Busy little beaver.

Hi there.
I haven't had the time to post over the last few weeks - to much going on at home with family and work, but I have been able to find a little time to work on the quad.
Main thing I wanted to do was an amp test on one of the motors, just in case it wasn't behaving as it should. Did that a few weeks ago. i did the throttle calibration first, then took it up to 50% throttle - it was drawing around 5 amps, which seems about right, going by ecalc. Couldn't check the thrust, though. Motor cut out as I went a little higher, aroung 65% - not sure why? I didn't balance the prop - not sure I even had it on right, so that may have caused it.
Did another test a few days ago. This time balanced the prop and checked to make sure I had it on the right way around! Double checked the q brain esc calibration before I started. I didn't bother with checking amps, as my multimeter only goes up to a max of 10 amp and I have already tested it up to 5 amps. I placed a weight on the quad to make sure it stayed where it was. I took it up to 50% throttle and it wanted to lift. Continued up to about 90% and it was lifting even with the extra weight sitting in the center. My first thought was - this thing is going to fly.
link to motor test video
Not sure if this link is going to work, never used a link before. Hope it does.

A heavy weight on my mind.

So you're a few pounds over weight, so what. Well for you and me it may not matter much, but to a quadcopter it can be the difference between flying high or flying nowhere. On eCalc I gave the total weight as 850g (I added together the weight of all the individual parts, as given in the online catalogs, and a little extra for good measure. Now I had everything for the quad, it was time to actually weight it.

That's 805g without the propellers, and I forgot to include the battery adapter connector and the cables connecting the receiver to the flight controller. The props are 5g each, the connector is 15g, and the cables are 7g, a grand total of 847g. That leaves 3g for cable ties.

Battery is the heaviest part on the quad at 255g.

View from above, without battery and top frame cover in place.

Thunder QA flight controller on top of  Q brain ESC's.

More later.

So close, and yet so far.

My list of parts purchased for quad.

XXD A2212 6T 2200kV motors         17.50
F330mm quad frame.                        10.67
25A Q Brain esc's.                                20.67
Thunder QQ super flight board.      11.30
Skyfly fs-ct6b tx/rx.                             24.89
4000mah 2s1p bat 30/40c.                  11.53
Low battery alarm.                                1.27
Props 7038                                                1.60
Connectors                                               2.99
                       Total                              102.42
This doesn't include battery charger, spare props, props balancer or postage on some items, which came to about £10. Just over budget! But if the motors had come with bullet connectors attached, I would have been just under.
Fortunately, the motor connectors and the power connector to the Q brain were the only ones I had to solder (see photo).

3 red bullet connectors and the yellow power connector.

Now I can fit the Q brain and the flight controller, and it's beginning to look like a quadcopter.

More to follow.

Motors, speed controllers and something called eCalc.

It's been a few weeks now since I decided it would be a good idea to build my own quadcopter. In that time I've wrestled with which motor to buy, which Esc I need, and all the rest. So I decided early to prioritise. Most important first.
Must stay within budget. £100
Not an easy to assemble kit.
Needs to be stable for aerial photo/video
Not too big, not too small.

Online calculator for all types of aircraft, including quads, (Great if it works) is eCalc.
Lets you enter values, names for battery, motors, ESC's and props, and tells you if it'going to fly or not.
So what did I discover?
Hobbyking site is the cheapest?
It's going to be really difficult to stay under budget!
Searched the web and found motors for under £4.50 each, from Bangood. A2212-6T 2200kV.
Frame was under £11 from Amazon. F330mm
Flight controller under £12 - QQ super ( basic, but stable and easy to set up.)
Power distribution board from Hobbyking. (Not sure I will use it now, as I'm considering using Q-brain integrated ESC's.)
Ordered Flysky FS - CT6b tx / rx. less than £25.
I read that the motors are quite powerful, particularly for a small frame, so decided, with the help of eCalc, to use 2s battery, 7.4v.
The prop size and pitch seems to be dependent on overall weight.
I'm looking to hover on about 50% thrust, and get as close to max efficiency as possible, without the amps getting too high. Max amps should be no more than 16, so 25 amp ESC's should be OK.

Decided to buy Q Brain 25amp from HobbyKing, so power distribution board not required. I won't include it in the cost - either keep or sell on eBay. Ordered 4000 mah 2s1p at the same time along with 7038 props. (That 7 inch with 3.8 pitch) eCalc estimates these should work well together, dependent on weight.

Next time I'll give a complete list of everything purchased and hopefully start putting it together.

1: Size does matter.

I've always taken the view that bigger means more expensive. Now that isn't always the case, but it's a good rule of thumb.
My budget is £100. It's as simple as that, and that's for everything on the quad. I'll allow a little extra for test gear, but not much.
So what about size? Big enough to carry a camera for video and photo's, but small to fit in my rucksack. A search on Amazon brought up an F330 flamewheel at the right price. That's 330mm diagonal across the frame, motor  shaft to motor shaft.

Here's the kit as it arrived, minus tiny screws.

And here it is assembled. All £10.67 of it.

Next post: Anybody got a cheap motor?

My first ever post on my first ever blog

Hi there. My blog is a diary of my first ever quadcopter build. I'll show you in words, photo's and videos, why, how, how much and what happened along the way to it's first ever flight. Hope you find it interesting, and maybe you will go on to build one yourself.
Much more to follow soon.