3.2 KiB
Getting started
We decided to base this build on the excellent DJI 450 Flamewheel ARF kit. The kit provides a good solid base on which to experiment and it is fairly straight forward to add a camera to the platform.
The build
There are many excellent build videos available on-line that detail how to build the basic Quadcopter kit. We've included a few pictures below that detail our build.
Unboxing frame and propellors
Motors
These are the motors and ESC's. Two motors are CCW and two CW. The propellors are self-tightening so need to be paired with the correct motor.
Motors mounted
The motors are mounted to the frame arms.
The wires on the ESC's needed to be cut to length and the ends tinned with solder.
Tinning the base
The Quadcopter base connection points for the ESC's were tinned.
Soldering on the four ESC's
The fours ESC's were soldered to the base board
BEC
A BEC was used to provide power to the ESCAPE board and the Raspberry Pi Zero. Make sure to set the output jumper to 5v ours came set to 6.1v.
Soldering the BEC and battery connectors
We next soldered the BEC and the battery connector wires to the base. You can use a piece of tape like we have to hold the BEC wires in position.
Insulating the connections
We used liquid electrical tape on our joints to prevent short circuits. You can use normal electrical tape as an alternative.
Assemble the base to the frame arms
We then connected the base to the frame using the provided screws.
Attach the ESC's to the frame
We used Tie-wraps to connect the ESC's to each arm of the Quadcopter.
Final assembly
The top plate is then attached to the frame using the provided screws. We then just need to add the battery pack, radio receiver, Raspberry Pi Zero and ESCAPE board.
Wiring
The barometer is connected to the GPIO pins on the ESCAPE board. The other connections are left to right. 1. CPPM from radio receiver. 2. ESC one 3. ESC two 4. ESC three 5. ESC four. The BEC is connected to the first of the servo connectors and provides power to both the ESCAPE board and the Raspberry Pi zero
Finished Quadcopter
This is the finished Quadcopter. Much use was used of double sided tape and sticky velcro to hold the components down. The battery was wrapped in bubble wrap prior to being held in place with a battery strap.
Quadcopter flying
Quadcopter on first test flight.