Help needed to build my first quadcopter

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drone newbie

Member
Hello everybody,

I am a newbie into the world of UAVs/multicopters and after reading and reading a lot of stuff and useful information I need to start sorting things out inside my head. Therefore, I need the help of the experienced guys to make sure that I am heading to the right direction. I hope that my engineering background (10 years professional experience in Computer Aided Engineering) will help me get into the UAV world much easier.

I want to build a UAV because I like learning and always getting around new technological fields (in the present case, the control theory science). Also, I find it quite fun and impressive to fly little machines that can have so many features.

As this will be my first quadcopter, currently I am interested to buy all the right stuff and assemble them all together. In the future, and after having some experience, only then I would like to start exploring new features or make some code development work for testing purposes.

So, here are my requirements for my quadcopter:
1)it should be able to reach speeds up to 100km/h
2)it should be able to fly for 25 or more minutes.
3)it should be able to follow objects. Particularly me, when I am driving my racing go kart on the track that reaches speeds up to 100km/h.
4)should be able to automatically take off and automatically land.
5)i should be able to program it to autonomously take off, follow a specific route path and then autonomously land.
6)should have a gimbal for a gopro in order to have smooth aerial video recording
7)it should have a 3km or more flight range

So far, I have decided to buy the DJI Flamewheel frame because of its durability. As a flight controller I decided to buy the PixHawk because of its power and flexibility in case I want to make additional expansions in the future or add new features to my drone or possibly write my own development code.

My questions:
1) Do you find my frame and flight controller selection reasonable with respect to the requirements of the quadcopter I want to build ??
2)Based on your experience, could you suggest me the parts combo that I will need to buy in order to fulfill the requirements of my quadcopter ??? (ESCs, Props, motors etc ) The budget should be the minimum possible.

THank you very much,
 
drone newbie said:
Hello everybody,

I am a newbie into the world of UAVs/multicopters and after reading and reading a lot of stuff and useful information I need to start sorting things out inside my head. Therefore, I need the help of the experienced guys to make sure that I am heading to the right direction. I hope that my engineering background (10 years professional experience in Computer Aided Engineering) will help me get into the UAV world much easier.

I want to build a UAV because I like learning and always getting around new technological fields (in the present case, the control theory science). Also, I find it quite fun and impressive to fly little machines that can have so many features.

As this will be my first quadcopter, currently I am interested to buy all the right stuff and assemble them all together. In the future, and after having some experience, only then I would like to start exploring new features or make some code development work for testing purposes.

So, here are my requirements for my quadcopter:
1)it should be able to reach speeds up to 100km/h
2)it should be able to fly for 25 or more minutes.
3)it should be able to follow objects. Particularly me, when I am driving my racing go kart on the track that reaches speeds up to 100km/h.
4)should be able to automatically take off and automatically land.
5)i should be able to program it to autonomously take off, follow a specific route path and then autonomously land.
6)should have a gimbal for a gopro in order to have smooth aerial video recording
7)it should have a 3km or more flight range

So far, I have decided to buy the DJI Flamewheel frame because of its durability. As a flight controller I decided to buy the PixHawk because of its power and flexibility in case I want to make additional expansions in the future or add new features to my drone or possibly write my own development code.

My questions:
1) Do you find my frame and flight controller selection reasonable with respect to the requirements of the quadcopter I want to build ??
2)Based on your experience, could you suggest me the parts combo that I will need to buy in order to fulfill the requirements of my quadcopter ??? (ESCs, Props, motors etc ) The budget should be the minimum possible.

THank you very much,
Click to expand...


Unless you have plenty of money the 100km/h and 25 minute flight times will be really hard to accomplish. Is there a chance that you could swap batteries out to get that flight time? For example having 3 batteries that each give you 9 minutes each? Carrying a gopro at those speeds is not impossible, but somewhat hard, is this to be completely autonomous?

oddcopter.com/flight-controllers
 
Regarding the 100km/h and 25 flight time issue, I dont mean that it should travel with that speed for the whole time. The 100km/h should be reached lets say for 1 minute in total just to catch a few shots from a fast moving object. FOr the rest of the time it should travel with a lower speed lets say around 20km/h. Is that still hard to be done without spending a fortune ??

Regarding the gopro I plan to have a gimball for it. And yes, I would like the quadcopter to be able to automatically take off, follow a specific route path and then automatically land back to its start position..

Do you think my requirements are hard to be achieved without spending a fortune ??


THank you
 
That should all be doable, and won't be too pricey. What type of budget do you have?

Check these flight controllers out, I am thinking either NAZA or mutiwii
 
My budget would be 1000Euro

I have already seen about NAZA,Multiwii and other controllers as well, but i keep reading that the PixHawk has the most capabilities, features and allows a lot of customization (even development code) .... Do you think that I should use another flight controller like NAZA or multiwii for particular reasons ???

Thank you
 
drone newbie said:
My budget would be 1000Euro

I have already seen about NAZA,Multiwii and other controllers as well, but i keep reading that the PixHawk has the most capabilities, features and allows a lot of customization (even development code) .... Do you think that I should use another flight controller like NAZA or multiwii for particular reasons ???

Thank you
Click to expand...


With a budget like that you should be fine to use PixHawk, it is more geared towards autonomous flight, which is what you would need. The MutiWii and PixiHawk are both equally customization, but that is simply because it is olso open source.
 
Hello,

after some days of reading and research regarding quadcopters and their theory, I have decided to use the following configuration:

DJI Flamewheel F450 frame
ESC E-Max BLHeli 30A OPTO
DJI 2212-920KV
Gnauper E Prop 9*5
LiPo 10000mAh 15/30C 4S1P
CC3D or Naze32 Acro flight controller

1) Do you find my selections proper ???
2) From the above products, is there anything that could be swapped in order to improve my setup dramatically ??
3) between CC3D and Naze32 Acro which one would you recommend ?? I know that they dont offer autonomous features but I just want to start from them before going to Pixhawk or OpenPilot Revo...

Thank you in advance...
 
drone newbie said:
Hello,

after some days of reading and research regarding quadcopters and their theory, I have decided to use the following configuration:

DJI Flamewheel F450 frame
ESC E-Max BLHeli 30A OPTO
DJI 2212-920KV
Gnauper E Prop 9*5
LiPo 10000mAh 15/30C 4S1P
CC3D or Naze32 Acro flight controller

1) Do you find my selections proper ???
2) From the above products, is there anything that could be swapped in order to improve my setup dramatically ??
3) between CC3D and Naze32 Acro which one would you recommend ?? I know that they dont offer autonomous features but I just want to start from them before going to Pixhawk or OpenPilot Revo...

Thank you in advance...
Click to expand...
I'd not use an OPTO ESC, that just means you'll be using a BEC, and most all people install OPTO ESCs wrong anyways. That 10Ah battery is going to be really heavy, especially at 4S, I'd suggest you get a couple Mutistar 5200 mAh batteries and use them one at a time. A lot of people like the NAZE.
 
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