Dronvibes Giveaway! Castle Creations DMR Multirotor Controllers

DroneTalk · Sep 19, 2016

The DMR 30/40 (Dedicated Multi-Rotor) Electronic Speed Control (ESC) will change the way you fly! Recommended for set-ups pulling up to 40 amps1 and running up to 6S LiPo, your Quadcopter or Multi-Rotor platform will perform as never before.

MORE POWER. MORE EFFICIENCY.

Castle’s new proprietary Adaptive Timing System (ATS)™, released with our V5 firmware, provides a noticeable power difference right out of the box. Castle’s Adaptive Timing System™ technology and ultra-low internal resistance design maximizes efficiency and power output across the entire throttle range. The DMR 30/40 handles up to 25.2V (6S) power too. You’ll not only feel the power increase, but see longer flight times as well.

RESPONSIVE AND STABLE.

Click image to enlarge
The DMR 30/40 has enhanced throttle responsivenessthat translates into flights with a more agile feel, quicker response, and no sluggishness. The DMR 30/40 also sports our improved active braking algorithm ensuring that maneuvering your multi-rotor never felt so good. Combined with Castle’s exceptionally linear throttle, the DMR 30/40 delivers quick, accurate, and consistent motor response, making it simpler to dial in your PIDs.

HEAR THE RESULT!
There’s nothing like it on the market! With its proprietary algorithms and technology, the DMR 30/40 literally has a unique sound that grabs attention and gets you noticed. Our pilots have raved about the Castle V5 “turbo sound” that signals their ability to fly faster, longer, and corner with more precision.

CONVENIENCE.
Castle DMR 30/40 default settings have you ready to fly right out of the package within seconds. These convenient features include:

Advanced rotorSENSE2 allows elegant simplicity in throttle calibration and setting motor direction.
Adaptive Timing System (ATS) continuously optimizes motor timing during flight.
Auto-detecting input signal selects between Servo PWM, OneShot, and OneShot125.
Motor PWM frequency is dynamically modulated for optimum performance.

Click image to enlarge
COMPACT and LIGHTWEIGHT.
Castle’s DMR 30/40 has a small footprint and a high power-to-weight ratio, a pillar of Castle’s long history of ESC designs. At a weight-conscious 5.2 grams3 this ESC delivers over 1kW, good things DO come in small packages.

RELIABILITY.
No one wants down time at the field. Don’t let its size fool you, this ESC won’t fail you mid-flight or after a “rough landing”. Castle brings a robust hardware design to the multi-rotor market that’s simply hard to find these days. Although compact and lightweight, the DMR 30/40 is designed for the harsh and unforgiving life of a multi-rotor ESC.

Coupled with our unparalleled 1-year warranty4, lifetime Tier Two "crash warranty", and world-famous technical support, Castle provides confidence and peace of mind that your DMR 30/40 ESC is a smart investment. In this day of “throw-away” electronics, put your multi-rotor investment in a trusted name with a proven track record of support and service.

FLEXIBILITY.
The DMR 30/40 has been rigorously tested with a wide range of motors commonly available on the market, giving flexibility and worry-free operation again and again. The high maximum electrical RPM allows you to run some of the fastest motors available today and at higher voltages – all the way up to 25.2V (6S LiPo).

While pre-programmed for your Multi-Rotor, the DMR 30/40 also allows access to all settings through our patented receiver wire communications5 via a Castle Link USB adapter. Additionally, the DMR delivers on the Castle promise to provide downloadable firmware updates allowing for future support and feature upgradesas they become available.

Features

Adaptive Timing System™ (ATS™) technology
Ultra-low internal resistance design
Ready to fly out of the package with exclusive Castle “Turbo Sound”
High power to weight ratio: Over 1kW from a 5.2g ESC3
Advanced rotorSENSE2 allows elegant simplicity in throttle calibration and setting motor direction
Auto-detecting input signal selects between Servo PWM, OneShot, and OneShot125
Dynamic motor PWM frequency
High maximum electrical RPM to support some of the fastest motors available
Improved active braking algorithm
Wide input voltage range for a maximum variety of applications and flight times
Programmable via Castle Link USB Adapter or Castle Field Link
Designed, manufactured, and supported from Olathe, KS USA

Best Suited For:

FPV Racing Drones
Battle Drones
Large Camera Carrying Multi-Rotors
Heavy Lift Multi-Rotors

We will draw a winner from these thread, on Oct 25th 2016 for
the new DMR Multirotor Controllers from Castle Creations!
To enter, tell us about your first multirotor build more details the better and pics would be great too!

MadMonkey · Sep 19, 2016

Only pic I have of my first one, which I bought from a coworker while I was contracting in Afghanistan. Some kind of Gaui. Another coworker had brought it over to play with, but when he left the country he sold it to a different coworker claiming that it was "plug and play" (it was most certainly not). I spent HOURS getting it working, mostly by trial and error because of the limited information that I could find online, not to mention extremely slow internet speeds. Eventually I managed to get it flyable, though the self-stabilization was terrible, which meant I could pretty much only fly it in manual mode.

But, it's what got me into multirotors, and I've been flying them ever since. It's also the first multi I ever put a camera on, and the first one I put a 3D camera on... it all worked well (though the video quality was questionable).

moonpie57108 · Oct 13, 2016

I built my first quad because I had decided to shelve my Trex 450 Heli a year or two prior. I had gone through two rebuilds which overall weren't terribly expensive but annoying and it was difficult to find somewhere to fly the beast that I felt was safe for other people. I really enjoyed building the helicopter so the drone offered a chance to build another contraption.

The frame was a fairly cheap ZMR250 knock off I believe that I purchased off of ebay. I spent days trying to decide which cheap but not completely cheap frame I wanted. Overall, it ended up being a pretty good starter frame. I broke the landing skids off it a couple times but never any serious damage to decommission her. I ran probably 3-4 different configurations on the frame including flying with the board programming reversed 180 degrees. This was to allow better CG when mounting the action cam in full hard case to the front (rear) of the drone. I learned a valuable lesson when spinning the board programming, you have to check the motor layout because it does actually change. First time out with the camera, I tried to take off and immediately flipped over. Great first video. The frame is my current weak spot, I build more drones to try new frames. Sometimes I change motors or flight controllers, but really I have a frame fetish.

The motors were a pretty stable part of the build that never changed, Multistar 2204 2300kv. Not the nicest motors, not the most powerful motors, but the things are work horses. During one of the rebuilds, I moved the banged up Multistar motors to a cheaper frame for me to learn rate mode on and replaced them with a new set of the same motors which survived my first half dozen sad attempts at FPV. Both sets of my 2204's are still functional and haven't replaced a single bearing. I am now more of a emaxx for cheap motors, KDE for good motors kind of builder but experimenting with Xnova because I like the looks.

The flight controller was a KK2.1.5 in the first couple configurations. The screen was supposed to make programming easier, if you could ever see the thing buried in the frame and I was too intimidated to solder my own pins on a Naze32 board. The second best thing I ever did was order a Naze32 Rev6 on a whim and decide to try soldering it. First being, learning rate mode. I never did much in rate mode on this frame out of fear it would break, but after a year or so of self level, just hovering in rate mode was a challenge.

The ESCs I hated. I had a set of Afro Slims. Where it was my first build, I didn't want to cut any connectors off anything because I had no idea how long any given configuration would last. So when you think about the length of standard 2204 motor wires with bullet connectors, length of the "slim" esc and its bullet connectors, it would have worked great on a low power 450 clone (eventual did this for the wife to learn on) but I spent hours trying to make them fit the 5" frame and look reasonable due to the length of the setup. Eventually I smashed everything between the two base plates in a crisscross mess to use up excess wire. It was always a guess and test to figure out which esc was which motor. The micro escs that are 1/4th the length were a life saver and since I found out what a solder pad esc was, I have never gone back to bullet connectors. I can swap out solder wires just about as fast as bullet connectors.

The batteries were generally my old 3S 2200 mah heli batteries. A couple Turnigy and Spyder batteries. The average size of my batteries has probably dropped by 50% just over this year with the tight 5" builds and 4" builds and now I am looking at 650 mah batteries.

The receiver was nothing special, I had the Spektrum DX7 radio from the helicopter so I picked up a basic 6 channel aircraft receiver that has stuck with the frame. All my other frames have been upgraded to basic satellites or diversity satellites but this little guy is still rocking the six channel brick.

In the end it survived about two years. It never actually self destructed like I was concerned about but I parted it out for other projects. At my wife's last count, this drone has between 8-13 babies. The lineage of a couple are questionable, but its all just one big happy family.

As action of a shot that exists for this frame.