Fatboy completed

Fatboy-1 : SPRacing F3 Flight controller with Betaflight 3.2.4 (Jan 2018) + DYS Aria32 35Amp Escs + Emax MT2208II 2000kv motors+ Gemfan 7" props + Geprc lcsf Pdb+Flyski ia6b receiver.


FATBOY TEST FLIGHT

Racer-275 completed

Completed Racer275, Runcam 2 carrying rig on 6in triprops.

RACER275 : Hglrc Flame F4 with BF3.2.4, Sprot 2205 2300kv motors, Hglrc BLHeli_S 28amp esc, Flysky X6b receiver, Idealfly 6048 6" triprops.

Racer 275 with the Runcam 2.

Real-250 completed

Puda-240 completed

Kermit-2 completed

Kermit-2 is part of a fleet of smaller self cut carbon top and bottom plates using stock arms. In this particular case I used a set of 260mm carbon arms for a total of NOK130. Holding it together are three pieces from a 1mm carbon sheet.

Build-one, Garila-250, Amax-260 and Kermit-1 are part of this smaller size self cut fleet. Bigboy-1, Bigboy-2 and Fatboy are their larger brothers with 8in Stamina arms making them 300+ size for long distance.

260mm arms for Kermit-2.

Kermit-2: SPRacing F3 flight controller +Cleanflight 1.2.4+HGLRC 28Amps Esc+ Furibee RS2205 2300Kv+Flysky X6B receiver.

It started as a test to see whether or not u really need a fancy frame for a quadcopter to fly, the answer was obvious. So long as you have all the basic components of a quad and motors and propellers are at a more or less right place, the contraption will fly off the ground. 

Amax-260 was matched with a set of powerful motors, a 4s battery will shoot it up at a slightest push of throttle. After a couple of ceiling hits these  smaller light frames are more suited for 2300kv motors and 3s Li-po.

Bigboy-2 completed

The beautifully crafted purple 2600kv BBB motors capable of 1,6kg thrust finally arrived, last component needed to complete Bigboy-2, a Runcam carrying long distance rig with 8in Stamina arms. At the  moment though it only carries 6in props.

 BBB 2600kv motors capable of 1.6kg thrust.

Bigboy-2 : SPRacing F3 Flight controller with Betaflight 3.2.4 (Jan 2018) + Foxeer 35Amp Escs + BBB 2600kv motors+ 6048 Idealfly props + Geprc lcsf Pdb+Flyski ia6b receiver.

BIGBOY-2 FLIGHT TEST

Eventhough it's a long distance rig, without a capable receiver it wont go further than the rated 300m+ rated Ia6b receiver that it is equipped with. Flying line of sight (LOS) 300m is already more than I can manage at the moment.

Fatboy and Bigboy2

Fatboy : SPRacing F3 Flight Controller, Emax MTII 2208 2000KV motors, DYS Aria 32 35A Escs

Bigboy-2: SPRacing F3 Flight Controller,  BBB 2206 2500KV motors, Foxeer 35A Escs

Quadcopter Components

What makes up a kwad? What components do you need to get that contraption up in the air. There are numerous sites covering this exact same questions, there are also a variety of youtube videos explaining the basics of quad building.

What I will attempt to do here is just simply state in brief what you need to get into this hobby. It's a general start from which you can greatly augment with readuily available sources I already mentioned.

"Painless360" has a great many series that takes up step by step through the hardware as well as software, taking you by the hand until you have your kwad hovering in your back garden. Once you get further into the hobby you can catch up with "Joshua Bardwell" on how to improve your kwad, your FC settings and simply how be a better flyer. And in between there are humongous range of sources you can refer to depending of which topics interest you the most.

I startedfrom scratch - never touched a joystick - much less fly anything- until Mar 2017 when I first bought my little micro drone. Today Feb 2018, I have :
- flown and lost many drones from micro to a full sized 690 Hexacopter.
- built from kit complete kwads that came with bundled parts
- source components and build kwads with my own component and specs and finally
- cut simple shapes out of carbon to build my own kwads in combination with stock arms and configurations I favor.

The utmost basic parts to get your contraption off the ground and flying.

Lets start, these are the most basic set-up you need for a kwad (the flying carbon with 4 arms):

1. The kwad fame

2. The Power Distribution Board (PDB)

3. The Flight Controller (FC)

4. The Regulator/Electrical Speed Contoller (Esc)

5. The motors

6. The propellers

7. The receiver

8. The transmitter

9. The power source

The Kwad Frame

The frame is the contraption that will hold everything together when you take off into the air. Four motors with the four propellers on the four (thus the term "quad") arms which extend outward from the main body. The body can be made up of a top plate, a bottom plate and/or an intermediate plate held together by standoffs and screws.  Your flight controller and pdb sit on the bottom plate and hang from the top plate, the exact configuration depends on real estate available on your quad. Most frames are fashioned from carbon fibre. Others use tough and very light metal. Almost always the arms are cut from 4-6mm carbon fibre for strength and extra durability in case of crashes (when you fly into things).

The Power Distribution Board (PDB)
This is power board which distributes power from your Lipo batteries to the components that need it. Flight controllers uses power channelled from the battery through the pdb (5v). Motors take power directly from the pdbs channel from the battery. Most motors use between 3S (11.8v) and/or 4S (14.8v). Some go to 5S all the way up to 6S. My preferred pdb is the Geprc LCSF which can output 50amp per motor with a maximum of 65amp.

The Flight Controller (FC)
There are so many FCs out there depending what your particular needs are. LOS has less specific requirements, for FPV you may want FC with a bit more features. Compact builds use AIO fc ... All in One which includes integrated PDB and OSD (on screen display) features. I have used everything from SPRacing F3, Betaflight F3, Omnibus F4, Foxeer F3 and others. My key driver is cost and ease of soldering. Less complication is better in my opinion, I only need the quad to fly at the moment so SPRacing F3 is the cheapest and easiest to put together.

The Electronic Speed Controller (ESC)

The Motors

The Propellers

The Receiver

The Transmitter

The Power Souce

Additional kwad parts for LOS and FPV: top row for LOS and areal view recording, bottom row for FPV via goggles as well as recording.

And measurements,  if you feel like putting together your own kwads from meshing up available frame parts. These are broad guidelines.

Work in progress ... waiting for parts

Four more builds waiting for parts in the mail, they are just raring to go ... Puda and Real3 are clones of designer frames while Kermit and Bigboy are home cut carbon using stocks arms from Geprc and Stamina respectively.

260mm arm, Kermit-2 : Hglrc 28Amp esc

Puda-240: Furibee32 30A esc+ Dys Samguk Shu 2300kv motors

Real3-250: Hakrc32 30Amp esc+ Diatone M2205 2300kv motors

Stamina 8in arm Bigboy-2: Foxeer 35Amp esc

Here's hoping that with the completion of these and a couple more minor builds, it'll be Spring and time to take to the sky again (or into the fjord or mountain whichever case it may be).

The next last builds after these are : Fatboy (8in Stamina arms), EX220 diminutive frame and Miniracer 275. It's definitely bluesky hangtime after those are done.

2018 will be an FPV year, 1st 6 months focusing on LOS and hangtime, and the 2nd half on FPV.

2019 will be GPS/Acro/Gimbal camera rig bigbird year ... several bigbirds are also waiting their turn to soar.