3D printed micro Quadcopter build.

[kibi]

Hello all.
I recently decided that I ought to build myself a quadcopter for fun. I thought I'd start out small, so I found a design on Thingiverse that looked pretty cool. My brother has got a RepRap printer and he kindly printed the parts for me.



That process took a little while to complete, so in the meantime I got on with flashing the ESC's. I ordered Turnigy Plush 6A ESC's as per the design.



I assumed that they would employ Silicon Labs µC's so instead of forking out for SIL's Toolstick I prepared one of my spare Arduino's to perform the flashing of the SIL chips. The original firmware on most ESC's is no good for multi rotor craft. Usually a power curve is programmed in so that instantaneous power is not applied to the motors which would in turn smash drivetrains. A multi rotor however needs to have the propellors respond instantly in order to maintain it's current attitude. Also, the low battery voltage cutout needs to be removed so that the craft doesn't just fall out of the sky.
I soldered a servo lead to the appropriate programming pads on each ESC so as to ease any future upgrades.



All went well, and the magic smoke is still safely encapsulated within the components that it should be. I did use a current limited supply when flashing just in case something went wrong.
The ESC's are then closed up and the motor leads terminated and insulated.



By this time the plastic parts were ready. I started glueing the parts together and realised that there were some slight imperfections which needed to be ironed out. I set up the milling machine to take about 0.5mm off the bottom of the arms in order to bring them all level with one another.



Now the motors are glued into position, the ESC's secured to the arms and the power wiring can be routed.



Here is the machine pretty much complete, ESC's calibrated and ballpark settings configured on the KK2 which was still running v1.2 at this time because I forgot to update it.



I eventually remembered to update the KK2, but I then forgot to remove the propellors.  Luckily, nothing went wrong and I still have all of my fingers. The KK2 uses a MEGA324, so my AVRISP mkII is just fine for flashing the new firmware.



Now all I have to do is learn to fly

[MJLorton]

Heavens...you don't hold back! Brilliant.

Don't want your build to get complicated.... but will it have any stabilisation / giro? I see some of the production quads are using GPS to keep them stable and return "home" if the battery gets low...

Hats off to you Kibi.

[kibi]

Hi Martin.
Yes it does have a giro and a magnetometer on the flight controller (KK2) board. It does not have GPS. If I get more into this hobby then I'll build a bigger craft and then go for one of the higher end Naza or Arducopter flight control boards which support GPS and include mission planning, return to home, loiter etc. FPV (first person view) will be another big step, but like I say, let me learn to fly first. I actually can't fly now because I have no more propellers, I've crashed them all already. I've got some more on order, but I think I should really take it in to work so that I can practice in one of the TV studio's.