Sunday, September 6, 2015

4s Capable ShenDrone Tweaker 180

After my first build and a very quick garage flight with the 1806 and the 4-1 ESC my LitteBee 20amp ESC showed up, they were always the play for the 180 and I also wanted to run 1306s with 4045s to start with.




The plan was to have a 4s capable 180 starting out on the low end with 1306s 4045 3s, then moved up to a 2204 / 4045BN / 4s setup once I got much better at FPV flying.

So the parts list for this build

My 3D Printed parts : http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:984695

Shendrone Tweaker 180 FPV 
Dual regulator 5v/12v 35 PDB
LittleBee 20amp ESCs (blHeki 14 / Damping light/Motor timing med/high)
D4RII - Stripped down
Naze32 Acro
DYS1306 / 3100kv

A shout out to GearBest.com for supplying DYS1306 /3100kv motors for this build. The DYS1306 are very popular at the moment due to the trend with the smaller 180s and sometimes hard to get. GearBest sent them out quickly and they are starting to get a wide range of multirotor parts. 


Here's the first flight after this rebuild. sounds like a lot of angry little bees.
When I used the 4045BN it was quieter.







Rebuild time


First thing was to strip the 180 completely again and start again. This time due to the lack of space I decided to put the ESC out on the arms instead of doing what I normally do and have them in the body. Also a first I will be soldering the motors directly to the ESCs, I usually use bullet connectors as I change my builds so much.

The CC3D PDB is mounted on 5mm nylon spacers off the main plate of the 180. This will allow plenty of space to route the power and ESC wires underneath s for a tidier build.


Next I placed the ESCs on the arms and routed the positive an negative power wires to the right side of the PDB. With the 5mm spacer there is plenty of room.


Before I started solder up I wanted to make sure I had room for the transmitter, as in the last build it was hard to find a spot for it. This time around I modified the D4RII. I removed the cardboard wrapper and cut off the pins that I did not need. I amd using PPM so only need the first channel pins. I also needed the last 2 pins jumpered. I did this by bending the top pin down and soldering it. The other pins I cut away and the last three I carefully bent up and then cut to the required length for a servo lead. I then covered in heatshrink. 

Test fit in the rear of the frame.


Closeup of the D4RII mods.


The D4RII  heat shrinked and ready for action.


Power Time..

Now I knew where the TX was going I could star the soldering of the ESCs to the PDB.
The wires were routed under the PDB to the + or _ side of the board and cut to length. I tinned the pads and the freshly cut wire. Then soldered the the wires to the PDB.

Below you can see the negative side done and the positive needing to be done. I also at this stage adding larger gauge leads that would be for the battery XT60 connector.



All done



Next big task was to do the custom header pin setup. I wanted all the leads connecting under the Naze32. First I did the 4 ESC pins. I used a 3 header pin, but removed the middle pin. 



I did the same for the vBat, Buzzer and Telemetry headers, one that's not shown below is the 2 pin header on the 5th motor channel that will be used for the 5v in from the regulated PDB.


I chose this PDB as it had both 12 and 5 volt regulators. I need the 5 to power the Naze32 and the D4RII as they require 5v. I also wanted the 12 so I could run 12 volt LEDs and when I jumped to 4s /14v I didn't blow them up.

The next task was to add a JST connector for from the 5volt pads that would be used to power the Naze32, 1x12v lead direct from the +&- pads for the vBat header pins, 1x12v regulated for the rear LEDs and 12v regulated going to a JST for the FPV TX power.


It starts to get tight once you start adding in those extra power leads. I also added a XT60 plug to the power leads.  This length was so that I would fit in the 3D printed rear bumper I designed. 


Motor time ...


This is the first time that I have directly soldered motors to a ESC.

First step peal back the heat shrink so you can get access to the motor lead wires. de-solder the existing motor wires. Then place the motor and ESCs in the desired final location and cut the motor wires to length.


After the first one I used a servo tester so see which way it would spin up, of course it went the wrong way for that motor / corner. So de-soldered 2 leads and swapped them.  Once complete I sealed in heat shrink. 

NOTE : Don't for get to put the heat shrink on BEFORE you solder on the motors... otherwise you will be unsoldering and doing it again .... Not that I did that twice or anything like that..!!!


Then it was on to the next three, I tested each motor after I completed it.




I then mounted the D4RII with some 3M doubled sided tape and a zip tie.


Naze Time ... 

With all the power / motor system complete is on to the adding the naze32, Below you can see the esc leads and the 5v connected to the Naze before it gets mounted. This shake down build didn't have the buzzer/ vBat / Telemetry yet. I wanted to give it a couple of full flights first.



I usually 3D print arm protectors but I wanted to try something different and simpler. I fly over tarmac alot so want to make sure I protect the beautiful carbon, The solution that I came up with was to use clear TPU tubing. I got both 6mm OD and 4mm OD to try. the best was the 4mm. I cut a length and the used a craft knife to cut the length. I then forced it over the edge of the arms. It easily held on to the frame and can be held on with a simple zip tie.

It worked really well, I play to try this in my other frames.




I also changed the rear bumper 3d Design to have the curver facing the other way and thinner





Once the ESC and motor swap was complete and the Naze wired up I just placed the top plate on, This was still in the same configuration as it was in the last build  ( Go here to see that build)

Final all up weight is 260g



UPDATE 1

 Nothing like field testing to highlight things that needed to be changed.

First I needed to tidy up the wires, the ESC wires were not that tidy, So I stripped it down and re routed those to make it much tider and easier to trace if I encounter issues.


The other bigger change was to move the Video TX. I had to do this as I plan have either a gopro or a mobius to record video, But with the TX antenna out the back I would be unable to adjust the COG. I wouldn't be able to  move the batteries rearwards enough. So I move it forward and mounted vertically using one of the supplied holes. This show how much thought Andy had put into the frames, This also made the wiring for the video TX tidier. 

The whole of the video kit (TX & Camera) is still attached to the top plate. this makes for easy remove for maintenance and troubleshooting.




The rear bumper was also changed to allow for zip ties to hold the XT60 more securely




 Now its much tidier and field tested.







I love this little frame, Its not a slow frame even on 3s / 1306s. Its fast enough for me with my level of FPV skills. The 4045 give enough punch and its even super ful to fly LOS. 

I do need to find out of the 1306 can handle the 4045 blunt nose props as the other 4045 break easily. And since I crash about 4-5 time a battery thats a lot of props !!!!

MY PIDs .... to come