HobbyKing or RCTimer Arduino flight controller?

H

Hugh Hemington

Well-Known Member
I went with the ArduFlyer (RCTimer) and now all my parts are ordered. (my frame is here and built)

frame: Quadcopter "Big Body" (QuadLugs)
controller/autopilot: ArduFlyer 2.5.2 915Mhz telemetry (RCTimer)
esc: 45A (Turnigy)
motors: 1100Kv (Turnigy)
propellers: 11x4.7, (Turnigy)
motor to motor distance: 24 inches (610mm)

battery: 4S 3000mAh 40C (Turnigy) & 4S 5000mah 40C (Zippy)
total weight: 2.2kg
flying time: ???

radio: Turnigy 9X
video/osd: 1.2HHz, 1000mW trans. (LawMate) (no OSD)
FPV cam: Astak CM-7500 ActionPro 3
other: FatShark Base SD goggles

Misc: LEA-6H GPS & compass

Now, I wait, and wait, and wait...
 
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The ArduFlyer 2.5.2 came in today from RCTimer, along with the power module and case. It's a pill finding enough info on the ArduFlyer! I finally figured out all the plugs, apart from the annunciator which I'll probably scrap. Hopefully I'll be able to make anyone else's entry into the ArduFlyer a lot easier.
The board worked fine connected to USB. I put shrink tubing over the telemetry tx & rx modules today, but didn't test them yet.
Looking back at my in-transit HobbyKing order (in the local SwissPost warehouse as of today!), I realized I ordered reverse-polarity circularly polarized antennas for the FPV tx & rx. Probably not the last $15 I'll flush down the john on this project. So I'll need to re-buy the right ones. I want circ pol for the telemetry too (915MHz), a case and pedestal for the GPS/mag, carbon fiber props (I bought what I could from US warehouse -- glow in the dark), and generally a whole lot of stuff I need to finish up and can't get from U.S. warehouse. I think I can get short SMA extensions locally. I'd like the telemetry tx and FPV tx antennas in opposite corners, with the more powerful FPV tx as far from the GPS/mag as I can get it.
When my HobbyKing order gets here in a couple of days, I'll know how the ESCs will connect and mount. My preference is to extend the motor wires as needed to keep the ESCs in-board as much as possible and off the arms. I'll also get to play with the FPV transmitter and figure out if I need a UBEC to provide clean 12v, or it'll just eat distro board power and be happy. I may buy another 5v module to power the camera, or wait and see if it's better to run it on the internal battery. And I don't have OSD on this yet, so that might be fun too.
Once I know I can fly the 5000mah ZIPPY battery, I'll get two more. The 3000mah Turnigy is quite a bit smaller, and won't fit securely in the battery saddles I have, so maybe that will be a bench battery.

Things are looking good so far, but the real test will be when I hit the throttle and it flies or just sits there looking expensive.
 
I'm tracking my third HobbyKing order. Yesterday it was in Inglewood (CA). Today it made it all the way to Los Angeles -- THREE MILES! Yahoo! Let's hear it for Swiss Post. If I get notice they passed it off to USPS, I'll abandon all hope of getting it this week. Meanwhile, HALF my DealExtreme order arrived -- predictably the half I cared the least about, the smaller of two gram scales.

HobbyKing order includes servo leads, GPS/mag dome, a set of carbon fiber props, receiver controlled switch and a 5volt UBEC for the camera. I'm getting a selection of LED strobes from DealExtreme (what the receiver controlled switch is for) and I'll mount them around the frame and canopy so I can find the quad in the sky, and find the front when necessary. Also a digital scale going to 14KG. (the smaller one tops out at 500g). I want to know what stuff weighs when it's time to shed weight.

So with everything stalled a bit, I built a quad "stand" out of an old champagne box. It has four legs long enough to hold the quad upright or upside-down. And I can screw it down and run up the motors. The screws have some play, so I'll see where and when the motors pull the quad up off the stand. I'd like to think the quad could lift the box and fly, but I'm pretty sure it'll stay on the bench.

The HobbyKing glow-in-the-dark props turn out to be REALLY well balanced. None of the two sets I bought needs any tape at all. (Turnigy Slow Fly Glow in the Dark Propeller 11x4.7)

My tip for the day? Industrial Velcro! (the pin and ball type) It's great. I stacked my ESCs with it. In my spare time, I lined the canopy and underside of the deck with institutional aluminum foil (the gargantuan roll you get at Costco). Hopefully that will shield the APM 2.5.2 from the ESCs below, and the FPV transmission antenna ahead. Also, the foil runs far enough back on the deck to offer some shielding to the GPS/mag when that goes up on the boom/dome. I also ripped the heat sync off some transistors on a dead computer power supply and attached it to the FPV transmitter "stone pads". That thing gets hot at 1000mW!
 
Today, I got servo leads, a GPS dome, 5v BEC (to power the camera), and a receiver controlled switch (to turn my LEDs on and off later).
The GPS dome was for a different GPS, and I had to glorg mine -- using a dremel tool to grind off the corners, then grinding out the molding on the inside of the dome to accommodate my LEA-6H with mag. Then when I started to mount it where I planned, I realized the cables were too short, by five inches, so I put it someplace else. I'll either live with it there, get longer cables or SOLDER.
I bought the ArduFlyer in a kit from RCTimer along with a (useless) LED board, this "better" GPS/mag and a telemetry set. It seems no one sells a flight controller board KIT, WITH a ublox LEA-6H GPS, WITH a dome! They sell it in the kit without the dome, or separately (Quanum) WITH the dome, and predictably, you cannot just buy the dome anywhere! So if you buy the kit, you either live without the dome, buy the wrong dome and get Medieval on it, or buy ANOTHER identical GPS with a dome and toss the first one in the parts bucket.

The 5v BEC completed the wiring harness for my FPV rig, and all the wires tucked neatly inside a plastic box screwed to the deck. Now the transmitter runs right off the distribution board, but the camera gets run/charged off the BEC, so I can pull the 20gram battery if I want to.

Now if DealExtreme can find my LED strobes and ship them, I can use that switch. By the way, DealExtreme has neat stuff, but they have two modes of shipping -- a boat with sails, and a boat with oars.
 
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