Battery

Batteries are important. Without batteries the quadcopter wouldn't even be able to get off the ground. Now a battery is a battery right? Wrong. This is just a short description of the battery we're using and even this is complicated.

Floureon 11.1V 4500mAh 30C LiPo Battery

This is a battery. (In case you didn't read the caption)

ALWAYS READ CAPTIONS!!

Ok. So for those of you who don't know what the caption means - read the caption - here's the breakdown:

Floureon - Company name

11.1V - stands for 11.1 volts, never attach it to a 5 volt board

4500mAh - stands for 4500 milliamp hours, 

how much the battery holds (can supply 4500 milliamps for an hour)

30C - Continuous discharge rate, 30 * 4500 = 135,000, 

so this battery has a (maximum) continuous discharge rate of 135,000 mA or 135 A

LiPo Battery - A type of battery that uses lithium-ion technology (google it)

We had to take all of this into consideration when we were deciding on what sort of battery to use. You'd be surprised how many different batteries that are out there.

Flight Control Boards

Hey! Last time I said I'll be posting stuff on the different things on our parts list. We've had testing in school so I haven't been able to post for a bit. But enough of that. This post is all about

...wait for it...

!!!Flight Control Boards!!!

These are the brains of the drone. They are the ones with the magnetometers, the accelerometers, the barometers, and a bunch of other things no one's really sure how to pronounce.

Hobbyking

Isn't it beautiful?

After a LOT of research (including visiting dictionary.com multiple times) we finally decided to go with the MultiWii 328P Flight Control Board. It's small, affordable and surprisingly good quality.

Features:
• SMD component design with Atmega328P
• ITG3205 Triple Axis Gyro
• BMA180 Accelerometer
• BMP085 Barometer
• HMC5883L Magnetometer
• Servo output for camera pitch and roll control
• Separate 3.3v regulated power supply for the sensors
• On board logic level converter

And all for $35 on Amazon! 

(considering how high quality flight control boards go for hundreds and hundreds this is great!)

Part List

Hey, it's been a while and we've done a lot. We have finalized the part list and ordered some of the parts. Now we just have to wait two weeks for something being sent from New Zealand. Who the heck ships from New Zealand?!? Anyways here's the list.

1. Motors/ESC/Propellers (which I talked about last time) - T-Motor Air Gear 350 Combo
2. Battery - Floureon 11.1V 4500mAh High Power 3S 30C Lipo RC Battery
3. Power Distribution Board - Quadcopter Power Distribution Board XT60 XT-60
4. RC Transmitter/Reciever - 2.4G FS-CT6B 6 CH Radio Model RC Transmitter & Receiver
5. Flight Control Board/GPS/Bluetooth - Hobbypower MWC MultiWii SE V2.5 Flight Controller & GPS Bluetooth Module
6. Frame  - Original

I hope to explain everything in their own separate posts (like I did with the motors) and *hopefully* start building soon.