Am a complete DIY guy, and have made this copter from scratch(literally).

ah,so it all started with a Tricopter. After building a tricopter for some budget constraints, now I finally have some money ,and decided to make a quadcopter. I have reused the electronics from the Tricopter. The specs are-

1. 4 X Emax MT2213 motors CW-CCW
2. 3 X Emax 20A ESC and 1 X Emax 25A ESC
3. 3000mAh Turnigy 3S Lipo
4. Avionic RCB6i TX and RZ6 Rx
5. Homemade Multiwii board
6. A pretty bad camera
7. Wooden sticks and a friendly carpenter


So first with the frame. I really don't want to buy a frame. I had some MDF (Drawing board). I cut two squares out of it. this would be my base

A carpenter was working in our home, I requested him to cut me a few pieces from some wooden plancks we had at home, so he cut 8 sticks out of them. But initially they were almost 25mm X 12 mm. I cut them into halves using a saw into 12mm X 12mm sticks approx. the finishing wasn't nice, still it will do the job

Ok then, I took the dremel out and drilled a few holes into the wooden arms and the baseplate to fix them together.

Then I started fixing the motors. I didn't have any motor mount. So I again cut a few pieces of mdf and drilled holes into them. Next I drilled some small holes into the wooden arms so that the screws of the motor sit in those and do not slip. And then I tied them with Zip-tie.

As a FC I have used my own homemade multiwii board. It used to have MPU6050 and BMP180. But now I have changed the BMP180 with a Magnetometer (Dont remember the number right now). It wasn't any issue as both of them use the I2C protocol to communicate.

Then I fixed the ESC's with Zip ties. These Zip-ties are awesome things.

Ok,now I was thinking about the landing gear. In my tricopter I had used Cloth Hangers, but they increase the weight significantly. So I used a few wooden sticks as landing gears, but didn't nail them to the wooden arms. I have fixed them with Zip-ties. The idea is that the zip ties will absorb energy in case of a crash and come loose.

Ok ,now it was time for battery compartment.I used a few pieces MDF to make it, this time I have kept the battery under the base, as previously one of the props of my tricopter flew off and hit the battery, bending it in the process. Also the lower position of the battery lowers the CG, thus should make it more stable.

The whole thing weights almost 850g with everything included. I guess I still have some room left for fpv gears.

But now I need to learn flying. These things are really scary when the motors fire up. Before I reach even half throttle, the thing goes into the air, so I assume its pretty good.

This is my first video with it. It is night now, so can not go out. So tried to film it indoors. Let me know what you think of my build. This thing isn't an off the shelf assembled quad, it's really made from scratch.

Thanks for taking your time to read this.

More pics

More pics....

more

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more............

Ah here goes my first flight video....INDOORS



Just before this recording I broke a prop for the very first time...

Oh forgot to mention about the 20A and 25A ESC. Initially I had bought 20A ESC's for tricopter. But when I decided to build a quadcopter, the 20A esc was nowhere to be found. So I bought 25A ESC. Till now it doesn't seem to have any problem though.

The Flight video here is without any PID tuning. I have to look into that too.

And I have also bought FPV Tx Rx recently with a SOny 700TVL camera. Hope to mount them soon in the quad. My main motivation in building a quad is areal photography. I hope I learn to fly well soon.

Awesome diy.. 

Hi,
I observed that one motor starts few seconds late.
Is it that with 25 A ESC.
Kumaran

Thanks for your concern Kumaran Sir.

I just checked and found that it is not the 25A ESC. The 25A ESC is the rear right one, though it might be difficult for you the understand the orientation from the video.

Thanks.
You know the reason why I was asking particularly about that 25A ESC.
Kumaran

Finally some true DIY work! 

ohh .. great to see one such ..

Nice and light
Please elaborate a little on diy fc.