Building a quad copter or any multi rotor RC craft is a lot more work and learning than you might think, and I thought it would take a lot. I had to enter into a lot of unfamiliar territory in the world of electrical engineering. I had to learn about frequencies, circuit boards, how to solder electrical connections, how to custom make vibration reduction systems, how to measure vibration frequencies, how to balance motors, how to program electronics…etc. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg, anyone getting started into this I recommend they just buy a ready built quad instead. This one just takes so much to learn that it’s not worth most peoples time to dive into it. But now that I have, I love this thing. It’s actually a lot more fun than I thought it would be to fly and flying it in first person view mode with a video transmission system is another whole realm I’m just starting to understand now.
The flight control board, this is the brains of the operation.
The clover leaf antenna, purchased from Ready Made RC. This thing drastically improves video transmission from the quad to the ground station and monitor. I get less interferance and overall a much cleaner video signal. It looks great, and when paired with a powerful helical antenna on the ground station, I can get about a mile of video transmission before it dies out with this rig. Pretty amazing stuff!!
I’ll be posting my KK 2.0 board settings for other users of this board. I finally found a set of settings that really tame this beast down for smooth video shots.
Great to see a newcomer’s view of the quads, they are awesome and blogs like this give people some insigt into them, fantastic flying machines, you should also mention that they are very addictive 🙂
Building a very own diy drone could be a challenge for anyone, but at the same time very exciting. Most of us, would like to simply buy a off-the-shelf model, but it does not make someone learn anything new. I myself, a Quadcopter researcher tried to build a variety of quadcopters over the years. While this is the case, some succeeded and some projects failed. Anyways, it is good to see your blog offering a clear insight into them. Just bookmarked this site so I maybe back for any new publication.
Looks awesome! I made my own recently and I would like to check your pi settings please?
Thanks! I actually sold this one a while back now so I don’t remember. I wish I could help a little more but the good news is that there are a lot of resources out there.