Building a Quadcopter

[smartroad]

Hi All

For Christmas my other half brought me a small quadcopter as I have been talking about building one. I currently have the Hubsan X4 FPV which is a great little 'copter to start learning flight control with, not so good outside as the slightest breeze and it is off!

However I want to go bigger eventually. I don't have the funds to buy everything at once so will be looking at getting a few parts each month (plus I like the build process as much as the use ).

I have started to build a list of things that I will need to get so I can track what I need, have brought and have spent LOL (the last one is for the money holder not me )

My final design I would like to have the machine able to be FPV and some form of auto-pilot as I would like to use it with the kids at school where I work to show them UAVs.

I have started a list (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AkDkay4qK0WYdEh2WmdIZVNwcVI5TUNpVjlLYjc3WHc&usp=sharing) if anyone would like to comment on anything else I would need/change etc. Any other suggestions would be gratefully received

 

[holtneil]

HI mate its not going to be cheap if you want gps then the naza m would be the best but there are cheaper boards that can be used like kk2.1 but wont have gps multi wii do a cheap board that can run gps but never used it , esc you want to get ones that are simonk flashed as they are more stable ,the battery will have to be over 2200mah (4000mah) would be good the FPV system will be £350 on its own Frames well depends on what you want q450 is about £9 from hobby king with a built in pcb so wiring is easy, if you want the hoverthing FPV flip frame that will be up to £165, motors there are cheap 4 for £40 up to a T motor at £52 each carbon fibre props as plastic are not as good for FPV £40 for 10x4.7 thats a set 2xcw 2xccw, try and use hobby king if you can that will keep the cost down i will put a video on here of why to use simonk flashed esc this will give you some thing to look in to and a link for ecalc this will help you work out flight times for battery esc motors props size etc
http://www.ecalc.ch/xcoptercalc.htm?ecalc&lang=en

 

[OU812_syr]

The test video is invalid as the non simonK is a 12 amp and the simonK is 30 amp the plush ESCs can be flashed to simonK but since it's 12 amp vs 30 amp of course the 30 will be better duh it's all just propaganda aimed at the uninformed viewer

 

[holtneil]

HI mate this is not what the video is about simonk writes a code that makes the throttle better and also makes the escs work better together so its more stable , WHAT is an esc ?,It is a device that take a 2 Phase DC voltage and makes it a 3 phase AC voltage , if you want to find out more about simonk go to rc groups and talk to him ,he wrote the coding and will tell you all about it , there are lots of new members on this site and if you go into deep about flashing /coding etc it will go over there heads , There are lots of us spare the time to help others on here to help not just try and slag each other off , what your saying is not valid i can run my quad on a 12a esc but i go for over kill and run a 30a as long as the max amps pulled by motors does on go over the rate of the esc there is no problem is there