Fun Fly

Really proud of this vid I made.  Flies on rails now!!

youtube link  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq0R_c8WO6E

Things Evolve

I broke the Trex 600 skids a while back and so far I do not miss the extra weight.  I don't need the skids anyway.  I try to fly at the park where I have grass to land on.  I have borrowed a friend's GoPro camera and have been having a lot of fun shooting videos.  I finally got the quadcopter dialed in.  I was having such a hard time getting the thing to fly and the rudder to work and making sure it would not flip in the air.  I finally had to take it completely apart and replace the 4-40 hardware with #6 bolts.  When I did that in the assembly process I reversed the direction of the quadcopter oops, and had to reset up the whole thing from scratch.  Well that somehow fixed all my issues.  It flies like it is on rails now. I have switched to 8X4 neon green props and they are sweeet!

Quad Frame Parts

 I found these parts at Lowes today.  They would make a frame really easy for about $15!  Minus the bolts, and bolts can get expensive.  Just an idea. I'm now getting the urge to maybe build a Ycopter (Tri-copter).  But this time I want to build the frame from readily available parts from local hardware stores.  Because that is what most of us have for an option.  I found these 4" and 2" plates at Lowes in the hardware section in one drawers labeled "hobby something...."  I don't remember what is was exactly.  The aluminum channel shown in the top picture is the same channel I used on my Quad frame.  Any size will do, doesn't really matter what you use.  Some people use square towel rack, but I think those chrome things are cheesy.

Maiden Flight!!!!!!

Here is my maiden flight video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhA3ZbLH0w0


I had a great time flying today.  I broke a few props, and took one nasty spill that broke my landing skids and set the GoPro camera sailing.  I lost it at about 30' and for some reason the quadcopter decided to flip over.  It was a really bad spill.  Everything seemed to survive and new propellers are on order.

Here is another video of me flying around the house.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyEqd-JnMXM

carnage photo

Getting the bugs worked out now....

A couple of progress videos, still waiting for my 11.1v battery.
I'm now starting to get low on propellers, too many crashes.

a short hover video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alN-RGnezhs

how it works with DX6i video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y508X6BYXig 

Few Laps Around the Lawn

Just flew the Xcopter around the dimly lit lawn by the house Christmas lights... AWESOME!!!  Making progress on this little project... I just need that 3 cell 11.1v battery now.  It's been a frustrating project but at some point this thing is going to scream through the air!

That lagging no. 4 motor ended up being a loose set screw on the motor shaft.  Tightened it up and that seemed to have fixed most of my problems.  JUST NEED THAT BATTERY! hurry up UPS man!

Still Having Issues With Flight

I have not been able to truly fly this Xcopter yet.  I have hovered it a few times in the garage and that is about as close as I have gotten to really flying this thing.  I'm having a heck of a time getting my rudder input to work correctly.  I think I have a combination of a few issues.

1. I don't think my ESC's are programmed correctly.

2. My 7.4v 2 cell lipo battery is not cutting it.

3. I'm unsure my Yaw gyro is set to the correct direction and my rudder has to be reversed on my Spektrum radio, so it arms in the opposite direction of the KK setup instructions.

I ordered a 3cell 2200ma 11.1v battery from hobbypartz.com.

I also just ebayed a Turnigy ESC program card.  Maybe that will aid me to getting all the ESC settings correct.

I have also been experimenting with several firmwares for the KKmulticontroller blackboard,  mine has a Atmel 168PA chip.

I'm running the "X" 2.0 version found here  http://www.kkmulticopter.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=170:xxcontroller-kr-version-minsoo-kim-mod&catid=58:firmware-downloads&Itemid=65

That is the only firmware that I have been able to get the bird to hover with, and use the term hover lightly.  It is more like a mad scramble to keep it from flipping or crashing into a wall.  I'm very frustrated with this project at this point.  So I'm just going to put it away for a week while my stuff shows up.

I also have a slow motor, my  #4 motor seems to lag behind.