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.