Goodbye Hex - Hello QAV500 and something else.

[nilsen]

Nothing bad happened to the Hex, I just took it apart.

Let's start off with something pleasant:


When I grow up, can I have big props like you?


So I had a relatively large hex, a Tarot 680 with 850 KV motors and 13 inch props but all I used it for was to lift a Gopro and small Gimbal. Hexes, with all of the arms and the legs and hanging gimbals are not very travel friendly, especially not for Ski backpacking or travel in general and I have been wanting to build a much larger 6s rig with my 390 KV motors and 16inch props for a long time to handle much bigger cameras, either it will be an X4 or X8, that is going to be determined by the X4 first.

I knew that if I purchased a QAV500 and then another frame for an X4/X8 I would never fly the hex again so instead I butchered the Hex for it's motors and electronics, will use the frame and turn it into a Quad config and then build my QAV500.

Since I only fly the gopro when on holiday or for fun on the weekends (besides the miniquad) the QAV would be the perfect size with the gimbal attached.


Still mostly whole


FC and GPS stuff removed


Always overly impressed by the build quality of the Lumenier products.


These are the longest arms they make, I needed large props as the motors are best for 11-13 inch props.


Lovely CF bits


Such a nice PDB


Top plate removed


Bottom view


2 legs removed


Ratsnest of motors and ESC's


ESC's ready for reflashing and attaching longer motor leads


ESC's mounted and heatshrunk


APM Power module conformally coated and resealed


Built in regulation on the PDB, I only installed 1 12V regulator, it's split by Reg A and Reg B so that you can power different things or more things, I left the one at battery voltage so that the gimbal can get 4S power.


Wiring almost done


APM mounted


The motor looks rather small... hmmm


Dammit, why didn't I shorten these when I had the ESC's open


There, done


Split Telemetry and OSD out of a Custom "Y" cable


Telemetry and OSD back to back


Joints


Size comparison

 

[nilsen]

Now I will try and Fly the APM in manual mode...

More tuning to follow.

Cheers for now.

 

[Spastickitten]

Wow, looks amazing! I could probably fly my dog on that!

 

[PHugger]

You might want to watch this guy.....
http://nofilmschool.com/2015/07/tin...-good-low-light-offers-interchangeable-lenses
Development looks promising.



Best regards,
PCH

 

[nilsen]

Wow, looks amazing! I could probably fly my dog on that!

Haha, Thanks! It's a lot smaller than the Hex but flies wonderfully.

You might want to watch this guy.....
http://nofilmschool.com/2015/07/tin...-good-low-light-offers-interchangeable-lenses
Development looks promising

Wow, so cool, great idea.

The gimbal kit doesn't come with a control board and I failed to notice when I ordered so I had to order one separately which should arrive soon so at the moment the gimbal isn't moving, I fixed it in place with tape.

I spent a good hour yesterday trying to tune the APM in "ACRO" mode, but it is so difficult compared to cleanflight, it's just not built for it, but I got a pretty good tune.

In it's autopilot modes such as pos hold it's rock solid.

Has anyone ever tried tuning an APM for more ACRO flying?

As for flight times, I get about 18 minutes on a 6000 mAh 4s which is nearly double the time which I had with the HEX, for obvious reasons.

Now to do some long-range FPV flying

 

[Cyberdactyl]

You might want to watch this guy.....
http://nofilmschool.com/2015/07/tin...-good-low-light-offers-interchangeable-lenses
Development looks promising.

Best regards,
PCH

That camera does look promising. If they can get the price point <$500 with a 35 or 50mm lens, it might bump the GoPro Black off the top of the hill. What I like about it is small enough to put on a quad, but not too small as to be a pain to remove jello and vibration. I love the Mobius and the Foxtech V3, but both are well under the "comfy zone" of enough mass for 1080P@60FPS to get decent, jello and jitter free video unless you go to extremes of balancing and isolating.

 

[PHugger]

The micro 4/3 cameras all have standard lens mounts. You can use lenses from any manufacturer.
A 20mm pancake lens would be near perfect (you need to double the FL on a micro 4/3 to get a 35mm equivalent).
That little guy will shoot 4k video.......



Best regards,
PCH

 

[jipp]

nice camera. thanks for the link. them arms look quite beefy. looks like it will be a great AP machine.. i think that size is a great size for it too. im not doing much with this hobby till fall.. just to hot. so all i do is practice with my nano near the a/c but it is showing promising results. also i had to get a new nano and this thing flys so much better than my last one.. so, either im just getting better or my other one was had way more twitch then it should of.. unfortunately i totaled it. laughs so i can not fly them side by side..

chris.

 

[Spastickitten]

What nano did you have?

 

[jipp]

What nano did you have?

the blade nano qx.
i ordered another one after i crashed my last one.. my last crash took out the props,motor, and a frame arm. laughs.
ill do something with the spare parts after i total this one..

but i think this one will last much longer as i crashed the first one so many times as it was my first quad.. not crashed my new one yet like i did with the first one.. so its serve its purpose.


chris.

 

[airhawk]

nice job on the qav500 and smart idea with the quad. what frame did you use for the quad qav250?id love to see both of them fly please post a flight video for both of them.

 

[airhawk]

also did you get the 540g or the regular 500

 

[Cyberdactyl]

nice camera. thanks for the link. them arms look quite beefy. looks like it will be a great AP machine.. i think that size is a great size for it too. im not doing much with this hobby till fall.. just to hot. so all i do is practice with my nano near the a/c but it is showing promising results.

chris.

Yep, me too. I have all but shut down any flying other than a quick pack in the yard. It's been in the mid and upper 90's with the humidity above 55-65% for about three weeks now. Ten minutes in it and I am a sweat bag just standing around.

 

[jipp]

Yep, me too. I have all but shut down any flying other than a quick pack in the yard. It's been in the mid and upper 90's with the humidity above 55-65% for about three weeks now. Ten minutes in it and I am a sweat bag just standing around.

yeah, when you are that uncomfy it just makes something we should be having fun with not fun.. so why ruin the fun by doing something we can just wait for cooler weather.. not the best logic but im not 15 anymore.. so i can not do stupid stuff like play in the heat all day. laughs.

chris.

 

[nilsen]

nice job on the qav500 and smart idea with the quad. what frame did you use for the quad qav250?id love to see both of them fly please post a flight video for both of them.

Thanks a lot, tha miniquad is the QAV250 which is most probably my favorite thing to fly for some mad FPV but for long range, smooth gimbal video you can't beat the larger machines, and of course for AP.

As soon as I have some time I will make a video of them both flying, the QAV500 still needs some tuning as I have the PID's set a little high and there are some oscillations.

also did you get the 540g or the regular 500

It's the 500V2, they replaced the 540g with this one and you can choose the arm length, in this case I went with the 540 Alu arms and I can see that you could fit 13 inch props on there with ease.

those props are 12x4.5.

 

[nilsen]

nice camera. thanks for the link. them arms look quite beefy. looks like it will be a great AP machine.. i think that size is a great size for it too. im not doing much with this hobby till fall.. just to hot. so all i do is practice with my nano near the a/c but it is showing promising results. also i had to get a new nano and this thing flys so much better than my last one.. so, either im just getting better or my other one was had way more twitch then it should of.. unfortunately i totaled it. laughs so i can not fly them side by side..

chris.

It's a very nice camera, I have a Sony a6000 for AP and the video it produces is very very good, it's a slightly larger sensor than micro 4/3 and has a 20mm pancake on the front.
The arms are very strong but very light, I have made a couple of miniquads and various other flying machines but the quality of the Lumenier stuff blows me away every time. Somehow it's worth the price...

 

[nilsen]

So the gimbal control board arrived and with the Alexmos board it was so locked in, it was ridiculous, way more than any gimbal I have previously had.

On the first flight I landed to check something, unplugged the power form the gimbal board and then reconnected... to the wrong pins

It still turns on but spits out thousands of I2C errors and doesn't power the motors anymore Actually I connected positive to one of the I2C pins and negative to the positive pin. So that was an expensive mistake. 90$ for the board.

 

[ExperimentalRC]

I'm looking for a different frame and I'm thinking about the QAV500. Do you think the 520mm arms will be able to fit 12 inch props?

 

[nilsen]

Yes, I think they will.
I have the 540 arms and it would fit a 13 inch prop without modifications.
Let me quickly measure it for you.

 

[nilsen]

I just measured it and it might be a bit tight, it could hit the supporting post... I would say max 11 inch.