Bristol County Radio Control Club Forum

Here's a little info on the first quad-copter I built (actually, I built 4 for other club members before building one for myself... that's how I operate... lol). A fellow in our Tiverton R/C club found the website http://www.rctimer.com and saw they sold a 450 size quad for $115, includes frame parts, 4 motors, 4 ESCs and propellers. The only other thing you'll need is a flight control board and one they sell is called the MultiWii Lite, it is only $12-15 is works GREAT!. Below are a list of parts required (you just add a receiver of your choice):

450 Quad Kit (no flight control board): http://rctimer.com/index.php?gOo=goods_ ... oodsid=786

MutiWii Flight control board: http://rctimer.com/index.php?gOo=goods_ ... oodsid=685

Assembly is pretty straight forward (very little instructions are included, but not really needed). The mounting of the flight control board is accomplished using nylon stand-offs for vibration isolation (purchased through RCTimer also). These quads can be a little tricky in assembly and most particularly "tuning". There are flight control parameters on the MultiWii board which you can tweak/tune to adjust the flight characteristics of the quad. To change these paramaters, a neat PC program is used and you simply connect the MultiWii board to your computer using a simple USB cable.

One of the better tuning guides I could find on the web is here:
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1375728

My curent 450 quad has been tweaked to the max and flies unreal! I'm still not a good heli pilot so I still get messed up with orientation, etc... I'll get better, I just need more stick time... and most likely a few mishaps...

If you plan to build one, let me know and I'll try to help... 4 spinning blades has to be 4 times more fun,... right?

Awesome Bob!,
By the way, that identical frame is only $12.99 at rctimer.com
http://rctimer.com/index.php?gOo=goods_ ... oodsid=686

And the complete quad I have is not $130,.. it's $105 delivered to your door. (The V2 version is $115 delivered)
http://rctimer.com/index.php?gOo=goods_ ... oodsid=789

I would stick with the V1 frame, the V2 frame has the power distribution built into the frame (good you would think), but it is much heavier than the V1 version (bad).... and for $12.99, it's a steal (plus to boot, shipping is FREE!.. as with all RCTimer orders)

What also makes a BIG difference in quad performance are the ESCs you use... I would only use the SimonK ESCs (they are flashed with SimonK firmware which allows for better, faster more accurate ESC operation... it does make a BIG difference in auto leveling and acro flight... this is all RCTimer sells). I flashed many ESCs for other quad flyers in our other Tiverton club (only certain models are flashable... such as some Hobby King ESCs and other Bluebird ESCs) All of them said it made a HUGE difference (got rid of weird wobbles they were seeing).

More info here on the SimonK FW flashing is here (you'll need a USBasp programming dongle... $5
http://hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh ... duct=21321):

http://fpvlab.com/forums/showthread.php ... ith-SimonK
http://wiki.openpilot.org/display/Doc/F ... structions
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1513678