Quadrotor Build Thread

[anwar]

As you can see, I have to get mine completed.  Another member of the forum, "vulture", seems to have done it, and has more information.

I can help with what I have learnt, but it is not much yet

[pankaj]

i guess the resolution may not be causing the problem ,,, it will be the sequence (asynchronous in the cheap mixers) fro the rx ...as in pwm signal it comes in sequence .... if that attiny can take asynchronous inputs it will work ... i ran into same problems which are not yet solved ...

keep us updated sir

[anwar]

Well, it does fly.  But I have cheated so much that it is not even worth mentioning (other than "getting it done and out of the way", without any passion whatsoever!).  All the DIY fun is gone, and the software is closed source

Basically I found a brand new quad controller for sale on the US forums, which was a new product from a small company. 

http://shop.fyetech.com/product_info.php?products_id=41

A bit of research showed that it is pretty good, and the price was great (as it was being sold by someone who bought but abandoned the project, so it was marked down significantly).  So I got it, mounted it on my frame, and it flies well.

There is some tweaking to do, but my frame did take off into the air !

I will get back to the other one (using ArduIMU) at the earliest where all the DIY fun resides. This one will be given (sold) to the club, as they are looking for a controller that can handle a variety of speed controllers, and they have some jumbo plans for the same !

[anwar]

Flew it at the field today, in quite windy conditions.  It flew great !  So this is a good quad controller for anyone with a custom frame and want to use commonly available power combos.

Forgot to take videos though

[anwar]

Here is an outdoor flight clip on a very windy day. Still in hover (full stabilization) mode, which is not the best option for aerobatic flight but would help with the wind.

[Ashta]

very nice Anwar.
Very simple to wire up.
Last one month i was reading a lot on Arduino +M+ and Nunchuck type of Quad.
i bought all parts. Assembled a board/ made and wired the frame.
Still lot to do on setting up etc...
So much of work.... to get it fully done and working. Will post some pics.
Seeing this, i am not so sure, what i have been doing is worth all that.
regards
ashta

[anwar]

Great to hear about that project    Looking forward to a proper "Quad Rotor Build Thread 2" soon

The DIY fun is always much more, plus any software tweaks (if you are inclined), PID tuning etc all should be lot of fun. If you are following any particular build (like you did for the tricopter), please do post a link. 

What you are doing is the one that is "worth" anything !

[anwar]

Sold the Quad to the Qatar Scientific Club.  They have big plans for that platform, trying to build a self powering system using solar panels (not sure if this will work, but they are going to try!).

[anwar]

Got the HK Quad controller board, so quickly built another frame.  The CD Rom case is a little too tall, but that was all that I could find at home.

The setup is fairly easy, although I am still playing with gain values. 

I have a second board, will make a tri-copter with it after flashing it.

[anwar]

One thing that caused me to lose some time was that the instructions are very specific about how to arm the controller.  The instructions in the HK manual for this board are taken verbatim from here :

http://www.kkmulticopter.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=55&Itemid=57

In the "Adjusting" part, it says move the left stick to the "right", when it is at the lowest.  Further the trims are to be adjusted again to the bottom and right, if it still fails to arm. 

http://www.kkmulticopter.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=136:how-do-i-arm-the-board&catid=36:kkmulticoper-basics-faq&Itemid=41

It turned out I had to reverse the rudder channel earlier in the setup, so that "right" side did not apply any more, and the controller is armed by moving the rudder stick to the left (in my case).  Figured it out after a few minutes of scratching my head on why the board failed to initialize / arm.

The maiden was smooth... video to follow.

[anwar]

Maiden.

[rajsigma]

sir, pls tell me distece between motor to motor in your  HK Quad controller board air frame .

[anwar]

About 52cm from shaft to shaft.

[Dharmik]

really wonderful anwar bro.i saw your pics and all gyros are set to < 50% is it ok to let them to default position?

[harsha]

very nice build anwar sir.
sir im trying to build a tri-copter,i have the same board,but when i flashed with a new firmware its not arming,its arming when the board is flashed with a quad firmware.could you please help me to solve this problem? ans could you post a link where to download the tri-copter firmware?

[anwar]

really wonderful anwar bro.i saw your pics and all gyros are set to < 50% is it ok to let them to default position?

Those blue pot positions were arrived at after some tuning.  It is a good strategy to start out with default positions, test fly, and adjust (slowly!) to get the performance/stability you are looking for.

[anwar]

sir im trying to build a tri-copter,i have the same board,but when i flashed with a new firmware its not arming,its arming when the board is flashed with a quad firmware.could you please help me to solve this problem? ans could you post a link where to download the tri-copter firmware?

I haven't tried this yet (it is on my to-do list!), but it seems you have to use the Tricopter v1.5 version.

http://www.kkmulticopter.com/downloads/firmware/TricopterV1_5.zip

Now depending on whether your yaw/rudder is reversed or not, it should arm with throttle at zero and rudder stick moved to one of the extremes.  Which extreme (left or right) depends on whether your yaw/rudder is reversed.  If you are mode 1, remember that throttle is on the right stick, and rudder is on the left stick.  So the right stick should be towards the bottom, and the left stick should be moved to the left or right (while it is still at the middle in terms of vertical position, ie at zero elevator input).

[Dharmik]

yeah as anwar said make sure whether throttle is reversed or not.and move trim to the extreme point.sometimes controller unable to detect 0 throttle due to trim position.

[anwar]

It is the rudder/yaw reversal that matters more.  You can see the arming stick positions in the image below :

For mode 1 (top left in the above image), it shows rudder stick moved to the right.  If your yaw is reversed, it should be moved to the left instead.

[Dharmik]

thanks anwar bro, useful info.i think you need to add thanks plugin =p

[rajsigma]

@anwar sir,

which setup you are use in your hkquad.
motor
esc
battery

[anwar]

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=5354  (EMAX CF2822 motor)

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=6548 (HobbyKing SS 18-20A ESC)

Turnigy NanoTech 3s 2200mAH  25-50C lipo

[rajsigma]

 sir, which prop you used

[anwar]

The ones in the picture are 7x4.  I do have more to experiment with.

[rahulsahu]

sir what is the cost of it?

i want to make this project..