F450 Flame Wheel Smart Quadcoper for Carrying More Than 1 Kg

the flame wheel is a multi tasking flying platform, originally made by Dji. you can get the original flame wheel quadcopter from Dji, or make your own arduino clone. the arduino clone is cheaper and have much more capabilities.

i built this quadcopter for aerial filming and land simulation, so i decided to go for the arduino clone. the arduino flight control is open source and it much flexible. it working on the well known ATmega2560 microcontroller.

this is supposed to be an endless instractable, and i always make updates. so please ask any quastions you want and help me to make this instractable very detailed.

Step 1: Part List

as i already said, the ardupilot is very flexible platform and you can build tiny tricopters or large multirotors. in my case. i need at least 1 kg of thrust to lift small camera with gimbal.

this part list include all the parts i already used in this project

F450 flame wheel clone frame - 14$
i used the sunnysky angel 980KV motors but i recommend the emax 980kv motors - 36$
APM 2.8 flight controller (you can get the new APM 3.1 version here) - 50$
3s powerpack - i used 11.1v 5000mah for 12-15 minutes of flight time - 33$
1045 propellers, 2 CW and 2 CCW. 4$
usb wireless telemetry - i got this one with 500-600 meters range, or this one for more 2500 meters range. 25$
2.4 Ghz, 9 channels transmitter and reciever module - 110$ if you want a cheaper radio system you can get a 6 channels system for 50$
i used the NEO-M8N GPS module - cheaper and reliable alternatives are the NEO-M7 or the NEO-M6. 47$
4 30A brushless ESC - 36$
APM power supply module - 9$

total price : 364 $

the parts list below include the components i wish to add for the aerial filming in the feature, all the parts here belong to the video filming and real time transmitting system (FPV)

landing gear - 8$
2 axis brushless gimbal - 45$
HD camera with video output - i got the xiaomi yi with the av cable, the camera will take a 16 mp video to the sd card while sending real time video to the fpv display. - 63$
5.8GHZ video transmitter and reciever - 30$
4.3 inch tft display - 14$
1 2200mah 11.1v lipo battery for the fpv display - 10$

you can see in my last instructable how i am going to use the 4.3 inch display.

Step 2: Building the Frame With the Mechanical Parts

the bottom plate of the f450 frame include power distribution board, this board distirbute the power from the battery to the 4 ESC.

there is 5 parts you need to solder before you start to build the frame:

1. battery plug

2. 4 ESC

solder the esc red an black wires to the PDB outputs. the red wires to the + base, and the black to the - base. solder also the battery plug to the PDB input.

after you finish the soldering process, you can build the frame, it supposed to take 5 minutes. then you can place the motors in their places. when you place the motors, point the wires to the center of the chassis.

install the propellers like you see in the picture, the white arms (in the picture) are the front of the quadcoper. there is 2 CW props and 2 CCW props so be carefull not to make it wrong.

Step 3: Connecting the Electronic Components

the APM flight controller is very easy to connect, there is specific connection for each module. it highly recommended to connect the wires only after you placed the flight controller in it's place.

1. connect the gps module to the 2 ports

2. connect the 2.4 reciever to the inputs ports, at the same order (output one to input 1, output 2 to input 2...) you must connect at least 6 channels.

3. connect the telemetry plug to the apm

4. connect the small plug of the power module to the apm.

5. you need to connect the motors outputs to the ESC in ths order:

place the frame with the back to your face (the back side of the quadcopter need to point to your face)

connect the motor output 1 to the far right ESC
connect the motor output 2 to the close left ESC
connect the motor output 3 to the far left ESC
connect the motor output 4 to the close right ESC

when you finish all the connections and it look like you ready to fly, its time to install the mission planner to your pc and update the program of the flight controller.

download the last version of mission planner and follow the steps.

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