MQX Ladybird Hybrid Nano Quad

[Hallodrius]

Most electronics use common ground.
-> Black and Blue are ground (minus)
White/Red are the positive connection
The LED should be connected between the third color and black/Blue

[Coco66]

Originally Posted by flying-llama

My guess is that 2 of the 3 wires will power the motor and 2 of the 3 wires will power the LED (1 wire is probably connected to both).

The 3 wires can get paired in 3 different ways.

If you do not mind burning out an LED, you can try connecting each pair of the 3 wires to the mQx board and seeing if raising the throttle will spin the motor. If you choose a wire that includes an LED as part of the circuit, you may burn out the LED.

Thanks llama, I'll try it out since I don't have an ohmmeter and I know almost nothing about this kind of things...

Originally Posted by Hallodrius

Most electronics use common ground.
-> Black and Blue are ground (minus)
White/Red are the positive connection
The LED should be connected between the third color and black/Blue

Thanks Hallodrius, that's the first one I'll try (I don't have one with me at the moment so I can't tell you which colors are used there... if I remember correctly, they are red black green).


Then next question is... if I use two wires for the motor, how do I power the LEDs then?

What if I put the two positives together and get power for the LED also from the motor power? Will the LEDs burn or lit? Sorry if these questions are pretty basic...

[flying-llama]

Originally Posted by Coco66

...

Then next question is... if I use two wires for the motor, how do I power the LEDs then?

Most likely, one of the 2 wires for the motor will also be one of the wires to the LED.
Then you power up the 3rd wire (form a circuit between the 3rd wire, the LED and the wire to the motor that is also to the LED) to power the LED.

Originally Posted by Coco66

...
What if I put the two positives together and get power for the LED also from the motor power? Will the LEDs burn or lit? Sorry if these questions are pretty basic...

Unfortunately, that depends. There should be a resister somewhere in the LED circuit. If the LED has a built-in resister, then the LED will light. If the LED circuit is built to expect the resister to be in the control board, connecting power directly to the LED will probably burn it out (and perhaps the battery may also get hot).
To be safe, you may want to add an external resister to the LED circuit in case one does not exist (and if a resister already exists, you will just have a dim LED).
As for a value for the resister, a wild guess is that an about 250 ohm resister will limit the current to a safe value of 10mA or less.

The other note is that it may be the two positives are to be put together, or it may be that is a common positive with two negatives to put together.
As far as I know, the Walkera and Blade boards control the motor on opposite terminals
(Blade on the motor's positive terminal, Walkera on the motor's negative terminal is my memory).

[Coco66]

I was able to conduct a non-destructive inspection :



llama, if I understood what you wrote, I think it is like that:
- green is motor positive
- black is LED positive
- red is common negative

So... how should I connect to the mQX board which has one positive and one negative?

Again, if I understood, I should put a resistor in the "middle" of the black, and connect both black and green to board's positive, and red to board's negative.
Correct?

Is there a possibility that the LED does not need any resistor?

Thanks!

[Heli-Yeah!]

Originally Posted by poor_red_neck

I'm going to order a few more plantraco 65mm props and see how it does with those. A little bigger and much more aggressive pitch than the stock 56mm props. Just a lot more fragile. I did a test flight with just one prop to see if it works and it flew fine with just the one and 3 standard props.

Does Plantraco offer there props in CW/CCW ?

[Coco66]

In the end, I've done it like said, I connected the black and green together and the red on the other side. Motors spin in the correct direction and LEDs light up.

Unfortunately - I did not see that before - the booms (which are metal) are not compatible, they're bigger, so I had to make a sort of extension with a 3cm piece of "old" boom to connect to the frame.



The piece of old boom which goes inside the new boom (for 1 cm) also required a shrink wrap and some CA glue.

The total added weight is only around 1g per boom (compared to the original Ladybird booms)... but added length is a lot. In the end, the thing does not fly well at all. Yawing during take off, unstable, super twitchy and... nothing comparable to my sweet Hybrid. One LED died during first battery as expected.

I'll get back to previous booms, will just use the yellow/red propellers.

Was nice to try. Thanks for helping!

[flying-llama]

Sorry for not answering sooner. For some reason, I did receive post updates until today.

Originally Posted by Coco66

I was able to conduct a non-destructive inspection :
...
llama, if I understood what you wrote, I think it is like that:
- green is motor positive
- black is LED positive
- red is common negative
...

My guess would have been that the red is the common positive (red tends to indicate positive or hot) with green and black as the negatives (in DC circuits, green and black tend to indicate negative or ground).

Originally Posted by Coco66

So... how should I connect to the mQX board which has one positive and one negative?

Again, if I understood, I should put a resistor in the "middle" of the black, and connect both black and green to board's positive, and red to board's negative.

My guess would have been red to positive and black and green to negative.

Originally Posted by Coco66

Is there a possibility that the LED does not need any resistor?

That possibility exists (needed resister already in the LED or something similar).

[jlcamp7]

Built my little hybrid last week with the Rakon kit. What a fun little quad.

[Coco66]

Originally Posted by Coco66

I ordered those, waiting for delivery:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI...E:L:OU:IT:3160

I finally received them (they got lost in space but seller promptly sent another batch when told ) and... they fit very well. Good for the mQX board and clear the propellers very well.

[billj747]

Built my rakon hybrid but it dosnt seem to be as maneuverable or have the power as youtube videos of the ladybird ive seen. Not as fast as my mQX...

[bondkiller]

i'm thinking of building myself one of these hybrids, would make a nice project. only thing i'm wondering is, would the stock Nano CPx lipos be good enough? i have a bunch of them already for my nano and mcx's so it'd be easier & cheaper to use these than buy more batts and a new charger...

so will they work? diminished flight times? less power?

any help is appreciated!

[pgoelz]

Originally Posted by bondkiller

i'm thinking of building myself one of these hybrids, would make a nice project. only thing i'm wondering is, would the stock Nano CPx lipos be good enough? i have a bunch of them already for my nano and mcx's so it'd be easier & cheaper to use these than buy more batts and a new charger...

so will they work? diminished flight times? less power?

any help is appreciated!

I fly mine on Nanotech 300mAH 35C cells meant for the mCPX. I get 5 minutes of decent flight but it hovers at slightly more than 50% throttle and so has a bit less throttle headroom than my mQX (which hovers at 50%). This shows up as instability in aggressive aerobatics and recovery from same. It is worse with "lesser" cells, so I only fly with Nanotech cells.

I think it would fly better if it was several grams lighter but the only way to remove weight would be a lighter battery and I have not yet found a suitable choice. I have not yet tried an nCPX battery.... I would think it is a bit small and unable to deliver the current required at full throttle, but I am about to buy three of the Eflite 25C versions for use in my little Parkzone Sukhoi so I'll give them a shot and let you know. They would definitely take some weight out

Paul

[bondkiller]

Originally Posted by pgoelz

I fly mine on Nanotech 300mAH 35C cells meant for the mCPX. I get 5 minutes of decent flight but it hovers at slightly more than 50% throttle and so has a bit less throttle headroom than my mQX (which hovers at 50%). This shows up as instability in aggressive aerobatics and recovery from same. It is worse with "lesser" cells, so I only fly with Nanotech cells.

I think it would fly better if it was several grams lighter but the only way to remove weight would be a lighter battery and I have not yet found a suitable choice. I have not yet tried an nCPX battery.... I would think it is a bit small and unable to deliver the current required at full throttle, but I am about to buy three of the Eflite 25C versions for use in my little Parkzone Sukhoi so I'll give them a shot and let you know. They would definitely take some weight out

Paul

nice! definitely let me know, the eflite 150mah 25c's are exactly what i have.

i still gotta get my better half on board with my "project" but i think that'll be easy

[bondkiller]

just built my hybrid today! even in my small apartment & on low rates on my DX6i, i can feel the power this thing has. i'm gonna have to go to the local park soon and get some real flying in.

i'll see if i can get my very understanding fiancee to help me make a video, but she's more interested in learning to fly it herself surprisingly enough

[pgoelz]

Originally Posted by bondkiller

just built my hybrid today! even in my small apartment & on low rates on my DX6i, i can feel the power this thing has. i'm gonna have to go to the local park soon and get some real flying in.

i'll see if i can get my very understanding fiancee to help me make a video, but she's more interested in learning to fly it herself surprisingly enough

What battery are you using, what flight time do you get and what is the exact hover throttle setting?

I find that if the required throttle position for a hover is more than 50%, the quad becomes unstable in aggressive maneuvers such as a flip recovery because there is insufficient reserve throttle range and one or more motor(s) runs out of throttle headroom. This confuses the gyros and the unit becomes unstable.

I just tried one of my Eflite 150mAH 25C cells and found that while it flies, it hovers above 50% throttle, at just about exactly the same throttle setting required to hover it on a 300mAH Nanotech cell. So although the 150mAH cell is lighter and (assumed) draws less hover current, the current required to hover still causes the same voltage droop in the smaller cell and I didn't gain any real power.

I have some of the new 300mAH 45C Nanotechs coming from China (regular Nanotechs are 35C)... we'll see if those let me hover at 50% throttle.

Paul

[bondkiller]

Originally Posted by pgoelz

What battery are you using, what flight time do you get and what is the exact hover throttle setting?

I find that if the required throttle position for a hover is more than 50%, the quad becomes unstable in aggressive maneuvers such as a flip recovery because there is insufficient reserve throttle range and one or more motor(s) runs out of throttle headroom. This confuses the gyros and the unit becomes unstable.

I just tried one of my Eflite 150mAH 25C cells and found that while it flies, it hovers above 50% throttle, at just about exactly the same throttle setting required to hover it on a 300mAH Nanotech cell. So although the 150mAH cell is lighter and (assumed) draws less hover current, the current required to hover still causes the same voltage droop in the smaller cell and I didn't gain any real power.

I have some of the new 300mAH 45C Nanotechs coming from China (regular Nanotechs are 35C)... we'll see if those let me hover at 50% throttle.

Paul

i'm just using the stock E-flite 500mah 12C MQX batteries for now, my throttle curve is 0-30-50-70-90 and it hovers at just about midstick or a little below. i have my timer set to just 8 minutes for now, but once i break in these batteries i'm sure it'll fly for 10 minutes with no problem. i'm trying to get my hands on some of the E-flite 500mah 25C batts to try but they seem pretty scarce locally so i may have to just endure shipping.

[pgoelz]

Originally Posted by bondkiller

i'm just using the stock E-flite 500mah 12C MQX batteries for now, my throttle curve is 0-30-50-70-90 and it hovers at just about midstick or a little below. i have my timer set to just 8 minutes for now, but once i break in these batteries i'm sure it'll fly for 10 minutes with no problem. i'm trying to get my hands on some of the E-flite 500mah 25C batts to try but they seem pretty scarce locally so i may have to just endure shipping.

Sigh, that's the one thing I DIDN'T try I always figured the larger battery would make the quad too heavy for the tiny Ladybird motors. Plus when I built mine, all I had that were in decent shape were the even larger 600mAH Nanotechs, and they looked ridiculously large.

I'll be curious to see what kind of motor life you get. Have you checked to see how hot they are at the end of an 8 minute flight? Mine are hot with a 300mAH (8 gram) battery but not excessively so.

Your throttle curve would seem to retain 50% as the mid point so no matter what the other points are, if you hover at or below 50%, you are doing better than I am. I use a linear throttle curve and mine hovers at just a tad over 50% on a freshly charged 8 month old 35C 300mAH Nanotech. Can't wait to see what it does on brand new 45C Nanotechs.

Of course, if Eflite comes to their senses and makes a Spektrum-compatible mini-quad, all this is kinda moot.....

Paul

[bondkiller]

Originally Posted by pgoelz

Sigh, that's the one thing I DIDN'T try I always figured the larger battery would make the quad too heavy for the tiny Ladybird motors. Plus when I built mine, all I had that were in decent shape were the even larger 600mAH Nanotechs, and they looked ridiculously large.

I'll be curious to see what kind of motor life you get. Have you checked to see how hot they are at the end of an 8 minute flight? Mine are hot with a 300mAH (8 gram) battery but not excessively so.

Your throttle curve would seem to retain 50% as the mid point so no matter what the other points are, if you hover at or below 50%, you are doing better than I am. I use a linear throttle curve and mine hovers at just a tad over 50% on a freshly charged 8 month old 35C 300mAH Nanotech. Can't wait to see what it does on brand new 45C Nanotechs.

Of course, if Eflite comes to their senses and makes a Spektrum-compatible mini-quad, all this is kinda moot.....

Paul

after 8minutes, the batts are just barely warm and cool down in less than 30 seconds

[pgoelz]

Originally Posted by bondkiller

after 8minutes, the batts are just barely warm and cool down in less than 30 seconds

I was curious about the motors, not the battery

Paul

[bondkiller]

Originally Posted by pgoelz

I was curious about the motors, not the battery

Paul

ohhhhhhhhhhh i didnt notice any heat at all off the motors, but i've only flown it twice so time will tell...