Full News

Sorry for the sparsness of the recent posts.

I am going to try writing in a text editor first so I can really spend the time to say what I need to.  I mean... what kind of a useful blog can I have when all the entries have little content?  But I digress... On to the post.

Tiny Hawk Quadcopter

I finally reached the pinnacle of my newbiness a couple of days ago when I learned how to calibrate the gyros on the Hubsan X4 H107C.  I did this on my Tiny Hawk and guess what?  The bird flies like a dream now.  What was that... three months of complaining and lamenting how lame the Hubsan flight control board was... and all I needed to do was calibrate the board... just once.  Now I think the ability to fly it are only limited by my skills.  So I pratice.  When I can.

I say that because in the last couple of days I have had to replace the two port side motors.  They just basically stopped working.  I opened one of them up and saw that one of the contact brushes had worn and broken.  Other than that, the motor was pretty simple and generally robust.  It's a shame that better brushes can't be designed that would last as long as the rest of the motor.  Like a chains weakest link, the motor is only as reliable as its weakest part.

Anyway, I had motors that I was planning on using for another quadcopter, so I used those to replace the motors.  Luckily I have not seen any balance issues between the old motors and the new ones.  Who knows, I might end of replacing the right side soon enough.

FPV Rig

Another great discovery was that my EasyCap device came with a faulty/inadequate USB extension cable.  I was having so many issues capturing the FPV video that I almost dug out the VCR!  But like I said, once I got rid of the cable it worked like a charm.

Here is a short sample capture...

Walkera Devo 7E Transmitter with DeviationTX

Like someone had granted one of my wishes, I discovered this great combination of hardware and software hacking that makes the dream of the *One Transmitter To Control Them All* possible.  The DeviationTX community has an active membership with new models being looked at all the time.

More on this later... so check it out.

     http://www.deviationtx.com/

More Signs Of Obsession

I have new quadcopters!

The first one is the HT 803C which you can see below.

The second one is the Q7 which looks like this...

(minus the Mobius camera affixed to the canopy.)

Second - The FPV Rig

The second part of my project includes the building of an FPV rig that I could attach to the quadcopter that I had built.

Here is that diagram again about how I wired it.

And in the end, here is what I had built...

I mounted it on some foamboard, but should have found something thinner.  Anyway, I power the FPV rig from a separate battery for now.  It adds significantly more weight but is convenient for testing.  I will have to research a compact and lite solution for filtering the motor noise when I choose to use one battery.

The total cost of the rig is about... $35.

• Camera $18
• Voltage Regulator $6
• AV Transmitter $11

Of course with a $19 AV Receiver the price goes up to $44, but is still inexpensive.

Camera

• 170 Degree Field of Vision
• Runs on as low as 3.3 volts (so can run directly from 1S)

Voltage Regulator

• Polulu Step-Up/Step-Down 3.3V Reglator
• Really just needed a 3.3V stepdown

Video Transmitter

• TX5823 Operating on the BOSCAM bands
• Runs off of 3.3V
• 200mw

Video Receiver

• RC805
• Runs off of 5-12V
• Two Video Outs (2.5mm 4-pole plugs)

First... The Basic Quadcopter

My inspiration for a DIY FPV Setup was this Boing Boing post.  I thought it was great that you could have such a blast with a small investment in time and money.

For my first build, I wanted to use something I was familiar with, so I decided I would transplant a Hubsan flight controller into a new frame.  Along with 4 replacement motors (2 Clockwise and 2 Counter-Clockwise), that would be all that I needed to put together my own light, but powerful quadcopter.  Here are some pictures of the result...

The most difficult part of this task was making sure the board was level and aligned correctly.  The better job I did with this... the less trimming I would need to do to fly it.

I guess I should talk about the frame.  A Picnic Quads - Tiny Hawk.

This tiny frame has a motor span of 120mm and has 4 foldable arms that tuck in towards the body.  It uses nylon screws, which I have dyed here a cool neon green color.  The booms are polycarbonate and have been pre-sized for the 8.5mm diameter of the motors.

All told, the 120mm motor span has a negative effect on the quadcopter's maneuverability.  It flies stable and can keep a hover fairly well.  Where it has trouble is with banking and turning.  The flight controller is tuned for more like 80mm distance between motors as on the original Hubsan X4.

Since I have an extra Hubsan flight controller and four motors, I may order a smaller frame and try that.