Successfully maidened my first Quad yesterday. Thanks to Sandy, Gusty, Subhash and VK - couldn't have done it without your help and guidance. The biggest inspiration is Ashta Sir who started the thought process.

I have a very short video clip of the maiden, tethered flight which may not be worth uploading.

Congrats VC!  Couldn't find "ugly" anywhere, is it written under the frame 

Thanks Sam. Still in the process of tuning this 'idiot proof' board. I need to understand a lot more about P and I values. At the moment, she is rising straight up and the yaw has been dampened quite a bit. However, she has a tendency to drift. I also feel that my arms are not stiff enough and thus are vibrating.

Hope you have balanced all the props!

No. I think the issue here is far more serious in terms of construction error. The aluminium c angles are very lightweight. I should have used square pipes but couldn't find any.

This thread (first post) helped me a LOT. Might be useful to you too: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1375728

You can use dual-C angles instead. They are used as rails for sliding glass panes in showcases. These are available in many gauges at almost every furniture/ply store, and I felt these are better than square pipes.


Vineet

VC, if you haven't balanced the props.. please do. I had similar issues and it was the prop. Your case might differ but still properly balanced props are very important for quads.

Hello Sir...

Greetings....

I am through the process of making my quad and have no experience than u do in any sense but when I was doing some reading on RCI I got a few topics where people suggested to abandon the use of Hobbyking ESC's for Quads..... It is because they get jammed while operation... From which they mean its refresh rate is low which is an anomaly for our Quad due to its differential four point drive mechanism....

Hope it helps...

Thankyou...

@Adiboy:
It's NOT *hobbyking* ESCs, but hobbyking's SS series ESCs only! Hobbyking's F-30A ESCs (~$9) flashed with SimonK's f/w are just great, even better than $40+ ESCs.They have a refresh rate of >>> 400Hz. (~500Hz?)

Thanks everybody. I hope to add on to this thread soon with more positive results. Any queries are welcome.

About the SS, I too read about them but only after ordering them  Every issue I faced, I sort of pointed my fingers at them  But, once I sorted out my probs, its flying pretty good with setup similar to VC has.

OK dumb question # 1:

The Quad is set up in X configuration, if I want to change it to a + config, do I have to remove the controller board and place it properly again?

Yes. The pointing arrows should point to the direction specified for the configuration as far as I know.

VC sir congratulations. I loved it. CD cover idea is really nice, helps protecting board and receiver.

@hyd_quads

Yeah Sorry I forgot to mention that... SS series... 

Btw I myself am using Hobbyking ESC's but they are blueseries 30 Amps....

Thanks for correction...!!

 

There are NO blessed arrows on this board. The CD cover idea was given by Ashta Sir.

Hmm... you are using KK2... sorry, my bad that I assumed its v2 or3. Please ignore my dumb answer to your not so dumb question.

Edit: As per http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uploads/181270330X7478X47.pdf , its says,

"Initial Setup:
-Mount the FC on the frame with the LCD facing front and the buttons facing back."

That's it. It is back to the drawing board. There is just too much flex in the arms and that is causing the Quad to behave erratically after a while. I need to strengthen that.

I think arrow is marked at the backside of KK2.0(don't know actually) but gyro chips side is front and button side is back for sure.

Dharmik / Sam, that much has been done -

Dumb Question # 2 - How precise does this placement have to be? Will a few mm off here and there cause the Quad to fly out of whack?

Dumb Question # 3 - What happens if I turn off the Auto Level function?

DA to DQ#2 : I have faced severe yaw problem with it. Once properly centered, was good
DA to DQ#3 : Dharmik, hyd_quads, someone please help!

Thanks Sam. Every time that I'm in trouble you are there to try and find a solution. I owe you Boss.

I might as well take it apart and rebuild it on a proper plywood frame. I rushed this and built it within 2 days. Wasn't sure whether it would fly at all. Now that it does, valuable lessons have been learnt and I will be much more accurate on the new build. Starting right away.

Will wait for the ver.2 then . Good luck with it!

Sir this KK2.0 boards are really sensitive. You have to place it at the center exactly.  HK boards(v1, v2.1 and v3.0) are forgiving in this case. Mine was bit 2-3mm off on yaw axis and it was giving me strange yaw drift issue. If you have stock firmware there's no use of auto-level. It's really worst. So disable it. In latest v1.2 fw KK has fixed this to some level.

Thanks Dharmik. Wish me luck.