Team Blacksheep Discovery build

[kloner]

I'm gonna do a flamewheel hybrid build for you guys so you can see what this things about. the components are

1x TBS Discovery frame w/ core
4x DJI 450 arms
1x naza w/ gps
4x dji 30 opto esc
4x suppo 2810 1000kv motors
4x graupner 9x5
1x lawmate 2.4 1 watt video transmitter
1x pixim 690 camera
1x EzUHF 8ch long range receiver w/ diversity
1x bulk hitec twisted hd servo wire
12x futaba servo wire ends
1x polar pro polarized filter
1x gopro layer lens
1x mictronics digital ppm to analog converter
1x homemade bluebean style rhcp cloverleaf
power connectors, loctite, assorted heatshrinks from 1/16 to 1.5" and servo wire sheathing...


If you already have a f450 or f550 flying all you'd need is the first line item, discovery frame, if you want to transmit video from it, you want the CORE. it's as much as the frame, but makes it all work with as little of interference as possible. My main adhesive used to hold EVERYTHING not bolted down is Welders glue. Lowes has it, true value has it, ace has it. The main property over goo is it never hardens so twisting parts to shear the glue to remove is super simple and then once you get under a corner of the remaining glue, it peels up like a sunburned shoulder peels, super easy. amazing glue. Anyhow, here we go

from austria with love

looking like a party

that's a closeup of the core pre installed in the frame. that powers those solder pads you see to the right of it for cameras 5 or 12v, powers a set of tabs on the other side for the video tx in 5 or 12v and has a video pass through for a basic simple osd that shows current, mah, time flown, and rssi for uhf receivers

Lawmate 1 watt 2.4 video transmitter glued down ready to plug and play to the frame

this is a cross shot showing the pcb for the radio gear. This lessens wires needed to get from the very back keeping the rc rx away from everything else and to get those wires to the flight controller like naza

DJI esc's just rewrapped. i just hate the white, what can i say. usually i do black but this week i got 6 feet of clear so clear it is.

once everything is flown and configured on the core, that piece of tin is a shield that you solder down complete to cover them switching regulators up to minimize the interferrence they make. laser engraved with the tbs logo

build supplies. welders comes in variuous packaging so showed both. the servo ends to clean up the wiring come from servo city. the mic ppm to analog just makes the rssi info feel more comftorable to me. makes it jump around less with false readings=makes kloner braver

this is one really nice camera. securitycam2000 branded seawolf pixim 690 board cam with a 2.8mm lens, think is 120 degree field of view, same as the eye. the cam is bolted to a piece of the frame that comes with the kit.

got shrink wrap? I got drawers of the stuff, got it hanging from the wall. i gotta be the only hobby guy that buys hundreds of dolars of shrink wrap at a time. frigin knucklehead

 

[kloner]

Got a decent start on her so will update the pictures. This shows all the esc's glued to the arms, naza is mounted and i'm making esc wires so there twisted and fit perfect. The only thing coming down from the rc rx is a ppm wire (like sbus) and a rssi signal wire or the rc signal strength. These are things i've done and had really good success with so far. anytime you can have less wires is better for fpv. twisted is absolutely required. every little bit of better adds up just like every little bit of bad does.

twisted and routed

this is showing the lengths i goto to twist EVERYTHING. the esc power leads are all twisted, esc leads twisted, main power lead twisted. makes less built in linear antennas for other antennas to feed off of

this is showing the stock esc servo leads lengths laid out and routed, vu mounted, twisted and routed.

then with the esc wires trimmed just right and the vu connected you get something like this. next i'll crimp on the servo lead ends and solder them up for safety, push them into futaba plastic ends and plug em in. The clamp you see is gluing down the vu under an esc. i use those clamps overnight when i use the glue. it is contact adhesive so you spread the glue, push em together pull apart a few minutes till tacked, then press together. the clamp just keeps it there till it's cured. i do that to everything that gets glued to it so it sits nice and flush, stays straight

these practices will work on any rc model

 

[tstrike]

Nice! But you need to add some descriptions to the pics for us mere mortals. Your old bird is almost ready to get relaunched...in a more basic form.

 

[kloner]

awesome!

hows that look?

 

[Roger Ramjet]

Hey this is really great Kloner! In your steps, reading a lot, following your stories, this is great! Good luck with your desert flying this weekend. Looking forward to see how your new monitor works out there in the daylight sun. Keep sharing the passion!!!

 

[Razzil]

The extra time in cleaning up wires, really pays off. Love the clean look.

 

[kloner]

thanks guys, all the wires will get loomed up so i get a chance to find abrasion before i find it cause i'm doing an obtopsy........ I'll get a chance to work on it a little more tonight and will freshen the post in the morning

I think the monitor cover comes saturday. i'm still playing it by ear, but film is sure to start flowing again now the desert is cooling off. That was the hottest summer on record down there. like 18 days over 118,,,,,, christ, that's just short of hell. now were back in the 100-105 range. One time i was at the river a couple years ago and we hit 122........ thats like middle east hot. it broke my A/C running it wide open in it.... humid too, monsoon season all sumer long down there

besides, we gotta see the film off this thing asap

 

[skipper1]

Hey Kloner,
This is a learning experience. I understand the reason for trimming the esc wires but why do you twist them?
Gluing the esc's is a great idea, that would have never entered my mind. So, do you just mark where you're going to put the esc's, then put the Welders glue on the arm and clamp the esc to the arm until it dries or are there other steps to getting them to stick properly? Gluing your VU to the esc is another great idea too, I guess that's pretty straight forward or are there any hidden secrets to this? I need to know. I'll be building an F-450 next week.

 

[kloner]

When an antenna wire is straight it acts as an antenna should, when it's twisted essentially making it a pig tail shape it's no longer what we call linear polarity like an antenna hanging off any 2.4 receiver, nice and straight wires, people even use things to keep em straight because of this. Fast forward...... on this type of build where i'm looking for zero interferrence, that lets me fly lower with a better signal for video and rc control. when all the straight wires are twisted up, it keeps them from changing the overall length of antenna the receivers/transmiters see in return keeps them all true and transmitting on the frequency it's made for.

I solder the esc leads stock length to the pads, twist it and put it up on the arm with just a little slack and peg her down. the twisting is the only reason i need clamps, the glue even tacked when stuck likes to twist back off

I used to always stick the vu to the bottom of the esc but when i got the gps at first and was having problems, i moved it to the side, pretty much same spot just to could see on the ground when it was malfunctioning. now that it just boots up i can monitor it when i leave, if it's flashing red when i hover, i'll set it back down but am not expecting it to. had a problem using 1.3g video before and it would never boot or stop flashing red

one other thing going on here kinda invisibly is the rc antennas are linear polarized and the video is circular polarized. By doing that is similar in theory as the twisted wires in the two have no chance of interferring directly with each other, they don't work the same. linear wants both the tx and rx antennas to be the exact same angle. it can be on there side or up and down but the same. it's called horizontal polarity or vertical polarity. on the side doesn't go as far but goes lower. if you ever looked at a typical radiation pattern from an antenna you'd see why....... if you look down a straight antenna like a shotgun, that entire area out the top and bottom is null. it has no signal,,,,,, each antenna has an swr that means the lower the number the better the antenna the less that is but they all have it. even cp, the ones that look like little wire globes

Like i mentioned, all these theories are the "general rule" for fpv but make even a not fpv machine run cleaner, further with less failsafes and loss of control

 

[tstrike]

You should make this post a blog so it doesn't get lost, lots of great info here.

 

[kloner]

do you just click the blog this post anytime or do you wait till its done? never had that feature anywhere before

 

[frviana]

Is the suppo 2810 1000kv motors better then DJI stock? How much better?
I noticed it doesn't support 4S... doesn't it limit the amount of lift you can get on the copter?

I see many people here running stock DJI motors with 4S and Graupner 10" without a problem, is suppo with 9" and 3S a better setup?

 

[tstrike]

got me man, I'm over fifty, the innerwebz is the devils tool. I know bart provides blogs to all us members, just hate to see this post get lost among the sea of dji post.

 

[kloner]

hahaha,,,,, lol

on the suppos, there night and day better, but takes getting a good prop adapter like you see here. That's the graupner $3 prop adapters, they fit the dji props, there made for them. there set screw so you gotta flatten your shaft to make em stick good but yea, these things will run 4s all day. This video here is these exact motors of the exact everything your looking at in front of you above. it weighed 1990g and flew really really good. i wish i had my osd recorder then, it had some decent numbers and flew on 8" really well. this was it

a long as you don't go over em watts wise, your golden. theres no resistors or other parts that makes voltage locked in, there not even multirotor motors either, but can tell you after running the 2217, 2810 and 2814 suppos for 9 months now they all do 4s, the 2217 shake alot, the 2814 have almost too much power and the 2810 are really really controllable and have about double the watt rating of the stock 2212. there 250 watt. on 9" in full forward flight for a sustained time on 4s in atti hits 70 amps max. x 15 volts is 1050, right there. my 8" in atti hit 60 amps and seem more stable. the motors are higher up in rpms so when they change it seems like it happens and corrects faster.

All that said 750 kv motors on 4s with 10" props is the endurance motor from hell. ton of power

 

[kloner]

these are the water buoys. i run one on the bottom. it's a co2 cartridge that inflates a balloon if it goes in water

 

[frviana]

Thank you for the explanation. Makes sense... I will look forward to my next copter... it will be a quad with TBS discovery

hahaha,,,,, lol

on the suppos, there night and day better, but takes getting a good prop adapter like you see here. That's the graupner $3 prop adapters, they fit the dji props, there made for them. there set screw so you gotta flatten your shaft to make em stick good but yea, these things will run 4s all day. This video here is these exact motors of the exact everything your looking at in front of you above. it weighed 1990g and flew really really good. i wish i had my osd recorder then, it had some decent numbers and flew on 8" really well. this was it

a long as you don't go over em watts wise, your golden. theres no resistors or other parts that makes voltage locked in, there not even multirotor motors either, but can tell you after running the 2217, 2810 and 2814 suppos for 9 months now they all do 4s, the 2217 shake alot, the 2814 have almost too much power and the 2810 are really really controllable and have about double the watt rating of the stock 2212. there 250 watt. on 9" in full forward flight for a sustained time on 4s in atti hits 70 amps max. x 15 volts is 1050, right there. my 8" in atti hit 60 amps and seem more stable. the motors are higher up in rpms so when they change it seems like it happens and corrects faster.

All that said 750 kv motors on 4s with 10" props is the endurance motor from hell. ton of power

 

[kloner]

in about 2 weeks tbs will offer really nice motors with the simonK esc sets. it might be worth waiting and seeing what that looks like before doing anything. There all engraved with the tbs logo, beautiful.

 

[skipper1]

I looked up those Suppo motors 2810 1000kv and they don't look like the ones you have, you must have have painted them? Where did you get them? I'm guessing the opto escs play well with Suppo also?

 

[kloner]

yea, i hate that chrome and gold, looks too chineese for kloner. That is self etching primer. They'll be black base coat before it flies. Again, that video was it in action..... esc's and motors work great. The 2814 and up starts to be too much for this frame, but my kloners frames like the 350 watt better so it's definately a frame thing. the 2810 were 4 or 8 oz lighter, forget..... these are 70 gram and the 2814 is 100 gram. one thing you'll notice if you watch me long enough is if i like something but hate how it's done, i'll redo it to my liking whether its paint, heatshrink or even the way something comes wired, i'll open it up and bail all the connectors, i hate housings for stuff, alot of things that come in big fat aluminum cases winds up broken down into a heat shrunk pcb......

The 2810 would work great on 3s with 10's for most people. i just don't like the 10's in the wind

 

[skipper1]

Thanks, Kloner. Wind can sure mess up a nice day. There's almost always some kind of wind or breeze here in Texas. So, 9" Graupner's & a 4s on a F450 would work pretty well here?
I'm looking forward to getting a Discovery someday. Tahoe Ed got one recently and I'm waiting to see his fly also. I must say, your videos are outstanding. If I didn't know better, I would say you're hanging out of a helicopter by ropes shooting video.