3D PRINTING MINI DRONE 6 AXIS

This time I wanted to make a drone so small that it allowed me to fly inside the house or in very small spaces, that is, something different ... normally we are used to finding quadcopters (4 propellers, or 4 axes) so I opted for one of 6 propellers, and the result was very good !!

In order to use the radio I bought to make the first drone, (the Flysky FS-I6) I had to find a very small receiver that would support the PPM communication protocol, so I bought the "FS-A8" which works very well for a very small price, about 20 euros ... 🤩

Supplies

THESE ARE THE MATERIALS WE NEED:

-Flysky FS-A8S 8-channel 2.4G PPM receiver

- Flight Controller F3

Evo Brushed 32 bit -Propeller set for Hubsan H107L or 55mm blades

- 6 coreless motors for Hubsan H107L

- Batteries for Hubsan H107L or 3.7v 500mah 25c Lipo -

SLT file to print the drone

All Componenets

You can buy all these components from Amazon

Print STL File

The first thing we will do is print the STL file. Where are the base of the drone and two more pieces, one to house the battery, and the other to mount the radio receiver on top, we will glue these together by melting the material of both pieces with a soldering iron. of electronics. Then we will have to mount the flight controller completely in the center of the drone, it comes with a double-sided adhesive which greatly facilitates this task.The next thing will be to start welding the cables following the scheme that I leave below.

Take Out the Trash and Clean the Top Surface

Mount Reciever and Motor

For motors 5 and 6 we will have to lengthen the cables a little, since they have to be welded on the opposite side to the one they are mounted on.

Solder All Motor

The receiver of the station "FS - A8" we will hold it with a small flange on the bracket, and we will attach this bracket to the drone with a little hot glue, then we will connect the cables to the "uart2" port of the controller

After having all the parts of the drone assembled and connected, we have to configure the electronics, and for this, we have to have two applications installed within Google Chrome "Cleanflight" and "Betaflight"

// Remember that these applications have to be installed in the Google Chrome browser

https://www.google.es/chrome/browser/desktop/

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/betaflight-configurator/kdaghagfopacdngbohiknlhcocjccjao?hl=en-419

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/cleanflight-configurator/enacoimjcgeinfnnnpajinjgmkahmfgb?hl=en

—SETTINGS FOR CONFIGURATION—

—SETTINGS FOR CONFIGURATION—

Open Cleanflight and in the Firmware Flasher tab select the F3_Evo controller and the latest version of available Firmware, followed by loading Firmware.
Start the flight controller in DFU mode, for this you must keep the "BOOT" contact of the controller bridged and connect it to the USB, the Cleanflight will go into DFU mode automatically and we will be able to download the new Firmware, once downloaded, close the application, it removes the tension of the controller and finally the bridge.
Now we are going to perform the same operation to flash the controller but with Betaflight. // It is important to emphasize that I had to do this step because as soon as I connected the drone with the factory firmware, the motors stayed accelerated and the controller did not respond
Once the new Firmware is installed, we start the Betaflight and go to the configuration tab, here we have to select a 6-axis drone in X, and restart.
From the setup tab and with the drone completely level, we calibrate the accelerometers.
In the "ports" tab, we must have the "USB VCP" and "UART1" ports selected.
We check from the "Receiver" tab that the transmitter controls work correctly and we adjust the trimmer if necessary.
From the "Pid Tuning" tab we will have to correct the PID control, these parameters modify the response of the motors to stabilize the drone according to its characteristics.

—PID CONTROL

—PID CONTROL—
PID Roll CONTROL: Controls the horizontal rotation of the drone's balance, it is centered on this axis, so the PID control is critical to prevent the drone from turning, in turn taking into account that the freedom of maneuver has to be sufficient as to be able to perform stunts
PID Yaw CONTROL: Controls vertical rotation and prevents propeller rotational movement forces from causing the system to rotate on its own axis, although it leaves enough freedom to guide the left and right maneuvering action.
PID PITCH CONTROL: Controls elevation and maintains forward or reverse control of the system, leaving the necessary freedom to accelerate or decrease speed if the maneuvers allow it.

PROPORTIONAL:

If the P value is very low it will be very difficult to control the drone because it will be very easy to over-correct the maneuvers, which will make it impossible to keep it stable.

If the P value is correct, it will be easy to maintain stability and it will accelerate properly when giving gas.

If the P value is too high the drone will oscillate rapidly and the motors will emit a high pitched oscillating sound. It will also gain height easily (sometimes as jumps) and it will be difficult to maintain it.

INTEGRAL:

If the value of I is too low, the drone will tend to raise its nose when changing direction and will drift.

If the value of I is correct, it will keep the angle much more precisely.

If the value of I is too high the drone will oscillate slowly and will tend to lower its nose when we change direction. Reactions will also get very lazy

DERIVATIVE:

A very low value of D will make the drone very slow in the reactions, the movement may resemble having a very low P.

A low D value will smooth reactions.

A higher D value will make reactions more nervous.

Too high a D value will cause rapid oscillations.