Newbie questions regarding F550

[zincsoldier]

So long story short, my uncle and I are newbie about multicopters. I would prefer RTF especially DJI Phantoms. My uncle somehow didn't like the look of the "super white and simple" transmitter so he has ended up purchasing Walkera QR X350 Pro. That was the story of a couple of months ago . Back to reality, I ended up selling my Phantom 2 Vision + to get a new Phantom 3 while he crashed all 3 of his Walkera QR X350 Pro for the more sophisticated look Devo F7 transmitter. Now, I mean totally no offense here but Walkera is a really sloppy little machine. Most of the time, my uncle couldn't get good GPS signal and he had to fly it manually. So, I guess that makes him a tougher controller in terms of "manual mode".
Okay, I don't mean to get this post this long but I hope somehow that makes you guys understand on how these QR X350 Pro have affected his decisions later on. He now asks me to help him build a quadcopter from scratch as he has had enough of RTF ********. The first thing I could come up was to get a F450 or F550 frame of bonus kit to start building it. He ridiculously put all his money into 3 Walkeras and they all failed, he managed to keep so many spare parts that he insists he is going to build a quadcopter out of them. He also decides to use these "still good" motors on the F550 frame and only looking to buy E300 ESC. Also, he wants to use Devo F7 for his F550 that he is going to build.
My questions are:
1. Are these QR X350 Pro motor compatible with E300 ESC? Last time I check I think they are 15A ESCs.
2. Is Devo F7 compatible with Naza M V2? Where do I look for receiver of Devo F7 on the bird side?
3. Which NAZA M V2 package I should look for?NAZA V2 unit w GPS, PMU and BEC or different packages?
Please help me out this time as I have been flying RTF only and my knowledge is very limited to Walkera. Again I am sorry for the long post, you could look at my questions only I would highlight them all right now. My uncle is so desperate for a new unit right now and I would really like to help him out . I appreciate all your helps and please advise me on what I could do. Thank you all very much !

 

[Joesrevolution]

Hi zincsoldier, I have been looking into building up an f550 for some time now too so have a fair knowledge of what is available. I eventually found a vendor who would build it for me for free though so that's the way that I went. With regards to the motors you may as well stick with the e300 motors as the best f550 sets out there come with the naza v2 and the e300 propulsion set included so you may as well stick with that. esp since the f550 has 6 motors which will indeed be different to the ones that come on the walkera. So better safe than sorry to use the matched motors with the escs. although you may well be able to use them but for the price difference I see no point since the bundle effectively saves you money.

As for the receiver it seems that it uses more than one cable (not s-bus) it should work fine. Just connect the right output on the receiver to the correlating input on the naza. The receiver will be built into the walkera. A little black box like this;
http://img.banggood.com/images/upload/2012/chenjianwei/SKU066530.1.jpg
It may be built into the main board though and since I don't own the walkera I wouldn't know. If it is you can buy stand alone receivers on line which will work just fine once bound to your controller.

Use the naza v2 unless you have more money. The PMU GPS and BEC all come with the naza. I would go with that for my money unless you want to fork out for the dji wookong controller. Iv'e heard of people using the cc3d controller to good effect on a f550 or f450 but this requires more of a set up and since this is a dji forum I'm going to suggest the naza for my money ;-)

All this said this is just my humble opinion. If anyone else has anything else to chime in with go ahead, I may be missing something.

 

[zincsoldier]

Thank you very much! I will definitely stick with Naza M V2 and E300 combo. I reckon my uncle would have to use new motors and esc system to be on the safe side.

 

[zincsoldier]

My set up is now complete, everything has been put in place. Motor test on Naza V2 works, Devo rx730a receives signal from devo f7 tx, all sticks are calibrated and responded to Naza on assistant software. However, I cannot be able to arm to motor in any way, csc doesn't arm motors either. Could you guys please help me out if any settings in Devo F7 needs to be adjusted or any way to arm the motor? Thank you very much!

 

[Joesrevolution]

Good to hear. By any chance is your pitch reversed...? My build is now here myself and I had just this problem and have read about it online a lot. For some reason the pitch reverses and obviously needs to be moved in the wrong direction. If pitch is reversed try un-reversing it and try again (fixed it for me) just make sure your f550 is flying correctly (forwards is forwards) after doing this.

While I've got you could you do me a solid and go into the naza assistant with your f550 and tell me what your compass (raw) values are? My z axis is slightly high at around +450 should be okay but was wondering if that high z value is a f550 thing...

Thanks! Hope your problem resolves itself!

 

[zincsoldier]

Thanks for your quick reply . Its my uncle's build remember? We spent couple hours on it and still it is not working. It 12am at my country now so I got home and ready for bed LOL. I won't be seeing him until next week maybe, I would definitely check the compass value asap for you once I get my hands on again. How do you fix that reverse pitch. Do you adjust in Naza assistant software or on Tx side?

 

[Joesrevolution]

Its pretty obvious as I remember. I can't remember which tab but its where you calibrate the control sticks. Each channel has a reverse (or not) button beside it. None should be reversed... Thanks in advance for checking. Hope reversing the pitch fixes your problem.

 

[zincsoldier]

They are all normal (NORM) as I recall. Maybe I would check it again to see if anything was reversed. About your compass problem, have you tried to calibrate it?

 

[Joesrevolution]

Yes, many times... to no avail :-/ If anyone else is reading this would be a massive help if you could chime in ;-)

 

[zincsoldier]

Anyone has experience in building F550?

 

[Tallyrver]

Anyone has experience in building F550?

That would be me
I built a 450 then converted it to a 550 ,
Wayne

 

[Tallyrver]

My set up is now complete, everything has been put in place. Motor test on Naza V2 works, Devo rx730a receives signal from devo f7 tx, all sticks are calibrated and responded to Naza on assistant software. However, I cannot be able to arm to motor in any way, csc doesn't arm motors either. Could you guys please help me out if any settings in Devo F7 needs to be adjusted or any way to arm the motor? Thank you very much!

When you plug in the battery ,do you get the start up chime then a yellow blinking light until the fast green blinking lights?

 

[zincsoldier]

Thanks Wayne for letting me know! I assembled everything and used a Devo RX703A rx for Devo F7 Tx. I haven't adjusted anything yet. Plug the Naza v2 to usb on pc, all sticks are responding but I would not be able to start the motors at all. The mode is PPM as directed for 1 cable connection to Naza v2, the LED is blinking yellow and red which got me thinking it throws the F550 to Atti mode. How do I get the motors to start up by using CSC on Devo F7 - the right hand side stick of Devo F7 is not spring-equipped (not spring back to center). Please help me out at this stage as everything is almost there already. I appreciate your help a lot
Nick

 

[zincsoldier]

When you plug in the battery ,do you get the start up chime then a yellow blinking light until the fast green blinking lights?

Yes I have the start up chime and everything, the light will blink start up as mix lights and then yellow and red

 

[Tallyrver]

Have you gone into the Naza assistant and set up all the motors ? 1 through 6 to make sure they are turning the correct way.there are two 550 setups. If you are using a raised GPS ,make sure you set the COG ,center of gravity.
While in the Naza setup check the rc calibration . Make sure all the controls move like they should.
On my rc, which is a DJI from my Phantom,I hold the left and right stick to the bottom left and right to arm the motors.

 

[zincsoldier]

I have tested all the motors and they are all working. What is your Hexarotor set up in Naza. I think I am setting as Hexa-V. All sticks calibration are done as well. I might think about getting a DJI tx, it might be much easier

 

[Tallyrver]

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http://download.dji-innovations.com/downloads/flamewheel/en/f550_user_manual_v1.3_en.pdf
The DJI guide will give you the "beep" codes ,good info

 

[Tallyrver]

This is my setup
http://www.wild-wolf.de/mydrone/naza-guide-for-dummies/
This is a good guide,easy to understand
Wayne

 

[SanCap]

Thanks Wayne for letting me know! I assembled everything and used a Devo RX703A rx for Devo F7 Tx. I haven't adjusted anything yet. Plug the Naza v2 to usb on pc, all sticks are responding but I would not be able to start the motors at all. The mode is PPM as directed for 1 cable connection to Naza v2, the LED is blinking yellow and red which got me thinking it throws the F550 to Atti mode. How do I get the motors to start up by using CSC on Devo F7 - the right hand side stick of Devo F7 is not spring-equipped (not spring back to center). Please help me out at this stage as everything is almost there already. I appreciate your help a lot
Nick

Are you sure you shouldn't be on D-Bus VS PPM? I am using Taranis Rx and Tx with 1 wire on D-Bus. I know nothing about Devo Rx and Tx but the video above shows Receiver Type set to D-Bus.

 

[dbooty]

Remember it's not just all about making sure your sticks move, they need to move in the right directions.
In the assistant they need to move like this,
Throttle and elevator need to move to the right in the assistant when the sticks are raised, and the aileron and rudder need to move right in the assistant when the sticks are moved right.
While ur in the assistant it does sound like ur stuck in atti mode which won't stop you from firing it up, but you may as well make sure you have a switch properly configured for GPS ATTI & FAILSAFE.
That's just a simple job of adjusting the trims for the switch in the TX setup while watching the result in the assistant.
Again while ur in the assistant, you'll also want to setup your TX so the 550 goes in to failsafe when the transmitter is turned off.
The results of your setup can all be watched in real time in ur assistant before you even take ur first flight.
Have fun :-D