Group Build 2014, DJI NAZA/F450 Quadcopter!

[sledge57]

I'm in and built. Already crashed once Broke one arm just before the motor mount when I switched from ATTI to Manual without adding enough throttle. For you/us noobs, when hovering or flying level and you switch to manual -- add throttle first! Mine is the F450, stock DJI motors, NAZA V2/GPS. Pulse 4S 4100mAH. Trying the 8" and their 10" props and just experimented with some APC 9x4.7 props. Not sure about my conclusions yet, but I get just under 15 min. flying it modestly with a 90% charge using the 8" stock props and my total weight is 1688 grams. Futaba 8FG Super. Added two of the IrisAerial Batwings, one in front for the GoPro Hero2 and one in back for the GPS and to stick other stuff on.

After this photo I added the IrisAerial legs and have the GoPro hanging down now. Balance is better and the props are out of the view of the camera. The LEDs are single unit 9-LED 12v "corn lights" (371000030) powered by a UBEC (12V45AUBEC). Each draws 1.8 watts and I'm going to get smaller ones (maybe 5-LED). Each is mounted in a plug-in socket (371000075-0). Those are HobbyKing part numbers.

This photo was taken near dusk on an overcast day.
View attachment 19036

Looks nice, I like the LEDs, gonna look into them now. Also like the Batwings, I was thinking of one for the rear and mounting the NAZA LED on it so if faces the rear, figured it would help with orientation but with those LEDs it might not be needed, we'll see.

Probably order a couple Batwings anyway, I'm sure I can find a use for them, ought to make it easier to balance if you can move a little weight away from center, plus someday I plan to add FPV.

Looking forward to getting started, gotta figure out that Tx also (same as yours T8FG Super)

Speaking of that Tx is there a way to change the model it defaults to on boot up? I bought the Heli version, I didn't want the ratcheting throttle and it was $60 cheaper than the AC version...

 

[CaptainJustice]

More details on my F450.

Placement details
View attachment 15241


Top view
View attachment 15242

LED "corn light" detail
View attachment 15243

An overall pic -- this with the APC 9x4.7 props. Notice the "glowing" front leg. I only painted the outer-facing side and did not paint the rear legs although the arm ends at the motor mount/feet area each got the orange on front and green on rear. I may paint the rear ones also. That fluorescent paint really shows up and now with the lights, I KNOW which direction the craft is pointed.
View attachment 15244

Parts list -- I was asked in a PM for my parts list and thought I'd throw it out here in case anyone else was interested.
Stock DJI F450 with NAZA-M w/ GPS
The props you see in this photo are APC 9x4.7 -- I'm thinking the stock 8" are overall the best.
Batwings fore and aft from IrisAerial (http://www.irisaerial.com/products.html)
Landing legs also from irisaerial + fluorescent orange paint from the local hardware store.

All of the LED components were from HobbyKing -- caution, all from Hong Kong so some delivery delay.

Description	Quantity	Unit Price
LED Corn Light 12V 1.8W (9 LED) - White (2pcs)	1	US$2.66
LED Corn Light 12V 1.8W (9 LED) - Green (2pcs)	1	US$2.66
LED Corn Light 12V 1.8W (9 LED) - Red (2pcs)	1	US$2.66
130mm Corn Light Adapter With JST Female Connector	4	US$0.95

12V 4.5A UBEC 2-5S Lipoly (7.2-21V)	1	US$8.00
JST-XH to JST LED Power Distribution Lead (6 JST)	1	US$1.99

No special mount for the GoPro -- it's mounted directly to the bottom side of the Batwing using the standard GoPro adhesive mount.

Radio is Futaba T8FG Super (a/k/a 8FGS) with the R6208SB receiver.
Battery is Pulse 4S 4100 mAh.
Charger is a Hyperion 1420iNet3.
The F450, radio, battery, charger were all purchased from HeliDirect.

On the 8" props with a 90% charge on the battery I get 14:45 in hover and always get 10 minutes or better in "mild" flight.

I hope this helps someone. This was my first MR and my first build of anything like it.

 

[COMike93yj]

Looking great guys!

I just picked up the DJI F450 frames from ClubHeli and am awaiting delivery! I also picked up some Tarot LED kits to place on the arms to assist in orientation in low light conditions. Now I just have to get the rest of the parts and hopefully I will be up and running soon!

 

[HDG]

Can someone send me all the parts needed to build the multirotor
I would like to start shopping and pick up all the parts before the build starts.
I will need everything from the radio controller to all the multirorotor parts
Also I want to put in a go pro
So I will need everything required for that too

 

[caferacer]

I'm thinking getting into multi AP next year. This is very helpful. Subscribed!

 

[CaptainJustice]

Can someone send me all the parts needed to build the multirotor
I would like to start shopping and pick up all the parts before the build starts.
I will need everything from the radio controller to all the multirorotor parts
Also I want to put in a go pro
So I will need everything required for that too

See my post #136 above.
Have fun.

 

[Bartman]

Can someone send me all the parts needed to build the multirotor
I would like to start shopping and pick up all the parts before the build starts.
I will need everything from the radio controller to all the multirorotor parts
Also I want to put in a go pro
So I will need everything required for that too

HDG,

I received your PM and I'll try to get a list up tonight. What CaptainJustice posted above is similar to what I'd list except maybe the charger, motors, props, and some of the extra doo-dads.

Bart

 

[sledge57]

HDG,

I received your PM and I'll try to get a list up tonight. What CaptainJustice posted above is similar to what I'd list except maybe the charger, motors, props, and some of the extra doo-dads.

Bart

Not sure what motors Bart will recommend, I just bought Sunnysky V2216-11 900KV for my hex, supposed to be good quality motors and the price was good $23.99 each

http://www.banggood.com/Sunnysky-V2216-11-900KV-Outrunner-Brushless-Motor-For-RC-Model-p-78177.html

 

[COMike93yj]

The Tiger Motors are out of my budget right now so I am leaning on getting these from HobbyKing....

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/...11_1000kv_Brushless_Motor_USA_Warehouse_.html

They perform well in the eCalc program and are around $10.00 a piece......they get decent reviews on the site and until I get my skills up, I will probably be using these. The shafts may be a tad too long so I will be looking at some sort of spacer for them I suppose as I don't have a dremel yet to cut down the shaft if it is too long.

 

[Crisp image]

Well it is 1600 on Christmas Day and I have built my F450. I had it built by 0900 this morning and then had to go to Church and then cook lunch for the people that had no place to go for lunch which is a really good thing to do and teaches my children that Christmas is not all about getting the latest things but it is a time of giving. Today we gave ourselves to the community for a few hours. Anyway back on track. I had it flying in the backyard and have added simple fpv and that works. Later today I will head out to my SIL's place in the farming area and give it a good workout and try RTH and fly in an open environment. There is no video recordings yet as I don't have the gopro on it yet.
I will be getting landing gear from the inlaws tonight so have to add that later.
I have found it easy to fly but have had a few nervous moments.
Looking forward to adventures in the future.
Regards
Crispy

 

[COMike93yj]

Congrats on the flight!

Cant wait to see your pics/vids for the future Crisp!

I just got my 2 Frames in the mail the other day! Still acquiring my supplies but I a hopeful that within the next month it will be airborne! In the meantime still flying my Nano QX in the house

 

[sledge57]

Ok so I built my 550 on Christmas day, spent part of the day yesterday setting up the radio and Naza and today saw my first flight.

4 short flights in all. no crashes, need to work on gains I think, setup my Tx so I can adjust pitch, roll and attitude gains on the fly. Increased pitch/roll by 15 from default which means they should be at 140 now (going to hook up assistant and check soon)

Didn't get GPS calibrated properly before flight (avoided GPS mode) because I forgot how to put it in calibrate mode.

Also screwed up initial warmup, forgot to set it down and let it sit after plugging in battery (had copter in hand when connecting and during warm up).

Have to say considering all I did wrong and how windy it was I'm happy with how it flies, can't wait to try again.

Video is not very good, next time I'll use a better camera (no Go Pro yet)

Maiden flight video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rM1ObmYvxVY

 

[coreyperez]

http://youtu.be/-YXNd7SSTN8 (Skip to 7:30)

Hey all,

I’ve sorta unofficially joined this group. I’ve researched and ordered my parts, now starts the 45+ days for Hobby King to ship me my parts to an APO/AP (Korea) address.

I haven’t even got all my pieces (or even the first one, but they are all ordered and on their way). What I’m wondering is, I’ve seen some videos where people had built contraptions to test-fly helicopters, etc and ensure things were right. But can we safely do this with MRs? What I’d seen is a device that was allowing the helicopter to lift a weight while still held down, thus giving the operator the chance to ensure the controls were right. Do we have a solution/system to allow us to do the same?

I’ve been researching all the (uber confusing) settings on different radios, systems, FC’s AGH!!!! I’m leaning towards a video where a guy put string/rope on each arm and bolted them on to a sheet of plywood (about 4” of area to “fly”). This gave him the option to hover it, check the craft was trying to go the correct way. The issue was, (if I remember correctly), this wasn’t one of the fancy pants DJI FCs. I’ve also read that DJI NEEDS to be flying to actually work. So, am I going about this wrong? I’d just like to KNOW that I’ve got it all sorted out before I send my F550 into the blue. If there were not so many different settings and configurations I’d not be so afraid to just “wing it”.



Those that have done your own first DIY build, how did YOU go about doing it? As far as I know, I’m the only one here in Korea (on this forum) so having the help of an experienced person isn’t going to work out too well. I know other folks in this country are doing MRs, but there is the obvious language barrier.
Thanks!

Corey

 

[Motopreserve]

I'm making a test stand from a cheap Swiffer knock-off. As long as it can be secured, and moves on all axis, it should work for tuning/testing.

 

[CaptainJustice]

Corey,
I just had mine in my grassy yard and gently increased throttle until it barely lifted off. Cut throttle quickly. Did that a couple of times to be sure it was picking up straight. Then a little higher, eventually hovered a few feet off the ground. This was after checking things in Assistant until my eyes crossed.

 

[Bartman]

Hi Guys,

I'm back with a few days this week to get this moving again. Kudos and a firm slap on the back to those of you that have moved on and are already flying!

Regarding the parts lists that have been asked for, let's look at it one piece at a time.
Frame

• You'll need parts to hold the motors, landing gear to hold the heli up off the ground, places to put the flight control (FC) components, a place (or places) for the battery (or batteries), places for the motor controllers (ESC's or BL's depending on who you're talking to), maybe a cover to keep dust out, maybe a frame for crash protection of your FC
• It doesn't have to be very expensive to be effective
• If you want to hang a camera mount you'll need some sort of landing gear (doesn't have to be conventional landing gear, just something to give clearance underneath so the camera mount won't hit the ground, feel free to be creative here but don't add any more weight than you absolutely have to)

Motors and Props

• Ideally, the helicopter should hover at about 50 to 65% throttle. We typically see heli's that hover much lower than that won't be very stable and will drift around in the wind. Heli's that are hovering much over the 64% mark won't have a lot of excess thrust to stop fast descents and the components will potentially run hot shortening their time before failure. The FC needs some throttle on the top end to maintain control, after all, it speeds up and slows down individual motors to make everything flyable but if it doesn't have enough throttle left when it needs to speed up a motor then it will run out of control and you'll be unhappy with the results.
• The debate will go on forever about efficiency vs. redundancy and I won't stoke that fire here. Suffice it to say,the overall design has to be appropriate for what you're trying to accomplish. With this build we're trying to successfully get a multi-rotor helicopter going, probably for the first time for a lot of you. Success can be achieved with four motors in this case. If you want to go the six motor route because you're fairly certain you'd like to put a GoPro or some other expensive doo-dad (that you don't mind losing to the inevitable crash) on there then so be it. We're trying to break the ice here, pop your cherries, take you to that place you've never been before so let's keep it simple and make sure we get there before sun-up.
• With the F450 and F550 Flame Wheel ARF fits from DJI you get motors that will work fine paired up with appropriate speed controllers and props. Save yourself some grief (if you haven't already) and just go the F450 route. You can always pick up an F550 frame and a couple more motors/ESC's and upgrade it over a weekend. Or, you may get enough out of the F450 that you'll want to go bigger or in a more specific direction and if you did a good job with the F450 it will have some resale value or you may just want to keep it to chase deer out of your yard (there's an idea!).

Batteries

• Batteries are a miraculous thing, they make tons of power and weigh virtually nothing compared to eons ago when they made no power and were huge. For me, a flight of about seven minutes is a good time. After about twelve to fifteen minutes I'm wondering what the hell I'm still doing in the air. Until I have a hot neighbor with a nude sunbathing habit (I kid!) I can't see myself needing to fly around for more than that amount of time (in the name of fun). An F450 with a 4S (14.8 volts) battery pack and about 4000 mah of capacity ought to be fine but I'm guessing here as I haven't had one to fly in a while. There are a ton of F450 questions over in the DJI forum so maybe someone can pull some info from there when they have a moment.
• One battery will suffice for an F450, two might be too much for it with the standard motors (depending on the size of the batteries). You can put two batteries on an F550 but you might not have a lot of lift leftover for anything else.
• Hobbyking.com sells little battery monitors that chirp when any cells go below 3.3V. They work great, weigh hardly anything, and can be stuck onto the side of the battery with velcro. I highly recommend them even as a backup to whatever telemetry or OSD info you might end up using. I by the ones int he plastic case with the digital readout, remove the case, put some heat shrink around them and use them every flight on my main flight packs.
• LiPo batteries have two connectors, one for flying (big) and one for charging (small). The small ones vary from one battery manufacturer to another so make sure you get the right adapter for the charger you buy so you can get them plugged in. The JST-XH is very common and is used on Turnigy packs as well as others, YMMV.
• Plan to buy connectors for the power connectors. I don't like the ones that come on Turnigy Nano-Tech packs because they aren't male-female and my son (when he was about six) almost plugged two batteries into each other!!! Imagine the spark that that would have created and the fire that would have followed if they didn't immediately come apart! For someone getting started I'd recommend the EC3 connectors, they're widely available, the most tolerant of new-solderers-syndrome, and are small so they fit in just about anywhere (cue the battery-connector crusaders in 3....2.....1.....). If you can solder relatively well then you might choose some other connector like a Deans or XT60, I won't judge you for your final decision but they are all hard to pull apart and you can screw up any one of them if you try hard enough so none of them are perfect. The EC3 allows you to do the soldering before any heat gets to the plastic so they might have an advantage there but if you glob up the outside with solder then the poles won't fit into the plastic holder and you're still screwed. There are crimp style connectors but I've found them to be bigger than what I'm willing to accommodate and they're waaaaayyyy overkill for a simple build like this.
• Depending on where you want to place your batteries, you may need some extra wire of an appropriate size for the amount of amps you'll be running so plan ahead if you expect to deviate from the plans on this detail ( I will be so I've got some extra wire on hand).
• There's a lengthy battery tutorial at the top of the beginners' area, have a look at it if you haven't already.

Flight Control System

• wow, where to begin with one?? keeping in mind that the goal is to be successful and not necessarily master everything autonomously, i'm recommending the DJI NAZA flight control system. The V1 systems are available in classifieds sections around the world and the V2's aren't much more expensive bought new.
• yes there are a lot of other options and I won't judge you for your choice here any more than if you choose one of those crimp-style battery connectors!
• keep it simple though, baby steps, walk before you run, yada yada yada
• GPS will be helpful for a number of reasons. if you plan to be more of a fun-flyer though, plan to keep it close to where you're standing, and have some RC experience then you can probably live without the GPS. hell, you can probably save some money and go with the KK2 flight controller as well but you'll have to mount it to the heli, not an insurmountable task but it will be up to you to work out the details (remember, goal=success)

Radio System

• keep in mind that just about anything will work provided you have a receiver with discreet channel outputs (see my first video, maybe it was the second!) and at least five channels
• if you're thinking really long term, buy something with at least nine channels
• an old 72 mhz radio will work provided you keep the long antenna wire out of the props!

LED lights

• not absolutely necessary but helpful
• we'll plan ahead and put an extra set of power wires in place so we can plug in lights later on......i like to use regular old red JST connectors for low amp connections on the heli, there's a similar locking version but I don't know what they call it

 

[Bartman]

Designing all of this stuff to work together involves a very important first step which can sometimes be the hardest and that is to answer the question.....

"Why am I doing this?"

or to put it another way

"What do I want to do this for?"

Sometimes you'll also have to answer the question, "Am I crazy for wanting to do this?" but that's better left for when the wife is looking at you like you are crazy and you're trying to defend yourself.

The "Why" of it is important because you can't make any decision until you know "Why". "Why" dictates all of the other parameters which eventually will add up to an overall weight of the model and that will then work backwards to dictate motors, frame size, prop size, batteries, desired endurance, complexity of the control system, etc.

So, the "Why" in this case is to learn and have fun and, most important, to be successful so that future efforts can then also be successful.

I've got an idea for a spreadsheet that will help everyone to reverse-engineer their future builds. I'll work on it in my spare time!!!

Bart

 

[CaptainJustice]

• "Batteries are a miraculous thing, they make tons of power and weigh virtually nothing compared to eons ago when they made no power and were huge. For me, a flight of about seven minutes is a good time. After about twelve to fifteen minutes I'm wondering what the hell I'm still doing in the air. Until I have a hot neighbor with a nude sunbathing habit (I kid!) I can't see myself needing to fly around for more than that amount of time (in the name of fun). An F450 with a 4S (14.8 volts) battery pack and about 4000 mah of capacity ought to be fine but I'm guessing here as I haven't had one to fly in a while. There are a ton of F450 questions over in the DJI forum so maybe someone can pull some info from there when they have a moment."

I have a Pulse 4s 4100 mAh on my new 450 and with a gopro hard-mounted (no gimbal) I get over 10 minutes with plenty of power. 8, 9 or 10 inch props vary only a little in flight time.

 

[Bartman]

• "Batteries are a miraculous thing, they make tons of power and weigh virtually nothing compared to eons ago when they made no power and were huge. For me, a flight of about seven minutes is a good time. After about twelve to fifteen minutes I'm wondering what the hell I'm still doing in the air. Until I have a hot neighbor with a nude sunbathing habit (I kid!) I can't see myself needing to fly around for more than that amount of time (in the name of fun). An F450 with a 4S (14.8 volts) battery pack and about 4000 mah of capacity ought to be fine but I'm guessing here as I haven't had one to fly in a while. There are a ton of F450 questions over in the DJI forum so maybe someone can pull some info from there when they have a moment."

I have a Pulse 4s 4100 mAh on my new 450 and with a gopro hard-mounted (no gimbal) I get over 10 minutes with plenty of power. 8, 9 or 10 inch props vary only a little in flight time.

well, there you go, thanks for chiming in!

 

[sledge57]

I have a small battery monitor also, not sure if it's the one Bart uses or not.

Paid $8.00, works for 1s to 8s lipos, has two buzzers, an LED display, shows total voltage, voltage of each cell, the low battery alarm is adjustable and weighs next to nothing. You can see it in the pics below.

My battery is 3s 3700mah, I also have a 4s 3700mah. Going to try both then decide which to buy more of, initial flight testing will be using 3s.

Finally tore mine back apart, cleaned up the wiring, mounted GPS antenna, and rigged up the Rx antennas to be at 90* angles. Used some old Rock Crawler parts and plastic pushrod tubing I had laying around for Rx antenna mount.

Might reroute GPS cable when I add GCU.

Going back into Naza Assistant to make some adjustments and shes ready to fly again tomorrow.

Pics: