Work on wooden quadcopter from this post continues. This weeken I've been able to almost finish. Almost. Frame itself is done, motors and ESC are in place, electric cables soldered, but this wooden multirotor is grounded. The reason is flight controller Thunder QQ Super. Why? Because it is crap. Really. The first unit was broken and 2 motor channels were not working. Fine, it happens. Seller has sent me second unit. It arrived few weeks ago, but I never had time to check it.

Yesterday I finally connected second Thunder QQ Super to radio receiver and motors. And what? One of the motors is not spinning. ESC is only beeping and this is all. After connecting this ESC to radio RX directly, motor spins just fine. There are also no problems with this ESC when used with different flight controller (OpenPilot CC3D). It only does not work with QQ Super. Why? No idea.

OK, this time it's not 100% Thunder QQ Super fault. It is more like incompability. But very frustrating incompability. Either way, new flight controller should be on its way and in 2 weeks my quadcopter from wood should be fully operational.

Wooded quadcopter almost done

wooden quad frame on scale

wooden quad frame on scale

wooden frame

plywood central platform

ESC on wooden arm

I must say I'm happy with results. Frame is lighter than I expected and itself it weights only 256g. With motors and propellers, weight goes up to 615g and 1100g with ESC and battery. So, it's not light, but not so heavy after all. And it's very rigid.

Dimensions:

  • motor to motor diagonal: 500mm,
  • motor to motor front arms: 370mm,
  • motor to motor rear arms: 300mm,
  • frame weight: 256g

And it finally has an official name: DeadRat.Why DeadRat? Because it's a dead cat frame type and we have a pet rat. And my older daughter likes the name very much.