How To Make A Quadcopter
With a little patience, a little dexterity and some money to spare, you can build yourself a toy that provides hours of fun, exciting challenges, perhaps some nice pictures and probably some new friends. Environment for those engaged in multi-rotor craft flying is growing.
Quad-what? A helicopter with four rotors. It is controlled in much the same way as a normal helicopter, but is mechanically simpler and easy to repair. You've got the background story, we have built one and are now sharing experiences and detail.
Here you see our first prototype in the air
In the video you see some first test flight shot from the ground. So a little clip filmed with a 808 HD camera from the vehicle. It is quite windy all the time. There are many good descriptions of how to build such facilities on the web. In order to build large, small, beautiful, powerful, stable both trikopter, quadkopter and all the others.But people seem to have access to both ample and fine tools. And many make things exceptionally completed and perfectionist. What if you just want to get started? And not more than a coffee table and some standard tools? We will try to give you the perfect beginner boat that can be built without a large yard or advanced equipment. Simplicity We put words to this to be the first multi-engine helicopter that you build. Therefore, the focus of our construction as follows: - Easy to build - Solid - Easy to repair - Fun to fly We have, in other words, not focused on the lowest possible weight, aesthetics and perfect stability. That sort of have to wait for the next version. These criteria are also the reason why we have chosen to build a quadkopter over a trikopter. The latter is a bit harder to build.
Why build yourself? There are the cool AR Drones, ready-made solutions and cheap UFOs. The answer is simple: repair. You're going to crash. And nothing is easier to repair than anything you've built yourself. Moreover, you get a lot for your money when you build yourself. And then there is simply very fun and always satisfying to make things even.
Security First, we must come with some warnings. Gizmo you prefer to build large amounts of energy from the batteries. Energy that is set in motion in the propellers. You should be extremely unfortunate for this to be dangerous, but a quadkopter can do pretty much damage if you're not careful. Therefore you should never fly over other people. You should always keep a good distance to the quadcopter and never have propellers on when you are experimenting with the layout.
In addition, you should be careful about the batteries. If all the energy it takes to propellers going astray can go wrong. The battery can actually explode or go up in flames if you treat them wrong. You should never charge them unattended. And you should take good care of so they do not short-circuited. If you take this hobby further and possibly take photos for commercial use, or begin to manage more automatically with GPS etc are subject to special rules. We assume that you are building for hobby and fly so you have visual contact with the device all the time. But let's get started with the construction. Here in NRKbeta we have built a prototype flying fine. But we made some experiences, so the recipe that follows is not identical to our first prototype. The recipe here will provide an even better quadcopter.
General advice Is this difficult? That question is impossible to answer. For it depends on how much experience you have with small do-it-yourself projects. To build the framework, it helps if you have very little experience with saw, hammer, screws and glue. To connect the motors and electronics, it helps if you have some experience with soldering and wiring of simple electrical circuits. What we thought was most difficult was to set up electronics after everything was put together. Adjustment and reversal of gyros, adjustment of the remote control, etc. But with a little patience, accuracy and help from the net went well. There, we also hope that our comments can come to the rescue. In addition, we recommend the following forum if you want to meet other helpful builders: model new and fpv.no in Norway and internationally RCgroups.
Moreover, we cheated a bit and got good help from NRK colleagues Petter Olden and Reidar Otto Johnson, and enthusiast buffoon and a few others on the forum and FPV-new model. For a complete parts list at the bottom of this article. Note: We are planning to let this article be quite alive and will update as we gain more experience and as you come with good suggestions in the comments. Frame We have chosen to build in wood. It's cheap, sturdy and very easy to work with. Cut two pieces 70 cm long pine lists that are 15x15mm thick. What you should do is literally to put two pins in the cross.
It is best to log pine lists where they crossed. It's easier than you think. Place a marker on each list. 35 cm from the end. Then select the 7.5 mm from each side of the center mark.And 7.5 mm down the side.
Cut carefully down to 7.5 mm mark and cash out the small block so that each list receives a setback that is 15 mm wide and 7.5 mm deep.
Then place them in the cross. Use a file to the correct recess so that the lists are evenly against each other. It does not matter if decrease slightly wider than 15 mm. Do you make sinking too deep, you build up with some double sided tape. In order that the lists should be left exactly 90 degrees to each other, add something with an angle 90 degrees up. When everything looks good drip some glue in the cross and press them together while the angle is kept up so that you can paste them properly. The two 10 × 10 cm plywood panels attach to either side. We did this manually without measure. As long as the intersection is exactly 90 degrees to the plates to be properly positioned on each corner ends in the middle of each strip. Use paste here too. Salad box, which we used as protection for the electronics are not required to quadkopteret to fly. But we are building quite a beginner craft, so the protection box provides is worth the slightly reduced the flight time because of increased weight.Moreover, it is almost winter and the box protects well against snow and moisture in addition to physical shielding when you crash. On the bottom gives you extra plywood plate mount with four screws. One in each corner.Use live first so that plywood plate cracks. On the upper side, the four screws attaching both the salad box and plywood plate. You simply place the salad box lid in the middle of the wooden board, drill holes in the four corners and insert the screws. Here it is okay to use washers around the screws so that the plastic cracks. Then drill four holes in the salad box lid. This is for the four control cables. The holes need to be more than 3 mm wide and 8 mm long. A hole in each corner of the box. We used 3 mm drill bit, made two holes slightly apart and cut out the piece that we had a rectangular hole. As a base we used four polystyrene blocks of 4 x 5 x 2 cm. Double-sided tape and a round of regular tape to hold it in place. The point of the base is now just getting quadcopteret enough off the ground that you have room to attach a battery below. Alternative feet In order to accommodate any camera below. And to have feet that do not fall as easily as expanded polystyrene blocks we have created an alternative solution. And there speaks simply are few pictures more than many words. You need two hangers and a few strips. Coat hanger legs are ridiculously cheap and easy to bend again after you have landed a bit hard. Three plywood plate on the underside attach a solid layer of Velcro. Here, the battery attached. Now you have a nice frame with salatbokscocpit and polystyrene jacket. Then it is just putting on motors, speed controllers, control cards, remote control receiver and battery. Engines We used the following engines ordered from HobbyKing.com: 2213N 800kv brushless motor. You need four, but order at least two extra. You're going to crash, and although the structure was designed to make things tough it is easy to ruin an engine or two. And it's so boring not being able to fly in a week or two because you are waiting for additional parts. Otherwise, you can certainly use other engines as well. What is recommended is to stay below 1000 kv for an engine that is accurate enough for this type of craft. If you want to go into detail on what Q stands for in this context and how the engine works is actually your friend Wikipedia. The motors attach with double sided tape and cable ties. This is great for beginners because it breaks the ties when you crash, instead of the engine is destroyed. With our engines fitted with two short strips on each side and one underneath that stretched tight. Place on a piece of double sided tape 7 cm from the end of the arm and attach the engine as shown in the picture. The reason we have 7 cm extra length off the engine is simply to accept when you crash. In our first prototype, we had 50 cm long arms and attached motors at the tip. This led to one or more engines loose almost every time we crashed. When you get better you can saw off the extra length to save weight. With 70 inch guns, this means that we have 70-14 = 56 cm between the engines. To ensure a weak link in the engine, attach the wires to the motor base plate with cable ties. This prevents the thin pieces of wire that goes into the engine smokes when you crash. You can also possibly enhance further with some epoxy or hot wires which go into the coils. Speed Control It is these little magical stuff that control the motors with extreme accuracy. They get power from the battery and control signals from the controller card. Then fine tune the speed of the engine 300 times per second. We chose Turnigy Plush 25A from HobbyKing.com. Here we also ordered two extra in case we were to destroy one. They are a little overkill in the number of amps, but the 18A variant was not in stock when we ordered. And you should not ignore the fact that we might be expanding with more powerful engines later. The important thing is that the speed controller supports the frequent update from the controller card, and it has Turnigy Plush shown that they can. To connect it all together on the arms, we have chosen coupling sugar cubes. As you can remove them and solder the wires together instead. It gives less weight and are more reliable. But since we are beginners, we will destroy an engine or two sugar cubes, and makes it very easy to change the engine. Even in the field without a soldering iron. Put a sugar cube with three switching points close to the engine. Add four to five layers of double sided tape under the speed controller and secure it until the sugar part. Add a game tape on the outside to hold it all firmly in place. Connect the three wires from the motor at one end of the sugar piece and the three wires from the speed controller in the other end. You do not have to worry about which wire goes where. Speed controller is out of this. The only thing you may need to do is to replace two of the wires when the engine is running the wrong way. But that comes later. On the other side of the speed controller, put a sugar cube with two connection points.Attach the pieces with the sugar-sided tape and cable ties. Then attach the wires from the speed controller in sugar cubes. Flat cable with three thin wires and a connector pull through the holes in the salad box and toward the center. Controller Cards This is the brain of the system. We use a KK controls. It is designed and programmed by the Norwegian Rolf Bakke. A man who goes by the Lars Ramslie-inspired pseudonym Captain Kuk. He is almost legendary in multikoptermiljøet and has done an excellent job to get this to be a hobby that many people can do. The design of the card and the software is open source. Hobby King sell finished cards and Rolf Bakke actually get a small commission on sales. We used version 1 of the card from hobby king in our first quadkopter, but now the card come in a version 2 with a slightly larger engine and six-processor connections. Check the card has three gyros that measure how quadkopteret is in the air. They send signals to the processor so do a handful of advanced calculations and then fixed to the motor to keep quadkopteret stable. A quadkopter are basically very unstable. But thanks to the gyro and the continuous control of the motor vehicle is fairly stable in air. KK card compensates for inaccuracies in the engines, inaccuracies in the frame construction and irregularities in the form of wind. When you fly, there are two ways to set up a quadkopter. In what is called "+" and what is called "X". This is about what direction the frame is in the air. As an intersection of an engine in front. Or as an X with two engines in front. It is easiest to explain with a simple drawing: Check Card from Hobby King comes pre-configured for +. So when we choose to fly that way. Once you become more advanced and has acquired equipment to replace the software on the card, you can switch to X. The latter way to fly is a little better if you attach the camera on your vehicle. But we'll be all that is fine with + now. There are not many adjustments that need to if you want to switch later. Create four flexible and sticky pads of many layers sided tape. They must be equally high. With our tape, which is about 1 mm thick, we decided to add 10 teams together to get blocks of approximately 1 x 1 cm. Then attach the controller card with a tape block in each corner. The salad box lid in the middle of quadkopteret. This method of fixing to ensure that small vibration is muted. The arrows in the corner of the card should point along one of the arms. If you ever flown in X-mode to the arrows have pointed out between the two arms. In the next section we discuss bonding and finishing touches. Thanks for the inspiration: Quadcopter build for noobs, New Build, The Tricopter V2.5 build, Hobby Room and Svein Inge iFlogg. Parts List Basic Features - Lim. Certainly both contact adhesive / glue and preferably a little epoxy and / or smeltelimpistol. - Tape. Standard electrical tape and 1 mm thick double-sided mounting tape. - Velcro with adhesive - A stack of sugar cubes link Frame 2 x 70 inch pine lists 10 × 10, 12 or 15 × 12 × 15 mm 2 x plywood that is 10 × 10 cm wide and 4 mm thick Suspension: four polystyrene blocks of 4 x 5 x 2 cm Protection Box: Lock & Lock about 13x13x5 cm Wood, about 12 mm long Metal plates to match the wood screw Update regarding pine lists: We have tested several types. The most stable rig, we have now is actually 15 × 12 But after lots of crashes with 12 × 12 with no indication of the arms break I think we can safely recommend 12 × 12 or even 10 × 10 If you have purchased 15 × 15 as originally recommended, as it flies just fine too! Engines: 4 x 2213N 800kv brushless motor (you only need four, but order at least six). Alternative motor: HexTronic DT750. Then you can drop the prop mounts, but you must return the drill propellers up to 4 mm holes and mount with locking nut. Alternative motor 2, more powerful and heavier: NTM Prop Drive Series 28-30A 750kV / 140W Prop Mounts: Prop Savers (not optimized for stability, but optimal for beginners. Saves wear on the engine and propeller at the crash. Change to other parties when you do not crash as often.) The propeller mounts were first recommended here in this article: "Prop Savers". But after a little discussion in the comments we have gone on to advise them that it is linked to above. Propellers: 2 packages: 10 × 4.5, 3 mm shaft. (You need two right-rotating and rotating two left. They come in packs of one each at www.mikrocontroller.com. Book MANY. Propellers are what breaks first.) Speed Controller (ESC): 4 x Turnigy Plush 25A from HobbyKing.com (order two extra happy here too) Alternative Store for Turnigy Plush: RCelektro (but stiff price compared with the Hobby King) Alternative speed controllers that will work with the KK card: KK-Electronic Speed Controllers multicopter (ESCs) Main Control Card: Hobby King KK Controller V2 Alternative: Multi RC Shop's KK controls. (There you can select the software on the card. We fly with KK Quad X 4.7) Cord: 1m + 1m black 16AWG 16AWG red Connection Devices to collect leads from the speed controllers: Wago 5-clamps. Battery Plug: Nylon XT60 If you do not want to solder to the end that should be on the quadkopteret you can also buy XT60 male plugs pre soldered: XT60 Male w / Silicon Wire 12awg 10cm (5pcs/bag) Battery: We had good experience with the first Mystery batteries we got. But now we have more people who do not work particularly well. We therefore go on to recommend the batteries that we have so far had the best experience of time: Zippy Flightmax: ZIPPY 3s1p 2200mAh 30C Flightmax ZIPPY 3s1p 2800mAh 30C Flightmax (Former Battery Code: Mystery 2800 mAh 30C (Duration approx. 10 minutes. Buy two so you can fly a little longer). Deal Extreme have free shipping on everything, and the battery is a bit heavy, so it is cheap to order batteries from there.) Battery Charger: IMAX B6 Battery Alarm: 11.1V Battery Alarm Buzzer for RC Helicopter Approx cost of a minimum package: 30, - Lists and Pine plywood 100, - tape, glue and other 226, - for 4 motors 300, - 4-speed control 141, - for KK Controller 11, - for prop savers 62, - for propellers 22, - wires 17, - for battery connectors 136, - for battery 200, - for battery charger 23, - for battery alarm ------- = 1268, - + shipping ------- In addition, you need remote control (or the radio as it is called in this world) and the recipient. This is often held out as many have one that can be used from before. And because here you can spend anything from £. 200, - to NOK. 16 000, - Are you going to do it as cheaply as possible, you can order it to kr. 214, - from Hobby King: Turnigy 9X 9CH Transmitter w / Module & 8CH Receiver Mode 1 or Turnigy 9X 9CH Transmitter w / Module & 8CH Receiver Mode 2 It becomes a matter of taste whether you want mode 1 or mode 2 Here is a case of the difference. Most people in Norway fly Mode 2 If you change your mind you can change from Mode 1 to Mode 2 by moving some springs and parts inside. But: read the reviews of the Turnigy 9X from Hobby King comes out quickly that it suffers from relatively relax quality control. If you get one that works is fine, but many report a bad devices. My best recommendation is actually to trawl the various markets used out there for use only radios. There is a lot for sale. You need at least four channels, preferably six or eight (words before you know it you'll board a camera, turn lights on and off, etc.) Also, the radio channels could reverse the charge and preferably also have the option to adjust the sensitivity of the controls. All that has some experience in the environment says that you should put as much money as possible in the radio first as last. But when we talk soon hundred Euro. I've heard great things about Spectrum DX6i, it gives you a little more than two thousand of such as Small Size and Elefun. I contented myself with the used market and got an old Futaba 8U to a hundred pounds.Seems to work well. Otherwise, certainly many opinions on this in kommetarfeltet too. But we are going to go a little more in detail about the radio in the next article in this series. Help us make this article better Then, just fire away in the comments. Take pictures when you build, share information about what was difficult. Show us even better solutions. So we will update and gather the best of ability. Some pictures of the assembled betakopter.