Archive for 'Quadcopter' Category

$20 Quadcopter frame, test flight video

By mattmc - Last updated: Monday, August 8, 2011

The $20 Bunnings quadcopter frame is a bit heavy, about 400 grams but its straight and strong. The control board is a MWC Paris V4 board with WM+, BMA180 and BMP085 sensors. All up weight is about 1300 grams with the 2650mAH nano-tech 3S lipo. Flight time just hovering was 10-11 minutes. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzN8wmxWW2s

Connecting the BMP085 Baro to the MultiWiicopter Paris V4

By mattmc - Last updated: Tuesday, July 26, 2011

The BMP085 Barometric Pressure sensor is mounted on the bottom side of the Paris V4 board. Orientation of the BMP085 is not important but vibration is always an enemy so I used double sided foam tape to mount it. There are four points from the BMP085 that must be connected, VCC, GND, SDA and SCL. In this [...]

Photos of flashing the HobbyKing Quadcontroller

By mattmc - Last updated: Saturday, July 23, 2011

Just a couple of photos showing a 3S 2200 powering a BEC powering the Hobbyking Quadcontroller board connected to a USBasp Atmel Programmer connected to a Windows XP machine running the KK Multicopter Flash tool.     

How to update the HobbyKing QuadController firmware

By mattmc - Last updated: Monday, July 18, 2011

The HobbyKing QuadController board retails for about $30 USD. You can save a few bucks by checking for a buddy code on the swarm page. The board forms the base of building a cheap multirotor. By default the board comes with some version of firmware pre-configured for +Copter. The problem is, I don't know anything [...]

Paris MultiWiiCopter V4.0 board

By mattmc - Last updated: Monday, July 11, 2011

Hooking up the components of the Paris MultiWiiCopter V4.0 board is a pretty straightforward job so if I can offer any advice, take your time and make sure not to miss any pins like I did. After making a concerted effort to have neat wiring and solder joints between the Arduino Pro Mini, the Wii [...]

How To Add Bluetooth to your MultiWiiCopter

By mattmc - Last updated: Saturday, May 28, 2011

  For not much more than $10, a Bluetooth adaptor is  a cheap and easy way to get in-flight real time feedback from the onboard sensors and allows quick and easy modification to PID values via the MultiWiiConf software. Here's how to do it. Buy a serial to bluetooth adaptor – "Serial Bluetooth RF Transceiver [...]

Quadcopter specs / parts list

By mattmc - Last updated: Sunday, May 15, 2011

The frame as shown with just the motors  and plastic housing weighs 780 grams / 27.4 ounces. Maybe it's getting a bit on the heavy side with 24.5 mm aluminium frames but the aim for this one is primarily rugged and simple. If it does turn out to heavy and flight time is severely restricted, aluminium [...]

$20 Quadcopter frame from Bunnings

By mattmc - Last updated: Friday, April 22, 2011

Snap together parts all from Bunnings. The arms are 25.4 x 25.4 x 1.2 x 600mm aluminium which will be cut down to around 300mm so I'll get two arms out of each length. The arms are probably bigger than they need be at 25.4 mm but they should be good for easily fitting the [...]