bit too soft though, we'll see later today.
I didn't like how much space the headers, and servo connection were taking up on my receiver so I de-soldered all the headers and just directly soldered what I needed to the board. You can also see the green wire I soldered to the a-hole on the x4r, that let's me bypass the sbus inverter, allowing the naze to talk to the receiver without the need for an inverter cable.
I believe that about covers all the changes I made to this frame, here's a few more shots of the final product. The only thing I added since I took these pics is some double sided foam tape under the escs, and receiver.
This quad came out 50 grams lighter than my previous build, and it's using larger motors.
Old vs. New
Well that about wraps it up, hopefully should a have a maiden video up later this evening.
Cheers!
8/3 Updates
Got a chance to maiden it last weekend, and I was getting terrible interference from my vtx sitting right under the battery leads. I decided to add in an lc filter and relocate the vtx to the bottom of the frame. This solved all my interference issues.
My silicon fuel tubing idea, as I predicted it was a bit too soft, and introduced vibrations into the recording cam. Luckily I found 4 20mm black nylon standoffs that were the perfect height, no idea where they came from but I'll take it. Slapped them on and added some Kyosho gel under the camera to give it some angle. There are still some vibrations, but I think they are more from my tune than the mounting of the cam. The props aren't the freshest on her atm either.
I also had a bit of a tumble on the maiden because my video feed was so poor, and it caused a kiss esc to go up in smoke, well fire if you want to get technical. It also took the motor out with it. I like to completely scrub these esc's down after I'm finished with the soldering, but unfortunately I forgot before shrunk the heatshrink on this build. Being lazy, decided to roll the dice, bad idea. So while I had the frame apart to relocate the vtx and add the lc filter, I opened all the esc's and gave them a good scrubbing with a toothbrush and rubbing alcohol.
Finally got her back together and had a chance to test out the video feed, tune, and vibrations in front of my parents house for a bit this morning. I don't really fly here often, and wasn't comfortable at all with the power lines everywhere, but did get a chance to punch it a couple times in the second clip of the video. This thing absolutely hauls, I will have to get out to a spot I'm more familiar with to really open her up, but this video at least gives a taste of it. Going to have to learn to fly all over again on this one.
I'll get some pictures of the changes I made to the build later tonight.
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