ruouttaurmind's ZMR250 Build
1Starting a new thread because, let's face it... the Let's Build Something thread has become a bit of a Hydra.
So slowly, but surely I'll be updating as I progress through my final build.
I committed to use the Diatone PDB's integrated ESC signal and FC power supply support. I think it'll contribute to the overall tidiness of the assembly. I learned from others' difficulties and decided to use connectors, rather than hard wire my ESC connections. This way, when I encounter functional challenges later in the build, I'll be able to more easily disassemble and troubleshoot issues which arise.
This morning I installed header pins on the Diatone board for board-FC connections as well as ESC signal-board connections.
Yesterday I received a replacement motor from Ready to Sky, so now I'll be working on final assembly of my motors to the motor mounts, plus installing ESC's to the arms and running all the electrical connections between motor-ESC and ESC signal-Diatone connections. I'm planning on using heat shrink tubing to secure ESC's to the arms. I'm still unsure if I'll be mounting the ESC on top or under the arm. I'll have to fall off that bridge when I cross it.
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I attacked the ESC->Motor connection this afternoon. I wanted to proceed slowly on the first one to make sure I wasn't overlooking something along the way. Every time I was ready to nip one of the motor wires I measured, measured again, then measured a third time 'cause DANG they sure seemed awfully short.
So I shortened the motor wires and soldered them directly to the ESC. I also stripped out the BEC power from the ESC and shortened the remaining signal wire.
I put a layer of 3/4" heat shrink tubing over the arm as an electrical insulator between the CF arm and the ESC, then put a length of 1" shrink tube over the whole thing, being careful to make sure the heat sink was properly seated and the thermal membrane was making good contact with the sink and the components on the ESC.
Next I mounted the arm to the Diatone PDB and passed the power and signal wires through my (temporary) spacer assembly and soldered the power to the PDB. I also put a 1x Dupont shell on the signal wire and connected it to the signal header pin I installed earlier.
Checked and double checked all my circuits. No shorts, no opens, ready to test. I made some short jumpers to connect my radio to the signal and power header I installed earlier.
I haven't installed the XT60 connector yet, so I used alligator clips from a battery to the PDB. ESC pulses to the motor. It might just as well have been a classic symphony 'cause it was music to my ears. :-)
Throttle up, motor spinning, all is right with the world.
One down, three to go. I hope the others will progress much faster than this one. I spent about four hours on it, making sure everything was just right.
@ruouttaurmind Looking good... I don't remember getting header pins with my diatone shipment :(.
@garyhgaryh Thanks! It feels good to finally be making real progress.
No, the PDB didn't include header pins. I scavenged them from my spare parts bin.
Looking good! Yours is going to be a cleaner build than mine with those header pins! And good thinking testing each motor and esc as you go, too.
I'm looking at the motor/frame orientation from how it looks in these pictures. Are you doing the pdb as the top board on the lower frame, or are you doing the full on upside-down build to lower the cg?
@djslack Full inversion. The PDB will be the top deck and the FC will ride on top of that. Battery will ride between lower deck and middle deck.
@ruouttaurmind Nice! Anxious to see how that comes out!
Today I finally received the spacers @garhygarhy spent so much time editing for me. A friend printed them on his fancy-schmancy commercial printer at work. Nice snug fit Gary!
Pretty sweet XT60 mount, innit!
@ruouttaurmind Looks great! was it too snug? Yeah, the quality looks a little better :).
@garyhgaryh Not too tight at all. Nice and firm. And I couldn't be happier with the XT60 mount. It's going to work perfectly!
An old mate came in from the UK this afternoon. We'll be spending the weekend out of town, so there won't be any progress on the build this weekend. I was really looking forward to getting those new spacers in place too. That integrated XT60 mount is just awesome and I can hardly wait to see how it comes together.
@ruouttaurmind Have fun bud! I love your updates so we'll wait :).
@ruouttaurmind How does this compare to what you have? I think the only difference is the esc, right?
http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/Mini-250-Quadcopter-CC3D-Flight-Controller-2204-2300kv-Motor-12A-Esc-5030-Propeller-CC3D-Distribution-Board/727847_32298315969.html
@garyhgaryh Yup, same except for the 12A ESC. And I don't recall getting 2 sets of rotors? Maybe, but I think I got 1 set.
The hard work is finally done. I've got my PDB soldered up to the ESC's and signal connections in place. I have the XT60 temporarily attached for testing purposes. Once I'm sure everything on the board is working and talking to my FC and RX correctly I'll cut the leads and attach it to the mount integrated into the spacer. And of course it's only temporarily screwed together.
Despite my out-of-practice soldering skills, the overall assembly looks pretty clean if I do say so myself. :-)
Tonight I worked out some communication issues between my CC3D and OpenPilot software, completed the Wizard and got the motors, ESC's, flight controller and radio all working together correctly.
After everything was configured I played with the motor controls and transmitter for about 8 seconds before I couldn't resist the temptation anymore. I added some rotors and held on for dear life while I revved up the motors. All I can say is... DAMN this thing screams! I could barely hold on! It really wanted to rip from my fingers and wail away! And that was with the 5030 rotors. I'm afraid to see how it responds with the 6045 rotors. :-)
Next step is to design a battery box and some landing gear, and have them printed. Then... the final assembly... and my maiden flight/first crash report. LOL!
One last functional test before putting it away for the week. Still have to finalize my battery box design and get it printed, and I have to fabricate proper wires for the flight controller and radio receiver.
Soooooo tempted to velcro down that battery and take it for a spin. :-)
@ruouttaurmind Nice! It's coming together well, and will surely be a cleaner build than mine.
@ruouttaurmind Great job. Def. looks cleaner than mine.. I don't even cut my wires :).
I've been working on the specs of my lower deck with battery tray and RX slot. Here's the base. There is also a RX bracket and battery bracket (secures them into their respective spots during flight).
Got this one on the printer right now, SLOOOOOOLY coming along in yellow ABS at .05 resolution. It's been chugging away for about 30 minutes and is at 01%. SO many layers at that resolution!
So the plan: This part will replace the lower deck (what most of you are using for your UPPER deck). The RX will mount in the small channel running through the middle, towards the left. The battery will mount in the huge channel towards the right. This whole mess mounts up under the top deck assembly with the PDB, motors, ESC's, etc. THEN, there are some landing skids that mount to the bottom of this.
In order to give my 2700mah battery sufficient head room I wound up increasing the usual distance between decks from 35mm to 39mm. I also hollowed out as much as I could without introducing too much flexibility into the structure. I have no idea what this part weighs, but I'm ballparking it around 20g.
@ruouttaurmind The LED lights are dazzling eh? It's like the mood lights on my BMW. The doors have the ambient/mood lighting like your 3d printer.. lol.. You should turn off the lights in your room and be mesmorized by the printer as it prints your parts. I did that without the led lights when I got my printer during the first week... ok, I'm getting wierd on you.. sorry.
@garyhgaryh It cracks me up. In the RepG software there's a place to control the RGB LED light strip for color and intensity. You can even script it with GCode commands. Like turning the little build box into a disco or something. HAHAHA!
A couple of weeks ago I ordered some dirt cheap but painfully powerful white COB LED modules from Banggood. I'm drawing up a mounting bracket right now. My plan is to mount four of them inside the build box wired to a switch so when I'm peeking in to check for debris in the build path or watching for curling corners it'll be plenty bright in there.
@ruouttaurmind I remember seeing the post about those lights. Printed any new parts for your project?
@garyhgaryh I'm still tweaking the battery/RX mount. I completely overlooked some clearance issues and didn't realize it until I printed a low-res prototype and started assembling. So now I'm reconsidering the entire design and considering changing the orientation of my battery from vertical to horizontal.
@ruouttaurmind hurry up and get it done! I flew mine again this past Monday and it was a blast. I ran it into the side of the garage again, but it's still kicking :). I really need to fly this quad in a bigger area.
@garyhgaryh Damn my OCD anyway! LOL! This is the SAME problem I have building the hot rods. It all starts out innocently enough with an idea and some parts, but then my obsession with perfection and my "bigger vision" keeps stretching out the project waaaaayyyy longer than it should.
@ruouttaurmind Well, I crashed my 250 today and another wire came off. It was obvious this time :). Yeah, I'm like that (OCD) when I rebuild my E30 M3 and supra engine.
@garyhgaryh Nooooooo!!! Easy fix though I hope??
@ruouttaurmind yeah it's an easy fix this time since I don't have to take it apart. This is getting old. I should encase the wires with shrink wrap to avoid this.
Well Ladies, I'm startin' to put lipstick on this pig.
I had to overhaul my entire lower chassis design. After printing a low-res prototype early this week I discovered some clearance issues.
So I switched from using the ZMR upper deck shape, and modeled based on the ZMR lower deck. This allowed me to lay my battery flat (more like the Phantom battery is oriented) with the added benefit that I shaved 16mm off the overall profile height.
I also designed some landing legs. I wanted something that was simple, but fairly springy to absorb the shock of harder landings. I also wanted a fairly broad footprint. I have to say I'm quite pleased with the result! I can drop the ZMR from a 2 foot height and after a bounce or two, it lands on it's feet.
So here it is, in rough prototype mode. I see a few minor design adjustments I'll have to make. Then on Monday when my bright green filament arrives I'll print a high resolution final.
I still need to make custom wires for the FC and RX, but tomorrow morning I'll wrap up some long cables and shove them in there and take it for a spin.
Groovy landing gear!
I was asked to post a more detailed view of the fuselage. How's this?
The round tabs on the corners and strips on the sides were added to facilitate removing the part from the print bed. They're .2mm thick and easily trimmed off with a razor blade.
By the way, the thick areas below where the arms mount are hollow inside. I wasn't sure my printer was up to the task, but it did a decent job capping off the hollows.
The large area is the battery box. I will glue closed cell foam strips on the three sides and bottom to keep the battery from sloshing around. The smaller area at the rear is where the radio receiver is mounted. I left the area oversized to permit for potential future upgrades and to lighten the part.
@ruouttaurmind I'm loving it!
@ruouttaurmind You now have the most customized zmr 250 build! :)
@garyhgaryh Is there like a trophy or something for that? LOL!
Not to be outdone by @garyhgaryh and @djslack, here's the maiden voyage of my Franken-racer ZMR250. Turns out the only part left from the original ZMR chassis is the carbon fiber arms. :-)
First flight. Watch the end for my aerobatic rolls!
Second flight and landing gear stability test.
@ruouttaurmind I like to know who your camera person is! I wish I had one! :)
When we all started this project, there was four of us (djslack, djmackman, ruouttaurmind, and me). Anyone else? Did we all get the zmr250/450 up in the air?
@ruouttaurmind BTW, great landing feet! I imagine there is slight drag on the craft but probably not significant. My CF landing gears have seen better days.
@garyhgaryh My camera person can't seem to master holding the camera steady, but I won't complain. It's better than trying to operate the camera AND fly simultaneously like you and @djslack do!
Now that you mention it, I don't recall if @DJMajickMan got his FC issues resolved? Hopefully he'll chime in with a link to the video of his in flight!
@ruouttaurmind Awesome! Loving the landing gear, too.
@garyhgaryh RE: aerodynamic drag from the feet... it's got 200g of battery kicking around in there. I don't imagine a little drag from the feet make much difference! LOL!
You want me to shoot you the STL for the feet? They should bolt right up, under your lower deck.
@djslack Thanks! Too bad we're spread across the country. How awesome would it be to get together and race them! :-)
@ruouttaurmind The only thing left on my Alien was to get the gimbal working but the cable connections came loose on it and completely fell apart like some people said the Walkera ESC would do :( guess I'll just have to take it flying without a mounted camera and see how it does. Going on vacation soon so I'll take shots then. I'll have empty fields and other areas to fly in as all the school kids will be gone :D
@ruouttaurmind So how well to the lights work at night aiming up?
@DJMajickMan Up on top like that I'm betting they're about useless. In the final print of the lower body I plan to make a recessed area for the four original LED boards that came with the kit. Two on bottom, one facing forward, one facing rear. Then hollow out a raceway to run the wires through.
@ruouttaurmind Ok send me the STL and I'll give it a try.
@ruouttaurmind @djslack @DJMajickMan @fultonmartin Speaking of being spread across the country - Where do you all live? I'm in CA (norcal).
@garyhgaryh Central AZ. Or possibly the surface of the sun based on yesterday's 120* temperature.
@garyhgaryh Virginia just outside of DC. Lots of no fly zones, I think, in my area.
@garyhgaryh @ruouttaurmind @djslack @DJMajickMan I'm in San Diego (CA).
@garyhgaryh I'm in Bossier City, LA, about 3 hours from Dallas.
@garyhgaryh I finally ordered one on 7/31, along with two extra escs and two spare motors (given ??'s problems), and a PDB. The PDB came on 8/6, the main kit on 8/8--I watched the build videos for guidance, poked around on the (poorly documented) PDB, and put it together with PDB as the center plate. I hadn't used a CC3D FC before, but wanted to give OpenPilot a try (rather than install Cleanflight); there was a bit of a learning curve there. I maidened it a couple of days ago, with a Mobius mounted, and a Virb documenting it--I wanna try and PiP the two videos; if I can figure that out I'll post it.
Meanwhile, here's a pic...
@fultonmartin Wow you work fast! Funny, I didn't have issues with the motors or esc. When I crashed mine I thought my esc was toast but it was a connection issue. The CC3D seems to be working great, although I can't connect to it now (but @ruouttaurmind figured it out so at least there is a solution when I need to connect to it again). The 250 quad is pretty resilient. I crashed it many times and it's still kicking. My solder connection keeps breaking though but I think it's because my wires are unprotected and is prone to catching. I just need to shrink wrap the wires to solve that issue).
What remote and rx are you using? Your build looks pretty clean to me.
@fultonmartin Like Gary said, you work fast! Good, clean looking build. I like the clear shrink in the ESCs. Who's PDB is that? Looks to have a couple BECs on it?
Nice job! You definitely get the "fastest build" award!
@fultonmartin PS: I like your front and rear
LED bars. Are those part of the PDB?
Just put the Franken-racer on the scale. Kerb weight including 2700mAh Pulse battery is roughly 640 grams. Nearly a pound and a half!
A couple things I learned from this build:
Those 20A "SimonK" Chinese ESCs are WAY overkill for this project and about twice as big as they need to be.
A 2700mAh battery may be convenient because it's what I already have on hand for most of the other quads, but it's also WAY overkill for this project and twice as big as it needs to be. Small batteries are cheap. I may grab a 1000mAh and compare things like performance and flight times to see if I really have gained anything with this big battery.
@ruouttaurmind what's the weight without the battery? I'll weigh mine tomorrow (later today that is).
@ruouttaurmind What C rating are you using. I bought three 45C batteries with a 90C peak rating. Turnigy nano-tech 2200mah 3S 45~90C Lipo Pack
@garyhgaryh It's just a shave under one pound. 448g without battery. The final build will be a couple ounces heavier because of padding in the battery box, a bracket to secure the RX and a couple more LED bars.
@DJMajickMan My Pulse 2700mAh batteries are 25c. I have no idea what the max burst rate is because the manufacturer doesn't provide that data. In this configuration, 25c exceeds my expected continuous discharge by about 50%.
@garyhgaryh, @ruouttaurmind
1) Using the FlySky FS T6 Xmtr & FSR6b Rcvrs--20 model memory, and cheap receivers
2) Clear shrink tubes were leftovers from a ReadyToFly build, and were the only stuff I had big enough to fit over those huge escs
3) I don't remember why I picked this PDB: http://www.aliexpress.com/item/QAV250-ZMR250-CC3D-APM-NAZE32-PDB/32377796864.html, but I like that it has the 5v BEC, so I only need a signal wire from the esc, and the signal wire traces terminate at a header near the FC.
4) The LEDs are on the PDB; I thought they'd be more hidden, but they're very visible end-on, so it's easy to see you're on the right 'glide path.' :)
Not a lot of flight time from a 1 Ah battery, but nothing bigger will balance on the top plate. I need a 3D printer so I can print that landing gear...
@fultonmartin I like that PDB. The placement of the ESC power and signal traces and are much more conveniently located compared to my DTI PDB. It also offers more options (like the buzzer circuit and more LED term points, camera traces). It's 3x the cost of mine, but it looks like it might provide 3x the convenience and added features.
Experimenting with a two color fuselage design. Hoping to help maintain orientation when flying at a distance. This is a rough draft. I don't love the zig-zag pattern color separation. I think I'll try a scalloped pattern. I didn't want to do a sharp line between colors, thinking some kind of overlapping pattern would prevent the two colors from splitting or peeling apart.
@ruouttaurmind if you're flying FPV when are you going to see the colors ;) but the bright colors will make it easier to spot when you run into a tree branch or some other immovable object.
@DJMajickMan LOL! I don't intend to equip a camera and VTX. Maybe later, if I ever get goggles. I tried piloting FPV flight using the display in my F12e transmitter. It's great for framing the GoPro, sucks for FPV flying.