Author Topic: Remote controlled flying things-Quads, Hex, Octo or anything  (Read 782385 times)

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Offline Crisp Image

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Re: Remote controlled flying things-Quads, Hex, Octo or anything
« Reply #50 on: January 13, 2014, 12:42:15 PM »
We started the new project today. We have to wait for the post to come with more parts before we can continue. Got the shed stuff out of the way before it got too hot to be out there.

Folded Frame

Frame in flight mode

2 motors fitted and folded.

Like I said the post needs to turn up so we can continue.
Here are some other photos of the quad from the weekend (ground camera)

Preparing for flight

Hovering

In full flight

FPV Flying with a spotter

Enjoy the photos and build process.
Regards
Crispy

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Marschy

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Re: Remote controlled flying things-Quads, Hex, Octo or anything
« Reply #51 on: January 13, 2014, 12:49:00 PM »
Looking good Crispy,

Where did you get the plans from for the tri-copter? Great pictures too by the way, so jealous. I've come to a screaming halt while I wait for parts.

Cheers, Marschy.

Offline Crisp Image

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Re: Remote controlled flying things-Quads, Hex, Octo or anything
« Reply #52 on: January 13, 2014, 01:26:26 PM »
Looking good Crispy,

Where did you get the plans from for the tri-copter? Great pictures too by the way, so jealous. I've come to a screaming halt while I wait for parts.

Cheers, Marschy.

Plans off the net http://forum.flitetest.com/showthread.php?1503-Optimized-RCExplorer-Tricopter-Template
Wait Mr postman is there a letter for me? Please Mr post man can you check again?

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Marschy

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Re: Remote controlled flying things-Quads, Hex, Octo or anything
« Reply #53 on: January 14, 2014, 05:28:56 PM »
Hey Crispy,
The more I read about these kk2.1 boards the more I like them. Check out this on rcgroups.

KK2 Camera gimbal
« Last Edit: January 14, 2014, 06:04:42 PM by Marschy »

Offline Crisp Image

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Re: Remote controlled flying things-Quads, Hex, Octo or anything
« Reply #54 on: January 14, 2014, 08:25:58 PM »
Hey Crispy,
The more I read about these kk2.1 boards the more I like them. Check out this on rcgroups.

KK2 Camera gimbal

Got my KK board today but I do not like it. I am having trouble setting it up. So much so I can't get past the first step. I have asked questions on RCgroups and have had some sugestions but none have worked. Then I burnt out the servo so had to order another one.
On the plus side the Tri is built and just awaits the new servo and an answer to my set up problems.
Regards
Crispy

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Marschy

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Re: Remote controlled flying things-Quads, Hex, Octo or anything
« Reply #55 on: January 15, 2014, 02:18:00 PM »
You've got me worried now Crispy. What is it you don't like about the KK2?

I would imagine starting off with a Naza that the KK2 is a giant leap backwards, is that a fair assessment?

I've ordered the FatShark Teleporter FPV kit (you have got to stop putting ideas in my head). Cost about $270 with express shipping. Still waiting for the KK2. I ordered the KK2 with snail mail shipping from China (what was I thinking). The FPV goggles are likely to turn up before the KK2.

I like the look of the tri-copter your building from the free plans. I looked at the shopping list on the website and this one is definitely going on the 'to do list'. Very doable for under $200.

Offline Crisp Image

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Re: Remote controlled flying things-Quads, Hex, Octo or anything
« Reply #56 on: January 15, 2014, 02:23:24 PM »
It us only that I am having problems getting it to set up. Once that is done I an sure that once it is setup that it will be good.

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Offline Crisp Image

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Re: Remote controlled flying things-Quads, Hex, Octo or anything
« Reply #57 on: January 17, 2014, 08:32:41 AM »
It us only that I am having problems getting it to set up. Once that is done I an sure that once it is setup that it will be good.

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I figured it out.
It was the RX that did not want to talk to the KK FC. I Tried it with my other Rx and it worked well.
I just ordered another Rx and other bits from HKing and should have them mid next week as they are from the au warehouse.
Just waiting is the hardest part.
Regards
Crispy

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Marschy

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Re: Remote controlled flying things-Quads, Hex, Octo or anything
« Reply #58 on: January 17, 2014, 08:39:10 AM »
Received a servo and 3S balanced charger extension cable in the mail yesterday. I'll tackle the li-po conversion for my transmitter this week end. I'm going to fit a low voltage alarm to the transmitter as well. 1450mAh Battery and 3S alarm should be here shortly, it's coming from the hobbyking au website as well, but it's taking its sweet time.

Offline ScottH

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Re: Remote controlled flying things-Quads, Hex, Octo or anything
« Reply #59 on: January 17, 2014, 07:49:49 PM »
As a total newbie to all things flying, but having reasonable experience with RC boats, cars and trucks, I have a few questions:
- How hard are the quads to fly?
- is FPV essential for aerial photography?
- How "breakable" is something like the kit Marschy bought?
- Is GPS required?

I'm considering an action camera purchase ahead of a big trip in 2015, and would love to be able to get some aerial shots of camp sites, water crossings, waterfalls, etc.

Offline GGV8Cruza

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Re: Remote controlled flying things-Quads, Hex, Octo or anything
« Reply #60 on: January 17, 2014, 07:53:22 PM »
I am going to lock this thread up.  :police:























Its going to cost me lots of money  >:( ;D ;D

GG


Offline Crisp Image

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Re: Remote controlled flying things-Quads, Hex, Octo or anything
« Reply #61 on: January 17, 2014, 08:47:14 PM »
I am going to lock this thread up.  :police:























Its going to cost me lots of money  >:( ;D ;D

GG
Why? Because you don't have one yet. If you are nice I might let you play with mine next time.

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Offline Crisp Image

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Re: Remote controlled flying things-Quads, Hex, Octo or anything
« Reply #62 on: January 17, 2014, 08:52:29 PM »
As a total newbie to all things flying, but having reasonable experience with RC boats, cars and trucks, I have a few questions:
- How hard are the quads to fly?
- is FPV essential for aerial photography?
- How "breakable" is something like the kit Marschy bought?
- Is GPS required?

I'm considering an action camera purchase ahead of a big trip in 2015, and would love to be able to get some aerial shots of camp sites, water crossings, waterfalls, etc.
You don't need to fpv but it makes it easier to see what you are taking video of.
Depending on the control board you use it can be easy to fly and the higher spec one will have GPS and will use that to hold position.
They are fairly robust but if you smack it into the ground then you will brake it.
I have broken props in the par and expect to brake more. Always carry spares.
Regards
Crispy

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Marschy

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Re: Remote controlled flying things-Quads, Hex, Octo or anything
« Reply #63 on: January 18, 2014, 12:04:31 AM »
As a total newbie to all things flying, but having reasonable experience with RC boats, cars and trucks, I have a few questions:
- How hard are the quads to fly?
- is FPV essential for aerial photography?
- How "breakable" is something like the kit Marschy bought?
- Is GPS required?

I'm considering an action camera purchase ahead of a big trip in 2015, and would love to be able to get some aerial shots of camp sites, water crossings, waterfalls, etc.
If you're going to be travelling, look at tri-copters, you can fold them up to some degree for transporting. Plus they can be far more stable than quads. The further apart the motors are, the more stable they fly. Read some of the RCgroups forum as Crispy also suggested to me. Great place to get ideas for beginners.

Otherwise, my experience so far is that they are extremely easy to fly in comparison to a fixed wing. That may not help you, but as an ex RC fixed wing flyer, the thing that nearly always did my planes in was landings which are always done at speeds in excess of 20km give or take (sometimes a lot faster than 20kmh). The landing speed of a quad can be as slow as you like, as good as the control you have of the throttle. Given the slower and easier to control speeds, my guess is this will invariably lead to less crashes than flying fixed wing, for me at least.

My kit is breakable in comparison to Crispies in so much that my kit doesn't come with a nifty flight control board that provides functionality like altitude/position hold, return to launch position, fail safe mode. But for around another $200-400 (and more) on top of a clone kit price, functionality like this plus on screen diagnostics can be added depending on your budget.

Spare frame for my kit is around $20 delivered if you look on aliexpress or ebay or hobbyking. You can pick up individual arms for as little as $3-5 plus delivery. Spare parts are plentiful for the original DJI flamewheel (aka Crispy's quad) and also for the clones (aka my cheapy from aliexpress). You can get kits from hobbyking, aliexpress, ebay, hobby stores.

I found a fantastic comparison on youtube between a DJI flamewheel and a clone, if I can find it, I will put a link to it on this thread. It gives you a good idea why you spend the level of money on either option. The big $ ticket item for the DJI flamewheel is the flight control board, it's a beauty.

Offline Crisp Image

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Re: Remote controlled flying things-Quads, Hex, Octo or anything
« Reply #64 on: January 18, 2014, 12:29:38 PM »
The FC that I use can be purchased here which is the best price I have found in Australia. Theses people are in NSW and is where I got my T-Motors from.
http://madetofly.com.au/shop/dji-innovations/dji-naza-v2-with-gps/
The Naza has its fans and haters but you need to make up your own mind. There are cheaper FC options that have all the bells and features but you need to do your research to find which one will suit you.
My quad is very stable to fly and produces great results.
The Tri folds and you could make it a Y6 (2 motors per arm). I have made it for fun not for stability. it should do flips and rolls but as yet I have not had it in the air yet. I hope to have it up later in the week.
Make sure you have plenty of spare props.
You could buy a micro quad for training which will give you "Stick" time and then when you upgrade you should be more capable of flying the bigger machine.
Regards
Crispy

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Marschy

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Re: Remote controlled flying things-Quads, Hex, Octo or anything
« Reply #65 on: January 21, 2014, 05:21:48 PM »
A few things have arrived in the mail this week.



Landing gear for the quad. I ordered 4, thinking that they were $2.22 ozzie dollars for 1 leg. Nope, they were $2.22 for a set of 4 legs. Most of the sellers on aliexpress sell these starting from $10 plus shipping for 4 legs, so you want get much change out of a $20. I reckon I got a bargain for a little under $30 for 4 sets of undercarriage.

Also got the replacement lipo batteries to convert the transmitter from 8xAA batteries to a flat pack battery as well as the cables to do the conversion and a low voltage alarm.

And finally the KK2.1 flight control board arrived.

Now I can start some construction beginning with reflashing the ESC's with SimonK Firmware for quadcopters.



Bit of soldering in front of me to accomplish this, but apparently the rewards are worth it.

Offline Crisp Image

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Re: Remote controlled flying things-Quads, Hex, Octo or anything
« Reply #66 on: January 21, 2014, 06:27:30 PM »
A few things have arrived in the mail this week.


Now I can start some construction beginning with reflashing the ESC's with SimonK Firmware for quadcopters.



Bit of soldering in front of me to accomplish this, but apparently the rewards are worth it.

That reflashing tool you have is only for the KK I think the reflashing tool for ESC will require another adapter like this one http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__27195__atmel_atmega_socket_firmware_flashing_tool.html
This information was brought to you by someone who really does not know much about this stuff!!!!
please do your own research before accepting this advice ;D
Regards
Crispy

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Marschy

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Re: Remote controlled flying things-Quads, Hex, Octo or anything
« Reply #67 on: January 21, 2014, 06:32:44 PM »
I have to use the kk software to use the kkmulticopter USB dongle according to a web site I was reading today, still reading up on this as we speak, but it looks like it will do the job, as well as allowing me to flash the kk2 should it need it. It came with the fc board that came with the quad kit.

Marschy

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Re: Remote controlled flying things-Quads, Hex, Octo or anything
« Reply #68 on: January 21, 2014, 08:24:28 PM »
Got the landing gear attached. All ESC's have been removed to get ready for flashing, probably this weekend.



Had to drill holes pretty close to the wire contacts on the built-in pcb on the lower frame for the landing gear. Don't want the nut rotating and coming into contact with the solder, so using nylon. The landing gear comes with longer 2.5mm metal allen machine screws than what were in the frame originally, so no problems with screw length on the arms with the addition of the landing gear.


Marschy

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Re: Remote controlled flying things-Quads, Hex, Octo or anything
« Reply #69 on: January 22, 2014, 09:45:08 PM »
I took a punt with the USBasp programmer for the ESC (that's a lot of three letter acronyms, keep reading though).

I married up the output from the USBasp programmer with the input pins on the ESC. The output of each pin on the programmer is highlighted on the right two red circles which shows front and back of the programmer. The pins with VCC, GND etc marked next to them on the left is the ESC board.



I downloaded a generic USBasp driver from the net, along with KKFlashTool, and flashed the ESC with SimonK TGY V2013-09-20. I'll put a label to this effect on the heat shield, then cover the ESC again with clear heat shrink.



I ran a motor up with just the receiver, ESC and one motor, calibrated the ESC with the transmitter, and bingo, worked perfectly. Can't compare it with anything though, as I've never had to do this before. All I do know is if you get the wiring incorrect, after you flash the chip, then power it up with your battery, the chip immediately fries if the wiring was wrong when it was flashed. I think the motor gets fried as well.



Soldering the wires onto the pins on the ESC was a little tricky. The thin wires on the top left of the ESC are what I soldered on. From the white to the blue wire is less than 10mm.

Edit: My ESC's are a generic 30A ESC branded as FMT. This ESC is identical to the HobbyKing HK SS30A ESC. Check out this link for identifying ESC's to help identify the pins for reprogramming your ESC.

ESC specs for Simonk / BLHeli FW flash

then if you click on the tutorial in the link, there is a very useful video that shows you what the tone should be when the motors arm via the ESC after they have been flashed with SimonK firmware.
« Last Edit: January 23, 2014, 06:41:36 AM by Marschy »

KingBilly

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Re: Remote controlled flying things-Quads, Hex, Octo or anything
« Reply #70 on: January 23, 2014, 08:48:39 AM »
I reckon Marschy and Crisp Image should just get a room  ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

KB

Offline Crisp Image

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Re: Remote controlled flying things-Quads, Hex, Octo or anything
« Reply #71 on: January 23, 2014, 04:17:14 PM »
I reckon Marschy and Crisp Image should just get a room  ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

KB

KB,
Care to join us? >:D
Just some more Porn photos for you
These are of my scratch built tri copter.

The Tri all set up ready to go

The Yaw mechanism but the servo is not strong enough so I am getting another one soon. (More cash spent at HK)

KK Flight Controller Protection (sistima container from the supermarket)

The KK tucked in there with the Rx.

And the tri folded ready for transport.

We did a test flight today but because the servo is not strong enough the thrust from the prop moves the motor and it just spins like a top. It is only a 1.8kg servo so I have ordered a 3.9kg one. Hopefully it will be strong enough.
Waiting for another package from HK.

AUW of the Tri is about 1kg with a 3s 3300mah bat.
Regards
Crispy

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Marschy

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Re: Remote controlled flying things-Quads, Hex, Octo or anything
« Reply #72 on: January 23, 2014, 05:00:28 PM »
Did you have to flash the kk2 fc crispy? The servo for yaw works its ring gear off apparently. Are you getting a digital/metal gear servo?
« Last Edit: January 23, 2014, 05:07:52 PM by Marschy »

Marschy

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Re: Remote controlled flying things-Quads, Hex, Octo or anything
« Reply #73 on: January 23, 2014, 05:43:30 PM »
Here's a screen snapshot of KKFlashTool.



When you run it you select what controller you are flashing, in this case the KK2.1. Haven't done mine yet, but notice the firmware option further down. This application searches the internet for the latest version of firmware for the selected controller. It has quite a few versions of the firmware, but what is interesting is it defaults to 1.9, which is far later than the version flashed on the HK KK2.1 (1.5 or 1.6?). You can then select a version and then click on the blue exclamation mark to the right of the drop down list. This opens your web browser to the steveis web page which gives you a run down of the issues fixed or added in that release of the firmware.

You don't need a dongle to run the software, you can just download it and run it to get comfortable with how it works before you flash your fc.

Offline Crisp Image

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Re: Remote controlled flying things-Quads, Hex, Octo or anything
« Reply #74 on: January 23, 2014, 06:45:22 PM »
My flash tool is still on the way.
I am using a metal gear servo so I hope no more problems there.
When I fitted up the fc it was already 1.6 so I won't touch it yet. I sent back the original kk because it stopped working and would only light up the screen. It well be interesting to see if they will replace it or not and how long they take to assess it. They did tell me to return it so have followed the process.
I will have to look at the software for flashing things at some stage but for now I am at work so don't have access to a PC.
Happy building and flying
Regards
Crispy.

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