{"id":1705,"date":"2014-11-03T17:12:46","date_gmt":"2014-11-03T17:12:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gusclass.com\/blog\/?p=1705"},"modified":"2015-06-19T23:38:17","modified_gmt":"2015-06-19T23:38:17","slug":"building-a-hexacopter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/gusclass.com\/blog\/2014\/11\/03\/building-a-hexacopter\/","title":{"rendered":"Building a Hexacopter"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s been a while since I <a href=\"http:\/\/gusclass.com\/blog\/2013\/11\/22\/multi-rotors-drones-quad-copters-oh-my\/\">last wrote about multirotors<\/a>\u00a0and I have learned a lot since then.\u00a0The DJI Phantom I started with had a few upgrades done to it:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Carbon fiber blades were added<\/li>\n<li>Body was painted black<\/li>\n<li>The mainboard was replaced with\u00a0the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B00EKPB9JM\/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&amp;psc=1\">H3-2D upgrade kit<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Smoother video\u00a0and camera control were added with a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dji.com\/product\/zenmuse-h3-3d\">H3-3D gimbal<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Taller landing gear was added<\/li>\n<li>The frame was modified\u00a0to accommodate the gimbal<\/li>\n<li>FPV was added using\u00a0a FatShark Attitude v2<\/li>\n<li>Added a\u00a0video transmitter frame plane (carbon fiber as well)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/gusclass.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/phantom1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1706\" src=\"http:\/\/gusclass.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/phantom-300x1681.jpg\" alt=\"phantom\" width=\"300\" height=\"168\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The DJI that I had, the v1, had a number of glitches that periodically had to be fixed &#8211; most notably the receiver died twice on me. After the H3-2D upgrade, the receiver issue went away and the Phantom\u00a0was capable of using the H3-3D, with gimbal control. It\u00a0actually is not even supposed be able to do this, go Phantom!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/gusclass.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/phantom_21.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1707\" src=\"http:\/\/gusclass.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/phantom_2-300x2251.jpg\" alt=\"phantom_2\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>FPV on the Phantom is super fun and I enjoyed it for many hours of flight.\u00a0Being able to see what you are recording (via a\u00a0GoPro in my case) is\u00a0fun and also can result in better shots.\u00a0To set up the GoPro\u00a0for FPV, I wired\u00a0the packaged transmitter to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/GoPro-FPV-Video-Audio-Output\/dp\/B00L2L175S\/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1414998084&amp;sr=8-7&amp;keywords=gopro+mini+usb\">a\u00a0break-out mini-USB cable\u00a0<\/a>that gives you video and ground. Once connected, the video just streams to the FatShark.<\/p>\n<p>I had some CAN-BUS enhancements ready to go but\u00a0needed to modify the connector to be able to support both the gimbal, on-screen-display (OSD),\u00a0and bluetooth add-ons. Unfortunately, before the CAN-BUS could be added, I lost the drone.<\/p>\n<h2>The Hex!<\/h2>\n<p>I actually was sorta excited to lose the Phantom &#8211; it\u00a0started to feel cramped! I couldn&#8217;t decide whether I wanted to build an inexpensive drone or go with the good stuff but I knew I wanted an open frame and potentially wanted a hexacopter. \u00a0I ended up going cheap \ud83d\ude42 I found an ARF kit hexacopter that had pre-chosen parts:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>F550 clone body<\/li>\n<li>30A Electronic Speed Controllers (ESCs)<\/li>\n<li>1000 kv motors<\/li>\n<li>KK multicopter computer<\/li>\n<li>???? transmitter\/receiver package<\/li>\n<li>battery and charger<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The whole thing was sold at under $250 shipped which was about a third of what the brand name ones run so I gave it a chance. The box came with no instructions and just a jumble of parts:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/gusclass.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/jumble1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1708\" src=\"http:\/\/gusclass.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/jumble-224x3001.jpg\" alt=\"jumble\" width=\"224\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>After\u00a0eyeballing the pieces I decided to\u00a0\u00a0just hack it. My procedure was\u00a0as\u00a0follows:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Solder parts to the mainboard<\/li>\n<li>Build out the\u00a0frame<\/li>\n<li>Attach all the electronic parts<\/li>\n<li>Pair radio<\/li>\n<li>Calibrate and fly<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Solder and attach parts to the \u00a0mainboard<\/h2>\n<p>First, you solder the ESCs to the mainboard. Be extra careful that\u00a0the + and &#8211; match, ground black negative -, red + positive. Next, solder power to the mainboard:\u00a0double check the + and &#8211; match the ESCs &#8211; with ground black &#8211; and red +. You can see in\u00a0the following picture to see a few soldered ESCs and the power cable around the edges of the mainboard:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/gusclass.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/ESCs_mainboard1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1710\" src=\"http:\/\/gusclass.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/ESCs_mainboard-224x3001.jpg\" alt=\"ESCs_mainboard\" width=\"224\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Build\u00a0out the arms<\/h2>\n<p>Attach motors to arms using Phillips head screws. This is relatively easy, just be careful to get the motors even with the arms where they attach. You might want\u00a0to orient\u00a0the arms in a way that works well for you,\u00a0e.g. white in the front, yellow on the sides, and red in the back.<\/p>\n<p>Slide ESC cables under the arms and attach using the mainboard screws. To determine which screws were the mainboard screws, I just\u00a0chose\u00a0whatever screws was the\u00a0most numerous. Attach and tighten the screws once you have your cables tidy. Run motor wires under the arms so that they can\u00a0tuck under and meet\u00a0the ESC wires. Finally, you solder pin connectors to motors and ESCs and then heat-shrink wrap them. The following picture\u00a0shows how I\u00a0soldered the wires into the bullet pin connectors, it was a pain to do this but it worked.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/gusclass.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/pin_connector_soldering1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1711\" src=\"http:\/\/gusclass.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/pin_connector_soldering-225x3001.jpg\" alt=\"pin_connector_soldering\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>With the motors and ESCs wired, you can attach the motors to ESCs and can celebrate because there&#8217;s no more soldering!<\/p>\n<h2>Connect the mainboard<\/h2>\n<p>Attach the pilot to the middle of the mainboard using double sided tape \/ velcro and orienting the arrow in the direction that you want to be forwards. Wire the pilot to the ESCs &#8211; pin 1 on the pilot goes to the arm at 1:30, pin 2 goes to the arm at 3:00, pin 3 to 5:00, and so on. Now attach the radio to the mainboard next to the pilot using double sided tape \/ velcro.<\/p>\n<p>Now you will wire the radio to the pilot. You should use the KK\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.kkmulticopter.kr\/?modea=manual\">blackboard<\/a>\u00a0pinout for pilot pins and\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rcgroups.com\/forums\/showatt.php?attachmentid=3749662\">the T6EHP-E manual<\/a> for radio pinouts. When attaching the two, match the 1 pins on the first cables to \u00a0orient\u00a0the pins correctly, if\u00a0done wrong,\u00a0it will throw you off later when binding your\u00a0radio.<\/p>\n<p>Attach the USB programmer to the pilot. To orient it, I cheated because mine only went on one way with all the pins touching.<\/p>\n<h2>Program the pilot<\/h2>\n<p>Flash KK Firmware using the <a href=\"http:\/\/lazyzero.de\/en\/modellbau\/kkmulticopterflashtool\">KK-flasher<\/a>. On Windows, this requires\u00a0a driver, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fischl.de\/usbasp\/\">USBasp<\/a>, that is unsigned, requiring you to <a href=\"http:\/\/openchrysalis.wordpress.com\/2014\/09\/26\/installing-usbasp-driver-software-in-windows-8-1\/\">do bad things with Windows 8<\/a>. Flash\u00a0with the correct controller &#8211; mine was kk blackboard 168\/PA (16kB flash). Choose a firmware for your configuration &#8211; I used <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kkmulticopter.kr\/?modea=xxcontroller\">X6 V2.9 XXControl KR by\u00a0Minsoo Kim<\/a>. When you flash the firmware, there are beeps, if it doesn&#8217;t work, make sure you selected the right controller in KK-flasher.<\/p>\n<h2>Connect the radio<\/h2>\n<p>This is the part where you bind the radio transmitter (TX) to receiver (RX). On my radio, I needed to hold a pin down on the receiver while the radio was in off throttle. After successfully binding, I could control the motors. It scared me the first time it worked. Note, if the receiver is\u00a0not binding, check your wiring on the receiver you attached to the mainboard.<\/p>\n<h2>Calibrate<\/h2>\n<p>Next, you will need to make sure all the motors are working and are spinning in the right direction. You will start by\u00a0slowly\u00a0powering on your motors. To do this, you first must arm them using the firmware&#8217;s trigger that you may accidentally have activated while connecting the radio.<\/p>\n<p>The firmware I used had a trigger done by moving the left stick to the bottom right. When the motors spin up, observe the rotation of the motors. I printed arrows to mark the observed direction of motor spin with left corresponding to\u00a0a counterclockwise turn of the motor and right corresponding to a clockwise motor spin.\u00a0This was done\u00a0in case I got mixed up while flipping over the hexacopter. Why\u00a0are you flipping over\u00a0the hexacopter?<\/p>\n<p>You do this because you must rewire the motors to ensure\u00a0their\u00a0rotation is corresponds to the directions indicated\u00a0on\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.kkmulticopter.kr\/index.html?modea=manual\">this chart<\/a>. Reversing the polarity of\u00a0the motors (switching red and black) reverses to the motor&#8217;s direction. So, you just change the\u00a0motors based on the observed directions\u00a0until\u00a0all the motors are spinning correctly.\u00a0It&#8217;s relatively easy because of the pin connectors.<\/p>\n<h2>Final assembly<\/h2>\n<p>With the motors\u00a0set right, attach the top mechanism using the same body screws as used before on the bottom and it\u00a0will become much more stable. After that, fasten down the ESCs and motor cables so that they are snug against the frame. I used the included zip ties to accomplish this and it was relatively easy to find a spot to attach given the large frame.<\/p>\n<p>Next you attach the propellers to the motors. The plastic bushings included with the propellers go into the propellers to match the screw size on the clamps (aka prop adapters, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rcgroups.com\/forums\/showthread.php?t=1039986\">collet-type\u00a0prop adapters in my kit<\/a>) that attach to the motor pins. Speaking of, the motor pins were just the bolt, nut, and crimp pin and not the included gaskets and metal connectors. The crimping end of the bolt\u00a0goes down onto the motors with the tightening cone on top and the propeller pushing down on the crimp bolt.<\/p>\n<p>Note that multirotor blades spin with the rolling side facing the way\u00a0the blade is turning. Match the blade direction to motor direction.\u00a0If you look at the assembled picture below, you will notice the curving or scooping edge of the blade pointing in the direction of the arrows showing the motor direction.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, attach the battery straps and strap in the battery and aha, you have a hexacopter.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/gusclass.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/big_bertha1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1709\" src=\"http:\/\/gusclass.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/big_bertha-225x3001.jpg\" alt=\"big_bertha\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h2>Hover\u00a0test<\/h2>\n<p>After putting\u00a0everything together I took it into the alley and did a quick hover test. It hovered. I brought the craft back inside and then had a good look over it. The build quality was kinda questionable, but it actually flew and seemed relatively stable and controllable.\u00a0All things considered, this\u00a0was a bargain.<\/p>\n<p>There were a few things though &#8211; the fit of the frame screws,\u00a0having these weird pinch bolts\u00a0that held on the blades, and the integrity of the blade\/bushing setup all feels\u00a0a little rickety. It was\u00a0cheap though and for all I could tell resembled other similarly sized hexacopters. I can&#8217;t wait to actually fly it and see what happens!<\/p>\n<p>Update:<\/p>\n<p>Here is the Hexa flying in the park. I was just testing it so for safety I didn&#8217;t bring it high enough to actually fly around.\u00a0Because I&#8217;m used to the Naza with Altitude and Position hold, this was a difficult flying experience. I&#8217;m going to\u00a0try replacing the Flight Controller with a Naze32 equipped with GPS Antenna and will see if I fare better.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/23VsoS-q1wM\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>As you can see, lots of crashes and difficulty controlling the craft&#8217;s direction. I&#8217;m guessing there are a load of tweaks I still need to make on the FC before it is as stable and controllable as I want.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s been a while since I last wrote about multirotors\u00a0and I have learned a lot since then.\u00a0The DJI Phantom I started with had a few upgrades done to it: Carbon fiber blades were added Body was painted black The mainboard&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[66,187,11,44],"tags":[262,263],"amp_validity":null,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/gusclass.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1705"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/gusclass.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/gusclass.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gusclass.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gusclass.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1705"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"http:\/\/gusclass.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1888,"href":"http:\/\/gusclass.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1705\/revisions\/1888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/gusclass.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gusclass.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gusclass.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}