X450 Quadcopter
First Test Flights
The main electronic components are connected and I re-configured the flight controller for some initial test flights. The flights were all in our enclosed patio area where I took off, hovered, roughly maintained position with manual controls and then landed when the motors started to lose power. Overall, I was pleased with the results. Take off was smooth and controls were responsive. It wasn’t quite as snappy as the original configuration but the extra weight of the gimbal and battery doesn’t seem to have ruined the handling. Total flight time was 9.5 minutes which is slightly more than before I embarked on this project but well-short of the 12+ minutes I was hoping for.
As an experiment, I did the same flight test with the gimbal and camera removed (combined weight: 250g) and just hit the 12 minute mark. Obviously it completely defeats the purpose of this project if I ditch the camera and gimbal but I should be able to lose some weight without sacrificing this core functionality. There’s an easy 100g saving, for example, if I replace the gimbal with a lighter model. I can also trim some fat from the arms and some of the metal hardware can be replaced with nylon equivalents. Replacing the aluminium landing gear rods with carbon fibre is also an option. Overall, I reckon on a 150g saving being relatively easy but, beyond that, it’s going to get tricky. I may also try a larger 5000mAH battery although it’s uncertain if the extra capacity will offset the weight penalty sufficiently. If I want to spend a bit more money, I could also get some more efficient motors (these ones were particularly cheap and poor quality) and carbon props.
In the meantime, while the flight time isn’t ideal, it’s perfectly adequate for aerial video work so I need to finish getting the video, gimbal and retractable landing gear working, do some fine-tuning of the flight controller and tidy up the wiring.
Posted on 06 September 2016
