So I tried to tune the pid settings. Before this I mounted the motors in a litle angle instead of 100% vertical. This gives me a better yaw control and overall stability. See my MiniH-Quad blog for more details on this subject.
During the test flights in order to find a good pid configuration I had some crashes (pilot error :p ). In total 3 motor arms broke and the outside prop protection broke at 6 places. But the fix is easy. Just glue evertying togheter with 5min epoxy and the quad is ready to go. But no motor and no electronics were damaged.
I think I'll stay with the current pid settings as used in the testflight in the video. So the next stage will be the integration of altitude hold or bluetooth control depending on what will be deliverd first.
So here it is my final frame for tis project. I'll use this indoor frame to add features like altitude hold with IR sensors and wifi or bluetooth telemetry and flight control so that I don't need the analag RC transmitter and reciever any more.
This frame looks like rubish. And yes it is rubish. Unfortunatly I ran out of foam so I had to cut out small pieces from the previous frame en glue them all togheter with a lot of epoxy making it a little bit heavier. The total weight of this quad incl 1300mAh 2 cell lipo is 285gr.
how-to: Cut 5 foam strips with dimensions 20x40x200mm
Cut 2 foam strips with dimensions 20x40x260mm
Cut 2 foam strips with dimensions 20x20x120mm
Glue these foam strips with epoxy
In the center I cut out some foam where I mount the 2s 1300mAh battery.
The motors are attached to the foam arms with normal tape.
The props are mounted directly on the motor shaft. These props have a 1mm hole. You need to enlarge this hole with a "1.4mm" drill. Then you can push the prop on to the motor shaft.
review
I kept the same PID settings from the previous H-Frame. But this frame was flying much better with these settings. Because the battery is mounted in the center this certenly improves the stability.
Something I'll have the tune before I'll experiment with the IR sensors is the yaw authority and control. In order to yaw the copter has to create to much difference between the CCW and CW motors (props) causing it to become unstable. I also need to check to smoothen the RC control because it is reacting quick agressive on small stick inputs.
The flight test with the X frame showed that the set of chosen components is good for further development. The initial goal was to make a small frame with prop protection. I have first created a small micro H-frame without prop protection. Just to see if the flight controller board can handle this.
how-to:
Cut 4 foam strips with dimensions 20x30x120mm
Glue these foam strips with epoxy
In the center I cut out some foam to allow all electronics to be connected The motors are attached to the foam arms with normal tape.
The props are mounted directly on the motor shaft. These props have a 1mm hole. You need to enlarge this hole with a "1.4mm" drill. Then you can push the prop on to the motor shaft.
review
Because the NanoWii board was already oscilating with the previous 30cm x-frame and this H frame is half the size, I decided to lower the PID values before the first test flight. As you can see on the movie It still need some PID tuning to fly smooth. But fact is that again this setup on this small frame can fly. So up to the next challange...
Flying with the i86l board was really hard labour. Almost inpossible. I could not find a good PID setting to let it fly stable and smooth. So I mounted a NanoWii flight controller board. Now it fly's much better. I got standard pid's and you can see and hear that is oscilates from time to time. So pid tuning is needed but with the nanowii board I can continue this project.
This is the first version of my diy foam quad. It has a 30 cm X frame made of foam. The goal is to make it even smaller and make an outer prop protection foam ring. The total weight of this quad is 215gr including lipo.
how-to:
The foam parts are just glued together with epoxy.
The foam arms are 20x20x150mm.
The center section is 60x60mm
The motors are attached to the foam arms with normal tape.
The props are mounted directly on the motor shaft. These props have a 1mm hole. You need to enlarge this hole with a "1.4mm" drill. Then you can push the prop on to the motor shaft.
review
It looks like the i86L flight controller doens't like small frames. I had this controller on heavy 60cm quads and it works great. But on all my small/light quad's I can't get this flightcontroller to fly smooth and stable. So I'll try the Nanowii next time.
The 1230 5300kv brussless inrunner can provide +170 gram of thrust on a 2 cell battery with this 3x2 prop. But then it gets extremely hot after just 2 seconds. At 100gr thrust it consumes 36 watts and gets warm. As soon as you demand more power it gets hot immidiatly.
