{"id":70,"date":"2015-08-20T06:44:02","date_gmt":"2015-08-20T06:44:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jaisor.net\/?p=70"},"modified":"2015-08-20T06:44:02","modified_gmt":"2015-08-20T06:44:02","slug":"quadcopter-zax-build","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jaisor.net\/index.php\/2015\/08\/20\/quadcopter-zax-build\/","title":{"rendered":"ZAX Build"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As some of my friends might recall, I often enjoy flying these small few-day-use copters that have gotten so popular in the past few years. Recently, I decided to step up that hobby and jump into building, in addition to flying, with FPV as the first major goal.<\/p>\n<p>Legally flying FPV and controlling at ranges\u00a0greater than a room, requires a HAM radio license, which was my first milestone. (<a href=\"http:\/\/jaisor.net\/index.php\/2015\/08\/13\/amateur-radio-license\/\">See my previous post<\/a>) While studying for the exam, I began reading quadcopter how-to articles, videos and forums. Soon after I started ordering parts. Here is the list I ended up with:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Radio: Taranis X9d Plus<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Yes, it is a bit costly but, from what I read, it packs features far more expensive radios do not have.\u00a0I&#8217;ve used it for a few days now and I can say &#8211; I absolutely love it.\u00a0While the learning curve is steep, all features are design with such forethought that\u00a0in many cases they felt intuitive. A\u00a0great piece of technology. I have only scratched its surface and am eager to learn.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Core Quadcopter Parts:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Frame:\u00a0<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/amzn.com\/B00WE9EGAA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">YKS DIY Full Carbon Fiber Mini C250 Quadcopter Frame Kit for FPV Mini Quadcopter Part<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><em>(Easy to assemble and quite sturdy. Looking back, I wish it had spacers for mounting the ESCs in between the bottom plates.)<\/em><\/li>\n<li>Flight Controller: <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/amzn.com\/B00U3BHN38\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">CC3D by ARRIS<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><em>(I spent a lot of time considering\u00a0between Naze32 and CC3D. Almost flipping a coin, I ordered CC3D and have no regrets. The software is well written, the board was easy to mount and configure and the copter flies great. I have ordered a Naze32 since, for my next build, but I believe\u00a0I am rooted in the\u00a0OpenPilot camp.)<\/em><\/li>\n<li>Motors:\u00a0<strong>EMAX MT1806 KV2280\u00a0<\/strong><em>(One of the motors arrived defective, I ordered another set. When working, the motors are great. Plenty\u00a0of power.)<\/em><\/li>\n<li>Electronic Speed Controllers (ESC):\u00a0<strong>EMAX SimonK 12A Brushless\u00a0<\/strong><em>(One was running hot, but I have since read that it is normal for the one providing power to the rest of the 5v gear. It is on my TODO to address that with a\u00a0dedicated BEC, as I keep adding components)<\/em><\/li>\n<li>Power Distribution Board (PDB):\u00a0<strong>Lumenier M-PDB 4Power Mini Power Distribution Board <\/strong><em>(Good manufacturing quality and very inexpensive. While not\u00a0absolutely\u00a0required, it did simplify the build and made it much easier to expand since.)<\/em><\/li>\n<li>Radio RX: <strong>FrSky D4R-II\u00a0<\/strong><em>(Tiny,\u00a0inexpensive, 8 channels in PPM, built-in telemetry and fail-safe, this board is absolutely brilliant. Hope FrSky never stops making it.)<\/em><\/li>\n<li>Propellers:\u00a0<strong>Gemfan 6045 6045R 2-Blade Multirotor Nylon<\/strong>\u00a0<em>(Cheap but sturdy. Yes, I&#8217;ve broken a few since but most of the time they survive a few serious smacks before dying. I am wondering if the Nylon flexibility is not causing oscillations during flight\u00a0tho.)<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Battery and Charger<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>LiPo Battery: <strong>3S 1500Mah 35C<\/strong>, since then I&#8217;ve also acquired a <strong>3S 2200Mah 25C<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Charger: <strong>SKYRC iMAX B6AC V2<\/strong>\u00a0<em>(A bit of an investment considering, but like the Taranis, I have no regrets in hindsight.)<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I took some photos during the build and created an <a href=\"http:\/\/imgur.com\/a\/II9LI\">imgur album<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Update (9\/26\/15) <\/strong>I realized that I did not include any instructions. I spent a week before the build looking at videos and reading how-to tutorials. Here are some links:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=EYAW6kVoxHc\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=EYAW6kVoxHc<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/fpvracing.tv\/builds\">https:\/\/fpvracing.tv\/builds<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.oscarliang.net\/250-mini-quad-part-list-fpv\/\">http:\/\/blog.oscarliang.net\/250-mini-quad-part-list-fpv\/<\/a>\u00a0(many more articles on site, it has become my main copter knowledge repository)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ZK7IkctChu8\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ZK7IkctChu8<\/a>\u00a0(several\u00a0episodes in series)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Here is the final result:<img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/i.imgur.com\/CLiJlf5.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2464\" height=\"1632\" \/><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i.imgur.com\/HIkEn0G.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/i.imgur.com\/HIkEn0G.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1815\" height=\"1202\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As some of my friends might recall, I often enjoy flying these small few-day-use copters that have gotten so popular in the past few years. Recently, I decided to step up that hobby and jump into building, in addition to&hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/jaisor.net\/index.php\/2015\/08\/20\/quadcopter-zax-build\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue Reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[8,22,27,28,30,45],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jaisor.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jaisor.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jaisor.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jaisor.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jaisor.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jaisor.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jaisor.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jaisor.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jaisor.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}