The Flying Flowerpot Flies and Crashes Again

Review: UDI 818A Quadcopter

UDI 818A as it comes out of the box

This mid size low cost intermediate grade quadcopter is easy to fly and includes a camera.  It is a good trainer before moving on to more complicated and expensive machines.  The unit is fully assembled and you just have to charge the flight batteries, insert transmitter batteries, and then you are ready to go.

The UDI 818A is available from Amazon and others for about $65 to $85 US.  This includes the copter with camera, transmitter (mode 2), extra battery, USB charger, and extra props.  It comes in white (my unit) or black, they are identical except for the color.  All you need to add are AA batteries for the transmitter.

Design

The unit incorporates a horizontal plastic prop guard assembly to help preserve the copter when you bump into something.  You can hit an obstruction without damaging the quadcopter.  You can turn the camera on and off with the transmitter and it takes decent video (see the youtube link below). Other than that, it is a pretty standard 4 channel quadcopter with 6 axis gyro stabilization.

Documentation is terrible - a google translation from Chinese with some made-up words thrown in.  Read it to get some basic ideas and a good laugh.

Flying

Relatively easy to fly, the throttle is not too sensitive and the controls work well.  Flight time is about 7 mins on one battery and it takes about 1 to 2 hours to recharge.  The inevitable crashes do not seem to mar walls or ceilings, in case your wife or mother is wondering.

This can be flown outdoors if it is fairly calm, but be careful as it will be harder to control than in controlled indoor environment.

Accessories

There are no accessories and you cannot add any due to the small size of the unit.  You may want to buy extra batteries or props that can be found on Amazon or Ebay.

Lessons from First Quadcopter Build

I learned a few things from building my first quadcopter drone.

1. The USB port is very fragile, attach a permanent short extender cable to connect to your PC.  Otherwise, you will be buying a new controller.
2. You need to take time to think as you assemble the drone.  There are lots of ways of attaching components and taking some time to think will yield a better result.  Spending time with the Mission Controller application will help you set up your drone, understand how it will work, and allow you to test some of the functions before flying.
3. The best places to get pieces are online stores like Amazon and Hobbyking, Home Depot, and your local hobby shop.
4. Nylon cable ties are a great way to attach things to the quadcopter frame.  Why use bolts when a simple tie will do?
5. Learn how the controller works before flying.  There are some modes like "althold" that sound useful but should only be triggered after flying.
6. Make a tethered test setup to test fly your quad.
7. Use the Wiki, google, youtube, and manufacturers sites to find solutions to problems or helpful tutorials.
8. Get a good soldering iron and learn to solder.

Building and Free-Flying Quadcopter Part 13

Time to see if the quadcopter really flies.  You can see the successful test flight in the basement above, but the lighting is not great and Youtube has further degraded the quality to potato-camera level.  The quad flies well but is a bit sensitive to throttle and needed some work on securing the battery.  The not so smooth flying technique is the pilot's fault as I was trying to keep it away from the ceiling.  The hovering is pretty good and the next step will be some test flights outside when there is no wind.

Building and Flying Quadcopter Part 12

Well I went back and tried to fix the problems in the last test flight, which were:

1. ESC's not properly calibrated - I was able to get them to calibrate once, but there is something weird about how these speed controls interface with the controller.
2. Poor throttle control - It turns out that you should land and take off in "stabilize mode" and I was in "Althold" mode.  It took a lot of google searching to stumble across this.
3. The receiver refused to work for a while and I don't know why.  After plugging and unplugging wires, disassembling the receiver, testing and testing, it started to work again for some unknown reason.

After fixing these issues, I tried the quadcopter with no props and it seemed better.  I then lengthened the tethers and ran another test flight shown above, which seems much better.

Building and Flying Quadcopter Part 11

Quadcopter Drone ready for tethered test flight

Making progress, I found the link to set up the motors, speed controls, etc and got the wiring for the ESCs and motors set up properly.  Then I mounted the propellers and spent a while trying to figure out how to arm the drone, which I found at this link on the wiki.

I also needed a way to test-fly the drone, given my propensity to crash quadcopters.  I came up with a system using an old piece of plywood, with holes to allow rope to be attached to the drone landing gear.  The rope is wrapped around some tall screws on the plywood to allow adjustment.  This is shown in the photo above and actually worked out well.

Then our first test flight shown above.  The drone worked, although the controls need adjustments, particularly the throttle.  You can see me testing throttles, forward motion, yaws left and right, and left and right movement - all the basic movements.  So now it is back to the wiki and Mission Planner to find out how to tune the controls.

Review: Hero RC Sky Matrix H1306

This small low cost toy-grade quadcopter is an ideal trainer due to its design, low cost, and resilience.

The Hero RC Sky Matrix H1306 is a small indoor unit available from Amazon and others for about $35 to $45 US.  This includes the copter, transmitter (mode 2), extra battery, USB charger, and extra props.  All you need to add are AA batteries for the transmitter.

Design

The unit incorporates an all around plastic and metal cage, ostensibly for rolling up and down walls.  You can certainly do that but the main advantage is that you can hit the floor, ceiling, or almost any other obstruction without damaging the quadcopter.  See my previous post for video of Matrix bashing into all manner of things with no damage.  Other than that, it is a pretty standard 4 channel quadcopter with 6 axis gyro stabilization.

Documentation is terrible - a google translation from Chinese with some made-up words thrown in.  Read it to get some basic ideas and a good laugh.

Flying

Relatively easy to fly, but very sensitive to throttle input, you will spend a lot of energy jockeying the throttle stick to maintain altitude.  The LEDs are bright inside and will help you with the orientation of the copter.  Flight time is about 5 mins on one battery and it takes about 1 to 2 hours to recharge.  The inevitable crashes do not seem to mar walls or ceilings, in case your wife or mother is wondering.

This can be flown outdoors if it is really calm, but be careful as it will be harder to control than in controlled indoor environment.

Accessories

There are no accessories and you cannot add any due to the small size of the unit.  There is no easy way to attach a camera and it would have to be really small and light, and you would see the plastic cage when using the camera anyway.

Learning to Fly A Quadcopter

The old adage was that you had to get an instructor to learn how to fly a radio controlled airplane - don't do it yourself, you will crash, it is hard, you need an official flying field, etc etc.  This was clearly true when I tried to fly RC planes in the early 1970's.  The planes took a long time to build, were powered by glow engines, flew very quickly, were expensive, and hard to repair.  You could easily crash and it was very costly.  My first attempt at flying wrecked my Goldberg Falcon 56, damaged my OS Max .30, and damaged my RC servos.  The cost in 1970 was about $200, in today's money that is about $750.

The good news is that you don't need a lot of money, an instructor, and a flying field to learn to fly a quadcopter drone.  You can do it at home for about $35.

Buy a good toy quadcopter with rotor guards like the Hero RC Sky Matrix H1306 for about $35 US.  You will get a decent indoor quadcopter that will withstand multiple collisions and crashes, along with extra props, battery, charger, transmitter.  You just add some AA batteries for the transmitter.  You can bash this into the wall, ceiling, floor, and it will likely be undamaged.  My unit is fine after probably 20 or 30 crashes, I have not even used the extra props.

To teach yourself to fly:

1. Follow the instructions to set up the unit on its stand that is part of the display box.
2. Make sure the LEDs are solid red.
3. Point the nose of the unit with the red LEDs away from you.  Pick a room that is pretty open and not cluttered with chairs, tables, etc. so you have some room.
4. Slowly advance the throttle until it lifts off.
5. Try to get it to hover at about 3 to 6 feet in front of you.  Manipulate the throttle to get it to hover.  Don't touch the other controls or just give small inputs.
6. Don't worry if it crashes, pick it up, put it back on the stand, go back to step 3.  Try again.
7. Once you can get it to hover for about 10 or 20 seconds, try to use the controls on the right stick to keep it hovering in one place.  Left and right stick makes it move left and right, forward stick moves it forward, and back stick moves it back.
8. Try this for a while until you can get it to hover in one place for about 30 seconds.
9. Next try making the unit turn around using the left stick.  Make the nose point towards you and try to hover in one place for 30 seconds.  This "nose in" position is tricky because all the controls are reversed except the throttle.  Right stick right makes the copter go left, stick left makes it go right, etc.  This is one of the trickier things to learn.
10. Once you have mastered all this, which will take a little while, try flying around the room in a circle and then landing.

A few things you will discover:

• It is a little harder than you think if you are uncoordinated like me
• The battery will last about 5 mins
• As the battery is expended, you will need more throttle to stay aloft
• There is only a small range of throttle where you can keep it hovering - a little less and you hit the floor, a little more and you hit the ceiling.  It is good training for your thumbs!

Check out me learning to fly in this Youtube video.