16-Jul-2023, 10:03 PM (This post was last modified: 17-Jul-2023, 05:13 PM by truglodite.)
The big rig section on these forums seemed to need more action, so I decided to post a little bit about my latest build. It's a frankenquad made from mostly parts I had sitting around. It has a 620mm H style frame with APC 12x4.5mr props, Turnigy Multistar 4822-690kv motors, Turnigy 4s5000 hardcase lipos, Skystar 40A bl32 esc's, Matek F722se, Sony PZ-0420 ccd cam, Rush Tank Ultimate Plus VTX, Matek M10Q, 12V ubec, and an RP1 elrs rx. The frame is a DIY job my buddy made 15yrs ago. He gave it to me 13yrs ago after he gave up on it... saying he couldn't get it to fly for jack with Arducopter. I already had most of the parts needed at the time, but ended up starting a family, which meant a lot less FPV time. Now that my kids are older I found myself with enough time this summer to get the big rig done.
Before going into the specs and all, I gotta mention how I installed a 12V ubec that happened to be putting out lipo voltage! This let the magic smoke out of my beloved PZ0420 within a few minutes. When that happened I got hella pissed... luckily I had one more spare PZ0420 on hand to use, as well as some more 12V ubecs. You know those ubecs got tested first on the second round, lol!
The main part of the frame was more or less ready to go. I just removed some standoffs, velcro, and drilled the mounts to fit my motors. The camera mount was a design I drew/printed in ABS for an old 330mm rig I don't have anymore. I did draw/print some antenna mounts, and the GPS mount came from thingiverse. The ELRS antenna is actually a ghost antenna, and there is a 2mm cf rod between the TPU base and head. The VTx antenna mount was resin printed.
It's running the latest iNav (6.1.1 IIRC). I've seen a lot of questions on tuning these kind of rigs. After getting this rig tuned, I now understand why hehe. Back in the day the biggest I flew was FW450's with 10" props, and I was one of the first to start going smaller amongst the locals with my 330 7" rig. So going 12" was interesting for me. From my smaller quad learnings, I thought esc rampup power would have to be dropped below like 20% (this works on 7" for example). However on this rig, it wouldn't even fly until I pumped rampup to 30%. I also didn't have to crank my PIDs as high as I normally would on larger rigs. I did start right off dropping filter low cutoffs to 60hz though. Even 50hz may be appropriate on a rig this size. I attached my diff in case anyone is interested in more detail.
It flies great... for such a giant! The sound is very, very quiet and low like other heavy lifter rigs you may have seen on YT. It has no issue loitering hands free in my backyard for 20min straight, taking just 4000mah. It can do flips etc, but it only has about a 3:1 thust:weight, so freestyle is mild if at all. I built this for utility anyways... things like dropping a rope in a tree to recover a quad, blowing leaves off the roof, etc is what this thing will do.
I plan on adding a servo drop mechanism, and I also have an old storm32 3-axis brushless gimbal I'd like to mount on it. The F722se has 2 camera inputs and can switch between them using a switch. This, with a gimbal and gps hold, will be very nice for general camera work as well.
Cheers,
Kev
Before going into the specs and all, I gotta mention how I installed a 12V ubec that happened to be putting out lipo voltage! This let the magic smoke out of my beloved PZ0420 within a few minutes. When that happened I got hella pissed... luckily I had one more spare PZ0420 on hand to use, as well as some more 12V ubecs. You know those ubecs got tested first on the second round, lol!
The main part of the frame was more or less ready to go. I just removed some standoffs, velcro, and drilled the mounts to fit my motors. The camera mount was a design I drew/printed in ABS for an old 330mm rig I don't have anymore. I did draw/print some antenna mounts, and the GPS mount came from thingiverse. The ELRS antenna is actually a ghost antenna, and there is a 2mm cf rod between the TPU base and head. The VTx antenna mount was resin printed.
It's running the latest iNav (6.1.1 IIRC). I've seen a lot of questions on tuning these kind of rigs. After getting this rig tuned, I now understand why hehe. Back in the day the biggest I flew was FW450's with 10" props, and I was one of the first to start going smaller amongst the locals with my 330 7" rig. So going 12" was interesting for me. From my smaller quad learnings, I thought esc rampup power would have to be dropped below like 20% (this works on 7" for example). However on this rig, it wouldn't even fly until I pumped rampup to 30%. I also didn't have to crank my PIDs as high as I normally would on larger rigs. I did start right off dropping filter low cutoffs to 60hz though. Even 50hz may be appropriate on a rig this size. I attached my diff in case anyone is interested in more detail.
It flies great... for such a giant! The sound is very, very quiet and low like other heavy lifter rigs you may have seen on YT. It has no issue loitering hands free in my backyard for 20min straight, taking just 4000mah. It can do flips etc, but it only has about a 3:1 thust:weight, so freestyle is mild if at all. I built this for utility anyways... things like dropping a rope in a tree to recover a quad, blowing leaves off the roof, etc is what this thing will do.
I plan on adding a servo drop mechanism, and I also have an old storm32 3-axis brushless gimbal I'd like to mount on it. The F722se has 2 camera inputs and can switch between them using a switch. This, with a gimbal and gps hold, will be very nice for general camera work as well.
Cheers,
Kev