Micro H Quad Build Log

Greg2B

Senior Member
So I've been pulled in to attempt to build another quad (I actually have another ARF ordered but I expect it to take a while to be delivered...:confused:) and I decided to build hovership's Micro H Quad. Another 3D printed quad frame like my other SSHQuad but this one is fold-able. Size wise being a micro it's about the same size as my other quad but this quad is design to allow to have more gear on it which I've been struggling to place on my other frame.

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Overall I really like the design and it feels fairly sturdy but I'll have to see once I crash a few times how it holds up. I pretty much have all my electronics:

12amp T-motor ESC's
JST to XT60 distribution cord for ESC's (I did not know T-Motor's ESC come with JST plugs on them)
acro naze32 board(first time attempting to use a board other then KK2...)
altitude rc transmitter(so tiny!!)
micro spektrum compatible dsm2 receiver(I hope this is good)
more props..

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What i'm still waiting for is my RMRC-MINI-V2 camera and cords, and the motors. I ordered some RCX 1804 which many people seem to have issues with but I figure for the price they where on banggood I can try them for now until the motors that every one is waiting for are back in stock. I was/still am considering getting more T-Motor MT1306 since they work well on my other quad, but there so expensive...

The other big thing (for me at least) is I'm going to go xt60 on this quad. I've been really timid about pushing my other quad since it's all JST for the power (from it's origins of a scrapped Turnigy micro quad).


I'm going to take my time with the build since I still have some parts I'm waiting for. Any notes on my build or something I've overlooked?


I was hoping to work on this and my other quad at the NYC drone user group Build meet up but unfortunately the new date doesn't work with my schedule.:(
 
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cranialrectosis

Faster than a speeding face plant!
Mentor
I am interested in this build. I have a Polakium hex and love it and am looking at a quad. This frame is beautiful and I would love to see it fly. :)
 

Greg2B

Senior Member
So I got all of my parts in today and did a quick test of the fpv system and it works. :) I also did a quick test of laying the esc's and the motor to see how every thing measures out...

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The ESC wire's need to be just a bit longer to reach the motors... I was hoping they would reach but they don't. I could probably get away with the wire closest to the edge of the frame, but the inside one need extensions for sure. I always seem to have extra cord length that I don't know what to do with. But at least this will give it some room for the folding arms.

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Greg2B

Senior Member
IT FLIES!!!

Spent the whole day working on the quad was trying to atleast get it done to fly it while it was still light outside. I almost had it ready but my settings where wrong and as you will see in the video quickly did a ground flip and destroyed a prop on arming.



Acro Naze 32 is not an easy setup... even though basefligtht is pretty straight forward to understand the process is a was a bit much for my second build. This video how to setup a Naze32 Acro / Funfly Flight Controller was a huge help but even following it as closely as I could for my build it still needed some extra trouble shooting.


Also this site's blog post, Hovership – a quadrotor experiment, from another guy who built the same quad but actually printed the parts him self was a big help to help assure me I wasn't screwing up on the building part of the frame.


Yet it seems to fly OK although I will have to mess PID a bunch since the recommended split defaults in half seemed to loose. But I'm still really getting a feeling for PID's and gains still anyway. I still needed to setup the fpv gear but I think I will wait until I get a few more LOS flights in first. Looking forward to working on this one.

Also this post was supposed to go up yesterday but for some reason it didn't submit so I have real out door footage of me flying the quad now that I will upload soon.
 

cranialrectosis

Faster than a speeding face plant!
Mentor
Spent the whole day working on the quad was trying to atleast get it done to fly it while it was still light outside. I almost had it ready but my settings where wrong and as you will see in the video quickly did a ground flip and destroyed a prop on arming.

Instaflipping sucks. I now do all my maidens on video over soft, fluffy grass.

Congratulations on the flight though! Not a bad maiden at all.

The Naze 32 is a good second level board in my opinion. I have a MultiWii and that thing is 10x the hassle to set up. Still you are correct, the Naze 32 is a stretch from a KK2.

The payoff is horizon mode. Once you get this dialed in for PID and flying well, horizon mode is AWESOME. Flips and rolls in horizon mode are so simple. Once you get there, you will LOVE your Naze 32 and all the hassle will seem puny in comparison to the benefits of horiozn mode.
 
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Greg2B

Senior Member
Thanks, n yeh fluffy grass would have been the way to go. Horizon mode sound awesome and I do have it setup on my switches but right now I can't really tell the difference between angle or horizon mode since they both auto level(right?). I'm not even going to touch rate mode for now.
 

cranialrectosis

Faster than a speeding face plant!
Mentor
Horizon lets you flip. :)

It will all make more sense when you can hover in acro mode well enough to tune PID. Once you can tune PID, everything changes for the better. :)
 

Greg2B

Senior Member
Here is my first outdoor video of the quad I did yesterday. Overall it flew pretty well. I'm just amazed at how much power it has over my other quad.
Also after taking my ham radio test yesterday I felt the need to rebuild my quad with all the fpv gear in it. I may just fly it yet.

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cranialrectosis

Faster than a speeding face plant!
Mentor
I wondered if you were gonna try that gate again at the end there. :)

Great build. Beautiful copter.
 

Greg2B

Senior Member
So side note to just to keep track of my build notes. Having two motors of RCX 1804's that have the *R for counter-clock wise rotation kind of sucks. Reason being if you loose the cap which happens when you crash forget to tighten enough you can't easily replace them. You seemingly have to have their cap because the threads are reversed so that the props don't fly off easily....

I have some m5 lock nuts that work well but of course they don't thread on them since they are reversed. Luckily I have an extra motor that is threaded the normal way but if I loose the one cap I have for the one reverse motor then I'm out of luck. (I did order another set of motor from another place but it is taking long to be delivered)

So just don't bother with the reverse ones it seems since you can still flip the wire connection to the ESC's and reverse the spin direction. That's not locked in...

 

cranialrectosis

Faster than a speeding face plant!
Mentor
"Reason being if you loose the cap which happens when you crash forget to tighten enough you can't easily replace them."

Sounds like a harsh day. :(
 

tophe75

Junior Member
Just saw this thread, I have to say that I love MY MHQ.

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I also mad some custom parts for it, and now I am building the MHQ2...

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Lovely frame for FPV ;-)
 
How do the arms hold up over time? I feel like the biggest problem with some frames is the arms shatter like they're made of glass.

Also, what do you think of putting either 2204 or 2206 motors on it. Too much or just right?
 

jipp

Senior Member
thank you for posting the link to the naz video.. this is very cool. im watching the info on the osd now..
i do not know if i would of found this video on my own.. anyhow, like he says in the video once you understand the basics here it will bleed over to the rest.. so im gonna step away for a hour and 40 mins and learn about OSD. :D

 
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Greg2B

Senior Member
How do the arms hold up over time? I feel like the biggest problem with some frames is the arms shatter like they're made of glass.

Also, what do you think of putting either 2204 or 2206 motors on it. Too much or just right?

hmm I haven't had too much issue with the arms. I've broken two but that was because I was doing flips with out knowing what I was really doing and landed on in motor mount or the middle of the arm. Going into things head first they just collapse in and all I have to do is pull them out and there good to go most of the time.

As for motors I would think 2204 should work if they mount on fine though I haven't gone bigger then the recommended size.