Home made quadcopter using Arduino -30 minute flight time

[jaosef]

Hi, I've built a home made Arduino Quadcopter and made a video log of the build. The fligt time is about 30 minutes and the motor-to-motor size is about 152".

Enjoy!
Video link: 

[dadler]

Nice video and copter!

Just FYI, 60cm is about 23.6".

60/2.54 instead of 60*2.54 

[jaosef]

Thank you, and thanks for pointing that out, you are of course right. I added a notation in the video. Cheers!

[eneuro]

Do you have parachute  and free fall detection in your 3 axis accel & gyro ?

Anyway, when I see those quadcopters propellers only based lift crapp 
Some "serious" company CEO's are even more funny with their claims that those crappy devices could deliver goods-ok maybe for fish falling from the sky into the ocean.
Without parachutes and transponders such things should be banned by all air control agencies and retired snipers called to shoot all this flying crapp which do not respond like aircrafts 

Especially, when it is too close to someones yard 

Perfect shot 

Houston, we have a problem 

[mtdoc]

Especially, when it is too close to someones yard 

Ha! - likely faked to promote the kickstarter

But if not there are countermeasures..... (also faked  )

[PeterFW]

Hi, I've built a home made Arduino Quadcopter and made a video log of the build. The fligt time is about 30 minutes and the motor-to-motor size is about 152".

Interesting!
I had no idea the parts have become so cheap and you can buy them literally with bits of scrap wood.

Pay no attention to enuro, he is just bitter that noone wants to buy the free energy device he build in his shed, maybe hes a bit of a nut too

[mtdoc]

Yes, to the OP - nice project!  (just to be clear, my comment about faked was about the shooting of the quadcopter out of the sky video)

[Alex Eisenhut]

Hi, I've built a home made Arduino Quadcopter and made a video log of the build. The fligt time is about 30 minutes and the motor-to-motor size is about 152".

Interesting!
I had no idea the parts have become so cheap and you can buy them literally with bits of scrap wood.

Pay no attention to enuro, he is just bitter that noone wants to buy the free energy device he build in his shed, maybe hes a bit of a nut too

The combination of lipos, cheap speed controllers and powerful brushless motors has made a renaissance in the RC world. It's no longer the world of stodgy dirty fiddly expensive alcohol engines with boring planes.

You can make very fun planes with Dollar store materials at home.

http://flitetest.com/

[eneuro]

$200 parachute crapp tested buy someone  from Sweden who in another video was flying above clouds and.... he was lucky fall from the sky to park tree 

Anyway, who pays a few hundred$ for such parachute imitation 

Here is this scary video when those crappy propellers stoped working and any other glider could still safe land without power, but bloody hexacopter falls from the sky and this donk got lucky he didn't hit anyone in the park 

[eneuro]

Pay no attention to enuro,

I've paragliding license and was flying MYSELF in mountains, so I know how good parachute looks like and why it is very important-literaly it can save your ass 

How do you think, how long this thermal glider could fly without bloody noisy 4-6 BLDC motors? 

It's anoying listen to videos recorded with noisy quadopters 

[LabSpokane]

It's anoying listen to videos recorded with noisy quadopters 

What's even more annoying is your persistent trolling.

I really like OP's quad copter. Well done! 

[PeterFW]

The combination of lipos, cheap speed controllers and powerful brushless motors has made a renaissance in the RC world.

I kinda wish now i had chosen a different new hobby years ago... but back then the stuff was still expensive.
I got halv the parts i would need for a little quad like the threadstarters.

What's even more annoying is your persistent trolling.

Yea, he is one of those house broken trolls the mods ignore... i wish they would give him the boot.

[eneuro]

@PeterFW Do not teach Ikar to fly 

This is free thermal energy-watch and learn something dude 

[LabSpokane]

Jao,

Please ignore the troll and continue to share your progress. You've inspired me to give a quadcopter a whirl.

[Simon]

Eneuro

I think that is enough now, if you want to make a point why don't you just cite the rules and regulation and aviation laws! As far as i know most "insert number word"copter flying is illegal as you can only go so high and so close to buildings and you have to have a pilots license either way. Toys of course are looked on as toys but larger "x"copters technically need flying by a qualified pilot.

[pickle9000]

@ jaosef

I'm interested in how the wooden crossmembers where joined. What type of glue and joint did you use? Did you fiberglass it (the joint) by chance?

Also have you measured or calculated the lift?

[Alex Eisenhut]

The combination of lipos, cheap speed controllers and powerful brushless motors has made a renaissance in the RC world.

I kinda wish now i had chosen a different new hobby years ago... but back then the stuff was still expensive.
I got halv the parts i would need for a little quad like the threadstarters.

You can buy kits from ebay or HobbyKing. HK is the place to go for bulk orders, they can be cheaper than ebay but you need to figure in the shipping, and the website is ~difficult to use.

[PeterFW]

You can buy kits from ebay or HobbyKing. HK is the place to go for bulk orders, they can be cheaper than ebay but you need to figure in the shipping, and the website is ~difficult to use.

I am thinking about that... i do not have time right now but maybe i will get myself a early christmas present.
I would only need a transmitter, receiver and the motors ^^
Maybe a decent LiIo pack later on, to get started i allredy got batteries.

But i can not order in bulk, our customs service is a bunch of rotten bastards who deserve to be hung from the highest tree.
Im stuck to ordering everything seperately, one jiffy bag at a time :-(

[Alex Eisenhut]

You can buy kits from ebay or HobbyKing. HK is the place to go for bulk orders, they can be cheaper than ebay but you need to figure in the shipping, and the website is ~difficult to use.

I am thinking about that... i do not have time right now but maybe i will get myself a early christmas present.
I would only need a transmitter, receiver and the motors ^^
Maybe a decent LiIo pack later on, to get started i allredy got batteries.

But i can not order in bulk, our customs service is a bunch of rotten bastards who deserve to be hung from the highest tree.
Im stuck to ordering everything seperately, one jiffy bag at a time :-(

Does customs also dig into personal boxes of people moving there? They would classify my hobby stuff as a WMD and confiscate it and give the RC toys to Angela Merkel's grandkids?

[sam1275]

Great job!
BTW, would it be capable of take more payload such as a camera?

[PeterFW]

Does customs also dig into personal boxes of people moving there?

They shure do, they even will take your car apart on border crossings if you "act suspicious", personal experience.

Under the right circumstances (i qualify due to some licences i hold) they may even show up on your doorstep to look through parts of your home without a warrant.
You can deny them of course, but they do not take that well.

[eneuro]

In parts list I see NO/ANY accel & gyro, it lacks also GPS module, so a long way to go 

Parts:
Motors: 4x FC 28-22 (1200kv)
ESC: 4x Hobbyking SS Series 15-18A ESC
Battery: 2x ZIPPY Compact 3700mAh 3S 25C
Props: 4x  10x4.5 SF Props 2CW+2CCW
Radio-controller: Hobby King 2.4Ghz 6Ch V2

1kg weight, yep it could hit something, but for the moment it can't do to much but take off/ and hopefully land.
Probably more fun with those Coanda effect UFO like flying things, which can confuse many non technical people 

It is much more safe-propeller nice hidden and as you can see observer coud easy touch and push it away.

It is hopeless, that many of those DIY quadcopters has no safety case around propellers-they coud easy hit someones eyes by accident 

BTW: It could be interesting compare lift in those Coanda effect UAV with pure propeller and lets see what we get 

[jaosef]

@ jaosef

I'm interested in how the wooden crossmembers where joined. What type of glue and joint did you use? Did you fiberglass it (the joint) by chance?

Also have you measured or calculated the lift?

Sorry for the late replay... I made two matching cuts in the pieces of wood so that they would slide into each other, and then I used regular wood glue. Its not the most durable frame in the world, but it has survived dozens of flights so far
I made a simular quadcopter about a year ago using the same electronics (except for the ESC:s) and I did a lift-test using a digital scale, and got about 2400g of lift with that quadcopter.

Great job!
BTW, would it be capable of take more payload such as a camera?

Sure thing! I added a Gopro and some goggles a week later, here is the result:

In parts list I see NO/ANY accel & gyro, it lacks also GPS module, so a long way to go 

I decided to only include the mayor parts in the part list, see the schematics for the components on the control board. I used the MPU6050 as gyro/accelerometer. No GPS though, that might be the next thing to add