Now that my first quadricopter is almost finished and showed it can fly, I’m posting the full list of the components I brought to build it. I divided the components into categories and I added some comments to help in the choice of what is needed to build a quad. Main components Rctimer SK30A &…
Here’s a short video about the first flight – using the GPS flight mode – of my quadricopter:
The frame I chose for my quadricopter is a clone of the DJI’s F450 model. I could therefore buy and install on my quadricopter the original DJI landing gear, made by four plastic legs and the mounting screws: The gear adds some space between the quadricopter and the ground, making the landing easier. It also allows to mount…
In some previous blog posts, I described the flight control board I chose for my quadricopter, the DJI Naza-M Lite. DJI also produces a more advanced control board, the Naza-M v2. Some users discovered that the two control boards share the same hardware components and that differ “only” for the software they run: You can’t directly upload the Naza-M firmware on…
The last step of the building of my quadricopter is to add the propellers, connected to the motor’s shaft using screw clamps: It’s very important to mount the correct propeller depending on the direction of the motor: a label (CW = clockwise, CCW = counterclockwise) is often printed on the propellers; if not you can follow one of…
Last setup steps on my quadricopter waiting for a better weather to fly… I connected the receiver to the Naza Lite: channels CH1…4 of the receiver go to the ports A, E, T, R of the flight controller, while the channel CH6 must be connected to port U. After having downloaded the Naza Lite Assistant software and the USB drivers from the DJI…
ESCs usually contain a circuit named BEC (Battery Eliminator Circuit), that is a circuit that outputs a regulated voltage of 5V, used for example to power the receiver. The circuit is defined “battery eliminator” because it allows to use the “main” battery – connected to the ESC – without the need of a dedicated battery.…
The kit I brought from RCTimer included 4 ESC running the SimonK firmware. This firmware allows to calibrate the minimum and maximum values for the PWM signal. First you must connect the ESC directly to the receiver (bypassing the Naza flight board) on channel 3: I also verified the motor direction of each motor, based on the diagram included in Naza manual. To…
In my previous post, I described the Turnigy 9x radio I chose for my quadricopter. The transmitter requires 8 AA batteries… looking for a more convenient solution to power it, I found on HobbyKing a suitable battery pack: This battery pack is built using LiFe or LiFePo4 (litium-ferrophosphate) cells. Those cells have a nominal value of 3.3V, different from the…
I finally received from HobbyKing the radio to control my quadricopter: a Turnigy 9x mode2 that also includes an 8-channels receiver: As I wrote in the first blog post about the building of my quadricopter, Mode2 means that the left stick is the throttle. With some modifications, it it however possible to convert the radio from one Mode to the other,…