jipp's first 250 fpv racer style build thread. lets rock.

[jipp]

thanks guys. from a logical stand point as soon as i held the parts. it just seem like they needed sanding. as they are freshly machined. with sharp edges etc.. the good news, iv been a wood worker most of my life.. and while others do not like the finish part of wood working.. ie.. the sanding, finish, wet sanding, polish.. enjoy.. iv always enjoyed sanding, its very relaxing.

crainial - yeah, i only watched a couple of the videos.. the ones i thought were relative. i guess ill have to go back and just watch them all.

im not sure i need to add epoxy to my motors.. the wires seem to be ok how they are.. so, maybe i was wrong in not watching every single one. and maybe every one does the epoxy to the motor wires mod.. so i will spend a couple of hours sanding today, then we will move onto the some other stage in this build..

no wind! i think ill go fly a through batteries through the nano qx. by the way.. adding the 4LED, and 4 zip ties has added a little bit more weight which really has made the blade nano qx handle better. so i guess lighter is not always better when you get to the nano level of this hobby. or maybe im just getting better at flying the nano and its my imagination . the LED do help with orientation, so its a very nice mod.. and one i want for the 250 frame too..
chris.

i will say im surprised they did not even send a printed sheet for instructions of some kind. heh.

chris,

 

[Epitaph]

Sometimes when I'm laying on the sofa watching TV and my nails are already done, I will sit there with a piece of carbon fibre and a nail file hehehe

 

[jipp]

Sometimes when I'm laying on the sofa watching TV and my nails are already done, I will sit there with a piece of carbon fibre and a nail file hehehe

heh, im just as guilty, but not with carbon fiber, but with small wood projects. normally i would do all my fine sanding on my custom knife handles on the couch too. its just relaxing, and not very mentally taxing.. you just going for feel, so good way to wind down.

well i have the frame all sanded and silky smooth to the touch now. if i would of left it how it was, im sure i would of did some damage on a crash that could of been avoided by taking a little bit of time to prep the frame.. so there yo go, I learn a step i missed or was just assumed you would know.. when i was reading up on building. always pays to go through the motions to get a better understanding of your subject than just reading and pictures etc. which reminds me of a quote.. "those who can, do.. those who can not, teach!! and those who can not do either become experts!"

at any rate, tomorrow i will look into seeing if i need to epoxy the motors or not. i have some 5 min epoxy on hand.. so i can get that done with.. ill snap a shot of the motor in the morning to get your gals/guys opinion.

then i will continue following the warp videos, and it seems the power loom is next. so i guess my next step will be soldering up the power loom. i pretty much just brushed these videos off originally because I did not think they related to my project at first glance.. i can see i was wrong in my thinking.. sometimes it sucks being so thick headed and once i make up my mind it usually stays.

i will break out my scale and weigh the frame in the morning too. im curious what it weighs. not that im worried about that sorta thing on my first build.


chris.

 

[cranialrectosis]

Epoxy on the motor leads protects your motors in crashes. It looks pretty useless until you crash and if the epoxy works, you will never know. Of course, when this video came out SunnySky 2300kv motors were SCARCE and you had to wait 60-90 days to find any.

Soma's power loom was a big step forward for me. I copy his method of laying out the loom between the copter plates and his use of little sandwich bag ties to keep wiring in place while I assemble the frame so nothing pinches. Of course, now I add in a little paracord sleeving.

If you look up his old FrankenWarp thread on RCGroups, he spent a TON of time and money developing the WarpQuad and the build process. His experience and videos were one of the main catalysts in starting the current mini-copter trend.

IMO Ozzy is the grandfather of Heavy Metal, Soma is the father of the mini-copter revolution.

He also helps set the standard for customer service and service oriented engineering of copters. The WarpQuad String Theory frames are potentially the finest in the world. Soma's customer service is what you would expect for world class engineering and support.

Attributes like this are timeless and span oceans.

Soma's build videos were profound for me. I use the techniques on every build since I first saw them and used them to build the WarpQuad.

 

[Epitaph]

IMO Ozzy is the grandfather of Heavy Metal

Amen to that!! Did you ever think about changing your surname to "Crawley" so people could call you "Mr. Crawley"?

And I think Meat Loaf's "Bat out of Hell" was a reference of one that escaped an Ozzy concert!!

 

[jipp]

Epoxy on the motor leads protects your motors in crashes. It looks pretty useless until you crash and if the epoxy works, you will never know. Of course, when this video came out SunnySky 2300kv motors were SCARCE and you had to wait 60-90 days to find any.

Soma's power loom was a big step forward for me. I copy his method of laying out the loom between the copter plates and his use of little sandwich bag ties to keep wiring in place while I assemble the frame so nothing pinches. Of course, now I add in a little paracord sleeving.

If you look up his old FrankenWarp thread on RCGroups, he spent a TON of time and money developing the WarpQuad and the build process. His experience and videos were one of the main catalysts in starting the current mini-copter trend.

IMO Ozzy is the grandfather of Heavy Metal, Soma is the father of the mini-copter revolution.

He also helps set the standard for customer service and service oriented engineering of copters. The WarpQuad String Theory frames are potentially the finest in the world. Soma's customer service is what you would expect for world class engineering and support.

Attributes like this are timeless and span oceans.

Soma's build videos were profound for me. I use the techniques on every build since I first saw them and used them to build the WarpQuad.

i took the motors out of the package indeed they need some epoxy. also they are so tiny.. i was expecting them to be larger consider the size of the package they came in. no way could these things swing a 10 prop. heh.
i bought another motor off ebay for a stupid price that came with a ESC, and four props that are 10",9" and 8".. not bad for 3.50 shipped. heh. ( will use that for FT foam bird later on probably, or buy 2 more and different ESC for a tri-copter...
and it was not what i was expecting the size of the motors to be.. but its all good. this just needs to get in the air at this point.

thats cool he made the mini thing popular.. to be honest im not building this because of a trend. im doing it cause you guys said it was the next thing to progress from the nano, and its tough and will be good to learn on.. i personally am more interested in slow flying AP stuff. but, we see what happens with this maybe speed will get my attention.. dunno.


chris.

 

[jipp]

well i put the 250 frame on the scale it weighs:

carbon 250 frame - 102.3g
hardware + plastic bag that its in 39.9g

i will use some 5 min epoxy and make these motors crash worthy. i think i need to get some very small bullet connectors for the motor leads.

i do not feel so well today, so thats about all i will get done.

chris.

 

[jipp]

well im not sure i need to add epoxy to these motors, or how one would with out running them. as you can see by the photo of the motor there is nothing to glue too.


if you add even a drop of glue you will glue the thing together so the stater can not spin.
i investigated the wire connection and its attached rather well. since these are being sold as multicopter motors maybe they engineer the epoxy thing into them? or am i looking at this wrong because i can not see where adding epoxy will do anything else but ruin the motor which i do not want to do. or ill end up building a tri-copter first. hah.

i was going to do the epoxy mod so i figured it would be a good idea to weigh them first. so i can match them up the best i can.
to my surprise they were not bad.. 3 of the motors came in at 19.2 grams and the odd ball out is 19.1 grams.

the frame came in at 102.4grams and a total of 142.3grams with the nuts and stand off's. unfortunately my camera id old and ready to be replaced. hah, i got these pictures in before it died.

the odd one out, at 19.1

the other three are 19.2

frame..



so i think im gonna just skip the epoxy mod. i just do not see how it can be done with out screwing up the motor, and im not really sure it needs it? also i do not see this as a build thread more like a huge mess im gonna be stumbling through so i would just skip it for anything useful for a build if one should find this in the future via a search.


chris.

 

[jipp]

so i found some blue loctite, bottle is almost empty but enough to do this quad. I have a question.

1 - i want to use blue correct and not red? logic would say blue. i do have a full tube of red, red is perm tho.

2 - my kit came with self locking nuts for the the frame.. should i still use loctite on them, or just leave them be and use the lock tit on the motors, and the frame stand off's.

3 - should i hold off on adding the loctite until i have the quad flyable then go back and add it.

i am feeling pretty good today so i figured id get this frame built so i can get a idea how to wire it up.

4 - does this look right for the ESC to the power board?

5 - the power board has LED pads on it.. the info just says for LED, and a switch. not sure what that means.

i figure ill just go ahead and assemble this, then work on the electronics.. as im pretty clueless about the electronics seem i may as well start with something i can figure out.. and use logic to my advantage.
here is the picture of the power board with ESC solder to it, does it look correct for the CDC3 FC.


thats the power board that came with my kit, if that looks correct i at least can go from there and i should be ok. ( not my picture, just one i found using my PB, how i worded it makes it sounded like that is my PB )

chris.

 

[narcolepticltd]

blue loctite is correct, and you only need to use it on the bolts fastening the motors if the others have lock nuts. I believe the epoxy on the motor wires bit is just for motors like the sunny skies, yours look like they have a grommet/shrink wrap holding them securely in place.

 

[jipp]

blue loctite is correct, and you only need to use it on the bolts fastening the motors if the others have lock nuts. I believe the epoxy on the motor wires bit is just for motors like the sunny skies, yours look like they have a grommet/shrink wrap holding them securely in place.

thank you for clearing that up. the stand off will need it. im gonna go ahead and assemble the frame. and just not loctit the top of the frame stands.. as once i put the bottom on it will be impossible to get back to add it later, while the top i can.

i will hold off on using it on the motors till i have it wired up and it can spin a prop.. ill just use 2 screws to hold it to the arm.. in case i have to take them off.. at least i have a plan now. hah. i feel so stupid.. i literally know zero about rc stuff..

but i do think i have a grasp of what to do now to finish this.. which i wont be able to do till next month anyhow.. but i should be able to get it wired up, may not be able to configure the FC till next month as i need a battery and a TX, i do have a lemon 6ch RX im gonna use. joys of being disabled heh.. always broke thanks again.

chris.

ps

check out this 1930s Ryan STA that landed over in the UK a little while ago ( cant be to many of these old birds left on either side of the pond ).. pretty cool plane.
was posted on the guitar forum im part of.. :d yeah even guitar players like planes and i bet some of the would dig RC stuff, who knows maybe ill convert a few once i get this quad done and post a video over there

 

[BanditJacksRC]

Hey Jipp,

I just finished up my ZMR250 build about a week ago. I ordered the frame from goodluckbuy and I ordered the same Emax1806 motors and emax blheli 12a escs from getfpv.com. Im using the Naze32 acro I got from here at the FTstore (which i can't speak highly enough of). it is awesome.

This is also my fist real quadcopter and I don't this you will regret the ZMR for one second. I had this thing rolling end over end in the grass yesterday, and only had to replace 1 zip tie for the receiver and was back up in only maybe 2 minutes.
This setup is pretty sollid man. I will keep my eye out on your thread and help where i can!

 

[notreallyme]

after flying with banditjacksrc yesterday i will be building a zmr250 as well, this thing took crashes like a champ.

 

[BanditJacksRC]

after flying with banditjacksrc yesterday i will be building a zmr250 as well, this thing took crashes like a champ.

Yeah it does! haha - Altough I JUST got back from my lunch break and during I went to a park down the street and smashed into a football post! ripped out one of the motors and a few other things came loose. I will have to further assess the damage when I get home... I am super bummed right now haha

 

[jhitesma]

Loctite is not needed on nylocs, and in fact can deteriorate the nylon locnut so it can actually work against you on those.

I didn't bother to epoxy the wires on my emax motors and haven't really regretted it yet. They're fairly well protected as is. A small drop inside may help but they're such small motors it would be really tricky to do it effectively without getting glue somewhere you don't want it.

I also don't loctite my motor screws because I've had bad luck with blue loctite and aluminum in the past were I've actually had it eat away the aluminum. (made for a spectacular crash on my 1/10th scale Kyosho AWD nitro touring car when the motor pulled off because all the threads disintegrated after I added loctite because I was tired of re-tightening them every time I ran it. Since then I've been very wary of using loctite on aluminum. There is a special loctite just for aluminum but I haven't been able to find it locally, I see on the loctite site they suggest using a special primer for aluminum now so maybe that's the current best answer.

 

[cranialrectosis]

Sorry for the confusion. I epoxy 2204s. 1806s aren't big enough and don't have the gap to seal. Don't bother with the 1806s.

I don't bother with loctite either. If you do, blue is the way to go. If you don't, check your motor mount screws, rotor nuts, grub screws (if you have them) in pre-flight.

 

[jipp]

thanks guys. i did what you suggested and did not use loctite and the only part that would need it would be for the aluminum stand offs. ill keep a eye out for aluminum loctite.. just in case i do find issues later on and have to use it.. meaning the stands of screws come lose often.

well i have the frame put together, motors attached to the arms. i assuming i have them right i put the ones that have red nuts to hold the props on the front two arms, and the black on the back.. from what i under stand looking at the from from front to back.. the left front arm will spin clock wise, the right counter clock wise, and the left back will spin counter clock wise, and the back right clock wise. of course if my thinking is wrong i can change this.

here is my plan. i will solder the three wires coming from the motor to the ESC... and the wires that come off the ESC will go to the Power board.
from what i can tell i will only need to use one ESC BEC.. so i will have to disconnect one wire from the other three ESC.

does it matter what ESC i should keep for the ESC? i did read if the ESC are linear you can connect them as such and you wont fry your FC. but, its probably good pratice to just use one ESC anyhow.. and i have no way of knowing if the EMAX 12am are linear or not.

im still looking for info on how to solder up the power board. but as i can not get a battery,tx till next week.. i have time to figure this out as im no rush since i ccant fly or test anything till next week anyhow.

i did find this video that shows you how to configure open pilot.. they are even using the same RX i will be using so i will post it here so i do not lose it.
i did book mark it and save the video.. but hey this is a good reference to post it anyhow..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEQY9gHb50s

iv been watching videos CC3d 250 builds.. while im learning yet to find one that use the CC3d FC and the CC3D PB. my search is on.. im am thankful so much useful information out there on this ZMR frame.. its amazing all the add ons you can get.. i will upgrade the arms to 5mm Thug Arms( i originally called them tough, my bad ) as they are label once i break one. heck they even sell a ZMR power board that is the same of the ZMR plates.. i guess this frame is popular. even if it may not be the best material, i will find out how well it holds up next month tho.. i think it will be fine from what iv seen..
chris.

 

[C0d3M0nk3y]

Are the different colored nuts on the motors the same, or is one color for CW threads and the other color for CCW threads?

 

[jipp]

Are the different colored nuts on the motors the same, or is one color for CW threads and the other color for CCW threads?

no, they are the same thread it would appear. so i guess i need to change the two motors.


right now i have two clock wise threads on what will be the front, and counter clock wise on the back. i just assumed they came in sets of two..


so the motor that will turn clock wise, i want it to have clock wise threads correct? and counter clock wise motors should have counter clock wise threads.. if so ill have to switch the two motors around.

chris,.

 

[BanditJacksRC]

well i have the frame put together, motors attached to the arms. i assuming i have them right i put the ones that have red nuts to hold the props on the front two arms, and the black on the back.. from what i under stand looking at the from from front to back.. the left front arm will spin clock wise, the right counter clock wise, and the left back will spin counter clock wise, and the back right clock wise. of course if my thinking is wrong i can change this.

I don't think you have it right. The way you have mentioned the motors to spin is correct, but the nuts you have in the wrong spot. If the prop is spinning clockwise, you will want the nut to tighten spinning CCW. If the prop spins CCW you will want the nut to tighten spinning clockwise. That way if any props slip it will only tighten the nut. I have the emax 1806 motors as well and my red nuts are on the top right and back left.