Sk450 Deadcat conversion/modding build

[arsenalj]

Well hello everyone, I know it's been a while since I have been actively participating on the forum. Don't get me wrong I read and watch whats going on, just silently over the last few months. My last post ( considering I've only had 2) was asking for help on a gimbal setup. Needless to say not much came of it, to no fault of anyone's here. I did end up figuring it out. Not to bad after you get it, lol.

So I was putting together another quad over the last 3 months, hence the gimbal post. That is why I've been silent. I was trying to increase my level of experience before I started posting again. Just felt like I was asking to many questions without giving much in return. So I have finished the new quad, and I love it. It flies so much smoother, and now I know what they mean by the locked in feeling. She is a beaut, at least I think so.

Yes I have started FPV with this quad, it's AWESOMEEEE!!! There are some vids of me testing it and there is a quick one of me doing my first FPV flight on my You Tube channel. This is the link if you want to check those out ( https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJTCechv_aBO6GkBFpVsmrw ).

So now lets get to the reason I'm making this post. I ended up purchasing the Hobby King Sk450, Deadcat conversion, Deadcat defibrillator bottom board about 3 months ago as well. The reason I purchased them well was I thought it looked kind of cool and it was cheap enough. I've decided to put it together now that I'm finished with my Flip. Here are some Pics of The beginnings for your viewing pleasure.



So when I received this in the mail, I instantly broke it out and fitted everything to see what it would look like. I liked it for the most part. I just didn't like the fact that it looked flat I guess. I started digging around my spare parts and realized that the bottom frame piece from the regular Deadcat wasn't being used and that I could make that the top frame. So I decided to go that route. I had a bag full of extra metal spacers from the flip that I used a few of them to attach the the new top to the bottom defibrillator board of the Deadcat. Once installed in a way that I could step back and take a look, I liked it. the spacing was good between the top middle and bottom plates.
I realized I would have a ton of real estate to install any and all hardware I would like. Although the goal is to stay as light as possible. The Flip weighed in at 1.86Kg which was well within my goal of 1,5 to 2Kg. This time I would like to stay at 1,5Kg; we shall see.

The list of goodies I plan on installing are as follows.
FC: MultiWii Pro Ez 3.0 w/ uBlox 6H GPS W/ Mounting backplane and compass With PCB Shield-Hood, RGB Ring plug and play,and 3DR Radio Telemetry Kit 433Mhz with EZcable (Flashed with custom firmware for full waypoint navigation support)
OSD: MinimOSD w/ KV Team Mod v1.0
Motors & ESC's: Team BlackSheep 750kV Motors & ESCs
Props: Graupner E-Prop 10x5 + 10x5L
Receiver: AR7610 7-Channel DSMX Hi Speed Receiver
Camera: either Fat Shark 600TVL, or RTF 700TVL Camera
Vid Transmitter: Fat Shark 250mw w/ Blue Beam antenna
LED's: Hk LED's strips, white and red. Also I am going to try and fit some LED headlights on this thing for night flying.
HD camera: Mobius action cam
Battery: 4s 3300 to 4500mah

Now I can probably see people asking about the motors. I choose them because I plan on being around the same weight as the Disco, and these are more than capable of handling it. The other is cost, these are actually cheaper than ordering some decent sunnysky motors with simonk quality esc's. They are 189.99 I think don't quote me. With sunny sky's and 25.00 esc's I would be over the 200 dollar mark. Let alone the sunny sky 980 kv only go to 3s. I wanted to run 4s, The sunny sky motor that could handle that was a lot more expensive. I didn't really want to fork over another 300 dollars for motors and esc's. So I am going to try these out and see how they hold up. No I am not going to get those crappy NTM motors. Don't like them and all the reports I hear on them with the single experience I had with them, Not going to happen. Here are some more pics of my progress. I am still waiting for about 4 packages with the rest of the goodies to all be here.

I apologize for the messy table top.


Well that's all for tonight. Hopefully tomorrow I will have some more progress pics and story to post. In the mean time I want to say thank you to all the awesome people on this forum. Keep up the good work, till next time...

 

[FinalGlideAus]

Nice, just a note that the Sunnysky 980kv handle 4s nicely.

 

[arsenalj]

that isn't what the data sheet says, 2-3s. http://www.foxtechfpv.com/sunnysky-221213-kv980-p-384.html

 

[FinalGlideAus]

Yes but what they say it can do and what it really can do are two different things. You can usually step it up a notch on multis since you're not at full throttle ll the time. The proof for me is what the people on the web are able to get out of them reliably, not what the manufacturer says.

 

[kah00na]

Nice, just a note that the Sunnysky 980kv handle 4s nicely.

I agree. I ran Sunnysky 980kv motors on my tricopter with 4S batteries and they barely even got warm.

 

[arsenalj]

Awesome, guess I'm going to have to pick some up. Thanks for the advice, I really apprecaite it.

 

[arsenalj]

Update

So unfortunately the fc and associated parts have not been shipped yet from RTFQ. Hopefully I will see them this coming week, Paul has a lot on his plate. He is a great guy, his store has a ton of great products, and he takes the extra step by getting it all setup for you. Truly awesome, so I have been prepping it for when the goodies get here.

I started by wiring in the LED's on the arms and under belly. I tested what I was planning on the back side first, in case of any screw ups it wouldn't be displayed in the front. I didn't want to run the wiring for the LED's down the outside of the arm. I like a clean as I can make it look. So my idea was to drill a hole next to the soldering joint on the LED strip. I started with a pin vise size drill and made my hole. Then I stepped it up a few sizes and made the hole a little bigger. Once this was done I inspected it for any signs of integrity loss. I found that all was good. I then jumped the bit up to the final size and made the final pass. After test fitting the wires and seeing everything looked good I repeated the same process on the opposite side. Time for soldering to begin, I was a little worried about the size of the wire. I set the gun to about 625 degrees Fahrenheit. I tinned the wiring and the jumpers on the LED strips. I then made the joints and fed the wiring through the hole and soldered the other ends to the ESC jumper pads. I plan on running the LED strips on the arms off of a 4s.



I have also added a 3 LED strip to the under belly in the front and rear of the quad. I am not planning on running those off of the 4s. So I decided to connect into the board for the 12v I needed. On the Deadcat distribution board the connection for the video transmitter is on the rear which runs 12v. So I soldered into the 12v and ground pins from the bottom. Then I attached the wiring to the board with a little super glue. Finished it off with some liquid electrical tape to make sure everything is covered.



So the rear of the quad is all soldered up. The front is basically going to be the same except that I want to run some 12v LED circle lights in the front. The idea is to have some good night flying illumination. depending on the size of these lights I will run run 1 or 2. Ideally I want to run 2 on the sides of the front protrusion on the body. The thing is I really don't know if I should run those on 4s just for safety reasons. So I have to try and plug in 3 connections to the front 12v and ground pins on bottom. I was thinking about running one set off of the bottom pins and then split it off three ways. Problem is I don't know if that is good either due to safety reasons. Pulling that much power to run those lights in those wires? I think it will be OK, but I might just break down and get the 12v step down regulator to run the headlights off of. If you guys have any input or suggestions I would love to hear them.

Well that about wraps it for this update. I still have a few more things to do that I will update through this next week so till next time...

 

[DDSFlyer]

I really like the dead cat quad, ever since I saw Stuart's from HKLive at RCX last year. They did a good build and tuning video (with a KK board) and may have to build one of these after my hex project.
As for the LED's, are you saying that your going to run the same type of LED strips off of the 12v board and the ESC connections connected to your 4S 14.8v at the same time? Either that will be really bright or those lights might not last that long. I could be wrong though, I am just speculating

 

[arsenalj]

Hey DDS, yes I am running the LED's on the arms on 4s and the little strips on the under side on 12v's. The headlight LED's that I am planning on using are going to be running off of 12v's as well. I have done a lot of research on running the LED's off 4s and I see that it is safe for the most part, they just burn hotter of course. I well be keeping an eye on them for the first few flights to verify they are going to be OK. Also the LED's on the arms will be really bright but that is what I was aiming for. Again this is just me tinkering around and who knows when all is said and done maybe I won't like it and change it. The biggest reason I went this route was for ease of install. If I ran everything off 12v Then I would need to get 6 12v Step down reg's, because I don't like a rats nest of wires. That would keep the wiring to a minimal length. But at 5 dollars a pop and all the wiring that would need to be done, I just thought this could eliminate all the hassle.

I Think the Deadcat has a lot of potential, I am really enjoying this build. The creative process, and the execution of that process are some of the most enjoyable parts of this hobby for me. Of course the flying is the best part but I love tinkering and building. I hope you enjoy this build. As soon as I receive the FC and associated parts this thing will be in full swing. Well Thanks for looking and till next time...

 

[xuzme720]

Can't you run all the LEDs off the same step down? Why would they each need their own? Running the LED's on 4S is going to shorten their life considerably...

(These are real questions...I don't mean to sound facetious, I'm just curious)

 

[arsenalj]

Hey X, you are right I could, I don't like a rats nest of wire though. That is the whole reason I would get that many so each arm would have it's own and so the wires don't reach from each arm and the front to a central location. The wiring would just look like a mess if I did that. I know I shouldn't care to much about it but I get anal about the details sometimes. I like to have a clean, everything hidden as much as possible. I guess I get that due to my job, I am a automotive Technician. By the way love the Care bear reference, LOL.

From what I have read the life expectancy is of course shortened, but by how much is yet to be determined. If it is killing them every few months then yes that will be annoying and not worth it, but if they die after 6 months then I can live with that. Hope that answers your question. No worries I am happy to explain or answer any question. If I am wrong or an obvious idiot to any thing feel free to let me know as well. Thanks for looking and till next time...

 

[xuzme720]

Hey X, you are right I could, I don't like a rats nest of wire though. That is the whole reason I would get that many so each arm would have it's own and so the wires don't reach from each arm and the front to a central location. The wiring would just look like a mess if I did that. I know I shouldn't care to much about it but I get anal about the details sometimes. I like to have a clean, everything hidden as much as possible. I guess I get that due to my job, I am a automotive Technician. By the way love the Care bear reference, LOL.

From what I have read the life expectancy is of course shortened, but by how much is yet to be determined. If it is killing them every few months then yes that will be annoying and not worth it, but if they die after 6 months then I can live with that. Hope that answers your question. No worries I am happy to explain or answer any question. If I am wrong or an obvious idiot to any thing feel free to let me know as well. Thanks for looking and till next time...

No you're right. I think when we think about longevity, we tend to think in terms of long service time as opposed to how long they are on at any given stretch. If they have a service life of 25,000 hours and even if you shorten that by half...well, still a lot of batteries before you kill them. I'd say a crash is going to be the death of them unless overvolting them causes a very significant drop of service life!

I went back and realized where you are running the LED leads from and see how the extra wiring will be a mess. So, both questions answered.
Nothing further...
(sorry, wife is on a law and order marathon or something. I keep hearing them in court...)

 

[DDSFlyer]

When I've run the LED's it has definitely made for a creative planning on routing the strips and wiring. I tried to find the most efficient way to connect easy strip to each other and just have on or two ways to get back to the power source. You have multiple options with a power distribution frame/plate so I see the easy way of wiring them. It's it's LED's themselves it seems that it's just like painting schemes, to each there own and there is no wrong way of doing it. Keep going and look forward to seeing the final result. I may copy it down the road!

 

[arsenalj]

Thanks DDS, I really appreciate the encouragment. I am looking forward to seeing it all put together as well. Hopefully I will see the rest of my parts this week. I ended up wiring in the front LED's and I got the headlights in today so I post the progress later tonight. till next time...

 

[arsenalj]

Update

So still in somewhat limbo, I did however get the headlights in. Sweet, They are a little big I think. I mach'd them up tonight, and I think it will look good. It will be interesting at least. Here are the lights, you guys let me know what you think.



I also finished wiring in the LED's on the front. I decided to take an extra step this time and cover the wiring with heat shrink about 1.5" from the LED strip to the Solder points. I like how it turned out and am debating if I am going to rip off the electrical liquid tape on the rears. De solder the wiring and install the heat shrink on the back ones. I think I am right now, just need to get the motivation to do so lol. I also painted the aluminum spacers in the front and rear with white primer and then a matte seal coat. I thought that would hold but of course paint on metal to anything contact means paint scraping off. So I was thinking of what I could do and it dawned on me that I have white heat shrink that could do the job very well. Make the spacers look white and not rub, scratch, or peel off with a little contact. So I did that as well and it turned out really good I think. Of course let me know what you think.

Still need to trim the excess off.


Well other than that I was able to get the Nylon spacers, nut and bolts dyed black tonight. Turned out really well and am stoked to really having things come together for the frame construction and lighting. Hopefully the installation and setup of the electronics will be just as smooth. Of course here is a pic for y'all.



Till next time...

 

[MidwestRob]

Really nice and clean build so far. I've always liked the look of the Deadcat style frames myself. My first experience with FPV was with a similar frame.

 

[arsenalj]

Thanks Midwest, She has a lot of potential. Also thanks for reading, till next time...

 

[DDSFlyer]

It's looking really clean

 

[arsenalj]

Update

Hope everyone is doing well today, just a quick little update. Some good news a package has been shipped by Paul over at RTFQ. Hopefully it will have both orders in it since it has been some time. No worries I know he's busy and has a lot on his plate. So I was thinking about the headlights and I really want to put them on a switch that I can toggle on and off from the transmitter. I went to Pololu and checked out there selection. Problem is I'm not sure how I should wire it in with the Deadcat. Here is what I'm looking at ( http://www.pololu.com/product/2802 ). I mean wire it in by either before or after the step down regulator? The plan is to drop the 4s (16v to 14v) to 12v flat. I could run the switch before the regulator takes effect or after the regulator, but I am not sure which one or if it even matters. The switch says it can handle up to 30v on the supply voltage side. So I guess I would like some feedback on what everyone thinks about this. If it doesn't matter then that is all you have to say and this can be real quick like.

Well that is about it for today. I should be getting my camera mount tomorrow so I should have that to show you guys tomorrow as well. Till next time...

 

[arsenalj]

Update

I finally have an update, I know it has been a week or so. I received my main package from RTFQ on Monday. I was like a kid on Christmas day, AHHHHH OHHHHH shiny!!!!!!! The only things I am waiting on is the FTDI adapter which should be here tomorrow, and the receiver. I went with the AR8000 because I was unsure as to how many channels I would need. The Instruction sheet has all the way to aux 4, but Aux 3, and 4 have little letters compared to the other channel markings. So I went with the 8 to be safe, but also because I need the extra channel for the headlights.

So yesterday I did not really yield much progress due to my ohhing and gooing over the new goodies, and also making sure I had a grasp on what I needed to do. Basically the FC w/ the gps and mag and 3dr are all plug and play. The minimOSD on the other hand as I understand it needs to be configured. My take from that is basically checking yes or no to the things I would want displayed on the OSD. If I am wrong please let me now. I have found the GUI for the MW FC, and the minimOSD. The only thing I am not to sure is if I can use both the 3DR and the OSD together. I know on the APM you can, but on the MWii I am not sure. If any one might have a clue that would be really awesome if they could share. If I can only run one then it will be the OSD for now. The last thing I am sort of bummed but not fully yet, only because I need something clarified. The power module with ubec and xt60 connectors, can be used with the APM board for current sensing and providing power to the necessary things.

I thought it could be used to the same effect with the MWii FC, but I was doing my research and I don't think it can be. Please again if anyone might have the knowledge and know how I would be grateful for your mentoring.

Today I have been busy cleaning up the wiring to the FC. I did not actually do any cutting and repining only because I might decide to use them in other builds. I doubt I will but you never know. I installed the RGB light ring on the bottom and the FC of course right above it. I have the holes drilled in the top plate for the GPS with shield. The camera is mounted as well on the top plate. I was able to find a 3D printed holder/mount that looks good and works well and takes up little space, sorry the pic shows it upside down. I also cleaned and painted the top sides of the PCB shield. I am going to be welding that together tonight. I was also able to get the pins soldered onto the minimOSD and the 12v step down regulator.



I still need to do the wiring for the camera, transmitter, and the video side of the minimOSD. That will be easy but just time consuming for the most part, but I really enjoy that work. When you get finished and step back and the wiring looks really clean and tidy. "Shivers" getting goose bumps lol, just messin. I think I am going to order another set of antennas, just because I am ocd like that. Everything needs it own equipment, but also because I don't like wearing out things more than necessary. The constant on and off when switching multirotors.

Oh almost forgot the headlights. I am waiting on the RC switch from pololu which will hopefully be here tomorrow as well but latest Thursday. So that should be coming along as well this week. I am hoping to have everything up and running by Saturday. Test flight on Sunday only because the winds should be good that day. So lots of flying on Sunday. I am going to take out the HTFlip Pro, the Anycopter 370 quad, and my Siwft2. Should have some good footage for for y'all as well. That about raps it up for tonight, hope you guys are doing well, till next time...