homeslice976
Member
Hello, all! First I want to send out a big thank you to everyone here and at rcgroups that have plastered such awesome information for beginners like me to find and try to cram my head with. About 2 months ago I got bit by the bug. At this point I don't even remember what the catalyst was, but I knew I wanted to build a quad 
My previous RC experience has been minimal - some sweet nitro cars when I was younger, a couple of micro helis, and most recently a mini heli. On 2/26 I started ordering parts, and I have all but completed the build as of this weekend (just waiting on a few standoffs to mount my gps/mag). I wanted to start a thread mainly for my own tracking of progress, but also so the community could follow along and tell me when I'm being stupid This project has been a lot of fun, I've learned way more than I ever expected to over the last couple of months which has been awesome, and it's obvious that this hobby will be something that can keep me entertained for years to come.
1) Why didn't you start with a micro/toy quad for practice?
Talking the wife into allowing me to undertake this project was difficult to begin with. Even though I agree that the extra 50-60 up front may have saved me something in the long run, she didn't necessarily see it that way, so it's a chance I'm taking (she's awesome and it's great that we can freely have these conversations dealing with money without it turning into an argument). I've flown micro and mini helis around enough that I understand the sticks and the micro movements necessary, but I also know that I'm treading new waters, so I will do so VERY carefully. I live on 4.5 acres so I have plenty of room to practice where the only things in danger are my own...
2) Why MultiWii? There's a steep learning curve and you have to deal with code?
While I don't have a lot of RC background, I am heavily into the Android world. Working with and compiling source is the least scary part of this for me. Not to mention the FCs from witespy come preconfigured, so a lot of the guess work is already taken out. Also, I wanted GPS so I never even looked at KK boards
Let's start with parts -
2/26 - Order 1 from HobbyKing US Warehouse ($222.51 Shipped)
6V 3A UBEC 2-5S Lipoly (6-23v)
Turnigy 9X 9Ch Transmitter w/ Module & 8ch Receiver (Mode 2) (v2 Firmware)
Turnigy 4000mAh 3S 30C Lipo Pack
Q Brain 4 x 25A Brushless Quadcopter ESC 2-4S 3A SBEC
On Board Lipoly Low Voltage Alarm (2s~4s)
TURNIGY BESC Programming Card
Slow Fly Electric Prop 1045R SF (4 pc - Green Right Hand Rotation)
Slow Fly Electric Prop 1045 SF (4 pc - Green)
Slow Fly Electric Prop 1045R (4 pc - Black Right Hand Rotation)
Slow Fly Electric Prop 1045SF (4 pc - Black)
Hobbyking DC-4S Balance Charger & Cell Checker 30w 2s~4s
HXT4mm Battery Harness 14AWG for 2 Packs in Parallel
4x D2830-11 1000kv Brushless Motor
2/26 - Order 2 from witespyquad ($76 Shipped)
MultiWii PRO Ez3.0 Blacked MAG Edition FC - with uBlox 6M GPS mounted on a backplane along with an external compass (HMC5883L). Also had Paul include some straight PINs that I soldered later.
2/26 - Order 3 from Amazon ($19.83 Shipped)
Neewer White and Black F450 Frame
The order from HobbyKing arrived on 3/12 - everything was there and seemed to be in working order. The order from witespy arrived on 3/19. The order from Amazon never arrived, and I was issued a refund on 3/21. Ugh.
3/22 Order 4 from Ebay ($15.08 Shipped)
F450 Multi-Rotor Air Frame Flamewheel KIT
Shortly after ordering this I realized I had no way of mounting the GPS/Mag board, so I'd need some standoffs. I came across this which seemed like a great buy:
3/23 Order 5 from Ebay ($9.45 Shipped)
M3 Nylon Standoff Screw Nut set
After I received the first package from HobbyKing, I was excited to get started, but without a FC or a frame, there wasn't a whole lot I could do, so I balanced the props, then sat around staring at everything for a few days. Then I started playing with the transmitter, when I found some flight sims. I managed to get a couple installed, and actually able to fly one or two models properly, but could never get a quad model to fly properly (will be messing with this more in the near future). Anyway, in doing this, unplugging the module and letting it dangle while simming (is that a word?) was a little stressful. The last thing I needed was to have the antenna wire stressed and risk breaking a solder joint. Knowing that hopefully one day I'll be switching to a frsky module and telemetry receiver anyway, I went ahead and modded the module so that the antenna is directly connected to it, rather than routed through the body of the transmitter. That was a fun mod, considering I hadn't had my hands on a soldering iron in years.... Then I knew eventually if I'd be upgrading to a frsky module, I'd also want to upgrade the firmware on the transmitter to er9x or opentx to make use of the telemetry so I ordered this (eventually, I'll be ordering a TelemtrEZ board as well):
3/26 Order 6 from DigiKey ($9.00 Shipped)
ASSMan 10 wire/pin cable/connector
The frame arrived 3/28, so I started the build. The build itself wasn't too bad - the only snag I ran into was that the pre drilled holes to mount the FC weren't going to work for me, as it would have put the board off by 45 degrees (or limited me to fly in + configuration), so I hot glued the small standoffs that came with the frame so that I could properly orient the board for quad x. I soldered the Q-Brain to the PDB, and cut the parallel harness so that I could use part of it as the power lead to the PDB (since I didn't get any bullet connectors. When planning the build, I was trying to make it as solderless as possible, which I quickly discovered wasn't going to happen. This has turned out OK though.) The next morning I started charging the Lipo from my car battery, since I didn't order a power supply for the charger/balancer (I've been going back and forth on this - obviously they're not expensive, but I have plenty of cars/mowers with batteries already sitting around...) With everything mounted, I calibrated the sticks on the transmitter, bound the transmitter to the receiver, then calibrated throttle ranges on the ESCs via channel 3 on the Rx. Then I hooked up the programmer and checked all the ESCs, and they were all programmed the way I've seen on the interwebs. Here I proceeded to connect everything to the FC, and the FC properly to the receiver. The board is being powered by a 6v UBEC connected to the PDB. Now everything's almost built - just needing the standoffs to mount the GPS/Mag board above the FC, and the build will be complete (for now). As it sits, I installed the drivers for the board and hooked up to the MultiWii GUI and calibrated the ACC. All transmitter sticks appeared to be moving the controls in the proper direction, but the midpoints were all a little low. After some playing with transmitter settings, I managed to get all midpoints to 1500 or 1501. Armed the board (no props on of course), applied some throttle, and what do you know? All 4 motors start at the same time and appear to accelerate in sync as well. At this point I wanted to fly, but thought better of it since I don't have the Mag mounted yet, and not to mention we were getting sideways rain from the 50mph wind gusts this weekend, so I thought better of it I have confidence that it will fly, but I know that's just the beginning of the next step of this great adventure - getting it to fly properly! As it sits, AUW is right around 1kg.
Future Upgrades/Wishlist (not specifically the products linked, but something similar)
Currently working on some extended legs (nothing fancy, 3/4" PVC shaved as much as possible with slits cut for the existing legs, then zip tied - hoping this will be the weak point for breaks)
Lipo/LiFe Tx Pack
FrSky Module/Telemetry Receiver and a TelemtrEZ board to take advantage of the Telemetry
5.8Ghz Wireless video Tx/Rx
Brushless Gimbal and Controller
OLED, Bluetooth, 915MHz 3DR Telemetry
Any and all constructive criticism is welcome. I'll try to get some pictures posted later if anyone is interested. Hopefully I'll have video of her maiden soon.
My previous RC experience has been minimal - some sweet nitro cars when I was younger, a couple of micro helis, and most recently a mini heli. On 2/26 I started ordering parts, and I have all but completed the build as of this weekend (just waiting on a few standoffs to mount my gps/mag). I wanted to start a thread mainly for my own tracking of progress, but also so the community could follow along and tell me when I'm being stupid This project has been a lot of fun, I've learned way more than I ever expected to over the last couple of months which has been awesome, and it's obvious that this hobby will be something that can keep me entertained for years to come. 1) Why didn't you start with a micro/toy quad for practice?
Talking the wife into allowing me to undertake this project was difficult to begin with. Even though I agree that the extra 50-60 up front may have saved me something in the long run, she didn't necessarily see it that way, so it's a chance I'm taking (she's awesome and it's great that we can freely have these conversations dealing with money without it turning into an argument). I've flown micro and mini helis around enough that I understand the sticks and the micro movements necessary, but I also know that I'm treading new waters, so I will do so VERY carefully. I live on 4.5 acres so I have plenty of room to practice where the only things in danger are my own...
2) Why MultiWii? There's a steep learning curve and you have to deal with code?
While I don't have a lot of RC background, I am heavily into the Android world. Working with and compiling source is the least scary part of this for me. Not to mention the FCs from witespy come preconfigured, so a lot of the guess work is already taken out. Also, I wanted GPS so I never even looked at KK boards
Let's start with parts -
2/26 - Order 1 from HobbyKing US Warehouse ($222.51 Shipped)
6V 3A UBEC 2-5S Lipoly (6-23v)
Turnigy 9X 9Ch Transmitter w/ Module & 8ch Receiver (Mode 2) (v2 Firmware)
Turnigy 4000mAh 3S 30C Lipo Pack
Q Brain 4 x 25A Brushless Quadcopter ESC 2-4S 3A SBEC
On Board Lipoly Low Voltage Alarm (2s~4s)
TURNIGY BESC Programming Card
Slow Fly Electric Prop 1045R SF (4 pc - Green Right Hand Rotation)
Slow Fly Electric Prop 1045 SF (4 pc - Green)
Slow Fly Electric Prop 1045R (4 pc - Black Right Hand Rotation)
Slow Fly Electric Prop 1045SF (4 pc - Black)
Hobbyking DC-4S Balance Charger & Cell Checker 30w 2s~4s
HXT4mm Battery Harness 14AWG for 2 Packs in Parallel
4x D2830-11 1000kv Brushless Motor
2/26 - Order 2 from witespyquad ($76 Shipped)
MultiWii PRO Ez3.0 Blacked MAG Edition FC - with uBlox 6M GPS mounted on a backplane along with an external compass (HMC5883L). Also had Paul include some straight PINs that I soldered later.
2/26 - Order 3 from Amazon ($19.83 Shipped)
Neewer White and Black F450 Frame
The order from HobbyKing arrived on 3/12 - everything was there and seemed to be in working order. The order from witespy arrived on 3/19. The order from Amazon never arrived, and I was issued a refund on 3/21. Ugh.
3/22 Order 4 from Ebay ($15.08 Shipped)
F450 Multi-Rotor Air Frame Flamewheel KIT
Shortly after ordering this I realized I had no way of mounting the GPS/Mag board, so I'd need some standoffs. I came across this which seemed like a great buy:
3/23 Order 5 from Ebay ($9.45 Shipped)
M3 Nylon Standoff Screw Nut set
After I received the first package from HobbyKing, I was excited to get started, but without a FC or a frame, there wasn't a whole lot I could do, so I balanced the props, then sat around staring at everything for a few days. Then I started playing with the transmitter, when I found some flight sims. I managed to get a couple installed, and actually able to fly one or two models properly, but could never get a quad model to fly properly (will be messing with this more in the near future). Anyway, in doing this, unplugging the module and letting it dangle while simming (is that a word?) was a little stressful. The last thing I needed was to have the antenna wire stressed and risk breaking a solder joint. Knowing that hopefully one day I'll be switching to a frsky module and telemetry receiver anyway, I went ahead and modded the module so that the antenna is directly connected to it, rather than routed through the body of the transmitter. That was a fun mod, considering I hadn't had my hands on a soldering iron in years.... Then I knew eventually if I'd be upgrading to a frsky module, I'd also want to upgrade the firmware on the transmitter to er9x or opentx to make use of the telemetry so I ordered this (eventually, I'll be ordering a TelemtrEZ board as well):
3/26 Order 6 from DigiKey ($9.00 Shipped)
ASSMan 10 wire/pin cable/connector
The frame arrived 3/28, so I started the build. The build itself wasn't too bad - the only snag I ran into was that the pre drilled holes to mount the FC weren't going to work for me, as it would have put the board off by 45 degrees (or limited me to fly in + configuration), so I hot glued the small standoffs that came with the frame so that I could properly orient the board for quad x. I soldered the Q-Brain to the PDB, and cut the parallel harness so that I could use part of it as the power lead to the PDB (since I didn't get any bullet connectors. When planning the build, I was trying to make it as solderless as possible, which I quickly discovered wasn't going to happen. This has turned out OK though.) The next morning I started charging the Lipo from my car battery, since I didn't order a power supply for the charger/balancer (I've been going back and forth on this - obviously they're not expensive, but I have plenty of cars/mowers with batteries already sitting around...) With everything mounted, I calibrated the sticks on the transmitter, bound the transmitter to the receiver, then calibrated throttle ranges on the ESCs via channel 3 on the Rx. Then I hooked up the programmer and checked all the ESCs, and they were all programmed the way I've seen on the interwebs. Here I proceeded to connect everything to the FC, and the FC properly to the receiver. The board is being powered by a 6v UBEC connected to the PDB. Now everything's almost built - just needing the standoffs to mount the GPS/Mag board above the FC, and the build will be complete (for now). As it sits, I installed the drivers for the board and hooked up to the MultiWii GUI and calibrated the ACC. All transmitter sticks appeared to be moving the controls in the proper direction, but the midpoints were all a little low. After some playing with transmitter settings, I managed to get all midpoints to 1500 or 1501. Armed the board (no props on of course), applied some throttle, and what do you know? All 4 motors start at the same time and appear to accelerate in sync as well. At this point I wanted to fly, but thought better of it since I don't have the Mag mounted yet, and not to mention we were getting sideways rain from the 50mph wind gusts this weekend, so I thought better of it
I have confidence that it will fly, but I know that's just the beginning of the next step of this great adventure - getting it to fly properly! As it sits, AUW is right around 1kg.Future Upgrades/Wishlist (not specifically the products linked, but something similar)
Currently working on some extended legs (nothing fancy, 3/4" PVC shaved as much as possible with slits cut for the existing legs, then zip tied - hoping this will be the weak point for breaks)
Lipo/LiFe Tx Pack
FrSky Module/Telemetry Receiver and a TelemtrEZ board to take advantage of the Telemetry
5.8Ghz Wireless video Tx/Rx
Brushless Gimbal and Controller
OLED, Bluetooth, 915MHz 3DR Telemetry
Any and all constructive criticism is welcome. I'll try to get some pictures posted later if anyone is interested. Hopefully I'll have video of her maiden soon.
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