CamCruiser FPV folding quad - Autoquad goes FPV

[aBUGSworstnightmare]

Hi,

time for a larger update today

Lower motor mounts completed with Adafruit Neopixel sticks
and wiring.
The wiring was made from HobbyKing Spektrum Sat extensions, re-pinned in JST ZHR-4 housings.

ESC32 completed with CAN wiring (also made from Spektrum Sat cables)

Finished ESC32 with clear heat shrink on logic part

Motor mounted to motor mounting plate (don't forget the thread lock fluid!) and rest of motor mount components.
I've exchanged all screws against stainless steel ISO 7380 A2 and ISO 7380 A2 flanged

Here's a good address when looking for screws: http://www.screwsandmore.de/en/HEXAGON- ... -ISO-7380/

All motor mounts assembled

All motor leads were twisted

Heatshrink tube for protecting leads when entering the CFK tubes

ESC32 placed in the frame. An additional power wiring is running to the front compartment to supply BLDC gimbal and other electronics.

Detail shot of the left side. ESC32 Power wires were twisted and put in mesh wire

Detail shot of the right side. All power leads run on the outside of the frame, between the standoffs and the frame walls

Test fitting one tube arm. I think I will move the PDB to the rear bottom since it's getting to crowded between the arms.

[aBUGSworstnightmare]

[SuperSharpShooter]

Your gimbal setup looks nice. I will have to do something similar. I would like for my gimbals to be able to be quickly swapped so that I can either use the gopro for video, or a canon s110 for high quality stills. I have a couple of 2804 gimbal motors here currently for the s110 gimbal, and they work well.

I ended up having to drill two holes in the top plate above the 53mm spaced holes for the rear landing gear attachment so that I could poke the allen key through there to fasten them. There are a set of holes slightly further back in both the top and bottom plates, but they are spaced 54mm and so just didn't line up with the landing gear. I fixed the landing gear nuts into the landing gear with epoxy.

Also I have found that the sd card can be accessed by reaching through the oval hole to the left of the rear of the FC with some long nosed pliers. Removing the top plate every time I needed to remove the card wasn't appealing!

I gave the copter a quick maiden flight just before. The handling is quite sluggish with the default PIDs, and in position hold it would overshoot its position and oscillate around it if I gave it a movement and let go of the sticks. The Alt PIDs need some work too. Hopefully all this doesn't take too much tuning to sort out.

[LPR]

Glenn

I find that tuning the PIDs for AQ to be very different from other flight controllers. All three AQ copter I built, from 8" props on a quad to 12" prop on an octo flew well with default PIDs.
The problems you have are usually from vibration or calibration errors.
The few setting that need to be adjusted are the throttle factor so the quad hovers at mid throttle position and Nav rate D. A lower setting on nav rate D will let your quad tilt faster. Alt/pos hold has worked well for me with default setting if vibration are under control, the throttle factor is set right and you have a good parameter file. Because the AQ is designed for copters that take videos the defaults make an AQ copter a little sluggish compared to others.

Larry

[SuperSharpShooter]

Larry, I have adjusted the throttle factor down to hover at midstick, and I'm pretty confident the vibrations are well under control. My accelerometer graphs don't deviate more than about 0.1g while hovering.

I have a hexa running close to default PIDs on r224, but those default PIDs are much lower than those that I'm running on this setup with r323. I'm guessing I need to reduce my TRD, and maybe the TAP too, but I haven't had any experience with the new FW yet. and I understand what you mean about AQ's handling feeling rather docile, but the current feel/performance of this new quad is far from how my hexa handles, and needs some improving.

I don't want to clutter this thread too much with tuning issues, but these are my motor outputs etc. There is some clipping.

[LPR]

Glenn

I have been waiting for the new boards and have not used the newer FW so I hope someone else would give advice. I did read that some of the new PID settings are around 4.8 times larger than the older PIDs.

Larry

[aBUGSworstnightmare]

After probing around with ESC32 placing for quite some time I finally decided to change the position of the frontal ones.

Front left ESC32

Front right ESC32

I had to move them a little bit more inwards to allow for complete folding of the arms.

Detail shot from the outside. Since my caps were quite large I had to move the ESCs (noticed this when I tried to fold the rear arms).

Although still incomplete - I weighted here to see how 'fat' she is and to get an estimation where I will end once completed. I've calculated her for 2500g AUW; when adding 70g (AQ6 + GPS + Shield + Standoffs), 250g (BLDC Gimbal including Hero3), 200g for RX, wires, and the things I forgot to mention, i think I'm well on track.

I will take some detail shot of the rear ESC32 and the landing gear tomorrow.

[aBUGSworstnightmare]

A little more progress on the CamCruiser.

Hole in the GPS shield relocated and moved to the side. The length of the nylon standoffs is 10mm; will give a perfect fit!
Notice the additional ground wire (black wire) which is soldered to the GPS antenna and connected to the GPS shield.

GPS antenna fixed to the shield with mirror tape (removable)

GPS shield mounted on the new open cover plate ('AQ plate'). The AQ6 will be mounted on the black standoffs. Mounting the AQ6 to the top plate will let you easily connect the GPS antenna and gives you a convenient access to the uSD card

Running the antenna wire through the top plate. The hole needs to be drilled to 3.5mm (is 3.2mm by default) to allow the connector to pass through

MY Custom BLDC gimbal mounting mounted and top plate test fit

Gimbal pictured from the front. Notice the two plastic standoffs (50mm) connecting both gimbal mounts for better weight distribution

PDB is on the rear bottom. The small wire connects to the TM1000 telemetry transmitter (flight battery voltage level)

Detail shot of the rear motor wire placement (sry; forgot to take a picture with the frame still open)

Since I decided to mount the ESC32 on different locations (compare with http://forum.autoquad.org/download/file.php?id=3399&t=1) I also needed to change the ESC power wires.
I now use self-sealing protective tube on the outside to a)protect the wires and b) have a cleaner look.
I've also added some 'extra weight' by mounting T-Rex skid protectors.

Self-sealing protective tube (I've used both diameters):
http://www.freakware.de/en/p/gewebe-sch ... a19858.htm
http://www.freakware.de/en/p/gewebe-sch ... a15960.htm

When compared to 'traditional' (mesh) protective tube this is a little heavier and thicker, but - from my point of view - easier to use and more flexible (since you can include/add some wires too when in place).

[joebar.rc]

Nice joerg, nice! Quite the project for sure.

[aBUGSworstnightmare]

Hi,

quite some work to do until she's ready! Hope to get here airborne soon

By the way: this is the current status of my DC/DC-CAN-LED-HOTT board. I'll use the ProMicro; did you notice the XBUS-connectors, connected to I2C
Will have to place the I/Os on TOP and BOT since I want to keep the 50x50mm outline.