/diy/ - Do It Yourself

I've been considering getting into RC after seeing some fpv drone racing. Awesome stuff.

After looking at it a bit I have decided to go with arc plane first and build up some skills and knowledge before converting it to fpv, then building my own drone. It's going for a plane first a good option? Someone is selling a second hand Multiplex Easystar ii for $150, so this is sounding good at the moment.

>>157

>It's going for a plane first a good option?

No, not really. Fixed wing aircraft fly very differently for multirotors. Your best option is an inexpensive 250 combo deal, like the ones on eBay.

>>180

When you say inexpensive, are you talking $20 or $200?

>>182

I've found 250 sized combos on eBay as low as $105 us. Now, these combos don't include radio, batter(y|ies) and charger, but those pieces are usually purchased separate anyway.

>>182

>>185

I've ordered a 250 kit with a pretty decent radio, RadioLink AT9 for $140 from Aliexpress, only things missing are FPV and a battery. If you opt for a cheaper tx, you can get the lot for ~$105, but I wanted the AT9.

>>207

I've used quite a few radios in my time with R/C. Everything from Futaba to Walkera. I prefer the FrSky Taranis X9D+, but the AT9/AT10 is a very good choice as well.

For the smaller quads, you may want to look into getting a R6D receiver. They're fucking TINY, and they support both PWM and PPM.

i am having trouble configuring my flight controller to actually get off the ground

this is my first build and i am in over my head when it comes to adjusting settings to keep the craft in the air

any help would be much appreciated

im using a kk2.1 board on an f450 frame

>>209

I received it today, I was sent a R9D receiver. It's got nothing on the R6D's 4g, but at 11g I'm not gonna bother swapping it for now.

I'm gonna experiment with HD FPV via Wifibroadcast once the RPi A+ and the camera for it arrive. Would be nice to get 5GHz transmission instead of 2.4 but there's not much information on it for now. Hopefully the controller will play along without too much interference.

For the record, the set I ordered is

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Carbon-Fiber-Mini-QAV250-C250-Quadcopter-Frame-Motor-12A-Esc-CC3D-Flight-Control/32513905005.html

Still waiting for the battery so it's untested, but from assembly, two of the holes on the frame didn't match up well enough and I had to drill through, no other issues spotted.

>>211

Thanks for this advice, could you make further updates as you get it going?

>>214

I've been moving along with the assembly, I received the battery pack, http://www.banggood.com/YW-HJ3S1P-11_1V-2200MAH-25C-Lipo-Battery-for-RC-Model-p-1014379.html

Tested the motors, ESCs, those seem to be working fine.

I ran into a rather annoying issue with the AT9 though, I tried updating the firmware, which failed. After some dicking around I figured out the cause, flash memory error. Two addresses were overlapping for some reason and the value written to one would also get copied to the other, thus always corrupting the written firmware file. I'm now waiting for a ST-Link debugger to arrive so I can try fixing it, either try changing the memory addresses or manually write the exact value. Don't know if it's going to work though as I've never worked with these microchips before and the documentation isn't great.

If all else fails I'll try getting a new chip and replacing it. I'm also talking to the seller about it, but, them being chinks, it's not an easy process. If it goes nowhere, I'll post on rcgroups, since a bunch of people there use this radio, they might be able to give some advice.

On the Wifibroadcast front, I got the RPi but the camera hasn't arrived yet.

>>216

Small update, using another remote I tried flying the quad, it ended up flipping pretty hard, at first due to one of the motors rotating in the wrong direction, after that it was (probably) because of incorrect settings of openpilot. By the time I figured it out, one of the props broke and I only had 4, so now I'm grounded for the time being.

Wifibroadcast started properly supporting two 5GHz sticks, one sold in the UK mostly, CSL-300, and the more broadly available TP-LINK TL-WDN3200. The latter doesn't have external antennas but apparently it's pretty easy to add them yourself, I'll probably go with the WDN3200. I think they are no longer being manufactured, but you can still find it in stock here and there, notably eBay.

Good tips

>>217

Received some of the replacement props, sadly they're shit and break at high RPMs. On the upside I did get to fly, performance is not obviously bad - I don't have any other 250 quads to compare it to, can't tell how good it is.

I'm pleasantly surprised by the battery, it outlasted 3 props on a single charge, got over 15 minutes out of it and it still had charge left over. After emptying it and charging, it actually reaches very near the rated 2200mAh, considering that it's cheap chinese crap from eBay I wasn't expecting that much.

Earlier I made some changes to the structure of the body, I'll probably post some pictures later, but it's mainly just so I can fit cables between the two lower plates. Also replaced the screws, the ones that came with the kit are garbage, too small imbus head.

I have everything for the WiFi FPV now, the Tx part is working (presumably) fine, but on the Rx side I've been having a lot of issues with Linux, since I'm not using an RPi, but a Cubieboard, I have to manually install everything and even on the most basic level, the fucking drivers don't work for the WDN3200. I managed to compile and install them, but even then it refuses to detect the stick properly. I'll just have to dick around with it some more.

I, for one, will be keen to see some pictures of this project.

Great, thanks for the update.

>>249

The range on these things out of the box is beyond shit, however. I tested them the other day and it was somewhere between 15 and 25m, depending on shrubs getting in the way. I will make a modification to the sticks that allows attaching external antennas and put on a cloverleaf, hopefully it will push it beyond 250m.

I also found a really cheap 7" LCD on Aliexpress ($17) that has 480p resolution and ordered it for use with the system, I'm considering making a DIY FPV headset with that screen. The low resolution does defeat the point of the HD FPV, but I intend to buy a full-fledged VR headset in the future, so this is just to have something until then.

I'm also thinking about buying a very low-end analog 5.8GHz video system for low latency, the 150ms in Wifibroadcast isn't terrible but it's not possible to do acrobatic flight with that kind of lag, it's only good for stable flight, like exploration and whatnot. For reference, those systems have around 50ms lag if you pick the parts well.

>>54

>>54

how much would it be for a high end racing drone, complete with a high res fpv equipment? im trynna join drone racing before it gets big here in San Diego

>>257

High res FPV isn't really viable for racing, especially on 250 quads. You want the lowest possible latency and HD video typically stays in the 100ms+ ranges. There are some lower latency transmitters, but they're extremely expensive and big, they don't fit on a racing quad.

If you have money to blow though, you can shop around for a good camera, though the one I see recommended most often, the Sony 600TVL Super HAD is not very expensive as such, but has good adaptability to light, which is pretty important.

You can grab a HeadPlay HD FPV headset, has a 800x1280 screen and HDMI in, so if you decide to later on give a try to HD FPV, it will be able to handle it. Also has an integrated receiver for standard analog video. This one costs $250. Cheaper solutions do exist however.

For the transmitter I think you can safely grab something Eachine from Banggood, it's not likely to make a huge difference. Research antennas however, they make a big difference.

For the actual quadcopter, you should probably consider starting with a cheaper quad because you're gonna be crashing a lot. If you have absolutely 0 experience with quads, I strongly recommend getting a bigger $30-$45 toy quadcopter from China so you can get used to their handling without breaking a propeller every minute. Alternatively you can just use a simulator but it's not quite the same.

Only if you are confident in your flying should you start throwing money at the quadcopter itself, if you buy brandname components you're gonna be finding yourself around the $400 mark for the body, motors, ESCs and battery. The same shit costs $90 from China.

If you don't have a radio, a RadioLink AT9 is a good value choice at around $100, otherwise you can get an FrSky X9D+ at some $250.