Long time, no post, another package

 

As there hasn't been a lot of progress since last post, I've waited with posting more. However now, I've got another package in the mail containing:

• 9x4.7 propellers
• Another 5000mAh battery
• Spare 3.5mm and 5.5mm gold connectors
• 85dB lost signal alarm
• 3.5v uBEC

I ordered the propellers to have some slightly weaker than the 10x5.0 propellers I ordered previously. I've kind of come to the conclusion that the motors and propellers I ordered are slightly over powered to what the quad will weigh. These propellers will slightly reduce the thrust.

Another battery will gain 5000mAh more and 450g weight. This will counter the thrust and also give more flight time if used in parallel with the old battery.

The lost signal alarm is activated if the signal is lost for more than one minute and will sound at 85dB. This is a cheap insurance policy to find a quad that might lay wrecked in a bush somewhere it'd otherwise not be found.

I ordered the 3.5v uBEC before I understood that the OrangeRX radio receiver I have wants 5v. I blame that on my dyslexia ;).

Another plus is that I've got advance notice of that my package with the replacement motor will be available for pickup Monday. Stay tuned until then!

Fixing up the power distribution board

Today was a day of soldering. Two tasks had to be performed to make the power distribution board work as intended. First off, it's connectors were incompatible with the connectors of the battery pack. That was solved by cutting away the TX60 connector and soldering a pair of 5.5mm gold connectors instead.

You can spot the old yellow TX60 connector up in the top right corner of the picture. New connectors were soldered after some trouble with the thicker soldering tin I bought today. I bought 2mm soldering tin, which turned out to be a pain to use as it took quite a bit of heat to melt. I ended up using thinner soldering tin instead.

Thereafter, I soldered the uBEC current converter onto the auxiliary power connectors on the power distribution board. The uBEC is intended to connect the power distribution board to the flight controller. As of the specification, the flight controller may switch anything from 5 to 12v but forum posts recommend using an external uBEC instead as overheating then only destroys the uBEC and not the entire flight controller.

The picture above shows the uBEC soldered to the power distribution board's aux connectors as well as the new 5.5mm gold connectors.

I've also soldered another ESC today with the same amount of success as the last one. Think I'll do another one tonight. Next question is, how do I bring voltage to the radio receiver? Not figured that one yet, stay tuned.