Mustang7302's iQuad Build Log

[Craftydan]

Hey Stang! Beta is out:

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2094442

Flashed an flew yesterday, and while setting and assigning a "profile" and setting the SL mix gain were a little weird it flies Oh-so-nice! I had no idea how much I'd been missing the ++ rom, and it's sooo nice to have it back.

 

[Mustang7302]

I've installed Thurmond's Naza M Lite on my iQuad to give it a whirl. The Naza is a whole new level of smooth and ease of setup, at a potential penalty. The flight characteristics of the Naza is much more docile on the pitch, roll, and yaw. Additionally the throttle is no longer linear in its autolevel mode by using the embedded barometer; throttle at 50% will maintain hover very well and going above or below is like a switch to command ascent or decent. This style of throttle with the very soft tendencies makes for a craft that is smooth and easy to learn to fly; however it will greatly limit how aggressive you're able fly and leaves me wanting more. I am accustomed to tuning the KK2 with more scaling to really be able to get the craft to be thrown around and swooshing about.

Out flying this morning in some pretty decent fog I did end up crashing my iQuad and busting a motor boom. I lost orientation, couldn't get it to come back to me (don't have the GPS module) as it was just heading further out and I chopped the throttle from about 20 feet up. The impact was hard enough to make the battery jump two inches on its Velcro while looped within a strap. Motors and CF props look great and it landed on its bottom so no harm to the Naza, other than its ego perhaps.

I am going to use this opportunity to build a new frame, even though the support booms are fine, of the same style. The new frame is going to be a little bigger to allow the props to clear the support boom and also make it so that the motors are square to each other. This new is also going to get a couple of new platforms built into it to allow surfaces to mount FPV equipment! I can see where the soft nature of the Naza will be good for FPV and I think it will be a good platform for the Fat Shark Attitude 5.8Ghz setup to fly on.

Hey Stang! Beta is out:

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2094442

Flashed an flew yesterday, and while setting and assigning a "profile" and setting the SL mix gain were a little weird it flies Oh-so-nice! I had no idea how much I'd been missing the ++ rom, and it's sooo nice to have it back.

I think I might look into getting this flashed on my Bat Bone once I get the iQuad back in the air with the new equipment to haul around. I will try to limit to keeping at least one of the two flying at any given time.

 

[Tritium]

Glad to hear it's flying at last. I am centering all my efforts on Arducopter now. Installing the APM Firmware to the MultiWii Pro was quick and easy. I have also been getting some fantastic deals and service from UAVObjects.com here in Texas (RCTimer USA Warehouse).

Thurmond

 

[jhitesma]

Any tips on loading APM on MWP style hardware? I've tried investigating it a few times but don't know enough about the whole APM ecosystem to even know which resources to start with. Wouldn't mind playing around with APM on my setup if I could figure out a way to make it work...but all the APM stuff I can find is in regards to dedicated APM boards and only things like megapirate (which sounds like a pain with it's reliance on older versions of arduino and a bunch of libraries) for loading something APMish on MW hardware.

(PM if fine if Mustang doesn't want us cluttering his thread )

 

[DDSFlyer]

I've been intrigued by the ease of stable flight with Naza and now that HK is carrying them I'm seriously looking into them but I've flown a DJI phantom a few times (father in law has one) and now flying my bat bone tri with a KK board and my Nano if I can just get my bat bone to fly well in self level mode like I cruise around throwing my Nano I think I'll be happy. But I dunno, maybe I just need to turnall my controls down way down and putz around first and not get ahead of myself crashing so...

 

[Tritium]

Ardupirate now has a Flash tool. No Arduino compile required. Worked great.

http://docs.megapirateng.com/documentation/compile

Thurmond

 

[jhitesma]

Interesting, I hadn't seen the flash tool before. But "Arduino Mega" isn't one of the options it supports So I'd still have to do it all the hard way...which I'm not opposed to...just not convinced APM would give me enough benefits to be worth the time it would take to figure out how to get it on my board and working.

 

[Tritium]

Yea, the flash tool is for specific MultiWii Boards. I got lucky because the HK MultiWii Pro / GPS I got from Mustang7302 was an exact fit for the tool.

Thurmond

 

[Mustang7302]

Glad to hear it's flying at last. I am centering all my efforts on Arducopter now. Installing the APM Firmware to the MultiWii Pro was quick and easy. I have also been getting some fantastic deals and service from UAVObjects.com here in Texas (RCTimer USA Warehouse).

Glad to see you're making strides with the MW Pro setup. Have you gotten it in the air yet?

Thurmond

I've been intrigued by the ease of stable flight with Naza and now that HK is carrying them I'm seriously looking into them but I've flown a DJI phantom a few times (father in law has one) and now flying my bat bone tri with a KK board and my Nano if I can just get my bat bone to fly well in self level mode like I cruise around throwing my Nano I think I'll be happy. But I dunno, maybe I just need to turnall my controls down way down and putz around first and not get ahead of myself crashing so...

The Naza flies well... Just trying to wrap my head around the very limiting envelope of control. I think seat time under FPV will help bring clarity to it. Only down side is that the Naza M Lite does not support a tricopter motor layout; only quad and hex plans.

My Bat on a stock KK2.1 (stock gains on FW 1.5) flies beautifully. No oscillation, even in the wind. It just glides smooth as glass and is so relaxing to taking flying in swooping turns. I do run 25% expo on my transmitter for pitch, roll, and yaw; this helps to make small stick input a soft reaction and big stick inputs a more vigorous reaction.

 

[Mustang7302]

OK. I've done some pondering on how I will rebuild the frame for the quad to better accomidate the extra bits of kit that need to tag along for the ride. Big enough to allow the props to clear the support booms and make it square.

So far the center section is shrunk by an inch and is going to have two tiers of places to put things. Motor booms are 13" long and support booms are 12" long. The top plates are currently designed to be 3" wide, 4" long, and made of 1/8" plywood. The gap in the middle between the higher decks is to allow a KK2 to fly, allowing access to buttons and the LCD screen, if I decide to go back to the KK2.1. The Q-Brain being 2.5" wide makes it cumbersome to find a place to put it, so I figured I would put it in front of the 1/2" gap forward of the flight controller. This will allow wires to get routed through the body to conceal them. The battery will mount on the lower tier aft of the flight controller and will help to balance the weight of the Q-Brain. The receiver will mount to the under side of the aft elevated panel, as far back as the wires will allow. The FatShark VTX will mount on the front elevated panel allowing decent separation from the receiver.

It is going to be a little heavier than the iQuad sits now, but I still am trying to be mindful of weight. Feel free to provide feedback or ideas. I might get to building the new frame this weekend.

 

[Mustang7302]

I started working on the new iQuad frame by cutting and drilling 1/8" plywood similar to a design shown above. After that much effort I put the plates and hardware on scale and was very surprised to see them come in at 170 grams by them selves. This didn't even account for the longer booms either. I realized this new frame was going to be at least 200 grams heavier and could put the SK3 1275KV motors under a little too much load to hover. I was faced with a conundrum at this point:

1. Build the new frame and risk it being slightly under powered.
2. Move to 9" props and re-scale the frame slightly which could over power the current rating of the SK3 motors.
3. Move to a premade FPV frame that is of a dead cat span. This would require new, heavier, motors too.
4. Move to a frame like a DJI F330 which has -just- enough space to mount everything for FPV. Would need new ESCs since the DJI style frames wouldn't support mounting a Q-Brain ESC. If I used the larger SK450 frames would need bigger motors too.

As luck would have it, I stumbled into an offer I couldn't pass up. One of the gentlemen I met through the local multirotor flying clubs was willing to let four DJI 18A ESCs go for an offer I could not pass up -and- had some spare parts from a F330 frame he'd just give me. So I picked up a F330 frame kit off eBay for $30 on Saturday and it came in the mail today; and it was a genuine frame kit, nice! I set off this afternoon to get the new frame put together, wire up the new ESCs, transfer the motors, and transfer the Naza M Lite flight controller.

The F330 frame is very (very very) close to the same size I had built the dimensions of the iQuad frame, which I was very surprised to see. Put the new quad on the scale and it came in at 675 grams, which is 40 grams heavier than the wood frame with a 1800mAh 3S, with a 2200mAh 3S battery before the FPV hardware is added on. Given the different battery sizes I weighted each frame with, I am going to say they're the same weight. Before I put the FPV hardware on the F330 I am going to try to get in a dozen or so flights to get a feel for the Naza and its limited range of agility. Oh, and there is a GPS module in the mail too.

As much as I loved throwing (and bashing) the iQuad around on the KK2.1, getting my hands on the Naza Lite changed its fate. The Naza doesn't support a tricopter layout, so it has to fly on a quad. Additionally, the Bat flies so locked in on a stock KK2.1 that I dont want to bother changing anything on it. The Bat flew great for FPV, but I would really hate to loose the Bat in a crash or somewhere that I couldn't find it should it go down while flying FPV. Not that I would intentionally risk the F330 quad, but I just love my Bat too much and I am content with leaving it as my LOS cruiser.

One day the extra KK2.1 laying around will get the best of me and I will scratch build another H frame for hot rod acro training. That will probably revive this thread when that happens.

 

[cranialrectosis]

Heck, revive it now by posting video of the thing in flight.

Bitchen' build, Mustang.

 

[Tritium]

Hey Mustang, I am finishing my new 550 Naza-M V2 build. I got the problems worked out with registration by using IP altering software to appear like I was somewhere else. The DJI server liked it. Can't wait to see yours finished. The GPS adds a lot of capability to the controller. The led on the NAZA's is BLINDING on the bench. Where did your CF props come from?

Thurmond

 

[Mustang7302]

Heck, revive it now by posting video of the thing in flight.

Bitchen' build, Mustang.

Yea, there might be a "Mustang7302's F330 Quad Log" for being a central point for that kind of stuff. Put four batteries through it yesterday night, flying by the light of the back yard lamp. With any luck, if the weather is agreeable this afternoon, I will see about taking it out to one of the fields and getting some video.

I adore the compact size of the 330 X frame. It feels so much smaller than the H frame was, even though they're the same size. Also happy with how the wiring was pretty tidy with out the effort of tucking or looming.

Hey Mustang, I am finishing my new 550 Naza-M V2 build. I got the problems worked out with registration by using IP altering software to appear like I was somewhere else. The DJI server liked it. Can't wait to see yours finished. The GPS adds a lot of capability to the controller. The led on the NAZA's is BLINDING on the bench. Where did your CF props come from?

Thurmond

Glad to see you stuck with the hex build and was able to sort through registration. The full version of the Naza has more functionality than the Lite does, but I do look forward to getting the GPS on it. It is cool to see these things just lock in hands off and stay where you put them. The local guy who I got the ESCs from likes show off by putting his hex just above his head in GPS mode, carefully reaching up to grab one of the landing struts, and then pull the craft a few yards off to the side. As soon as he starts pulling it is already fighting to go back to where it was, and when he does finally let go it will go right back to the spot it was in when it started.

The props are from Hobby King: http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/..._Propellers_1pc_Standard_1pc_RH_Rotation.html

They're paper thin, super lite, and have taken a number of beatings. Beatings that would have for sure broken carbon mixed props I have used before at the hub, or would have cracked/chipped the blades of the plastic props I fly on the Bat. They're not indestructible, as I have broken a few, but they do take a surprising amount of abuse. They the cheapest ones I know of, and of course they're out of stock. I need to grab a handful of pairs when they're back in stock.

RCTimer / UAVObjects has some 8x4.5" CF props in stock, but they're nearly twice the expense: http://www.uavobjects.com/product/8-x-4-5-cf-props-cw-ccw/

 

[DDSFlyer]

The props are from Hobby King: http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/..._Propellers_1pc_Standard_1pc_RH_Rotation.html

They're paper thin, super lite, and have taken a number of beatings. Beatings that would have for sure broken carbon mixed props I have used before at the hub, or would have cracked/chipped the blades of the plastic props I fly on the Bat. They're not indestructible, as I have broken a few, but they do take a surprising amount of abuse. They the cheapest ones I know of, and of course they're out of stock. I need to grab a handful of pairs when they're back in stock.

Added to wishlist!