My first experience with multirotors

I was surfing the web and came across diy multicopters and it peeked my interests and eventually I found myself on flitetest's youtube page.  After the release of the rotorbone series I became extremely interested and finally laid down money I had saved up (~$200) and got to work.

Using the KK2.0 board, flashed to v1.6 because v1.2 was giving me headaches setting up and self level was TERRIBLE.  Had a 6ch reciever but it was from an old robot project which only had 4ch transmitter so no self level on and off switches for me ;).  The black device taped on the right is my battery meter with an alarm, I later found out that the kk2 has a built in alarm function but I didn't have any spare connectors to solder and wasn't designed with my wiring harness.

Started off with rctimer hp2217 930kv motors but my intial flights weren't very successful so I ended up bending the shafts a little and eventually broke one motor but in the process generated a lot of vibration that messed with the kk2.  Moved on and spent ~$60 on some well known Sunny Sky motors (x2212 980kv) and first run they ran like a dream; almost little to no vibrations.  I got mine at buddyrc if anyone is interested didn't know they came in green till I saw these.  I used a 9x4.7 gemfan prop after researching more and learning the hard way that the e-props can work but are more efficient when spinning at higher rpm and the SF props work in the inverse (work better at lower rpm) and that choosing sf vs e in terms of dimension at the end will have simlar results although the SF will drain more amps.  Managed to break the delrin and g-10 motor mounts a couple of times but getting new ones were a cinch at the flitetest store.  To save some money till I got better I ended up using some foam for landing gears (yes it's just a foam pool noodle).

found out that simonk flashed esc were great so I decided to buy some preflashed to speed up my build.  These are 30A simonk flashed escs from rctimer they worked awsome but I think 30A may have been a tiny bit overkill.  Also for anyone who plans to use simonk flashed escs with the kk2, note that I discovered that you have to jack up the gains a TON, probably due to how fast they can process with the awesome code.  For example the stock settings were around 30 to 50 on p-gain and I ended up having decent control at like 200 (WOW).  Remember each esc and motor is different especially on certain voltages so take care to tune properly with provided manuals on the web.  The tuning process was when I lost my first motors possibly due to very low gains at stock and poor piloting so for anyone just starting, try as much as possible to be in an open area with little to none obstructions, may think about tethering.

used some foam, rubber band and K'nex as a mounting solution for my battery and camera mount

I didn't have any nylon/plastic stand offs handy so I took some balsa wood put the grains in both directions and super glued them together for rigidity.  Then mounted the board to the wood and wood to frame with some double sided foam/rubber tape I got while buying stuff from rctimer.  Not sure if my design worked but I hoped that it dapened some vibrations and it seems to fly well now so I guess it works

Couldn't afford a go pro but got lucky and scored this HD action cam called AC500E from svp for $30 on ebay a similar one can be found at monoprice.  It isn't fantastic but it shoots in HD and seems to work fine though a bit heavier than a go pro.

I needed some vibration dampening system but wasn't adept at making one like David's with metal bends so I just took a painter's stirring stick and some plywood lying around and super glued them together.  Then I drilled a hole for the camera to mount through and added some moongel from my local guitarcenter to dappen vibrations.  For those who don't know moongel is, it's a material that absorbs vibrations though normally used on drum heads.  There are many other materials and methods out there including kyosho zeal and earplugs (yeah that's right) , but I just looked around what was easily available and simple and got these.

A video of a quick flight with a camera onboard.

I just want to thank flitetest for introducing me into the multicopter scene and I hope that you guys continue to make videos.