New to quadcopters, 3d printed Peon230

[JMBishop]

Designed by tech2c http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:629338

I got it all put together, I printed it in PLA first but it was too fragile. I reprinted it in PETG and it's super strong.

I had an ESC go bad so I'm waiting on a replacement.

It's running clean flight on a Naze32. Tuning, rates and expo are still over my head, does anyone have some good tutorials?

 

[pilot1]

This was the best video I found doing a quick search. If you look for more on youtube you can probably find a better one

 

[JMBishop]

Good video, I sat down with my soldering iron and fixed the offending esc so no more waiting on a replacement. And I found a group to fly with so I should be able to get some instruction from them as well.

 

[Twitchity]

Quad looks nice, especially if that's your first build.

I just recently discovered PETG filament for my printer and I have to say it's by far my most favorite filament between PLA, ABS, and PETG. The stuff is strong, prints nice, and essentially doesn't warp.

 

[Cyberdactyl]

Quad looks nice, especially if that's your first build.

I just recently discovered PETG filament for my printer and I have to say it's by far my most favorite filament between PLA, ABS, and PETG. The stuff is strong, prints nice, and essentially doesn't warp.

Does PETG break at the boundary layers or randomly?

 

[Twitchity]

The PETG will eventually break, but it looks to tear apart from the layers if that makes any sense. It's not so much a clean break, but but you can see it ripping off plastic form the two bonded surfaces. This is also after a lot of force to get it to break.

I guess it acts kinda like a combination of PLA and ABS. It has the rigidity of PLA, but also doesn't snap when bent like ABS. It also prints on a heated bed without the need for gluestick/hairspray/whatever else and very minimal warping. I've only used esun PETG bought from Amazon so far and it's been fantastic.

 

[JMBishop]

I've actually had a lot of trouble with PETG. Out of the 4 rolls all have had moisture problems. Also not all Petg is created equal. The black I used has a play dough like smell when printing and seems to be more brittle than the transparent colors I've used. It's doesn't bend easily but I can not bend it at a 90° angle without it snapping. The clear PETG I've used can be folded over on itself.

Despite the problems I probably won't print with anything else but PETG and "exotic filaments from now on. I'm going to order some from Taulman next.

This is the video that introduced me to PETG and it also features the peon230 arm because tech2c designed it.

 

[JMBishop]

Quad looks nice, especially if that's your first build.

It is my first build, I did a lot of reading here and other sources for months before I started as well watched a lot of YouTube. I slowly collected parts while I designed my own frame but it's was taking too long so I ordered the last few parts I needed and started printing the peon. I will do my own desighn eventually, for now this is helping be understand what I want out of my design

 

[Twitchity]

The only problems I've had with my PETG filament was getting the parts unstuck from the bed once the print has finished. I don't notice any odors and from what I've heard PETG isn't susceptible to moisture like ABS and PLA are. I've printed with esun white and esun transparent orange with the exact same results.

I have my heatbed set to 90* C and it sticks wonderfully without the need for any tape/glues. Tech2C says he printed at a 60* bed temp so maybe I'll give that a try. The only downside to this stuff from my experience so far is you can't acetone weld/smooth the parts. Right now PETG is my go to filament. I want to give nylon a try one of these days. Also, that's a great video to describe the properties of the filament.

Congratulations on your first build. It only gets easier (and more expensive) from here!

 

[JMBishop]

There's conflicting information about PETG. Some say it's hydrophobic, others claim it's not. I can without a doubt say that the 4 rolls of PETG had moisture in them. After baking them for hours at 60° it resolved the problem. However I have not figure out an effective way of drying the whole roll at once. I may get a vacuum chamber one day to dry filament.

If you go to markergeeks.com(I will never buy makergeeks filament again, they did nothing to resolve the moisture issues I had with their product) and read the info they give for PETG, they say this

PETG despite what you might have been told before is crazy susceptible to moisture in it's raw resin form and above all the filaments we make both for ourselves and for contract jobs our PETG resin has to be dried in a resin drying silo able to reach negative 40f.
I was surprised when one of the largest brands of USA made 3D printer filament approached us about taking over their PETG extrusion and the first thing they told me was that, "...PETG is great to run cause you don't need to dry it..." - boy were we surprised when we started running it only to find out we had to dry the PETG resin nearly double the time of an ABS or PLA.
So, with that said... we take the time to dry our raw resin to negative 40f to insure that the resin will have zero moisture in it once you get it - this process can take from 10 to 16 hours (each batch) to accomplish and needs very expensive machinery and seems to be an overlooked step due to its cost and time. However, it's important to have perfectly dried resin before starting the extrusion process to make 3D printer filament or you'll find the dimensional tolerance isn't so good and the end product when 3D printed will have a high wrapping problem along with low-resolution do to voids in the filament.

I use hair spray at 60°, the parts stick well enough and almost fall off when you let it cool at room temp.

 

[airhawk]

Nice quad thats the cleanest first build Ive seen my first/current build was a mess before I rewired it.
Great job
-Airhawk

 

[JMBishop]

Thanks, I attribute the "cleanliness" to learning from my dad(an electrical engineer). After building it I'm not happy with the ESCs, the pdb, the wiring to the motors and the position of a few things but that's what the next build is for. I need to learn to fly this thing still.

I had a disaster during the build before flying it. When removing the shrink tubing from the ESCs, some hot glue applied to the signal/bec wires stuck to the tubing and ripped the yellow signal wire, solder pad and all right off the board. I had no extras and have never repaired anything like this. I found a tiny trace, exposed it, soldered the wire on and sealed it with CA and E6000. I was shocked when it worked and I had all 4 motors turning.

 

[airhawk]

Thanks, I attribute the "cleanliness" to learning from my dad(an electrical engineer). After building it I'm not happy with the ESCs, the pdb, the wiring to the motors and the position of a few things but that's what the next build is for. I need to learn to fly this thing still.

I had a disaster during the build before flying it. When removing the shrink tubing from the ESCs, some hot glue applied to the signal/bec wires stuck to the tubing and ripped the yellow signal wire, solder pad and all right off the board. I had no extras and have never repaired anything like this. I found a tiny trace, exposed it, soldered the wire on and sealed it with CA and E6000. I was shocked when it worked and I had all 4 motors turning.

Wow nice job getting it sorted out then if i were in that situation i would of ditched those parts the most i went through with Night hawk was missing FC standoffs.

 

[JMBishop]

If I had had any servos, I probably would have done a tricopter just to get something I could fly instead of trying to fix the esc.

 

[JMBishop]

Here you can see the black Petg isn't great for Multi rotors and I've ordered some new ESCs as well as a few more parts to clean up the build. When I purchased the ESCs I bought a set of 4. Not only were they huge, but they where not available to purchase individualy so when I ordered my new ESCs I ordered 5. Other than shortening the bec/signal wires, I won't be doing much soldering on these and I might run them inboard.

 

[JMBishop]

I originally bought a full Naze32 board(on the right), I wasn't happy with the orientation of the pins I soldered so I bought a Acro board(on the right) and soldered it up in a way that will help me clean up the wiring

 

[JMBishop]

Here's a look at the original setup. I'm at a standstill until I get my new pdb and standoffs in. All my electronics where attached with double sided tape.

 

[JMBishop]

No double sided tape to be found, the board is actually in the middle and the pdb is hidden nicely.

 

[JMBishop]