FlameWheel F-450 with KK5.5 Controller one ESC went up in smoke!

I was flying my F-450 this time with a KK5.5 Flight Controller and one of the ESC's went up in smoke.  This is what the guts of the ESC looked like afterwards.

Here is the video.  I am still learning how to fly this thing.  It takes lots of practice (and crashes).

Arduino Powered F-550 Hexacopter my biggest drone yet!

I am currently upgrading my F-450 QuadCopter to a F-550 HexaCopter.  Besides buying the frame I bought two additional motors and ESC's.  So far I have all the motors working and am getting close to having it ready to fly.  The frame kit comes with two bags of screws but no instructions.

It is assembled much like the F-450, you solder the ESC's to the base then assemble the legs to the base.  Note that the power connections to the battery are the opposite of the ESC's power connections.

The top piece does not have the holes for mounting the flight controller.  I think they wanted the controller to be mounted on the bottom piece.  The holes in the bottom piece fit a KK Controller nicely.  I tried several other controllers and they all failed to work properly.  Finally I tried a KK controller with LCD and it works almost every time.  Sometimes I need to re-calibrate the gyros.

ZMR250 or QAV250 Racing 250mm QuadCopter

I am building a ZMR250 quadcopter.  It came as a frame kit and I added the ESC (Electronic Speed Control) and Motors.

It did not come with a lot of instructions but I managed to get it together but not working.

This is what it looks like assembled with a MultiWii controller.  I had to countersink the propellers because otherwise there is not enough threads to get the top nut on.

The problem now is that only two of the four motors spins up.  I replaced a motor and now suspect it is the ESC's that are defective.  

After replacing one of the ESC's then calibrating all of them it was ready to fly.  But it would not even lift off the ground.  They are 1000 KV motors and they should have been 2000 KV motors!  The RPM is not high enough to lift the quad off the ground!

Arduino Powered F450 Quadcopter/Drone

My next project and book will be on Arduino powered Quadcopters.  So far all I have assembled is the frame.  This is a DJI F450 Quadcopter with A2212 motors.

Soldering the connectors on the motors is not easy!  You have to use an alligator clip to hold the connector in place.  Find the hole in the side of the connector and use it to get the soldering iron into the center.  This requires a fine soldering iron tip.  Fill the center with solder. Stick the wire into the hot solder.  I also bent the wire over so it fits tightly first of all.  I should have stripped some more insulation off first.

I have mounted the Arduino on the drone and added a sensor shield to connect to the Receiver and the ESC's.  Next to add the 6 axis accelerometer and gyroscope MPU-6050 module.  So far I can control it and even tested out the motors.  

This is the video of its first very short flight....

A successful flight - well almost.