Tag Archives: Build quadcopter

Building my Quadcopter

Posted by on February 18, 2014 3 comments

In my last article I described which parts do we need, so we can build a 300$ quadcopter. I will try to explain the building process as simple as possible. In this article I would not mention how to optimize your copter by eliminating vibrations, balancing props or tuning the PID settings of your flight board. In my opinion a beginner should start with the basics and then learn new things step by step. So let´s get started.

In my very first quadcopter I used the X525 frame from HobbyKing, but later I created my own frame. This one is made of plywood on a CNC-machine. If you bought the X525 frame you should start with assembling it first. An assembly manual is included in the package with it. When you are ready with this step, then you should mount the 4 motors on it, without any attached propellers. The Turnigy D2830-11 motors come with a mounting adapter, screws and prop-adapters. On the X525 you don’t need the mounting adapters and can easily mount the motors direct on the glass fiber motor mounts. On the picture below you can see the motor on my actual plywood frame.

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On the second picture you can see it from the bottom side. Here we come to the next step: connecting the four ESCs with the motors. Every ESC has on the one side 3 cables (red, black and yellow) and on the other side 2 cables (red and black). There is also a tiny cable which ends with a male-plug.

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Please note that the ESC on the picture has no connectors on its cables. As I mentioned in my first article you can buy these 3.5mm gold connectors and solder them on the ESC. By two of the ESCs (either Nr.1 and Nr.3, or Nr. 2 and Nr. 4) you should reverse the red and yellow cables. This is because we want two of the motors to spin in counter-clock direction. I tried to illustrate this on the picture below.

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Propellers: The right one spins in clock direction, the left one in counter-clock direction. I had the problem as a beginner that, I didn’t mount the right prop on the right motor and so my quad either not take off or flipped. So take you time and do it right.

Next you should connect these tiny cables from each ESC to your flight board. If you bought the KK 2.0 board or the newer one KK 2.1, you can check the next picture on how to do it right. The cable from ESC 1 (front left) comes on pin1, ESC 2 (front right) comes on pin2, ESC3 (bottom right) comes on pin3 and ESC 4 (bottom left) comes on pin4. The tiny-cables must have this order from left to right: yellow, red, brown.

Then you should connect the other cables of each ESC to the battery. All 4 red cables to the red cable on the battery and all 4 black cables to the black cable on the battery. There are three ways to accomplish that: You have bought a power distribution board and solder the cables on that one. Or you bought a power breakout cable…or you make yourself one.

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Once you have done this, you should connect the receiver (RX) to the board. On the KK2.0 and KK2.1 the receiver-pins are on the left side. You need at least a 4-Channel-RX for a quadcopter and if you are using the KK board it is good to have a 6CH or more. When connecting the cables to the board, beware: from right to left: yellow, red, brown. (Brown for ground, red for VCC and yellow for signal cable). If you want to test, if all the cables are right connected go to the “Receiver Screen” on your KK board and do this: Move the sticks on your Transmitter (TX) and see if it is right indicated on the screen. Probably you should also reverse some of the channels on your TX to do it working properly.

So if everything is connected the right way you can try to make your first fly. To do this you need to “ARM” your flight board. Move the Throttle-Stick on your transmitter down and right and hold it for a few seconds and then release it. In this case the board should indicate “Armed”. Now move your throttle stick very slowly so the motors start spinning. Then move it again very carefully and observe the behavior of the copter. If you have problems such as not taking off or flipping, as said you had mounted the props wrong or connected the yellow and red cables of the ESCs wrong. If so, “disarm” your copter by moving the throttle stick down and left for a few seconds, so the KK board shows the “Safe” screen. Then try to fix the problem and try again. If you cant solve the problem, you can either search on google or comment here.

At the end: Beware, these machines are not toys, they have a lot of power and can heart people. Be careful when flying and have fun. If you find my article useful, please click on the buttons below to share it. Thanks!

02.06.2014 Update: Here you can see my new build with the “SG Adventure” carbon frame.

How to build a Quadcopter

Posted by on December 10, 2013 No comments

A few years ago I read an article about the so called “Drones” and I was very excited about the idea of building my own drone. Last year after my final-exams I had a lot of time, so I decided to build my first QuadCopter. My budget was about 300 $. The most popular website I found was: hobbyking.com. So I started buying the parts. Here are the ones I bought, but you can choose your own if you have a bigger budget:

First you need a frame, where you will mount the motors and the electronic-parts. I chose a X525 Glass Fiber frame for 15.25 $. It looks cool and is very durable. A year after I work on my own frame, but as a beginner it was the best choice.

For a QuadCopter you need naturally 4 electric motors. I chose this one: Turnigy D2830-11 1000kv for 9,5 $. I’m still using these in my own quadcopter. There are some better motors, but they are more expensive too.

For all types of MultiCopters (Quadcopter, Hexacopter, Octocopter, Tricopter) you need the so called “speed controllers” (ESC). A speed controller is the electric part, which regulate how fast your motor will spin. My choice was a  HobbyKing 30A BlueSeries Brushless Speed Controller. One of these cost about 11 $. As you have 4 motors on a quadcopter, you also need 4 speed controllers. In February I was able to upgrade the firmware of the speed controllers with the very popular SimonK. It is specially created for multirotors and there was a big difference before and after the software upgrade. To do this you need a little bit of solder skills. As I said if you have a bit bigger budget you can directly buy four of the Afro 30A Speed Controller, which is already upgraded with the SimonK firmware. This one cost about 14 $.

Probably the most important part of every multicopter is the Flight Controller or Flight Board. There are some extremely good flight controllers such as the DJI Naza. Here is a link for the DJI Products Website. This one cost about 300 $. So it was too much for my budget. I decided to get the Hobbyking KK 2.0 Board for 30 $. For that price it is a very good flight controller, but it lacks the altitude hold because there is no barometer on the board. My copter is still with this board and it still works well after a lot of crashes. Last month Hobbyking introduced the successor of the KK 2.0 board – the KK 2.1 board. Practically it is the same board with upgraded software and some upgraded sensors. It still doesn’t have a altitude hold. And it still costs 30 $. Another good flight controller is the APM 2.6 by 3D-Robotics with GPS. This could be my next flight controller, but now I don’t have the 240 $ for it. There are clones of this board, but is always good choice to support the original one if you have the resources $$$.

For a quadcopter you also need 2 x Standard Rotation and 2 x Right Hand Rotation propellers. I decided that the best propeller size for my quadcopter build is 10×4.5. So I bought this pack for 2,6 $ from Hobbyking. Well I bought 3 packs for the case I will crash my quadcopter. And… I crashed it many times… so it was a good decision.

At first I bought a 2200mAh 3S 40C LiPo battery for 15$ and it was ok, but then I decided that I need more flight time, so I bought also a 3300mAh 3S 30C LiPo for 26 $. The first one has 3.5mm connector and the second one 4mm connector.

As a beginner I didn’t knew that the KK 2.0 flight board comes without cables to the receiver. So I didn’t buy these Male to Male Servo Leads for 4 $. Then I bought these on ebay for much more.

You will need some 3.5mm gold connectors and 4mm gold connectors for the speed controllers and for the battery. If you don’t want to solder, then you will need to buy presoldered ESCs (such as the Afro 30A speed controller) and this 3.5mm Power Breakout Cable. The last one can be used with the 3300mAh 3S LiPo battery. I also bought some zip ties.

Annnddd last but not least you need a transmitter for your drone. For a multirotor a simple 4 Channel radio will be ok. The KK 2.0 board have also a Self-level-feature, so you will need 5 CH. My first choice was the DX6i by Spektrum. It is a very good radio but it was too expensive for me, so I got the cheap Turnigy 9x. It is also a very good 9 Channel radio for 50 $. It has not the design and build quality of the Spektrum, but for a beginner it was and still is a good choice.

So my order was about 230 $ and 40 $ for shipping, overall 270 $ for my first quadcopter. It is still not a small amount of money, but the feeling of building your own drone and then see it flying … priceless.

p.s. In the next weeks I will also blog about the build process and my troubles with the quadcopter.