Hey Guys,

Received and started work on my new quadcopter today. I will keep this thread updated with a build log. Please leave your comments and suggestions ! I will also keep an updated build status and log at my blog : cpvrc.wordpress.com . Estimated flight time is 11 to 13 minutes.

Thanks to Satya sir for the propellers.  

Specifications :

Frame : HobbyKing SK450 + Dead Cat conversion kit
Motors : Turnigy 950kV 2836/9
ESC : Turnigy MultiStar 30A OPTO (SimonK reflashed)
Props. : 10x4.7 APC
Battery : Turnigy nano-tech 4500 mAh 3S1P 30C
BEC : 5A Castle Creations UBEC
Flight Controller: APM 2.5 with GPS + Telemetry (Xbee 2.4GHz)  
Camera : HackHD   >
Video Tx - 5.8 Ghz 600mW ImmersionRC (not yet decided)
Video Rx - RC805
Antennas - CP Spironet 5.8Ghz

To be added (but cannot due to lack of funds ) :Raspberry Pi , Sonar , Optical Flow Sensor , 3DR radios.

I will also make a very cheap and functional stabilized gimball design (which can be made easily in India using locally available stuff) myself so stay tuned! Subscribe to keep updated!

I am just 14 years old so your suggestions and advice is always welcome

I am always in need of parts and other items to make my projects so if you want to support me in my projects and work please help me out by donating your used / old / not needed items to me You can also help by getting me various low-value but useful items which I need from goodluckbuy (or other free-shipping websites) . Please contact me if interested!







Kabir  

Most welcome kabir, all the best for your build

will wait for your maiden

Thanks satya sir ! Maiden will be around 5th - 6th March as my motors and ESCs are getting delayed due to Chinese New Year.

Hey,

Nice stuff done at this tender age when I was just confused with algebra in my time...! 

How does APM 2.5 + GPS system receive GPS Signal for Position lock, Waypoint marking and Home Coming...?

Thanks in Advance.

@mhkabir98, Here is a video for that simple gimbal design...



BTW, Nice setup 

@adi A GPS module (MediaTek module) is there on board which allows the APM to get the GPS position. Also, the Arducopter team is working to implement pure inertial navigation (dead reckoning navigation) which might allow it to navigate without GPS after initial position lock.

@veloci thanks for the flitetest video, and I had thought of that before, but due to my frame's extended front, I am going for a pitch roll mixed gimball (search for super simple gimball at RCG)

Only problem with the stock SSG is that the plate is too small, so I am presently scaling up the design and will send it to get CNCed soon.

Sent from my HTC Flyer P510e using Tapatalk 2

Sent from my HTC Flyer P510e using Tapatalk 2

Kabir Try the H Quad lots of space for all electronics and for the separation required between the video tx, camera, RC Receiver and GPS and telemetry if you are going to use it.

Dead cat has only advantage of clear camera view. Not much more.

My APM 2.5 with Telemetry 433 has arrived a week back I am going the tricopter way.

By the way what is the RC radio and channel you are using?

Thanks sundaram I had looked into the H-Quad , but scratch building felt like a lot of trouble to me initially.   

Radio is going to be a problem since I only have an old FS-CT6B I had an WFLY 9ch supposd to come from JDrones, but they have clammed up regarding it. Mr. Sujju(RCB) had promised some help with this project, but still no response from him regarding a radio.

Frankly, I will not fly this quad on the FS-CT6B since it lacks failsafe, etc. and people using it with the APM had flyaways and similar unhappy endings. For testing only perhaps I will use an Logitech Attack 3D joystick via my GCS for controlling until I get a Tyrnigy 9x/9XR or similar radio which has features. If anyone has an old /used/not needed one, please let me know.

Even I have some RCExplorer tricopter center plates for scratch-building, but cannot continue that scratchbuild due to nonavailability of parts required to construct a tail yaw mechanism.

I asked you specifically about Radio since you are planing to use a 2.4 Ghz Telemetry which may have issues with any 2.4Ghz Radio be it flysky or Turnigy. You may want use a 72Mhz or other band when using 2.4 Ghz for telemetry.

For Tri rear tilt mechanism all you need is a two Glow engine front steering mount and correct size axis shaft and two wheel collors. You can easily fabricate a tilt mechanism.
 

Dear sundaram,

After extensive testing, I have come to the conclusion that 2.4 G telemetry does not affect my R/C control. I have flown several long-range flights on my bixler with the same setup (2.4 g telemetry + R/C).

I might get some RCTimer 3DRadio 433Mhz telemetry modules though...

Thanks for the heads-up on the tricopter tilt mechanism. I can finish up the tricopter when I get time.

Kabir

As long as there is no problem its no issue. However in my opinion imminent problem areas is better avoided.

Just for my info sake, what was the longest range are we talking about with Bixler? And flying was done using GCS Joystick or RC radio?

Certain Un- Sheilded HD Cameras are known to have issues with 433. You may want to check on their compatibility.

Bixler I have taken out upto 3 km on full autonomous (APM 1.4) It can go further with the 4500mAh pack I have in it, but I am too scared to lose my only fpv model with most of my expensive equipment. I flew on R/C only till I lost LOS, when I switched to Auto. I did not test r/c range after that. I still had full manual control via my Joystick through telemetry incase I needed to override the R/C link.

Hmm, thanks for the camera warning. The only HD cam I have is the HackHD, and no info available for that regarding the 433 Mhz problems. I might have gone for 915mhz but its illegal here

 

Thanks sundaram sir!

Thanks to sundaram sir, I have now decided to build, fully from scratch, a tricopter (frame parts in hand) and a FPV quadcopter, just like the TBS Discovery, but from scrath, just for fun.

Thanks for your inspiration sundaram sir!!

That's very heartening to know lets share our built progress.

I do not have the center plates for the Tri-Copter remaining all spares are available with me. I have to fabricate the Center plates. I deliberately left out the Center plates since I wanted to Custom design it for a bigger three axes stabilized camera Mount Gymbal.

Sorry for barging in like this but I want to let you guys know I am also working on an APM H-Quad. I will be putting up a build log soon..

 

@trishit great! I want to see it soon!

Some progress... The mixed gimball is coming along fine... Having some software problems in SolidWorks, so the top plate design is not progressing. Laser cutter is ready, but unfortunately no design yet...

Installed two Futaba s3003 servos already. Pics coming soon.

I am working with a couple of Arducopter developers to implement mixed gimball support for AC natively, but that's going to take some time. I'll probably externally mix the signal using an AVR for now. (basically a V-Tail mixer)

Sent from my HTC Flyer P510e using Tapatalk 2

http://www.rcindia.org/rc-people/putting-a-face-to-it/

why dont you participate in this thread ? will be good to know you more, i am sure you have no problem. let us know more about you, like school, etc, i could hook you up with some fliers at RCTC

@ Gusty Sir, I'll post my intro in the thread . Thanks for pointing it out

EDIT : Posted it Also, I am from St.Xavier's Collegiate School, Kolkata. I'd really like to meet some of the RCTC flyers, so if you can introduce some of them to me gusty sir...

Mixed gimbal pics are attached. 3rd photo is for validation in RCI anniversary sweepstakes.

kabir

no reply on RCTC membership?, some multirotor experts of kolkata would like to meet and see your work and discuss with you (Don't have your game face on at that time ) our admin Kalyan Prodhan is there, i am sure you will benefit more meeting him than he to you. he would tell you how to DIY than to PM/Post for donation

I don't quite get you Gusty sir, could you be a bit more clear? "game face on at that time" 

I would like to meet up with the folks who fly at RCTC...

You are from SXC? There's a classmate of yours (I'm guessing as he is also 14) named Achint Athwani . He is from New Alipore. Know him?

Yes!!! Hes in my section we call him chintu .... How did you know him?

I know him since the day he was born. What does he know you as?

Oh!!! He knows me as Kabir So if I were to ask him about you, what does he know YOU as?

Vikram Uncle, who stays in Guwahati. We stay in the same house in Calcutta. They have recently moved out after his Father expired in Nov. last year.

Incidentally, I am a Xaverian too. School / College all the way.

now Kabir

if you look at the video, at about 1:00 you said that your aeroplane has taken off and it is in loiter mode, (No video to support that claim) at 1:40 however you said Amlan's throw angle was wrong. Now, if you ask anyone (Repeat) anyone here, they will tell you that aeroplane was not meant to fly because

(a) CG was wrong (Extremely tail heavy)
(b) Wing was extremely weak, you can see the flex
(d) There was no thrust induced yaw compensation (2 Deg right and down)

I have more than enough reason to believe that your claim of it is loitering is wrong

I have a general statement to make"Aeromodelling community is small and a lie will be seen through, easily".

I am sure you father is helping you out immensely, no ? request him also to join the forum(As him) and share his wisdom esp on flight dynamics and motion equations etc

all the best for your project

Not again Gusty.....not again

There are more waiting to be hauled out.

Gusty sir,


I knew someone would catch me out sometime or the other . I thank you for doing it and your analysis was absolutely SPOT ON. I had come to the same conclusions after a couple of weeks.... 

I'd prefer it if you uh, removed the last post, lesson learnt for me. I want to keep this thread clean , only related to the quad and not my past follies and eventual revelations.

BTW My father is not interested in R/C at all, so its only me you're stuck with I'm afraid.

I again salute you for your accurate analysis   But if I may ask something, why suddenly start digging up my old stuff and proving that I was wrong,bad,lied,etc.? It doesn't quite have anything to do with the quad after all...

Kabir

Oh, and VC sir, great to meet a fellow Xaverian , especially in the aeromodelling community

it is not the thread Kabir, one has got to be clean himself, Knowledge is free, deserving get a lot of help here, without even anyone in the forum knowing about it, However , DIY Drones stunts, i assure you wont work here. let that be a lesson for all of us and move on.  i am not naive to believe that from 21 Oct 12 to now, you are a changed man and will not claim falsely, is that it ? if so, do you have the courage to do so on your DIY drones blog that you lied about loitering when in reality you didn't ?

PS
pl dont i personally hate that emoticon

Some one care to tell us what is going on???

I think its enough - I admit what I did was wrong, but I'm drawing the line at admitting... I'm not gonna bump that DIYD blog post, etc. ,call me a coward , I don't really care.

I am sorry to say it but I'm done with RCI. Thanks to all who helped me since the creation of this account, but this incident I feel is something that shouldn't happen to someone new to the forum. Everything that gusty sir proved IS true, I don't have anything to say against him, but I'm not very happy about it.

Thank you one and all who supported or otherwise helped me, I'll probably still remain a lurker here at RCI, but thats about it. I'm not going to do much else. My regards to sujju sir and satya sir for all their help here. I would like everyone to know that this decision is completely my own , and I don't want to disrupt regular forum activites or start a flamefight like I've seen such small incidents snowballing into.  

Let my 50th post ever be my last post here.

Kabir

Post / don't post, Stay/don't stay - that is entirely your prerogative. Just remember not to besmirch the reputation of your Alma Mater. It is, in my humble opinion, amongst the best and most respectable educational institutions the world over.

Dear VC sir, you are right, and I feel it it too... I understand while in most part I have been wrong / lied , and I apologize for that , but the way Gusty sir presented it, I felt hurt, nothing more nothing less.

Let bygones be bygones.

Kabir, dont blame it on me, eventually you will realise what Gandhi and people before him said "Truth alone Triumphs", i would go a step further by saying "Truth and only Truth alone triumps"

Some people in this very forum have learnt that and they are happier people for it

Second issue is trying to pull a fast one on hobby which is very dear to some of us by saying things which questions existence of our very basic grey matter. that is something even you, when you speciallise in a field will not accept.

i wish you had read this

Gusty Sir, thanks for your wisdom. I am greatful to you for pointing out my mistake. In retrospective it seems extremely idiotic.

And if you wouldn't mind, could you clean up this thread a bit since you are a moderator ?

Sent from my HTC Flyer P510e using Tapatalk 2

Oh and please can you help me to contact the RCTC fliers...

Sent from my HTC Flyer P510e using Tapatalk 2

Kalyan, Rohit are the guys whom you should hook up with, esp kalyan prodhan, he is the best DIYer esp for electronics, Rohit is majoring in Aeronautics i guess, both of them will willingly help you, Like i said Go to RCTC on a sunday and meet up with Air Marshal M Banerjee, i have spoken to him about you (even before you went off the handle)

TC
Gusty

Kalyan   http://www.rcindia.org/profile/?u=1291

Rohit   http://www.rcindia.org/profile/?u=649

Thanks for the info, I will surely meet them on the 3rd of March at RCTC, morning (exams get over on the 1st) Can you please PM me  Air Marshal M Banerjee's phone number so that I can contact him regarding timings, membership , etc.

Maiden video  

www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1WM17VPuhw&feature=youtu.be

quite nice kabir!

Very Nice Kabir 

The way wiring has been done it is neat and it has been captured nicely in the video too

Thank you gusty sir and sundaram sir! Yesterday I took her up to 40m and took an aerial video of kids playing cricket in the next park

Sent from my HTC Flyer P510e using Tapatalk 2

excellent!      You are amateur   
I will be soon getting my APM 2.5 with GPS

Thanks Rahul 

what do you mean by "You are amateur"   

 

I am loving this frame, especially after tuning the PIDs a bit

I mean you are Pro

waise,  what is more imp upgrade fr my quad-
1) Arduflyer 2.5 with GPS upgrade from kk2
2) Upgrade motors and frame?

I think, you are better off upgrading the frame + motors. While APM 2.5 is good, it is a hell lot complexer. You won't get plug-n-play with APM like you can do with the KK2. Get a good frame like the Flamewheel clones , and you can use other's PIDs as a base for experimentation and tuning. 

I crashed yesterday , into a tree and broke one of the arms... replacement's gonna take around 20 days to reach me Completely my fault, letting it go too far

Okay.
What about the motors...Should I buy these-
http://www.rctimer.com/index.php?gOo=goods_details.dwt&goodsid=123&productname=

Will they work good enough with 25A plush ESCs?