Group Build 2014, DJI NAZA/F450 Quadcopter!

[CaptainJustice]

(hope this is not a dupe -- thought I had posted it)
The die is cast for the next iteration: SunnySky 3508 700kv motors enroute, Aimdroix aluminum (extended) arms ordered, props from 12x3.8 to 14x4.7 ordered. That'll make it a 550.
Gil

Got it built. Pics to come. Massive quad now.
Having trouble with one motor that sets up quite a vibration/oscillation making it unflyable. New motors, undamaged. Did discover the gains all needed to be lowered but that one motor still has too much vibration. Have balanced it and tried different props, all balanced.
I'm thinking the mirror has a bad bearing.
Other thoughts?

 

[jbrumberg]

I was bad this AM. This has been brewing since a very recent hover test. In my sorry defense this Winter has been a long one in these isolated hills, I still have +1' of snow on the ground, my driveway is a mess, but I just could not help it. I broke all my rebuild repair and refly testing protocols this morning following a successful self leveling test and actually flew. I flew. I could not take it anymore. Sometimes it feels so good to be so bad:black_eyed: I still need to do all that other protocol stuff though. I'll punish myself later.

 

[coreyperez]

Get it jay!

 

[TBaldus]

I also can report success. After it is finally warming up a little I got 2 flights in yesterday (14min/battery) and dared to mount the gimbal and camera and flew again today (10 min/battery). Thanks a lot Bart for starting this thread without all the help and information on here I would have never been able to do this.

 

[coreyperez]

cute slippers

 

[JoeBob]

TBaldus, at least you got it back on the ground gracefully:

My excuses: Windy day, switching between course lock and home lock, not enough sense to go play in an open field...

But I liked the video quality. Not bad for 8 inch props.
More to come. It's warm enough to go outside!
***

Cute Slippers RULE!

 

[Rupe]

First crash!

My hex fell out of the sky from about 40 metres on Sunday (for the superstitious - I think it was its 13th flight). One moment it was hovering, the next, plummeting. Fortunately (due to a lot of rain) the ground was very soft. It fell vertically without rotating and the legs buried themselves into the ground - so it didn't come to an abrupt halt. The only real damage was to the home-made fibre glass cradle for my Sony NEX-7 (pointing straight down to photograph long shadows). Amazingly the camera seems fine.

The truly scary thing was that it fell near some people. They weren't bothered but it freaked me out.

Accident investigators (me) have concluded the pin of the EC5 connector came out of the back of the plug severing the power OR one of the soldering points failed on a different pin. Both were apparent, but I expect one of them happened on impact.

I have trouble getting the pins to click into place on the EC5s and even when they do, they don't seem that secure. I've replace all the critical ones with XT60s now - and resolved not to fly above any people.

Lucky escape, I'd say.

Rupert.

 

[Dezy]

Success!!!

Happy to report that I had a successful first flight today of my F550 Quad, thanks to this forum and specifically, this thread and especially Bart!:highly_amused:
My build ended up consisting of:
F550 frame (using only four arms)
Naza Lite flight controller
Turnigy Nano-tech 4-cell 4000 mah
Tiger 2216-12 motors
DJI 30amp ESCs
8” APC props
Futaba 14sg radio
I ran thru two batteries with about 9 – 10 min. flights, and everything worked, including a decent GPS position hold. I followed Bart’s advice and did not program any fail safe or IOC yet.
I’ll post some pics, as soon as I figure out how – the uploading circle spins forever , even with small jpegs……
But anyways, thanks again to all!
Dezy

 

[CaptainJustice]

...

The truly scary thing was that it fell near some people. They weren't bothered but it freaked me out.

Accident investigators (me) have concluded the pin of the EC5 connector came out of the back of the plug severing the power OR one of the soldering points failed on a different pin. Both were apparent, but I expect one of them happened on impact.

I have trouble getting the pins to click into place on the EC5s and even when they do, they don't seem that secure. I've replace all the critical ones with XT60s now - and resolved not to fly above any people.

Lucky escape, I'd say.

Rupert.

Glad you came out as well as you did, Rupert. You might take a look at Anderson Power Poles at least for your main battery connection. Extremely secure.

 

[CaptainJustice]

@Dezy -- way to go. I am contemplating a 550 quad conversion from my 450.

 

[Bartman]

Glad you came out as well as you did, Rupert. You might take a look at Anderson Power Poles at least for your main battery connection. Extremely secure.

rupe,
if you stay with the EC5 connectors you can try using a 2.5mm hex driver to push the plug into the back of the housing, it will make a click once it's all the way in. those shouldn't ever come out once they've been clicked into place.

 

[Bartman]

Happy to report that I had a successful first flight today of my F550 Quad, thanks to this forum and specifically, this thread and especially Bart!:highly_amused:
My build ended up consisting of:
F550 frame (using only four arms)
Naza Lite flight controller
Turnigy Nano-tech 4-cell 4000 mah
Tiger 2216-12 motors
DJI 30amp ESCs
8” APC props
Futaba 14sg radio
I ran thru two batteries with about 9 – 10 min. flights, and everything worked, including a decent GPS position hold. I followed Bart’s advice and did not program any fail safe or IOC yet.
I’ll post some pics, as soon as I figure out how – the uploading circle spins forever , even with small jpegs……
But anyways, thanks again to all!
Dezy

congrats Dezy! glad it all worked out for you! keep it close by (without hitting yourself, right?), don't go too high and learn to fly it a little before trying the advanced features. you'll start itching to fly farther and higher and by then you'll be ready to work them in one by one.

enjoy!

 

[Dezy]

Some Pic's

@Dezy -- way to go. I am contemplating a 550 quad conversion from my 450.

I thought it my be a little unstable in this configuration - but even to my limited experience, it seemed fine.
Here's some pics of my "test bench" and removable GPS mount and the stable- so far :tennis::

View attachment 16967View attachment 16968View attachment 16969View attachment 16970

 

[gomotomoto]

Hey Bart, I think I read or heard somewhere in the thread or thread vids a mention of having a second radio and tx so we can have a camerman operate the gimble. Can we still do that? I'd love to give that a go.

 

[Bartman]

I thought it my be a little unstable in this configuration - but even to my limited experience, it seemed fine.
Here's some pics of my "test bench" and removable GPS mount and the stable- so far :tennis::

View attachment 21011View attachment 21012View attachment 21013View attachment 21014

That little XY-550 is so freakin' hot looking it's bringing tears to my eyes

 

[Bartman]

Hey Bart, I think I read or heard somewhere in the thread or thread vids a mention of having a second radio and tx so we can have a camerman operate the gimble. Can we still do that? I'd love to give that a go.

I've done it and I'm flying it, just trying to report on it with info/pics/video....hopefully soon

 

[fbiv1]

It flew!!!!! It was great only 5 minutes having 20 mph wind gust and did not want to risk it. Thanks for all the help. Reprogramed the NAZA one more time before giving up and worked great. The GPS and atti worked very well no problems. Thanks Bartman and every one for the info and vids

 

[gomotomoto]

I've done it and I'm flying it, just trying to report on it with info/pics/video....hopefully soon

awesome, can't wait to hear about it.

 

[Bartman]

It flew!!!!! It was great only 5 minutes having 20 mph wind gust and did not want to risk it. Thanks for all the help. Reprogramed the NAZA one more time before giving up and worked great. The GPS and atti worked very well no problems. Thanks Bartman and every one for the info and vids

congrats! glad it's all working out for everyone.

 

[zinkracer]

@Dezy -- way to go. I am contemplating a 550 quad conversion from my 450.

Hi, Captain. I am contemplating the same thing. I want to use a nice gimbal, GoPro and FPV. Somehow, I think that is asking a lot of a F450. Some preliminary budgeting would indicate a less expensive path to more lifting power (and safety?) would be to purchase the added parts and go with the hex. Are these your thoughts? DJI also sells a more powerful motor-ESC-Prop combo as well that could make the F450 powerful enough - but - even then it is only 4 motors and with 2 more standard motors, the cost would be less to upgrade to the 550 frame by simply buying the arms,standard motors/ESC's/ maybe better props. Thoughts?