Just got my first drone. HELP!

[ubervav]

Hello. First of all, I am new to this forum and I hope I post this thread at the correct place...

I just picked up a "scratch built" drone and I have no clue whatsoever about what all the components are. I have flown a lot of RC planes, so I am not new to the RC hobby. But, I have never flown a drone. Because the drone is built from scratch, there's no documentation on what kind of parts there is, but some are labelled.

Labelled parts is:

- 4x 20 amps ESC (3D Robotics)
- 4x 11x4.7 propellers (GEMFAN)
- Turnigy nano-tech 4500 mah battery
- FrSky V8FR-II 2.4 GHz receiver

So my first question is: can you fly a drone with a transmitter built for airplanes and helicopters? I have an old Futaba T6EX (2.4 GHz FASST) transmitter. It's a 6-channel radio, and the receiver in the drone has 8 channels (with all of them occupied). I do not know what all those channels are for, therefore I wonder if the drone will still fly with my Futaba 6/7-channel receivers and Futaba transmitter.

My second question will be: what the heck is all the wiring for? This is the part where I realized that I have no clue of what I'm doing.

If anyone could help med identify the components on the drone, I would be thankfull. In addition, if someone could explain (if possible from the pictures) what all the wiring is for, it would help med alot!

PS: Sorry if my english is not perfect. It's not my mother tongue...

 

[FDS]

The extra channels are usually used for arming, flight modes, GPS, buzzer, rate changes etc. You can fly with 6 but you would have to reprogram everything. 6 is the bare minimum for safety, as you always need one channel for arming and it’s easier to fly with one for modes.
The purple thing is the Flight Controller, the square silver thing is the GPS, you might have the video transmitter in your hand, the manky looking thing on the arm could be the barometer.
That looks like an old build, probably with a Naze 32 type flight controller. You could use the PWM outputs from a plane receiver to run that, it will look like a birds nest but it would fly. Personally I would strip it back and modernise it but it possible to get it flying again. What did you want of it?

 

[ubervav]

Thanks for the reply, this really helps. I guess I have to find out how to program it then.
I got the drone for free, so in the first place I will just try to make it fly.

 

[FDS]

It won’t be supported by Betaflight anymore, as all F1-F3 boards are no longer on there. Cleanflight might be your best bet. We will need to see any writing on the board as well, that will confirm what the flight controller is.

 

[Merv]

The flight controller looks like an old 8 bit, APM. Like this one.
It may still work, even so, you would be better off upgrading to a 32 bit flight controller, if you can.

 

[ubervav]

I removed the spongy-ish thing from the flight controller. Is it an Ardupilot Mega?

 

[Merv]

Is it an Ardupilot Mega?

Yes, I believe so.

 

[ubervav]

Alright, thank you both. I have to read a bit about the APM then, and also figure a way to use my Futaba for the drone.