LibrePilot Forum

Users => Vehicles - MultiRotors => Topic started by: cato on July 20, 2015, 09:30:55 am

Title: My Nighthawk 250
Post by: cato on July 20, 2015, 09:30:55 am
Hi everyone.

My build is already 6 months old, but now it is at a more stable version, so I thought I'd give you the story :)

I had begun this hobby autumn last year, after I had bought a cheep Chinese drone as a present for a relative. I soon had one my own, but it was not nice to fly outside, so I decided to build one my own. After some research I came up with a relatively cheap 250 Carbon frame, the Nighthawk from Emax. I liked it for the combination of small size, rigid build and low price (as I did not want to risk a lot money for sth I had no idea how it would come out or if at all it would be fun to do). The assembly of the frame was quite easy. I had bought a CC3D as controller, and Emax motors and ESCs (well, in the beginning it was  a Hobbywing Quad ESC, soon moved to the Emax ones).

After playing around a bit with it, I got grip of a Revo Kit, so I modified the quad to fit all that stuff. After many experiments, I came up with a setup as in the fourth photo. As you can see instead of a voltage beeper I am using the FrSky Voltage sensor. It's easy to attach, and sends the voltage directly to my Taranis, which can then report to me on screen or as audible alarm. Right now it reports the voltage any time on a switch, and every few second as soon as the cell voltage drops to 3.5V. This setup proved a lot less annoying and a lot more useful than the usual voltage beeper, and with a proper connection (the cable that came with the sensor was pure crap), it's very reliable.

I also changed the fragile Nighthawk legs with linger and more stable profiles. As the GPS resides on the top frame, my battery went down, so the legs are a lot longer than the original ones.

Next step will be to add FPV equipment. Any suggestions which is the best? How about a head tracking FPV? This looks like a very much appealing FPV option :)
Title: Re: My Nighthawk 250
Post by: cato on July 26, 2015, 05:31:39 pm
Now here a video from this morning flight. I am trying out flips and rolls right now. And of course I added all my crashes as well. BTW, no major damage: although the last crash in the video the camera flew off and the copter itself rolled down the hill at high speed, in the end I lost two propellers, the voltage sensor got disconnected, the battery flew off two times, and the legs were bent a bit, so no damage that is worth a lot mentioning :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLh6-L70qvM
Title: Re: My Nighthawk 250
Post by: cato on September 08, 2015, 04:40:51 pm
My newest gadget: FPV :)

Batteries are loading for a first test flight :)