Xcopter Quad Build - Weeks eight to ten and eleven - Lessons Learnt

Hi, welcome to Maxx's stuff, I'm Maxx and this is my stuff.

Micro Quad fully loaded

Xcopter Quad Build - Weeks eight to ten and eleven and some Lessons Learnt

I have missed a few weeks, mainly because not a lot has been happening in the stuff area, just getting batteries and the balancer and other parts. The story begins with week eight and receiving the the green props and the BESC programming card and male to male servo leads, (there are ten in a pack, so enough for two multi's with some spare) nothing much spectacular and came to the door for $44.00, knocking the average over to $30.65.
I wanted the card because, well, one, it is easier to program the ESC's and two, I wanted to try out the music option on the ESC's. Programming is really easy with one of these, no trying to flick the throttle and counting etc. The music available is ... well ... interesting. It did not come with "Flight of the Valkeries" but a part of Beethovens "Fur Elise", which I selected. I also programmed the ESC to reduce power with low voltage and to have a normal start.

Week nine and I got the charger, nylon screws and nuts all for $31.84 making the average now $30.78. again nothing much here except I had to do some research on how to use the charger and have posted a good Youtube link below from Bruce of RC Model Reviews. I also mounted the controller board. I am planning on putting the receiver on top of the controller, but having it firmly mounted may be a bit tricky.

XT-60

Week ten brought in the battery and prop balancer, all for $42.12 with a final average of, $31.91. Except ... The battery (from the Australian warehouse) came with the XT-60 connector, not the JST which is on the Micro Quad. This was the first time I had seen the XT-60 and it is a really great connector. Good surface area connection and nice and firm with out having a lock (the 60 is for the 60Amps it can carry without melting). I also like that if it is hard to get apart, you can use a screwdriver without risking shorting the connectors like what can happen with the Deans connectors, which is what I use, until now.

So, for week eleven, I order a battery from the International warehouse with the JST connection and a packet of male and female XT-60, so I can convert all my other gear to XT-60. I also ordered some wire as well, along with the USB programmer for my Hobbyking radio. This cost an additional $20.89 now bringing the average down to $30.91, but adding a week to the build.

So total all up is $340.02 having spent $81.88 of that on postage. I will do a proper break down for the Quad in the next blog with the gear that was actually used on the Quad.

This does include a pretty good camera and other gear that will be used for other planes as well including a battery that will go over to the Cessna 180 as it has the XT-60, and I have already started a plan of attack on the next planes. Finish the cessna 180, start on the cessna 310, convert the 0.25 glow to electric, and get the Mini Stick done when it arrives.

Preparing up the gear for the test flights and lessons learnt.

Little IC broke it's bag of smoke

So the first thing I needed to do was charge the battery. I need to do this to check the balancing and vibration. I have balanced the props, but the motors need checking. I also have to check the motor directions and make sure they are correct. I have the battery in the garage and it is a bit dark, but I would like it charged for checking and flying first thing tomorow, being the Saturday. I plug the charger onto the car battery and plug in the battery ... in the darkish light. I set the unit to charge, and ... no battery connected!. What the???. So I turn the light on to see what I have done wrong, and that is when I see the smoke! I check the unit and battery. What I had done was two things.

1. Put the source connections on incorrect polarity. Yep, the positive gator was on the negative terminal on the car battery, and vice versa.

2. The other thing was the gator clips on the charge leads from the balanced charger where touching, causing a short circuit, hence no battery connected error.

Well, I corrected the source connections, and took care of the gator clips on the charge end and connected the LiPo ... and ... No battery connected :(. I killed the charger. As can be seen by the picture, one little IC is popped and now the device is not functional.

So, what are the lessons learnt.

1. Don't try and connect electronic equipment up in the dark!

2. Check that nothing is shorting out.

3. If a charger shows any signs of being damaged, don't use it. Throw it away as LiPo's can be volatile if not charged correctly, and a damaged charger will most likely not charge but actually damage your batteries.

How to charge your LiPo battery with the Hobbyking balanced chargers.

Well that is it for the last four weeks. Next week will be real flights, I hope. I have some test flights planned before the proper first recorded flight and a brand new and bigger charger on it's way. Along with that I bought a spare motor as well, as one of the motors do not appear to turn freely, and I am not sure if this will have an impact on performance as it does seem to run o.k.
Unfortunately I have not been well, so the work has slowed for the last two weeks (also why this is late as well), it has been a bit to cold and wet to hang out in the garage and I really need to get better for work, so I can pay for all this stuff!
So ... Ĝis Revido.

XCopter Quad Build - Week seven

Maxx's Stuff

Hi and welcome to Maxx's Stuff, I'm Maxx and this is my stuff!

XCopter Micro Quad Build - Week seven

This week was a really exciting week, I got the last ESC, Hex drivers, 2M screws and lock nuts, along with the three bladed black props all from Hobby King. Came to the door for $24.00 with an average now of $28.15 .... Except. I failed to check the hex drivers size. The smallest is 1.5mm, and I already had 1.5mm drivers and needed something smaller for the motor. You may remember from week four I needed to rotate the mount of the first motor so its wires would enter the micro frame more comfortably. So I had to go to the local hardware store and buy an entire set of Allan keys for $20 so I could get a 1.3mm, 0.9mm and 0.7mm. I think it was the 1.3 that was small enough. That has now brought the average to $30.61 ... dang, budget is now blown and will have to work hard to bring it down, and get it done in ten weeks.
The hex drivers are great, that feel really comfortable and allow good force but good control as well, superbly made, just pity they do not come smaller.
I love the props, I think they look fantastic along with the spinner, so next week I will have the green props to help with orientation while flying. Along with the screws I received means the motors are now mounted as can be seen on the picture.

I was amazed with myself, having been born with ten thumbs I did not lose one single screw or nut!
So now all the ESC's are soldered in and hot glued to the frame, the motors are mounted and also soldered. Until I get a battery, I will not be able to tell if the motors are running in the correct direction, but a quick de-solder, a swap of two leads will fix that. Next week I will also be getting the BESC programming card, servo leads and 14mm nylon spacers for the receiver.

For the video, I thought I would show something a bit different. These little guys come from the University of Pennsylvania. They are robotic and programmed to fly like this. Enjoy the tune, James Bond Theme.

 

P.S. Since I received the USB AVR programmer, I have been experimenting more with kkMulticoperflashtool and have found how to use it in Linux and all the features that come with the program. Slowly producing a Video on that so keep an eye out, hope to get it up soon.

XCopter Quad build - Week six

Maxx's Stuff

Hi and welcome to Maxx's Stuff, I'm Maxx and this is my stuff!

In today's world, I manage to have some time to learn, play, discover and tinker with new things and I get to share all that with you.

XCopter Micro Quad Build - Week six

This week I got the last outrunner and two more ESC's at $30.57 from Hobby King. Brings the average to $28.71. I thought I would use the week to prep up the solder joints and the three ESC's (fourth in the next week).
I measured out roughly the length of wire needed on the ESC three phase side. Because the outrunners need to go in a certain direction, I plan to do any direction change with the motor connections so the ESC connections can remain fairly neat. For those who may not know, to change the direction of brushless motors, you just nee to swap two of the three phases, I will most likely get into more detail when I start running up the Quad.

I have "tinned" the connections on the frame, the ESC and motor wires. I had to use cored solder as my flux has dried right out, and it is a trip to either Morwell or Warragul to get more, and I could not be bothered driving to Morwell, or waiting until Monday to get some from Warragul (I work in Warragul). But the cored stuff came out good as can be seen in the picture.

I use an old scope iron with 2mm tip. It managed to tin everything o.k. and I think it will be quite adequate when I put it all together.
Flite test have put a review up of the Micro Quad. This is the one from Hobby  King for $99.99, a bit cheaper than what I am spending, but I am enjoying the weekly products and doing little bits of research, but next week I will be showing some real building.

The latest "The list" update.

I Now need to get the USB programming lead for the Hobby King 6ch radio. This will get included in the price, but come under the "For other aircraft in the fleet", I think I can still remain on target, but I am really pushing the $30 for ten weeks. Hopefully I will get a video out about how to program the HobbyKing radio on Linux, or find a good one online.
Anyhow, hope you enjoyed the video, do a search on Youtube for the Micro Quad, there are some great videos, including this one with a crash.

Ĝis revido amikoj!

The XCopter Quad build - Week five - and other stuff!

Maxx's Stuff

Hi and welcome to Maxx's Stuff, I'm Maxx and this is my stuff!

In today's world, I manage to have some time to learn, play, discover and tinker with new things and I get to share all that with you.

XCopter Micro Quad Build Week five

Sorry about the lateness of posting again, but I had a very busy weekend. I had both my son's fifth birthday along with his mothers (Carmel of Solomon Sewing) on Sunday, but more about that later.

In week five I received two more outrunners from Hobby King and the first lot of props, coming in at $32.49 to my door, bringing the average up to $28.33. As can be seen by the picture, the prop adapter is too big for these props. The prop hubs are about the same size as the shaft, so when I show the three bladed props I am getting in week seven, you will agree that they will look good.
Thought I'd share a video from Flite Test on setting up a multi rotor including balancing. In week three I mentioned a prop balancer that I needed to order as many have said vibrations are bad for the controller board. In this clip, they discuss that even balancing the motors is important, and since I am using prop adapters, this may become important. I will be showing more on balancing when the balancer turns up in week nine.

Maxx's Cooking Stuff

Now for something completely different. I mentioned that I was busy this week end, well Sunday was made up of a lot of cooking. I cooked lunch which was home made hamburgers, followed by a Banana chocolate cake (with over 300gm of dark chocolate). Dinner included one of my special dinners of Spinach Lasagne followed with bread and butter custard pudding.
While preparing the meal, Carmel asked me if there is any other copy of the Spinach recipe, i.e. If the house burnt down, would there be a copy somewhere? The answer is no. I have it sourced from a book called "Pasta Cooking". Since there is a lot of Pasta cook books, it would be difficult to narrow down, so here is the recipe for prosperity, and the future internet archaeologists to find hundreds of years from now.
I would rate this as "Dishes high". It does have a high level of dishes and the lasagne dish will most likely require some scrubbing, so rinse as early as you can.
Prep time is around 20minutes
Cooking time, 30 minutes with oven at 200 ̊C.
Serves four.

Ingredients;

Lasagne sheets

Spinach sauce

90gm Butter
90gm Plain flour
140ml Milk
450gm (or more) Spinach
Nutmeg
Salt and Pepper.

Mornay Sauce

30gm Butter
30gm Plain Flour
250ml Milk
90gm Parmesan Cheese, grated
1 tsp French Mustard

Method Spinach Sauce
Melt butter in sauce pan and stir in flour.
Remove from heat and slowly add milk.
Heat until thick then add Spinach.
Season with nutmeg, salt and pepper.
Method Mornay Sauce
Similar to the spinach sauce, but add only 60gm parmesan cheese at the end.
Line lasagne dish with lasagne sheets. Add half the Spinach Sauce. Add another layer of lasagne sheets followed with the rest of the spinach sauce. Top with lasagne sheets and the mornay sauce with the remaining parmesan cheese sprinkled on top. Bake in oven at 200 ̊C for 30 minutes or until browned on top.

Serve with a warm bean mix in winter, and a salad in summer. This dish goes well with almost any wine, but I would watch the sweeter ones. The cheesy taste means that even a good ale (Such as a Coopers DIY English Bitter) goes well with this.

So, what other hobbies do you have that does not include RC aero modelling?

I'm Maxx and you have been reading Maxx's Stuff.

Ĝis revido amikojn.

The XCopter Quad Build - Week four

Maxx's Stuff

Hi and welcome to Maxx's Stuff, I'm Maxx and this is my stuff!

In today's world, I manage to have some time to learn, play, discover and tinker with new things and I get to share all that with you.

XCopter Micro Quad Build - Week four

Sorry about this being late. I was hoping to get a video out for every one on programming the controller board in Linux, but have had trouble getting the script done and obtaining some graphics in time, so maybe in a few weeks when we get closer to actually putting the Micro Quad in the air.

The fourth week in I finally get the AVR programmer, one motor and one ESC. I have to watch it, because every time I see ESC, I want to call it an escape, as in the escape key on the keyboard. Of cause, delivered to my door for $27.91, bringing the average to $27.30. I am going to have to be careful because the next few orders are a bit over $30. Need to do this if I am going to keep this to ten weeks, and as stated last week and additional cost has emerged in the prop balancer and as I will explain later, more tools as well.

First before all the technobabble, I am gong to talk about the motor and ESC. The motor packaging and items really impressed me. I like that for around $10 you get the motor, prop adapters (two of) bullet connectors and heat shrink. The other bit that amazes me is that this tiny little thing is a three phase motor. I was an electrician some years ago, and the three phase motors I worked on where just a tad bigger. Looking at the ESC and sizing it on the frame will mean possibly some trimming to the leads, I also noticed that the three leads coming out of the motor are over the bolt as in the picture.
This means I will need to rotate the mount with the armature so the leads will go through the hole with less stress. My allen key set does not have small enough key, so I will need to order some additional tools from Hobby King. So the next order (this will be the order for week seven) will include the Turnigy hex driver set.
The other thing is the prop adapter, I actually really like the little alloy spinner, and the props I ordered will not fit them. So, I will need to order different props, luckily (and I actually think will look heaps better) Hobby King have some three bladed 5030's in black and green, so I will also be ordering those for week seven and week eight.

Programming The AVR in Linux

I will still do a video on programming the controller in Linux, but for now I will just give a basic run down of how it is done.

The programs really needed are both AVRdude and a Java Runtime Engine, I used OpenJDK 6. Get those from your Distro Repo (Linux distribution software repository).

The JRE is used to run kkMulticopterflashtool. Grab the Windows/Linux stable version. I did not actually use this to flash the controller as there are some incompatibilities with the Linux AVRdude binary that comes with kkMulti, and the conf file is also incorrect. What I did use kkMulti for was getting the desired HEX files. It is well designed to be able to pick the desired configuration and firmware with maximum ease.
I then flashed the controller with the hex file I downloaded, being XCopter 4.7 by kapteinkuk using AVRdude that came from my Distro Repo, Kubuntu 12.04 in my case in the console .... yes the console, just makes life easier... really.
It will be some time before I get to properly test, but the flash showed no errors, and appeared to do as expected.
Anyway, please enjoy the video from Flite Test on how to flash the Hobby King Multi Rotor Controller Board in Windows using kkMulticopterflashtool, as some of you might actually be interested in how to do that, and it is easier.

The other cool thing about the AVR programmer is Hobby King have a great cheap Arduino clone and breakout shield (sensor shield) that this AVR can program if your interested in doing your own hacking.
I will be getting one with the shield when the project is over. I am planning on trying it with my old Real Robots robot from years ago, see if I can get it going and doing stuff.
Any how, thanks for reading, and keep an eye out for the video, and a question. With this Atmel programming, do you think it would be cool if Hobby King maybe started supplying some robot gear? Wheels, coasters, sensors, micro switches etc. I bet Hobby King could really bring it to market at a price that would get people in cheaply, or is it to far removed for the modern RC pilot .... your thoughts?

The XCopter Quad build - Week three

Maxx's Stuff

Hi and welcome to Maxx's Stuff, I'm Maxx and this is my stuff!

In today's world, I manage to have some time to learn, play, discover and tinker with new things and I get to share all that with you.

XCopter Micro Quad Build - Week three

 

This week is about the HD 720p Hobby King Wing Camera that came in at $42.31 delivered to my door. As you could tell, this has upped the average now to $27.09.
Awesome little camera and the quality is not to bad for a sensor so small. I like that the frontal surface area is pretty small, at about 450 mm² (4.5cm²) where most of the other camera's are about 900mm² with some up to about 1400mm², so it is not going to add to much drag. Weighs in at 32gm (listed at 29.4gm), which is a bit weighty for the Micro Quad, but we will see how we go. Battery is reported to give around 3 hours of recording, which I have to try as yet, but I've gotten in around 30 minutes all up with no problems so far with the battery.

It comes shipped with a USB cable with a mini USB end for data transfer and charging. Also has a AV lead for an external video monitor and audio. I have a small LCD monitor I use with my video camera that can be bought for around $25 on ebay. As I get into FPV I am planning on putting one of these onto my radio (heaps cheaper than goggles). They can run on between 5V to 12V (running on 12V in these pictures). I have had it running on 9V battery for around an hour in the past. I have as yet to run it on 9V until flat, so running on a small 2S LiPo will probably be no issue and time may not be a problem either, and knowing it will run on 9V means I have a very cheap back up if needed.

It has a fairly easy menu to navigate. A manual can be downloaded from the Hobby King product page, just click on files at the bottom of the product page and select the file that says "manual (link)" and follow the link in the file. One thing that is interesting is that the buttons are up, and naturally I want to put the flat surface down. Also, a tip I got from the Hobby King site for this product is how to set this to output video via the AV cable and record at the same time if it is going to be used for FPV. The modes don't have this, it is either in video mode, or picture mode. If you are in video mode and plug in the AV lead, it wants to play any recordings on the card, and in picture mode has some OSD stuff that will get in the way if trying FPV, so below are the steps, and I demonstrate it in the video.

1. Turn the unit on
2. Press the power button until you have a red and yellow light, three presses, this is the take picture with movement detection.
3. Plug in the AV cable.
4. Then as quickly as possible, pull out the cable, press the power button once to return to the Video recording setting (one blue LED), then put the cable back in. Now you can monitor and record at the same time as you can see in the video clip below.
Note, if you are too slow, the unit will just power down in about a second as shown in the video.

As for the white balance, it is good to see it can do it, but the transition is really slow. Not sure if this is the unit, or if the card, I did record this on a class 2 card, which is really slow, but managed o.k. I am planning on getting a couple of class 6's or better as recommended and see how that looks. Bruce of Xjet and RCModelReviews did a comparison between this camera and the 720p key chain, this will show a better idea of what the camera can do with faster cards. As can be seen by the comparison, the white balance does darken the ground when there is a lot of sky in the shot.

Although I am showing you how to set this to record and output for FPV, I will most likely not use this camera for FPV, this will be used as a secondary recording device for larger models providing complimentary shots in flight and be used on wings etc where frontal area will be more important.

Next week I will be showing the USB AVR programming device and showing how to program the controller board on Linux with the latest XCopter program.

More notes on week two and The List

I have been reviewing more on building multi rotor copters and many have been saying that vibrations can cause some issues with the controller, so I have had to add an additional item to the list. It comes under "Other stuff that is needed, but also used for other planes in the fleet". And that is a "Prop Balancer". In a couple of weeks I will be talking about the props and balancing, and I have had a little change in design ... but you will have to wait and see what that is.

Ĝis Revido Amikojn!

The XCopter Quad build - Week two

Maxx's Stuff

Hi and welcome to Maxx's Stuff, I'm Maxx and this is my stuff!

In today's world, I manage to have some time to learn, play, discover and tinker with new things and I get to share all that with you.

XCopter Micro Quad Build - Week two

The List.

As promised, the list of items that I will need to purchase to complete this project. All components are available from Hobby King.
Micro Quad PCB frame
HobbyKing Multi-Rotor Board
Four 2900kv Outrunner motors
Four 6A ESC's
5030 props, CW and CCW
Two 800Mah 2s LiPo batteries
Four Male to Male server leads.
2mm screws
2mm nuts
Nylon spacers
Battery Velcro

Other stuff that is needed but is also used for other planes in the fleet.
LiPo battery charger/balancer
BESC progamming card
USB programming lead for HobbKing radios
USBasp AVR programmer
720p video camera

Tools
Turnigy hex driver set
Turnigy hex socket set

Other tools and gear needed that I already have
four channel transmitter and reciever (I am going to use my HobbyKing 6 channel set)
Soldering iron
Solder
Solder Flux (Even if you use cored solder, I still recomend using addition flux)
Hot glue gun and glue.
Screw drivers

Quite a list eh ...

The XCopter Quad build - Week two.

Week two is the programming board and got it to my door for $17.98 (average so far of $19.48). It comes well packed as shown in the pictures, and many hobbiests recommend that the packaging can be used to reduced vibration when mounted into your multi rotor. It is good soft, rigid material and this would be a good use, but it will not fit under the arcs of the micro quad, so I may use a small part of the packing material only as washers, and on if needed, I plan to mount the board on nylon spacers and hope this will suffice, we shall see.


The board is powered by the Atmega 168, making it an 8 bit CPU with 16Kbytes of Flash RAM. It runs at 20MHz and is an industrial grade RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computing) based CPU, great for our application of stabilising Multi Rotor Copters. With the USBasp programmer in can be flashed with any program. I am planning on loading an XCopter  configuration, where this controller comes with the +Copter configuration pre loaded. The best way to describe an XCopter is you have two rotors at the front, and two rotors at the rear. A Plus configuration has one rotor to the front, one rotor to the rear, with a rotor to the starboard (Right) and another to the port (left).

I was quite excited how well the board fitted into the Micro Quad frame as pictured. You will see it is mounted for a X configuration (the two small arrows at the corner point to the front), but the board also fits perfectly for a + configuration as well. I am hoping the nylon spacers will be high enough for the receiver to fit underneath. The receiver is 12mm high, but the connections are on top, so there might be some creative work required. Hobby King have some 21mm spacers and the receiver is 21mm wide, so that might be a possible solution. The radio I will be using is the Hobby King six channel 2.4GHz (mode 2).

Once I get the programming lead, which will be included in the costs of this build, I will be flashing the card to the XCopter configuration. I will be doing this through Linux, so if your a Linux user and would like know how to do this, hopefully the up coming blog will help.

So at this point, I have the Micro Quad frame and the controller board. But I did do some research and Flite Test have a great video on setting up the controller board on a Quad copter that I suggest you check out if you are just starting in multi rotors like myself.

Next week I get the camera, a pocket sized 720p hi definition video camera that will be going on the Quad as well.

 Ĝis revido amikojn! (Until then friends!)

P.S.
after writing this blog, before publication, Hobby King now provide the Micro Quad with everything except the battery and radio for $99.99

The XCopter Quad build

Maxx's Stuff

Hi and welcome to Maxx's Stuff, I'm Maxx and this is my stuff!

In today's world, I manage to have some time to learn, play, discover and tinker with new things and get to share that with you.

Allow me to introduce myself in my first Blog post. I do RC model's (planes mainly, but that is changing), computers (I am a 100% Linux user at home) and a user of FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) along with CC (Creative Commons) music and videos. I am also learning Esperanto, have been for some years, but still to sit my first exam.

Top down look. 220mm across.

The XCopter Quad build

Lately I have not been getting much flying in due to the park flyer being permanently grounded, and just not getting good weather on the rare days I have time to fly, So I am going to build a Micro Quad in the hope I can get some RC flying done in the back yard when time and good weather briefly coincide.

The plan is to purchase the parts over a number of weeks. This will increase the cost due to postage, but will give me time to research how things go together and what to expect when I go for that first flight. A bit like those build magazines you see advertised on TV.

Close up of the PCB tracks for power distribution.

The average spend per week, including postage, must be under $30.00. I say average as some items will go above this, so some purchases will be a lot less to keep the average. I should be able to do this in around ten weeks ... Yep, $300.00 all up and that does not include the radio. The rough list includes the Micro Quad and gear to make it fly, two batteries, charger, and basic tools. Full list next week.

This quad will also include a camera for filming in flight. Once I get proficient in flying this Micro, I plan to get a 400mm+ quad and trying FPV with telemetry, etc.

So the pictures show week one. The Micro Quad frame . Purchased from Hobby King for $20.98 including freight. You will notice in the pics that the PCB (Printed Circuit Board) is up. This is used to distribute power to the eventual four out-runner brush-less motors. The instructions are in black and white and did not indicate which was up. I thought Turnigy would like to be up, so I put it together this way. Since these pics, I have watched some Micros on You tube and noticed that everyone put the PCB down (Duh!, not to mention the pics at Hobby King that I took completely no notice of!), so now my Micro Quad looks like the rest with the PCB down.

Next to the keyboard for better idea on size.

Next week I will show the controller board.  I am planning on making it into an X configuration and since the board comes as a + by default, I will be learning how to program the board through Linux, so I might have some helpful tips in coming posts.

Soooo, what have you built, only to discover that you did it upside down and how did you find out you did it wrong?

 Ĝis revido amikojn! (Until then friends!)