I'm putting together a ZMR 450 frame. Purchased of eBay as a nearly complete kit, I just have to add my own radio and battery.
Being a cheap Chinese clone of the DJI F450 obviously some things aren't as well finished as they could be.
First step was removing the moulding flash from the edges of the arms then opening up some cut-outs in the legs at the end of the arms. The amount of flashing was pretty bad with a lot of waste needing to trimmed from the edges of the arms and in the holes under where the motors attach.
Assembly from there on in is pretty straight forward. just have to wait until the Radio arrives from China to go any further now.
Radio Has finally arrived :) Receiver is wired in, unfortunately I didn't do as much research as I should have... I got the FS-IA6, I should have looked for the FS-IA6B. Then I could have connected the receiver to the APM2.8 with just one lead using PPM. oh well... I works for now.
Next on the shopping list will be the gimbal and possibly some upgraded landing gear...
Took her for a test flight this morning, everything seems to be ok. I flew for about 15mins and the Battery still has 11.54v in it. Looks like I can expect to be able to get heaps of video from any given area I fly in and hopefully be able to edit it into something decent.
As for landing gear, I think I solved that issue somewhat easily. I cut down an old carbon fibre arrow that I don't use any more and cable tied it to the legs. I also swung the legs around a bit to widen the stance.
Major change is coming this week I hope, in the form of a carbon fiber discovery style frame... and I only just got the gimbal working properly with the FC.
Well... the old frame has retired. Very happy with the new setup :)
Photos
Part List
Frame |
DIY F450 Quadcopter Kit APM2.8 FC NEO-7M GPS DJI 920KV BL Motor Simonk 30A ESC
Ebay.com
|
$160.00 |
Receiver |
2.4GHz 6CH FS-i6 AFHDS Radio Transmitter & FS-iA6 Receiver for Flysky RC FPV
Ebay.com
|
$67.92 |
Batteries |
2X 2200mAh 11.1V 3S 25C Lipo Battery Pack XT60 Plug for RC Helicopter Truck HOT
Ebay.com
|
$51.99 |
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I wouldn't necessarily call this a ZMR. That term started with the ZMR 250. I built one of these a couple years ago using SunnySky 980kv motors. It was a fun build and very easy to assemble. Do you have plans to add any FPV equipment or a gimbal?
Well, there's a big ZMR on the top plate, so to me that would seem to indicate that ZMR have had a hand in the manufacture of part of this... just added another photo.
Anyway, yes I do plan eventually putting a gimbal with a gopro on. I was thinking of using the gopro as the FPV camera as well, rather than having two cameras on board.
My bad! I didn't realize they rebranded these as ZMRs. What gimbal do you have in mind? I tried a cheap 3-axis from Goodluckbuy, but it was quite a lot of trouble to tune and never gave me satisfying results. You can use the GoPro as your flight camera, but you'll have noticeable lag. If it were me I'd probably just throw a simple FPV setup on there and make it a basher. If you want good quality aerial photography you can buy a P3 Standard/Advanced for a bit more than a decent gimbal. It's nearly impossible to match the video quality you'll get with one of those for the price.
i was thinking of the walkera 2 axis gimbal. thanks for the heads up on the lag with the gopro. I might have to rethink that a bit. as for the cost of a p3, they the wrong side of $600 still here in Australia, besides I don't really like the look of them.
I'd definitely get a 3-axis gimbal. It makes a big difference. Just search youtube for "2 axis vs 3 axis gimbal". The only problem is that a decent 3-axis gimbal will cost you. I've heard good things about the Tiny2, but just don't crash flying with any gimbal. They're extremely fragile. I'd practice with analog FPV until you're comfortable then add a gimbal later.
hmmm, a bit to think about there. I just looked at some videos shot with the Tiny2, they seem pretty good. Mind you anything is going to be a step up from what I started with... an MJX x101 with the camera fixed to the bottom on a basic anti-vibration plate. Still it gave me plenty of stick time and I managed a few fairly smooth videos with it.
It really depends on what sort of result you're after. I gave up chasing Phantom quality footage and have since moved on to FPV acro footage. It's far more interesting IMO and requires a lot more skill.