RC India

Gentlemen,
I've always been a proponent of having R/C stuff manufactured locally, desi maal rocks. So here's my bit. These were the simplest to do.

Quadcopter power distribution boards. Physical size: 2.5 in(63.5 mm) x 2.5(63.5 mm).

***I am giving away 5 boards for testing, review and feedback purposes. Calling senior members for review. I will need a decent feedback in return. I can think of a lot of names on the forum who've been doing quads.***

Estimated price (TBD) would be ~INR 80-90 (including shipping). More volumes = lesser price.

kya baaaaaaaaaaat haiiiiiiiiiiii girish bhaiya !!!!!!!!!!
definitelt these well help any one who buils quads or multi as they are least stored by LHSES.

Good work!!!!!

Max current?
will work 30A current per motor for the hex board?

100A is safe current to pass through. 30A * 6 would exceed that, but I do not have the equipment to do the 180A, which is why I;ll need feedback for any improvements.

okay okay
still looks great and like the real one :)

Nice :) You may put solder on the traces to significantly increase the current throughput. But one has to remove the protective green layer to do that.

opting for one board  :)

Fantastic effort Girish Bhai  {:)} {:)} {:)}

Thanks lasRites,
The next batch will have HASL or Sn immersion on the contacts. Gold immersion seems overkill in this case, and will lead to increasing the costs.

Sundaram sir, please pm me your address so I can send one.

Pravesh, thanks you for your suggestion. I originally designed a through hole one, with wider inner holes like you suggest, but the side tracks seemed small for soldering so I took cues from the HK boards;

You may want to offset the +ve and -ve solder points. That would make it easier to solder. The chances of solder bridges forming would be eliminated too.

True

@GS sir when you decide sale it i would be very happy to buy 50 sets at least for my webstore :thumbsup:

Girish!!
i guess this is just the beginning, i wont be surprised to see you own arduino at some unbelievable price. On the same lines, i say why not ? with your capability, you could put it up in matter of days may be hours :hatsoff:

can i review one? i always wanted to do this ;D and i love quads. i will pay you if you do not like my review. :giggle:

Thank you lastRites, Satya, Gusty sir, and Aditya,

Sure Satya, expect good discounts ;)

Gusty sir, many thanks for the appreciation; Hopefully sometime in the near future.

Aditya, please pm me your address, I can ship over one on Monday. Don't worry about the price, the review would be priceless

Girish sir amazingly awesome :bow: :bow: {:)}
I hope you start developing more components and boards like the KK2.0
i hope you have a GS2.0 ;D

Well done Girish bro. Would like to see more projects from you.

Sir do you use eagle for prototyping boards or some other software?
And some tricopter and hexacopter PDB's are on their way i suppose sir (:|~

Well done Boss! Now count me in as your first customer. I need one for the Hexa. When can I expect it?

Thanks Neil, Dharmik and VC
Eagle all the way. Cam job verified in lazy cam
VC sir, your packet leaves Monday

Dharmik, aditya waiting on your address.

 :bow:

PM sent ! hope you got it.

Yups Aditya. parcel leaves Monday

Packages shipped for VC, Sandy sir, Dharmik and Aditya via registered Post. You should get it by Friday.

My first attempt on this, but I will not make that a basis for requesting any relaxation on testing, so guys please do a candid feedback and feel free to take it through as much bashing as you can, needs to be tested to the limits. If they're able to make through I will make the rest available for purchase. If not, I will go back to the drawing board and get something better out.

GS

Girish - will take 5 boards - pls say total cost incl courier
to assam 784176 - use dtdc or blu dart and send me your bank details ?

Thanks Girish.

I have noted few points already for improvement. Would be premature before getting the board in hand. Will be posting a detailed review.

 (:|~ (:|~ eagerly waiting for the reviews and start of sale

General guidelines for good solder joints on the boards:

1. The boards have Organic Solvent Protection (OSP) layer so please wipe gently with acetone/nail polish remover around the contacts prior to soldering

2. Use a generous amount of solder flux and let solder flow in. Use a large soldering iron for the contact points (35w or similar). Wipe extra flux after soldering with acetone/nail polish remover for a bright finish

I will get HASL done in any further batches on which "nothing sticks like solder".

Thank you Boss! Grateful for your kind gesture...............again...................... :hatsoff:

"like"   ;) ;)

Thank you VC sir,

look forward to your feedback.

GS

Received the board yesterday. I will post review soon.

Omg I don't know how I missed this thread...
Well done girish bhai, I wish all the best for all your future projects..... I would like to get one board for me also also...:):)

Sent from my Canvas using tapatalk 2

Girish - received the boards a while back now.

Good boards well made and adequate for the
intended purpose.

hi,

I use double side copper boards, works very well, available for Rs.30. cut a 1"sq and use one side for negative and other for positive.

i am happy with the result.

if still available, i will take one for review and testing on a heavy hexa.

Rahul pm me your address.

Arun the board leaves today...

Sbajare sir, very true.one wouldnt even need a pcb to do the connections :D. This is very much a novelty item
Was easy to produce domestically...when the only option atm is to buy from hk.

pm'd.
thanks, will let you know about the board after flying my hexa :)

Hello Girish sir, I'd like to test out one out on my FPV copters if you still have any.

Design is very good :D I'd buy 3-4 of these instead of the HK ones.

Rahul, Kabir
Your parcels posted yesterday.

Ive got some great feedback and some cons on the boards already. Thanks, really helpful. Look forward to more.

I have 6 boards left

Feedbacks??? where are the posted??

Gentlemen, invite you to post all your feedbacks here. I will post the ones ive recd in PMs in case they are not in your respective outboxes

Please please please sir do post it here. I am waiting

Gentlemen, here is an initial set reviews, verbatim, as I've got them (please ignore any personalizations apparent in the comments. I've pasted the comments from the original PM's to keep contexts alive. Any repetition of reviews indicates input by multiple reviewers):

pros:
1. i did not feel that the board is large or something. buts its better to make it even compact for quads less than 450mm.
2. Soldering is very easy.
3. Easily handles the current from a 2200mAh 20c 3s Lipo (total 44A). No heating observed even at full throttle.
4. Would have been better and easier to mount if this had the same, small footprint as the KK2.
5. The mounting holes need better placement. One of the holes is very near to the edge.
6. Must say that it is a quality product. No heating issues whatsoever.
7. For the first looks, it looks good.. little big though, clean and neat.


cons:

1. Where the ESC connects, holes should be bigger, so we can pass the 14/16 gauge esc wires through and solder easily and it will provide mechanical strength as well
2. the tabs are too closely placed to each other. I mean the tabs on the outer(+) and inner(-) ring on the board. and i had to put a lot of efforts in soldering them carefully.

Aditya (adityaamg) has kindly provided a video review of the board here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nI5TPRyg20&feature=youtu.be


Many thanks to the reviewers: Aditya, Abhishek, Rahul...waiting on more reviews now.


-------------------------

Meanwhile, a newer board coming up ... I'm including the design below for initial comments.

- 1.75in x 1.75in...intended for 450 size
- Will have extra connection points for adding headers, so cameras, LED strips etc can be plugged in on the board (Thanks saurabhsrivastava for the input).
- I'm trying to include a SMD 5v regulator on the board as well, activated via jumpers/solder points.
- All holes will be 0.8mm, including on the large pads. user can drill further to required size.

The older boards will be still be available, for larger quads; Currently sorting out the spacing issues.

PS: Saurabh your custom board looks very similar but will have chamfered edges, instead of corners, and thicker copper traces, as we discussed.

Girish sir, since my comments have already been posted, here are some pics...  ;D

Reviews
Observations
1.   Larger than the regular board of KK or HK.
2.   Single sided PCB.
3.   Large conductor tracks.
4.   Smaller holes for the ESC wires.
5.   very good quality GF PCBs
6.   Thick copper track for the conductors.
7.   Easy to solder.

Pros
1.   very easy to solder esc wires as more space available.
2.   good current carrying capacity without overheating as large track.
3.   ESC wires have to be soldered flat on the board as smaller holes anyhow better layout of wires because of that.
4.   Strong robust board since GF PCB good heat capacity without swelling of bubbles on PCB while soldering.
5.   very easy to solder as good quality copper board.

Cons
1.   cannot be used for smaller quads as bigger board.
2.   cannot be mounted on the same four screws of the FC board so cannot be mounted above along with FC.
3.   cannot be mounted between the center plates of X quad in 450 or less.
4.   Has to be mounted below the two center plates will interfere with the battery fitment.

Improvements Desired
1.   holes for the ESC wires may be increased for guys who would be interested in soldering ESC wires through the board.
2.   Gap between the track may be increased to benefit guys who are not so good in soldering.
3.   Soldering Pads can be offset to increase the gap between the adjacent exposed conductors pads and easy layout of ESC wires.
4.   Smaller board with thicker copper track is definitely more welcome.
5.   On board 5V regulated supply if being planned would be great improvement.
6.   Can't ask for anything more if it was double sided. will improve its current carrying capacity to a great extent further board can be made smaller with more flexibility for use.

Overall a great effort by Girish.  :hatsoff: :hatsoff: :hatsoff: and three cheers for indigenisation and for a home brew product.  {:)} {:)} {:)}

Good solid review Sandy sir :thumbsup:

Thanks Satya. Girish will say over delayed  :P

Sandy Sir,
Better late than never. ;)

I really would love to hear more on the double sided requirement.  Are there commercial boards available that are double sided like you suggest?Sure it will realllly increase the current capacity if both sides have power planes (and it will behave like a capacitor ;)). That is indeed a great idea.

I now have a complete list of changes that I need to do with this board, and yes the 5v reg will be available in the smaller board, I will be using a SOT-89 package for 7805 for SMD mounting.

In double sided board the copper layer is done after the drilling of holes so therefore copper track also goes through the holes. then its etched on both sides

It is an industry manufacture procedure not DIY. So not really sure someone will do that for small scale requirement.

 {:)}

Right chief, I've got double sideds done in the past with thru holes for other microcontroller projects. Wanted to check with you if there are any already available by HK or others.

Yes it will increase the cost by about 1.6-1.8 times, which is why I wanted to know is it a good to have or a must have

Two other boards of kk and hk photos posted are double sided.

Aha, I see it now.

I was thinking ground (-ve) plane on one side and the VCC (+ve) plane on the other...What do you think?

Workable. But still the capacitor idea is not workable. You still might have to offset the tracks on both sides if you are planning holes for ESC wires if not then not a problem