Eric Mitchell

That shouldn't be a problem. It may be pretty crowded today, but people swing by all the time to check Nova Labs out.

0 · March 16

Matt F

Good to meet you today Jose. It was nice to see your son excited to learn about multirotors.

0 · March 16

Jose Luis Manners

thanks, likewise Matt

0 · March 19

Eric Mitchell

The closest metro station is the West Falls Church stop. You'd need to catch a bus from there to Reston. I believe there is a bus stop at Reston North Park & Ride Lot, but with all of the recent construction around the metro station going in at Reston, you should double check routes and times. The Reston North lot is an easy walk just down the street to Nova Labs.

0 · March 16

charles

Hi Chris, so we'll need to bring all this stuff for the build, right? If I'm on the waitlist, should I expect to just try and make the next build session? Thanks!

0 · March 15

Matt F

use Blue 242 - don't use the permanent stuff

1 · March 14

Christopher Vo

242 (Blue) is most common and would work fine.

1 · March 14

Hunter Jonsson

I'm using 242. They are very close to each other but 243 has extra oil-resistance and requires a higher breaking torque.

1 · March 14

David Siedlyk

I used 242 (blue) on my APM case and it has worked out pretty well even after having to open up the case to get at the APM2.5 a couple times. I may go ahead and thread lock everything on the frame with 242 when I replace the 30amp ESC's with the 40amp ones. So far though I haven't noticed any loose screws on the frame.

1 · March 14

Ferrell McCollough

242 does not work on threads if it's stainless to stainless, anodized, or coated. It requires iron ions to cure - if they are not present it will not cure. You can use a primer with 242 but it's another step. A much better choice is 243 - it is primerless and it works on all threads (as long as it's anaerobic).

0 · March 14

Ferrell McCollough

Both 242 and 243 are medium strength and they are recommended for 1/4" - 1" (I believe). If you use the blue on small bolts they can strip the phillips head before letting loose. Use the blue on small bolts you remove rarely and consider new bolts after a use or two. For bolts that are small and you want to remove frequently go with the 222 (purple). The 222 (purple) is low strength but it is vibration resistant - according to tech support at Loctite. A last note: The brass inserts on the quad arms contain iron ions so 242 will be fine.

2 · March 14

Gustavo Zastrow

Thanks for all the replies!
I went to homedepot and bought the Loctite 242
I also bought black "liquid tape" to put over the solderings on the power distribution board
http://www.homedepot....

0 · March 15

Hunter Jonsson

Looks like they have phased 242 out:

http://www.henkelna.c...

0 · March 15

Christopher Vo

10

0 · March 12

Christopher Vo

Weight is 800g with battery, 1200g with 5000mAh battery. With 10" CF props, it can efficiently carry 500g additional payload on it (examples: GoPro w/ waterproof case: 200g; FPV Tx: 100g; Landing gear: 100g; Sony NEX-7 with wide lens: ~350g;) for about 20 minutes. Maxed out, it can hover for at least 10 minutes with 1200g additional payload. With no payload, about 30-35 minutes.

Hexacopter version is efficient with up to 1000g additional payload, but with such a payload, flight time is poor (only 12 minutes or so). You can improve this by using 2 5000mAh 3S or 4S batteries in parallel, this flight time increases to about 20-25 minutes.

1 · March 5

Christopher Vo

As a rule of thumb, to carry a sport camera (RedLeaf or GoPro), FPV Tx, and landing gear, a quadcopter with HP2212-1000Kv motors and 40A OPTO ESC running on a 5000mAh 3S lipo should be good for about 20 minutes.

To carry a DSLR, FPV Tx, and landing gear, a hexacopter with HP2217-950Kv motors and 40A OPTO ESC running TWO 5000mAh 3S or 4S lipos in parallel should be good for about 20 minutes.

1 · March 5

Christopher Vo

(The DSLR I am using as an example is the Nikon D7000, though it's relatively heavy compared to other DSLRs like the Canon T4i and twice the weight of a Sony NEX-5)

0 · March 5

Jim Kellner

And you have the Nikon D7000 on a hexacopter? Does it acquire images on a given time interval or can you interact with it from the ground? I'd like to do something like this with a visible NIR camera for characterizing vegetation.

0 · March 5

Christopher Vo

I did a lift test with a stock DJI F550 back in August using two 4S lipos in a homemade battery tray. It was able to carry two 17 oz bottles of water; that is about equivalent in weight to a Nikon D7000 with 50mm f/1.8G lens. In fact I think the two bottles of water is heavier. You can interact with the camera from the ground in a number of ways; you can directly connect a switch channel from your radio Rx to an RC switch (http://www.pololu.com...) wired to the shutter release circuit on your DSLR: (see http://www.doc-diy.ne... for pinouts); you could also use the ArduPilot shutter release output (so you don't need an extra RC switch), or just connect a Cactus V5 to your D7000 in remote shutter release mode and have a second person watching the remote video feed take the shots by pushing the button on the Cactus transceiver.

0 · March 6

Gustavo Zastrow

Hi Jim, I'm finishing a certificate in GIS and as my final project I will do NIR aerial photography from a weather balloon... so I was doing some test from my quadcopter and a hacked canon pocket camera (a720). Check out the photos at http://www.dcdrone.or...

0 · March 6

Jim Kellner

Hey Gustavo, thanks for the link. How did you get the a720 to work in the NIR, a filter?

0 · March 6

Jordan Engel

Removing one? http://www.howtogeek....

0 · March 7

Christopher Vo

I've modified a D40 to do this before by disassembling the camera, removing the UV and IR blocking filter, and subsituting it with an NIR-pass filter.

1 · March 7

Gustavo Zastrow

Just like Jordan and Christopher mentioned, I open the camera, removed the IR filter and put a piece of developed film instead... i followed this tutorial
http://www.geektechni...

0 · March 7

Matt Chiste

Chris - will we be able to pick up the kits before the build party? I'd be interested in checking out the hardware and maybe getting a bit of a head-start before the big day...

0 · March 3

Christopher Vo

Yes of course. I will send out e-mails on Monday afternoon to let people know what they can pick up and when. Because of the 3DR air module shortage, nobody's kits are going to be 100% complete by the build party. Most likely, the pickup day will be March 10th but I am open for people to come by earlier or later if they send me an individual note. I can also ship items for people if they send me a FedEx shipping label. Most kits will actually fit in a flat rate box.

0 · March 3

Christopher Vo

For reference, extra arms are around $5 and extra props are about $1 each, and I'll try to keep a stock of those items on hand locally so you don't have to wait for shipping from China. An entire new frame is only $24 on RCTimer, but you could always stick the motors and ESCs on a different frame (HobbyKing has a lot of options), or just build your own frame from scratch if you want. The arms from the kit even fit on other plate designs like the TBS Discovery, in case you feel like upgrading.

0 · March 3

Christopher Vo

Everything else most users bought (like Tx/Rx, battery, motors, APM autopilot, etc) is reusable for future builds, and some items even get better: Walkera DEVO Tx units can be hacked to use DSM2 protocol as well, and store settings for up to 255 different models of aircraft, further extending the usefulness of it for future builds. Also the APM2 works in not just quadcopters but also hexacopters, octocopters, Y6 copters, traditional single-rotor helicopters, fixed wing aircraft and even ground rovers. So hopefully, those of you who bought kits will have the ability to use 90% of the stuff you bought over and over again for other projects in the future =)

0 · March 3

Hunter Jonsson

and with the connectors!

0 · February 26

Daniel Allen

How much?

0 · March 1

Matt F

Chris, do you have 4 that I can buy and pick up tomorrow at the fly event? I think my ESC's may have been fried with that elec short.

0 · March 1

Christopher Vo

they're all sold out but I have 4 of 40A RCTimer ESCs that are used (work fine) that you could buy off of me for a discounted price, send me an e-mail!

0 · March 1

Christopher Vo

You'll be fine. I made sure to include the correct mounts and screws for your installation.

0 · February 21

Christopher Vo

Well, I wish I could say we had more documentation. We're still working on that. Last year, I held a talk about the details about how you might choose a frame, motors, propellers, etc.

Autopilot: This is the flight computer. It takes input from the radio receiver as well as sensor data (gyro, compass, accelerometer, barometer), and sends signals to the motor electronic speed controllers (ESCs) to control the speed of the motors. The flight computer we have selected for the guided kit is the 3D Robotics APM2.5, which is an inexpensive open source autopilot with loads of features. You can select to get a genuine model or a Chinese "clone" of the 3DRobotics board. We recommend getting the APM2 clone with GPS and telemetry.

0 · February 19

Christopher Vo

Battery: You should get a Turnigy 3S battery with Anderson PowerPoles for the connectors. It fits perfectly into the chassis.

Tx/Rx Bundle: This is the radio control set. If you already have a radio control transmitter (Tx) and receiver (Rx), you can skip this. Otherwise, I recommend getting the Walkera DEVO 7 or 10. It consists of a transmitter (Tx) that is handheld and communicates with a 2.4 GHz radio receiver (Rx) that sits in the aircraft.

0 · February 19

Christopher Vo

For the optional parts, I recommend getting everything that says (Recommended) but these are usually small hardware items that you need to assemble the multirotor. You can live without these but they really do help.

For "Expert Services" I can solder some parts for you for a fee. You'd select these if you are either inexperienced at soldering or would just like me to do it for you to save time.

For Upgrade Options, I highly recommend the 2212 motors and 40A OPTO ESCs, the 2212 motors are higher quality with better bearings and nicer propeller mounts that do not require modifications; the 40A OPTO ESCs have an external crystal oscillator (prevent drift in frequency due to temperature changes) and optoisolation which makes it less sensitive to electrical noise.

0 · February 19

Mary Dotson

Jim, I found this webpage helpful for understanding the basic configuration: http://www.arducopter...

0 · February 19

Daniel Allen

Interesting insight on the opto ESCs. I didn't know they existed and how they isolate the original signal. I'm familiar with the opto IC (4N32) so that makes a lot of sense to use them.

0 · February 19

Jim Kellner

Thanks so much for the info. This is exactly what I needed.

0 · February 19

Christopher Vo

Daniel: The 30A SimonK ESCs on the group buy work OK but they are a bit antique and inefficient in design. The 40A ESCs have a better design that matches what you see out of most higher end ESCs on the market.

1 · February 20

Daniel Allen

Thanks Chris, I'm curious how the two compare and if its that significant of an improvement. Especially compared to the SimonK flashed HobbyKing ESCs I'm using. The total cost is soaring!

0 · February 20

Ted Markson

Aaron, we'll have a drill press, soldering stations, rulers - most of the tools you'll need to assemble. However, I recommend you bring a nice set of metric allen wrenches - ones with a T handle are easy to use. We'll have folks with soldering experience too if anyone needs help with that.

0 · February 20

Christopher Vo

In particular, you'll need a good 2mm hex screwdriver. And a good soldering station.

0 · February 20

Toby

Chris, I replied to your questions via email and sent a new email with an additional ? for you. Thanks!

1 · February 19

Jee Vang

chris, what is the "minimum" items that one should buy? there are so many "recommended" items and it seems some of them are not optional but required (e.g. is the kit just a kit to build the flying machine? don't we also need a controller to fly it remotely? that would mean the controller isn't really optional).

0 · February 19

Jee Vang

chris, also, if there's something "cheaper" for real beginners, please let us know. i don't want to invest in a bunch of stuff and then crash it a few minutes later, at which point i'll be feeling very bad...

0 · February 19

Christopher Vo

the basics to start are: frame, ESCs, motors, and props, (all part of the base kit), autopilot (APM2 clone), transmitter (DEVO 7), battery (3S), battery charger (Accucel-6). With those items alone, you can at least make something that flies. I think that amounts to about $300 or so. you need the autopilot even if you are flying it with just remote control.

0 · February 20

Christopher Vo

please feel free to e-mail me if you have questions. sorry i was away from the keyboard this evening

0 · February 20