XAircraft My Hexa/WKM/FPV build

[Tomstoy2]

Was going to wait and do this all at once, but this is going to be a long, time consumming build, so probably best to break it up some.

Played hookey from work today, sorry boss.

What's in the box.

First thing I did was to install the booms. The booms have brass inserts molded into them.

Next is to build the payload boom supports. The grommets are nice and soft, I would guess 20-30 durometer. There are no inserts in the brackets. I guess their thinking is it is better to strip them out than damage the center frames in a wreck.

Payload booms installed. These will carry the landing gear, battery tray and camera mount.

Battery tray installed. This uses a heavy duty plastic snap on clamp system. The clamps work great, don't believe they will ever be an issue, and also will allow the battry tray to break away withut tearing up the frame in a wreck.

Landing gear installed.

Motor mout installation on the motors.

Motor's installation.

 

[Tomstoy2]

At this point it came time to decide how I was going to distribute power? I've toyed with this idea for about a week.
What I decided to do was to crimp some rings onto the esc power leads, then solder all the rings so nothing can come loose. Bolt them all together along with a larger gauge main battery connector wires, double nut them so they can not become loose and then wrap the whole installation with insulation tape.
Simple, effective.

Next up, installing the esc's on the bottom frame.

Before installing the top frame, I installed the LED strips. These are the Demension Engineering strips. I'm using 2 green strips on the 2 front cross booms and 2 red on the back. Super glued these onto the bottom of the booms.

 

[Tomstoy2]

Notice on the landing gear legs, I superglued my white spot lite LED's onto these.

Routed all the wires thru the top frame and mounted it.

Now I'm beat, need a beer break. It was a lot of work, really, about 5 hours worth so far.

 

[Tomstoy2]

I just can't stop now. I opened a beer, sat down, and forgot all about it as I tackeled the wire routing and placing the electronics on the upper frame. Damn, my back hurts now!

Cleaned up upper frame wiring.

Just trying to figure out how I want everything to be placed on the upper deck.

 

[rwilabee]

What motors did you use. Looks like nice long leads.

Rich

 

[Tomstoy2]

What motors did you use. Looks like nice long leads.

Rich

Tiger Motors 2216-900kv with tm30A esc's.

Disassembled the motors and balanced the bells before hand along with programming the esc's. Plan on trying APC 10x4/7 slo-fly props. Got some 11's to also try.

The leads are long! Too bad I intend to cut them to size.

 

[rwilabee]

Wow I didn't realize you could balance the motors.

Rich

Tiger Motors 2216-900kv with tm30A esc's.

Disassembled the motors and balanced the bells before hand along with programming the esc's. Plan on trying APC 10x4/7 slo-fly props. Got some 11's to also try.

The leads are long! Too bad I intend to cut them to size.

 

[gadgetkeith]

hi any chane you could explain how you balanced the motors

thanks keith

 

[Tomstoy2]

Just statically ballanced.

Remove the e-clip, pull the motor apart, put the bell on a good prop ballancer and see where the heavy spot is.
You can then apply tape to the light side, but I prefer to file metal away on the heavy side until the bell ballances out no matter it's rotational position.

Dynamic ballancing would be best, but I don't have the equipment here. At work I do, but figured they would think I was nuts, not to mention getting pissed if I did that at work.

On another note. can't say about other motors, but these Tiger motors are specifically designed for multi-rotors and they did a fine job. Out of 6 motors only 1 needed a slight brush with a file.

 

[Tomstoy2]

Can't believe this took so long to do today. Doesn't look like mutch was done in the pic, but there was.

First off, shortened all the motor leads to the size needed for a clean installation.

Identify and label all motor esc's.

Set rotation for each motor as per Wookong control.
Magic smoke came out of one motor during set up.

Oh well, better to have it happen here on the work bench instead of in the air!
Of course, damn my luck, the supplyer is out of this motor currently.

They resupply pretty quickly. Will just have to wait.

After connecting the motor barrels for the last time, I installed some heat shrink over the barrels to prevent them from inadvertantly pulling themselves out, ( we all know about gremlins and aircraft ).

Next will be the camera mout construction and installation. Then onto the upper deck electronics and finish up the wiring.

 

[Tomstoy2]

Camera gimbal complete.
What a pain in the ***! Directions are on-line and say to be careful with the super-glue so at to not get fingerprints on the appearance.
Well, If I ever loose it, they will have no problem tracing it back to me, that's for sure!

 

[Tomstoy2]

More wiring today. Getting closer to power up time!

Right side;

Left side;

WKM LED mounted on the bottom right forward leg. This gives visual indication of conditions.

GoPro just sitting on there for pic. There will be a second mini-camera for fpv mounted on the bottom. This will allow me to know exactly what I am filming and shooting.

And an overhead shot to give you an idea of how it all comes together.

Waiting for the fpv camera, ( shows up Tuesday ), and the replacement motor for the one I burnt up, ( shows up Tuesday or Wednesday ).

Both of those will get mounted next.
Then it's on to battery placement and setting cog.

After that, programming time.

 

[rwilabee]

What is the meaurement from motor center to the motor center on the opposite side.

Thanks
Rich

More wiring today. Getting closer to power up time!

Right side;

Left side;

WKM LED mounted on the bottom right forward leg. This gives visual indication of conditions.

GoPro just sitting on there for pic. There will be a second mini-camera for fpv mounted on the bottom. This will allow me to know exactly what I am filming and shooting.

And an overhead shot to give you an idea of how it all comes together.

Waiting for the fpv camera, ( shows up Tuesday ), and the replacement motor for the one I burnt up, ( shows up Tuesday or Wednesday ).

Both of those will get mounted next.
Then it's on to battery placement and setting cog.

After that, programming time.

 

[rwilabee]

Which camera are you going to do the fpv flight with?

 

[Tomstoy2]

533mm.

RCMC770 ntsc

 

[Tomstoy2]

Dressed up the wiring a little, mounted the vtx, and 8" props for a pic.

I'll be flying these props first, don't want to over-prop her. I, also, have some APC 10" to try if this will not be enought.

Battery will be a 4s 5000mah, but may go with 3s, depending on how she likes it.

Vtx will get its own battery, 3s. No idea what mah yet. Do want it to last about 4 flights though.__________________

 

[Tomstoy2]

Fpv camera mounted and tested.

 

[Tomstoy2]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=cCRovOeeGYQ

 

[Tomstoy2]

Here's vid of my second test flight.
Conditions;
Light wind, 27 degree's F., overcast but breaking up so the wind might pick up.
Did some changes.
I noticed I had some errors in my math computations. To configure the cog of the aircraft, DJI has you input X, Y and Z coordinates into both the IMU and the GPS positions.
IMU, ( internal measuring unit ) is mounted at the exact center of the cog, so nothing gets entered into this positions, just 0.
The GPS is mounted 5cm back of the cog and 19cm above it, so an entry into X = -5 and Z = -19.
Old farts, like me, don't use cm much, so I made sure to re-check my math.
Other than that no other changes at this time.
I put the multi out into the garage while I showered, to stabilize the temperatures of the controller. Never a good idea going directly from warm to cold.

Let's see how these changes work!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=JcjFZzlHR9w

 

[Dozer]

Tom, thats fantastic, and something I want to do with my XA hexa. Is it difficult to install a DJI Naza?