LATEST MODS

Just gonna share photos of the acro quad I am building. Thanks to Soma for coming up with the WarpQuad. Looks the best out of all the acrobatic quads out there.

Here’s the center frames. It sandwiches the 4mm carbon fiber legs.

I switched out some of the hardware. Such as the aluminum washer below. And used power cables that comes attached together. For a neater run of the brushless motor wires to the center of the WarpQuad.

Another change from the standard build out. I added 1.72mm washers so I can run the 22guage motor wire underneath the top plate.

Then I modified the XT60 lipo connector so that it can be sandwiched between the frames. Filed down the connector so it can conform to the curve of the top plate.

You can see where the power distribution harness will solder to and subsequently run to each of the ESC.

Those were the early photos. These upcoming photos are where the WarpQuad build out is at now. It took forever to source red aluminum washers with the same bevel as the blue ones I had on hand. Still not perfect but very close. The aluminum TeeNut that the frame is resting on is just to temporary hold the arms in place. And make it easy to disassemble without tools. This frees up my hand to ensure the cable runs are neat and nothing is pinched.

I switch to button head screws. Red aluminum 5mm. The hex size will take the same allen wrench to be consistent with the rest of the screw head used on this quad. The four button head should be strong enough to secure the motor.

Here is a closer shot of the red washers and where I intend on placing the ESC. In the center of the quad instead of on the arms like the reference build out by Soma.

A look at the cable run and how it meets up with the brushless motor. I created a stagger cut because I didn’t want to seperate the wires to fit heatshrinks. The stagger will keep the wires from shorting. As extra precaution, I applied Liquid Electrical tape to insulate. Then follow by a larger heatshrink to cover up the area. To dress up the heatshrink…I used chrome tape and nail art tape. This brings some blink down to this end of the arms.

Additionally, I hope the chrome take will help reflect some of the LED lights up to the props once I place one there.

Here is a look at the stagger cut I mentioned before. Some folks have asked why I choose to use four motor wires when brushless motors only require three. The simple answer is for symmetry once it gets to the center of the frame and have to go to the left and right of the screw.

The quad is ready for the ESC to be soldered on. Easy to do. However, I need to figure out how I want to route the power wires and still have room to fit the Flight Controller between the frame. There’s really no room for both. :)

added August 13, 2014: Check out the complete rev1 build here… http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2176239#post28508149

Lovely spring weather means I am antsy to build and fly again. I am planning on using this Hobby King HKing 10a brushless ESC in a 230mm size acro quad. Not sure if it will be able to endure SunnySky 2204 2300kv with 3s lipo but I like the physical size…so I will give it a try anyways.

Anyways, the dimensions on Hobby King is incorrect (23mm x 18mm). Here are the actual values as measured with the digital caliper. The bare ESC as pictured weighs 2.59g.

It arrived with 20guage silicone wires for the main power. And 22gauge silicone wires for the motor leads.

Missing from the photo is the electrolytic capacitor (100uf 16v). I took it off so I can use a tantalum SMD capacitor with the same values. It’s much smaller physically. Hopefully it works out. :)

What I like about this ESC is the fact that it’s BLHeli compatible. Plus, it uses all N-channel MOSFET. And it was reasonably inexpensive at $5.78. Here’s an inexpensive BLHeli programmer, and another another. You will need one of these for flashing the firmware or updating the parameters of the ESC using the BLHeli Suite software. Unless you already have an official SilLabs Toolstick. Then you can follow this guide for modding it for the same function.

Just stuck a brushless motor into the v911 pro frame.

Flights felt underpowered. I think it will need a larger pinion. I didn’t play with it too much so I can’t tell if we can get the v911 to actually fly better. Additionally, you’ll need to reinforce the main frame after cutting away the vertical struts to make room for the brushless motor.

Just wanted to share my new 1S LiPo charging station. I took a 1s Micro parallel charging paraboard from Hobby King and mod it to become a serial charging board. I think this paraboard would be cheaper and easier to mod. Plus, it does not have the LED that drains the first lipo cell if you don’t remove the lipo right after charging has completed.

With this mod, I can use the balance port of the charger to individually charge each cell. I can charge from 1 cell to 6 cells.

Here’s a closer look.

Here it is, charging two 150mAh LiPo. The stick the temperature probe near the cells so the iCharger could monitor the temp and be able to shut down the charging if any cell rises to unsafe temperature.

And here’s how you configure the board if you were to charge 3 lipo cells. You simply move the positive lead to the last cell. I like it because I can charge all the various connectors normally used with 1s LiPo.

You can also charge different capacity LiPo together. But for safety, you would limit yourself to the charge rate of the lowest capacity connected lipo. Not a big deal if you have the time. Otherwise, it would be better to charge cell combination with similar capacities.

Hope that inspires you with your own mods.

Alternate color scheme…orange/white/black

See the original post here: Blade Nano CP X “Logo XXtreme” Paper Canopy

For those of you installing the Blade Nano QX flight controller onto the v929/v949/v959 frame. Here’s the latest template you can print out. Overlay against a piece of clear plastic and cut out an adapter. The white rectangles are so the motor plugs on the board can have clearance.

Click on the following button to download the PDF. When printing, ensure that you’re not resizing or fitting the image to page. Just print at default scale.

See this thread for more info: Blade nQX FC board on mQX, Ladybird & X4 size quads

We’re talking mixing and matching quads parts to build “FrakenQuads” on the RCGroups thread: Blade nQX FC board on mQX & Ladybird size quads

I know there lots of newbies looking to do this, but wasn’t sure of the relative sizes when we talk about mQX size or Ladybird size. We use those terms because the Blade mQX is the first on the market in that type and size. And the Walkera Ladybird was the first on the market in that relative size.

The nQX is thrown in there because the topic of the thread is to use the nQX flight controller (FC) on top of the mQX, Ladybird style frame. Plus, the nQX has a unique frame. In that the motor distances sits somewhere between the LadyBird and Hubsan X4 (aka Traxxas QR-1), yet the prop guards give it a visual silhouette of a slightly larger bird. Which I find helps me in orientation once it’s a good distance from me.

Anyways, hope that helps. I took the mm size distance between prop center. Then converted it to a pixel value. So the 155mm mQX becomes a 155px on the screen. :)

I needed some 250mAh 1S LiPo that will fit in the battery cage of some of the micro quad that has found it’s home in my growing fleet. On the forum, many suggest the cell BangGood listed for 5@ $12 is the best performing lipo for their micro quad. I purchased them to check them out for myself.

They just arrived and I noticed that they were labeled FullyMax 250mAh. I know from the FBL80 that HiSky do use FullyMax lipo with their label on top. So I compared it to the 250mAh 25c lipo that came with my Hobby King Qbot Micro (A HiSky FF120 rebrand).

Here are the results.

Both 1s 250mAh weighs ~7.90g.
Both lipo has the same dimensions and looks exactly the same.

And here are their discharge curve for comparision:

My buddy had his v949 in my lab so I can put on the better performing GWS EP5443 props. Like I mentioned in my earlier blog post, these props are a performance upgrade for Blade mQX, v929, v949 type quadcopters.

I took the opportunity to paint him up a canopy in his favorite color, green.

I choose a pearl green. Looks nice.

Here’s the front view:

And this is what it looks like at night:

As technology progresses and we RC hobbyist find the need to mount additional things to our transmitter, the need for adjustable mount points arises. Of course, if these transmitter manufacturer were current with the time, we would have more elegant solutions in place. Instead, follow along for a solution if you don’t like every hobbyist best friend, tape and velcro.

Check out this Walkera QR w100s quad that allows you to mount an iPhone so you can get a first person point of view, while still being able to control via your radio transmitter.

There are other tools and software such as iKopter, that allows for waypoint programming of your drone with Google Maps overlayed, all right from the phone. Then there are the popular telemetry displays that many pilots are already attaching to their TX.

For my purpose, I simply need a rear mount point that I can attach my HiSky HT-8 or Tactic Anylink module to. And be able to easily be removed, pivot and adjust as needed. Kindda like how Lego pieces snaps together.

With that thought in mind, why not use lego pieces. My little boys has a bunch of Lego Hero Factory (Bionicle) pieces all over the place. And I noticed that the pieces is perfect for what I had in mind.

Without their knowledge, I took a piece.

It used a Dremel to cut it in half right at the line. Then I drilled a hole and stuck the ball and stem through it. epoxy it in place because I didn’t want to bother removing the case and coming up with a mount solution. Hot glue may work just as well.

Here’s the stud:

Then I use a screw to securely attach the other half:

Now, I can attach and switch between the AnyLink or HT-8 module easily. And the TX still fits in my existing transmitter case without having to update the layout.

It holds securely and can pivot in every which way. You can extend it with other Lego Hero Factory pieces for additional accessories addon or to make things for secure. It’s really up to your imagination at this point.

update (06/21/2013)
I found that Walkera made a couple of mounts available that obviously fit their radio and possibly others.

Here’s the Phone Holder A for their bigger radios: 2402D, Devo7, Devo10, Devo8s, Devo12, DevoF4 and F7, 2801PRO

And this is the Phone Holder B that fits their smaller radios: Devo 4, 6, 6s, 7E

Here’s the instruction for how it mounts onto the smaller radio.