Category: Drones & Quadcopters

Showing the capabilities of Drones and Quadcopters.

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Quadcopter Mini 250mm | Flashforge Creator Pro

Cyantechio 3D Printed Multirotor 250mm
Cyantechio 3D Printed Multirotor 250mm

3D FPV Quadcopters

I have yet to actually fly FPV… I don’t trust myself with my eyes off the aircraft flying at over 45mph!

The Hardware

Flight Controller

Almost all of my 250mm Quadcopter builds use a Naze32 Flight controller which are great boards in my opinion. You can easily update the firmware and make changes using Baseflight or Cleanflight depending on your personal preferences. I personally prefer Cleanflight, it is always getting updates and having things added plus I just like the way my Quads fly when using Cleanflight.

Motors

I am using 2200KV motors made by DYS, I have about 4 sets on different Quads and I think they are pretty good. I’m sure you can get much better motors but these work great and I haven’t had any issues with these motors.

ESC’s

For ESC’s I have decided to go with a set of Hobbypower 12amp Esc’s that have been flashed with Simon K firmware. I am able to get pretty good flights from these esc’s, they don’t get hot and seem to work very well.

The Frame

One of the problems when looking for a Quadcopter frame is finding one that is light, strong and cheap. Which is why I have decided to use 3D printed Quadcopter frames. They are cheap, lightweight, strong and when they break you can just make another one!

Mine is made from PLA which is strong and rigid, comes in many different colors and is much easier to work with that other materials like ABS. A normal frame can be printed in about 8-12 hours depending on the particular settings for that print.

Transmitter

When I comes to R/C Transmitters I prefer Futaba ever since I was little that name has been a common word. Since I have several aircraft like the DJI S900 I needed something with a lot of channels so I decided to go with the Futaba 14sg. It allows you to use up to 14 channels with the correct hardware and settings.

Accessories

So most of you reading this probably know what FPV is, for those of you reading that don’t know what FPV is, let me explain.

FPV

FPV or First Person View allows you to see from the perspective of a pilot sitting in a aircraft. Its like your sitting in the Quadcopter flying, it is quite an experience. In order to fly FPV you need a few things like a mini camera, video transmitter/receiver, batteries to power everything and antennas for your transmitters and receivers.

Most people will have two cameras: one to view FPV and the other to record the flight in HD.
I personally use a Sony CCTV camera with a Fatshark 250mw transmitter.

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How To Tune Your Quadcopter

Well first there are some things you need to check before you try to fly your quad for your first time.

Remember when working with your Quadcopter to always make sure you remove the blades before you do any work.

Number one. You need to make sure all of your wiring is correct. That means checking all your soldering work and crimps to make sure there are no loose connections. Once you have double checked your wiring and are sure you have no loose wires, the next step is to set all of your Gyro Pots to 50%.

Then you will want to power up your quad by plugging in the battery. Once your quad has gone through its startup procedure you can now try to arm you board. When your board is correctly armed a small blue led will turn solid blue indicating that you have successfully armed your KK board. Once your board has been armed you can test the direction of the gyros as well as the rotation of the 4 motors.

The steps to test if your motors are spinning correctly are as follows.
(this procedure may vary between different Flight Control Boards)

1. Make sure you have no props mounted (For Safety)
2. Turn on your transmitter first
3. Plug your battery into your Quadcopter
4. Arm the Flight Control Board
5. Apply only 25% throttle and check the rotation of each motor (see diagram for motor direction)

The steps to test your gyro direction are as follows.

1. Make sure you have no props mounted (For Safety)
2. With the throttle at 25% pick up the Quadcopter and check that the gyros are working correctly
3. If you tilt the aircraft forward the front motors should speed up and if you tilt in reverse the back motors should speed up. (you can use tape or a zip tie mounted on the motor shaft to check direction)

4. If you tilt the aircraft to the left the left motors should speed up
5. If you tilt the aircraft to the right the right motors should speed up