After the last big quadcopter crash I have decided to start a new project instead trying to fix the current quad. I have been flying this FY450 with the same setup for almost a year now, and I had several crashes and other failures that makes the quad not able for shooting good video footage at this point.
I´ll try to build this multirotor from scratch, which is also a good way to learn how everything works. I pretend to use a lighter frame, and better motors, rotors and ESCs. I will reuse, from the current quad, the Naza M Lite with the GPS, the ImmersionRC 600mw video Tx with the camera, and the same Futaba R6208SB receiver.
Naza M Lite GPS, ImmersionRC 600mw, Futaba R6208S
The components
For this new project, and after some research, I have chosen some components that hopefully will help to:
Increase flight time,
Better support of the total weight of the quad plus gimbal, camera, etc.,
Building the frame is easy following the instructions sheet. It looks resistant and well finished.
Frame Tarot Iron Man 650 foldable
Frame Tarot Iron Man 650 foldable
Frame Tarot Iron Man 650 foldable
Frame Tarot Iron Man 650 foldable
Frame Tarot Iron Man 650 foldable
Frame Tarot Iron Man 650 foldable
It is important to level the motor holders, so they are as horizontal as possible.
Leveling the motor holder
I´m using now a propeller balancer with magnets, I used to do it in a rudimentary way, but I have to say that this balancer works great.
Propeller Balancer with magnet
Size comparison between the frame Tarot Iron Man 650 foldable and the frame Whirlwind FY450. The components on the Iron Man are just for illustrative purposes, I don´t know yet where I am placing them.
Size comparison Iron Man 650 vs Whirlwind FY450
Connections
Now it´s time for soldering. As you can see in the following pictures, I have soldered together the ESCs and the Naza BEC positives to the red thick wire. The same process with the negatives. Then cover it with thermoretractable tube. This two main wires will be connected to the main battery. The gimbal and the FPV will be fed from their own batteries as usual.
I think the following way of soldering two or more wires together is pretty good, I have done it just like you can see here:
Soldering the T-Motor 30A ESC and the Naza BEC
Soldering the T-Motor 30A ESC and the Naza BEC
Placing the T-Motor 30A ESCs, and the wires inside
Well, the anti-jello solution test hasn´t gone as expected. I´m not quite sure about what has happened, but I had a really bad accident and the quadcopter resulted seriously damaged.
As you can see in the video, there are three moments when the quadcopter bends quickly to the right. Once right after taking off and crash for the first time, another one with no consequences, and a third one before crashing for the second time.
After the last crash, the temperature of the rear right motor was significantly higher. Along with the weird bending to the right side, makes me think on a motor failure. Probably one of the wires connected to the ESC, maybe the ESC itself...? I don´t think this was due to a Naza issue or a bad calibration, but maybe a gimbal problem has something to do too? (at minute 1:10, the front of the quad appears on the top of the screen while the camera is bent to the right...)
I couldn´t test long the shutter effect with the ND filter, but as I can see in the video, there is no jello, but some vibrations still remain. The crash ended up with:
Three broken propellers
Two broken legs
One motor wire broken
Two peeled wires
A gimbal malfunction
Let´s grab the tools, some patience, and head off to the garage!
Yes, I´m still trying to get rid of jello! It seems that shooting with the GoPro under too bright conditions, it uses a very fast shutter speed which records all the tiny high-frequency vibrations from your motors, props, etc., and causes this rolling shutter effect, or jello.
Fixing this is still a priority in my To-Do list, as I have to eliminate lot´s of shots that could be used perfectly in the final footage because of the jello. I will try to reduce part of it (or all If I´m lucky!) using a neutral density filter to reduce the shutter speed but letting through enough light for a clear picture.
There are some already made filters for the GoPro but are a bit expensive, and who knows if they are going to solve my problem... so I prefer to go first for a DIY solution and see what happens.
This is the solution I have come up with, for under $5:
A piece of cardboard (used to avoid the shadow of the propellers on the lens)
A thin cord
A neutral Density filter (I have used a .9, that reduces light 3 stops)
Glue
Steps:
Cut the cardboard with the shape of a trapezium.
Long side: 4.5cm
Short side: 2.5cm
Height: 2.5cm
Cut the plastic base of the lens protector so it fits the holder of the GoPro Gimbal. I guess you can use it without this holder to reduce weight too...
Glue the lens protector to the holder. I highly recommend to always use the lens protector (with or without filter). I´ve commited the mistake of not using it and I´ve damaged the lens :( (see picture below).
Cut a circle of 3cm of diameter from a piece of ND filter. You can either buy it, or ask for a filter sample bock at a photography store. The samples have the perfect fit for the GoPro and you have lots of them to try!
Glue the thin cord to the border of the filter, in order of being able to take it out from the lens protector. This is due to the holder of the gimbal, that has a smaller diameter than the protector itself.
Insert the filter into the lens protector.
Glue the cardboard (the visor) over the lens protector, and use the WiFi preview of the GoPro to check if you need to cut a bit more the visor in order to not appear on the shot (I had to do it to avoid it using the wide FOV).
I forgot the GoPro microSD card at home so I don't have any video to show you today!
I have tried first without the gimbal and the camera, just in case the Naza does some funny things and I end up crashing the quad and braking any of them. I have calibrated the compass, no problems at all, and waited until the green light indicates more than 6 satellites have been found.
Manual mode: It seems to fly ok. I've never used this mode yet, I don't feel confident at all!
Atti mode: It feels to me that the flight is really good. I've noticed that the quad keeps the direction with no yaw apparently. I had this issue with the KK2 before, and had to be correcting it with the TX all the time.
Atti GPS mode: I can't complain at all! Flying with this mode is not as aggressive as atti, but you release the sticks and the quad remains in that position, even if it's windy.
Course Lock: After you plug your battery in, it takes about 30 seconds or maybe less to automatically record the nose position. So when you activate Course Lock, no matter the position of the quad is, that you only have to think on that starting position. It's a bit confusing but you get used to it in no time.
Home Lock: Be aware that you have to be further than 10 mts from the TX in order of having this feature working. No matter where the quad is or the nose position, It will come to you once you bring it backwards with the TX. Notice that it will enter into Course Lock one the quad is less than 10 mts from you.
Return To Home: I accidentally tried this feature, because my TX ran out of battery. I had this beep warning me about it but I thought I had more time for flying. It is fantastic! It should have been a crash without the Naza. Instead, the quad went up 20 mts, came to the vertical where I was, started descending slowly, and it gently and smoothly landed. Wow. I am impressed!
Voltage protection: I had it ON the first time. It works fine, when you have not enough battery it lands itself (in atti or atti GPS modes). But in my opinion it does it really soon, even if you set up the parameters as you want. I was used before to the voltage alarm connected directly to the battery, so I've switched this feature off and I land when it starts beeping, giving me a bit more of flight time.
Remote gain settings: I haven't noticed any change on the quad behavior when I've modified the gains... I'll test it better next time!
Be aware not to fly close to power line towers. At least in my case, as soon as I got closer (less than 120 mts), the quad started doing weird things (atti and atti gps), loosing a bit of control. It seems to enter into failsafe but I'm not sure what is going on...
And just for your information, fully loaded (FPV and battery, gimbal and battery, GoPro = 1.8kg) and using the 4000mAh Turnigy battery, I had 8.5 minutes of flight time. I went up to 10 minutes with the 5000mAh one.
I've been thinking for long to get a flight control board with GPS, in order of improving safety when flying, and another nice features.
There are several boards available, but I've decided to buy the DJI NAZA M Lite with GPS. It's not the most advanced model, but it has the features I want and it's affordable.
For entry-level enthusiasts, DJI now brings out the most cost-effective
solution, the NAZA-M Lite flight control system. As the simplified
version of NAZA-M, it inherits the high reliability and stability of
NAZA-M. The innovative All-in-one design simplifies installation and
saves space and weight. It contains inner damping, controllers, 3-axis
gyroscope, 3-axis accelerometer and barometer in its light and small
Main Controller. It can measure flying altitude, attitude and therefore
can be used for autopilot/automatic control.
It offers three types of control modes:
GPS Atti. Mode (with GPS module): when you release the sticks, it locks the current position.
Atti. Mode: when you release the sticks, the attitude is stabilized.
Manual Mode.
Then, there are three options for the Intelligence Orientation Control (IOC)
Course Lock: the forward direction is the same as a recorded nose direction (the nose direction is recorded when the battery is connected)
Home Lock: the forward direction is the same as the direction from home point to the multi-rotor.
Deactivated
Another useful features are
Failsafe mode: when the communication between the main controller and the transmitter is disconnected and the GPS module is used, you can set Return To Home (RTH) so the multi-rotor will come back to the taking off position and land by itself. You can also set the failsafe for landing wherever the multi-rotor is at that moment.
Low voltage protection: in order to prevent your multi-rotor from crashing or other harmful consequences caused by low battery voltage, the multi-rotor will descend and land if you are using GPS atti mode or atti mode.
Gimbal stabilization: the system will adjust the gimbal and camera according to the attitude
of the multi-rotor after setting the parameters the first time.
Physical set up
Versatile Unit, directly welded to the frame.
Front
Front connections
Left
Right
Top
Back
Configuring the Futaba S8FG. I use the SBUS for connecting the the Naza main controller (MC) with the Futaba R6208SB receiver. Just one cable :). I´ve created a new model and selected the following channels:
ch5: Remote gain control
ch6: IOC: three positions: off, course lock, home lock
ch7: Flight mode: three positions: manual, atti, atti GPS
ch8 Tarot T-2D gimbal pitch control. I preffer to connect the gimbal pitch cable directly to the receiver at this point, and being able to control its orientation using the right slider of the transmitter. If you connect it to the F2 port of the Naza MC, the gimbal will automatically be orientated depending on the multi-rotor attitude, and as far as I know, you won´t be able to control the pitch...
Model type
Channel selection
Channel selection
The next step is reversing the channels, if needed. In my case I had to reverse the rudder and the right slider for the gimbal.
Channel reverse
I guess the settings for activating the fail safe depends on your transmitter. In my case I used the Throttle and the ch7 for activating it. I´ve tried two ways of doing it:
When the signal is lost (either the multi-rotor is out of range or you switch the transmitter off) the fail safe is activated.
Sacrificing the manual flight mode position and configure it for activating the fail safe manually. If you do this, then you won´t be able to calibrate the compass from now on until you configure the manual position again. For this reason I prefer the option 1, and be able to have manual flight mode and calibrating whenever I want.
Fail safe
Fail safe
Relating the end point configuration, I have the first 4 channels and the IOC with the default values, and I have only modified the remote gain control, the flight mode to be more precise with the selection, and the gimbal pitch control.
When the signal is lost (either the multi-rotor is out of range or you switch the transmitter off) the fail safe is activated.
Sacrificing the manual flight mode position and configure it for activating the fail safe manually. If you do this, then you won´t be able to calibrate the compass from now on until you configure the manual position again. For this reason I prefer the option 1, and be able to have manual flight mode and calibrating it whenever I want.
End point
End point
The following videos have been really useful to me in order of having the quad working with the Naza. Well, I could not configure the home lock, for some reason the VU shows the red light, but I´m into it.
From this page of DJI, you´ll need to download the Assistant Software and the Driver installer. Follow the previous video and you won´t have any problem at all :).
And now let´s wait until it stops raining and get this thing into the air to check the behavior!!
.JPG "Soldering the T-Motor 30A ESC and the Naza BEC")
.JPG "Soldering the T-Motor 30A ESC and the Naza BEC")
.JPG "Placing the T-Motor 30A ESCs")
.JPG "Soldering Maytech motor 620kv with wire extension")
.JPG "Soldering Maytech motor 620kv with wire extension")
.JPG "GoPro Hero 3 - Neutral Density filter - Tarot T2D - Reducing Jello")
.JPG "GoPro Hero 3 - Neutral Density filter - Tarot T2D - Reducing Jello")
.JPG "GoPro Hero 3 - Neutral Density filter - Tarot T2D - Reducing Jello")
.JPG "GoPro Hero 3 - Neutral Density filter - Tarot T2D - Reducing Jello")
.JPG "GoPro Hero 3 - Neutral Density filter - Tarot T2D - Reducing Jello")
.JPG "GoPro Hero 3 - Neutral Density filter - Tarot T2D - Reducing Jello")
.JPG "GoPro Hero 3 - Neutral Density filter - Tarot T2D - Reducing Jello")
.JPG "ND filter - Neutral Density filter - Tarot T2D - Reducing Jello")
.JPG "ND filter - Neutral Density filter - Tarot T2D - Reducing Jello")
.JPG "GoPro lens damaged - no lens protector")
.jpg "Naza M Lite with GPS")
.jpg "Futaba 8FG transmitter Naza M Lite GPS setup")
.jpg "Futaba 8FG transmitter Naza M Lite GPS setup")
.jpg "Futaba 8FG transmitter Naza M Lite GPS setup")
.jpg "Futaba 8FG transmitter Naza M Lite GPS setup")
.jpg "Futaba 8FG transmitter Naza M Lite GPS setup")
.jpg "Futaba 8FG transmitter Naza M Lite GPS setup")
.jpg "Futaba 8FG transmitter Naza M Lite GPS setup")
