Before you buy, please read this

[Bartman]

Thank you very much Bartman for the advice!
I am new to the whole multi-rotor community, I have been reading and researching about it for the past month (Which is a very short period) and I still feel like I have no idea yet. And I just joined this forum ... I am planning to get a certain motor/props set, which thread do you advice me to ask in?

Anyways, I truly appreciate your advises.

Hi STALKER

What's the long term plan? Fun? Business? FPV?

Any prior RC experience?

 

[Bartman]

This post regarding flight controllers might be interesting for you to read
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showpost.php?p=23783664&postcount=4305
regards - bruce

Bruce,

Why would someone post a list of flight controllers and leave out the three or four best ones on the market? That doesn't seem like such a worthwhile list unless someone is solely determined to use hobby and experimental grade equipment.

@ Giovanni, copy your post to a new thread please and we'll let the community have a go at answering your questions.

 

[jfro]

I'd like to thank Bart and everyone who have spent time posting and helping on this forum. I'm finding nothing but good advice and information here. Sure it takes some deciphering, but it's good stuff.

I started and stopped my research over a year ago as I was overwhelmed and discouraged. Now I'm back and have spent an insane amount of time researching what I'd like to build. This is the first forum I come to. My yoyo issues are really how big to start with and can I really afford this hobby. Hopefully I'll pull the string and start building something soon. My choices are between something for stable video with between 3000g to 4500g total weight or move up to more of a heavy lifter at 4500g to 6500g. Since it's a first, I"ll probably go with a hexa at the 6000g range and fly a gh2.

One thing I'd love to see is a listing or database of people's multirotor rigs with a few specifics including flight weight, motors, battery(s), and flight time.

Here is a partial list I put together which I think would be extremely valuable to newbies like me and might also be of some use to the experienced flyers. Maybe someone with some experience could put this out in a more informed way and get a thread started.

Weight, Flight time, & battery combo's are key for what I'm researching.

Sample:

Place to list the specifics of your copter, weight, & flying time.




Motor Model
Prop

Number of Motors
ESC AMPS
Complete Copter weight with camera, batteries or other peripherals.
Battery used and 1 or 2

Maximum safe flying

Type of flying. High speed, Normal, or mostly hovering.



Any extra notes or alternate configs of your same copter

 

[MombasaFlash]

I'd like to thank Bart and everyone who have spent time posting and helping on this forum .... I started and stopped my research over a year ago as I was overwhelmed and discouraged. Now I'm back and have spent an insane amount of time researching what I'd like to build ...

Fortune favours the bold. Just jump in and buy a kit.

There have been many posts with lists of components that are compiled after much research and which are then changed following responses and advice from other members. Sometimes a multi-rotor gets built and sometimes another list of 'ideal' components is prepared. Everyone has their own way of doing things and my method was to jump in and buy a Mikrokopter Octo kit, not because that was going to be the perfect machine but because I knew everything I would need to get into the air would be included in the box.

I chose the Octo because it would at least be capable of carrying something bigger than a GoPro. It was only afterwards that I came across the expression 'redundancy', which refers to the flat 8 Octo's ability to stay airborne and controllable if a motor is lost. The MK Octo then obligingly displayed this facility when one of the cheap'n'nasty EP props broke in the air and it carried on as if nothing had happened. It then broke another, and another ... so I changed to APC props and it has not happened again.

The process of building it, configuring, testing and flying it and subsequently making small adjustments to various unfamiliar parameters through the initially totally unfamiliar interface of the MK Tool program gradually teaches you what it is all about - with help from this forum when you get stuck. Which Flight Control system or airframe or any of the other many variables is relatively immaterial at the beginning when you have absolutely no practical, hands-on experience of any of them and therefore have no reference points from which to judge their various merits or otherwise.

Practical experience of building, possibly repairing and understanding setup software will get you there far quicker than trying to work it all out in advance through forums and advice.

So, I advocate jumping in with both feet and buying a relatively inexpensive kit - not 'cheap', relatively inexpensive - to learn on. I am not an MK advocate, nor DJI or any of the others, but an MK kit is certainly a fairly reliable way to get started, as would be a DJI setup because the major components, i.e. airframe and flight control, are fairly well integrated and time-tested with many exponents here who can offer advice from personal experience.

 

[StarterH]

All,
First, thank you for your dedication and willingness to impart your knowledge on this forum. I'm 100% new to anything aerial RC (though I built and rebuilt a Traxxas TRX1 a few times on the car side), so please bear with me.

I've been bitten by the APV bug and have that as an ultimate goal, but I realize I possess no skills currently. I'm looking for a platform that can grow with me. I don't want to lose my marriage if I crash, but at the same time I don't want to turn around in a year and have to buy a whole new platform if I want to keep going. So based on a couple months of research and pondering, I was considering the following build:

F550
DJI 30AMP ESC
DJI 2212 Motors
Graupner (or something other than DJI) props, 10x4.5
NAZA M + GPS
Futaba 7C TX/RX

I figure if I'm working from the basic F550 there are a lot of options for upgrades, like the APM heavy lift kit, that could get me started on aerial video after I get acquainted.

Am I biting off more than I can chew or not starting at a high enough level?

 

[tiggybengal]

hi bartman
never were truer words spoken

I have been following the x8 build thread with interest and would like to pick your brains please.

i am in the middle of a x8 discovery build and a flat octo pics below:-

I saw a you tube video of a guy testing a x8 while connected to a mains supply so he could soak test his motors for an hour without continually changing batteries.
My question to you and fellow enthusiasts is do you or anyone else know how to do this

View attachment 9834

 

[MadSIGNtist]

Thank you for your post. generally i research everything for at a minimum 2 months before i commit. this forum and others have helped me tremendiously getting started with Multirotors and Electric flying in general. i have always been a glow and gas pilot with my airplanes and my intro into electric has been thru multirotors. i will still fly my gas burners but really enjoy the electric side.

 

[Stevenhartman]

Guys here is my thing. I need a FC that is reliable. I have had three crashes on the wkm system in as many days and i am now seriously doubting the system. I have zero confidence in it. What is the best FC that can handle waypoints properly as this is my core business. I was thinking of going the arducopter route

 

[Stevenhartman]

I have a reliability issue with the DJI stuff. I have had two units go down due to either software or firmware problems. I am at a loss of what system to use now.

 

[kloner]

that zero uav setup is similar but not so buggy

did you catch the post from dji tellin us not to use 5.18 at all and to revert back to 5.16, like last week?

 

[dr427]

Thank you for this forum and this thread! Going from ground RC to Multi-Rotor has been quite an eye opener! A lot to learn and I'm starting to get over the "sticker shock". Besides the Phantom, looks like $1200 is about entry level.

 

[MadSIGNtist]

My tricopter flies great. If you don't count my batteries and radio system I have about $150 in it. I am building a second one now

 

[MTDCopter]

Hi Barman,

I am from the western suburbs of Philly and am will be looking to purchase a MR, and wanted to know who you would recommend in our area. My goal is to shoot some amateur photography and have fun doing it. I know since you wrote this there is the DJI Phantom which would accomplish my goal but I think I would possible like a slight step up from there with something that can be modified. Any suggestions on any of this?

Mark

 

[ProPilotWannaBe]

MTDCopter, I would recommend RCRUS because of your proximity to them. When I was in Philly for a business trip, twice I took a day trip down to visit them in person (my trip spanned two weekends, so each Saturday I went down). I learned a lot just hanging out with them and see them build the MRs. I asked a ton of questions, and they were very gracious to answer my questions. On each of the trips, Tony took me out to a nearby park and we flew the quad around and he gave me some basic instruction.

 

[Bartman]

Hi Barman,

I am from the western suburbs of Philly and am will be looking to purchase a MR, and wanted to know who you would recommend in our area. My goal is to shoot some amateur photography and have fun doing it. I know since you wrote this there is the DJI Phantom which would accomplish my goal but I think I would possible like a slight step up from there with something that can be modified. Any suggestions on any of this?

Mark

Hi Mark,

There are a ton of options. For the quick and dirty there's the Phantom. With a little more effort and a few dollars more there are the entry level quads that can carry a GoPro either directly on the frame or via one of the new brushless gimbals. I'm in NJ just up the road from Frenchtown, if you want to come up and pay a visit I'd be happy to give you an introduction to multi-rotor helicopters. PM me if you're interested.

Regards,
Bart

 

[thurcombe]

I just ploughed on in and bought what I thought would give me the best stable platform for lifting a camera/gimbal after playing with a phantom for a short time. Phantom was great but not man enough for my needs but it showed me that a naza fc was where I wanted to be.

I purchased an F550 from a reputable supplier in the UK, other than a dodgy lipo, I never needed to contact them about it, its hardly rocket science to put a 550 together, the only thing that got me was setting up preset failsafe on a spektrum AR6200 which just doesnt work, it doesnt support it and it took a while to come to that conclusion. Sorted now, just finished setting up a brushless gimbal so all in all its been good fun and relatively painless, just expensive

 

[RobertBrown]

it's helpful. thx

 

[UnmannedEngineeria]

Nice work...



Regards,
UNMANNEDENGINEERIA

 

[djw43]

Bart,
great informative thread, and I feel lucky to be close to Frenchtown, and would jump at the opportunity to learn first hand about where to start, and possibly see a MR fly in person.
-dave in warren twp

 

[Bartman]

dave,

i found your other post, i'm in Milford, 08848. have you ever flown anything RC?