Building a quadcopter for a project, need some help!

[Simon Eddie]

Hello quadcopterForum, I am looking to build my own quadcopter (or rather a few and testing different lifting capabilities depending on a few factors). I do have access to a 3D printer and will be using it to print out the "body" of my quadcopter (already have models completed). My current plan for the actual chopper software is rather complicated, and I feel that it is there where I need some help.
I was planning on buying 4 rotors/motors (reccomendations?) that are capable of connecting to some form of box with bluetooth capabilities which will also have accelerometers etc. hooked up to it. This bluetooth box would then connect to an iPhone which is where the actual software would be stored (I know to a lesser extent how to program apps on an iPhone). The chopper would then be controlled from another iPhone on the ground using a wireless 3G connection to the iPhone on the chopper itself.
Even though this sounds very complicated compared to just buying a ready-made quadcopter, stripping the parts and placing it on a 3D printed frame I feel as though my approach has many advantages; As long as the 3G connection is stable (which it is where I live) control of the chopper should be flawless and work at any range, the iPhone itself has many useful gadjets such as GPS tracking, cameras etc which are nice to have.
Do you feel as if this is a good approach to building my own quadcopter or is there a simpler and better way to do it? What I really dont know is what "box" is capable of using a bluetooth connection to an iPhone whilst being able to transmit information back and forth from 4 motors and 3 accelerometers. My budjet on this project is around 100$-300$.
TL;DR: Building my own quadcopter, 100$-300$, have access to 3D-printer, need help on how to do it the best and simplest way.

 

[Mike]

Some people want to build out everything like you're thinking because they're working on engineering degrees or something, but if you're just interested in all of the features you listed, it pretty much all already exists and is pretty cheap.

A lot of people like to build and design their own frames, but most people go with an off the shelf control board and power systems (battery, esc, motor, prop combos) that have been tested and are known to give appropriate lift for certain frame configurations and weights. As far as motor recommendations, it really depends on the size of the frame you're building. Motors and props will depend on the frame, then ESC's and batteries will depend on the motor and prop combo.

If you're looking for altitude hold, automatic flying by GPS waypoints, return-to-home features, etc. - I've been hearing nothing but good about the Naza M-Lite board, which you can get for under $200 with a GPS module if you shop around.

http://www.dji.com/product/naza-m-lite/

If you're interested in working with 3G/4G, a member on this forum (AJ-Skydrone) is a team of guys that develop the Skydrone FPV system, which is a 3G/4G system with pretty much unlimited range (as long as there is service). This is for FPV video though.

http://skydrone.aero

It sends the signal back to a tablet. It can also do OSD (On Screen Display), which gives you real time flight info.

For long range flying, you'll also need a long range transmitter/receiver setup. You should look into DragonLink for an idea of what that entails:

http://dragonlinkrc.com/v2/

I don't know of any flight control board that has Bluetooth capabilities, but that would be very interesting to see your idea of two iPhones in action. I think your budget for R&D would easily be way into the 10's of thousands though. The Skydrone guys mentioned above have a team of developers and a lot of funding behind them and their product deals with just the video/ FPV part.