Thanks Jim and jsflyrv for the info on motor parts. I'll check out both suggestions when i get off work.

Sorry to hear about your bad luck with the ESC major. My buddy did the same thing with his while calibrating the ESCs, he got lucky though and it didn't let out the magic smoke.

Originally Posted by major.monogram

I know it is not recommended but i just bought a single 20a simonk skullcopter esc. I'm going to test it with my 3 remaining good rcx 20ampers. Couldn't stand to wait for the rcx speed controller from china and since I am only buying one the shipping was unreasonable too. I'll let you guys know whether it flies properly with the mismatched esc. If i'm betting, and i guess I kind of am (got $25 on it ), I would say it will be a no-go but we shall see.

At any rate, for all the noobs out there like myself I burned one of my original esc's by running up the motors with no props after recalibrating the esc's. I may have smoked a motor too but I'm not sure yet. You can bump the throttle a little with no props attached but even a few seconds at full throttle can fry an esc. Mine actually smoked a little. Just an FYI.

I bet that ESC will work fine. Bottom line is the ESC respond to the KK2 commands. A speedy ESC is a speedy ESC. This means it communicates quickly with the KK2 as to keep the quad level as per the sensors' readings. Should be just fine. It' s mixing speedy flashed ESCs with slower non-flashed ESCs that causes motors not to start at the same time, but even then, when in the air the simonk escs will compensate for the slower non ESCs and it will fly fine.

Best,
Chris

Originally Posted by LifeStyle

Hey all,

I had a question for the community, i recieved my cnc 355 about a week ago but ended up frying 2 esc's on my maiden flight . seems i ahd to much power was using a 4s battery 3000mAh.

ESC's the F20 from hobbyking are rated at 20A constant and 25A burst. My motor the d2826-6 can pull up to 34A according to the specs.

Chris already sent me 2 nes ESC'S but im wondering even if i lower my battery to a 3s will this solve my problem or will my motors still pull to much juice and fry the esc's again. i just don't want a repeat experience.

Jack

A 3s battery should be just fine. I flew and still am flying this configuration without issues. If you fly really hard, the escs will warm up a bit but that's all.

Best,
Chris

Originally Posted by LifeStyle

Hey all,

I had a question for the community, i recieved my cnc 355 about a week ago but ended up frying 2 esc's on my maiden flight . seems i ahd to much power was using a 4s battery 3000mAh.

ESC's the F20 from hobbyking are rated at 20A constant and 25A burst. My motor the d2826-6 can pull up to 34A according to the specs.

Chris already sent me 2 nes ESC'S but im wondering even if i lower my battery to a 3s will this solve my problem or will my motors still pull to much juice and fry the esc's again. i just don't want a repeat experience.

Jack

Chris just sent off my cnc 355, and he suggested to run a 3s 2000 - 2200 mah
battery to power it...4s will burn the esc's and motors due to the high output, unless i'm mistaken.
Hate the misfortune for you gotta live and learn I guess.

Nate

wow I run all the time without props doing calibrations etc and have never burned a motor or ESC.

Originally Posted by major.monogram

I know it is not recommended but i just bought a single 20a simonk skullcopter esc. I'm going to test it with my 3 remaining good rcx 20ampers. Couldn't stand to wait for the rcx speed controller from china and since I am only buying one the shipping was unreasonable too. I'll let you guys know whether it flies properly with the mismatched esc. If i'm betting, and i guess I kind of am (got $25 on it ), I would say it will be a no-go but we shall see.

At any rate, for all the noobs out there like myself I burned one of my original esc's by running up the motors with no props after recalibrating the esc's. I may have smoked a motor too but I'm not sure yet. You can bump the throttle a little with no props attached but even a few seconds at full throttle can fry an esc. Mine actually smoked a little. Just an FYI.

Originally Posted by bobepine

I bet that ESC will work fine. Bottom line is the ESC respond to the KK2 commands. A speedy ESC is a speedy ESC. This means it communicates quickly with the KK2 as to keep the quad level as per the sensors' readings. Should be just fine. It' s mixing speedy flashed ESCs with slower non-flashed ESCs that causes motors not to start at the same time, but even then, when in the air the simonk escs will compensate for the slower non ESCs and it will fly fine.

Best,
Chris

Great to hear Chris. I was pretty sad that I had so many uneventful (but awesome) flights with no crashing and just a few hard landings only to be grounded by stupidity on my part! Now I should be back in the air by the weekend possibly.

Originally Posted by jsflyrv

wow I run all the time without props doing calibrations etc and have never burned a motor or ESC.

I would say be careful at least. A lot of posts I have read advise against spinning them up to full throttle for any amount of time sans props. Of course, I didn't get to read about that until I typed 'smoking esc quad' into the google machine.

I just saw the video Chris it's incredible, I can't wait. It looks awesome thanks very much

Hoo- Ah!! I just had a very successful maiden flight of my CNC355! I'm pumped!!

That said, this thing flies like an absolute rocket ship and I've been flying my V929 Beetle like a barge. My goal is, and continues to be, to fly my copter slowly, stably, and fairly level to use as a platform for still aerial photography.

It's fabulous that the KK2.0 makes tuning in the field so easy. I was able get my quad dialed in by my 3rd and final battery.

For other noobs or photographers who want their Armattan quad to fly slowly and stably, here are the settings that I have settled on for now (no snickers from you performance guys, OK?):

Stick Scaling:
Roll (Aileron): 25
Pitch (Elevator): 25
Yaw (Rudder: 50
Throttle: 60

Self-Level: ON

Self-Level Settings:
P gain: 95
P limit: 20
Acc Trim Roll: 0
Acc Trim Pitch: 0

For those who are interested, I have been doing aerial photography using large kites to lift my camera rig for the past 8 years. Two years ago, I added a 5-foot diameter helium balloon to my toolkit. I use the kites when there is a steady breeze, and the helium balloon when there is no wind, up to about 7 mph. The kite flies at an angle and therefore needs horizontal space. The helium balloon goes straight up when there is little or no wind, making it a better tool for urban aerial photography where there are power lines, roads, buildings, etc. to contend with. The price of helium, however, has tripled in the past year and now costs me $80 or so to fill my balloon. My hopes are that a quad or other multirotor will also allow me to shoot still aerial photos when there is little or no wind, or too little horizontal space to fly a kite.

Here's an example of a fun project I shot recently: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ml_kap/8331933847/

Anyone interested in seeing more aerial photos can check some out here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ml_kap/...207855/detail/

Chris, I can't wait to see what you settle on for a camera platform. I'd be interested in beta testing designs, if that would be helpful. I plan to use a 135 gram Canon point and shoot camera to begin with. It's higher resolution and a bit heavier than a GoPro, but I feel sure that my CNC355 can handle it without trouble.

My batteries are charging right now.....can't wait to get back out there and fly this baby!!

Thank you all for your help in recommending sources and techniques that led to a successful maiden
flight!

Chris, this is an incredibly beautiful machine with outstanding performance! My hat is off to you, sir!

Chris can you tell me if these 5in props can work with the m230. I know you gave me it with 6in props but that website you buy your props from is ridiculous with there shipping price. Im finding it hard to buy $20 worth of props and turn around paying $30 in shipping If anyone know of a US store let me know. These are the cheapest I found with decent shipping.

5x3 reverse = http://www.hobbypartz.com/88e-prop-r-5030.html
5x3 normal = http://www.hobbypartz.com/88e-prop-5030.html

They have the 6in but only the reverse, there out of stock with the normal
bump!

Originally Posted by MrBiggz

Chris can you tell me if these 5in props can work with the m230. I know you gave me it with 6in props but that website you buy your props from is ridiculous with there shipping price. Im finding it hard to buy $20 worth of props and turn around paying $30 in shipping If anyone know of a US store let me know. These are the cheapest I found with decent shipping.

5x3 reverse = http://www.hobbypartz.com/88e-prop-r-5030.html
5x3 normal = http://www.hobbypartz.com/88e-prop-5030.html

They have the 6in but only the reverse, there out of stock with the normal
bump!

What's the RTF weight of your quad, including your battery? You could enter the data into ecalc and see what it comes up with as a "for instance". I would think that there'd be a significant reduction in thrust going from 6 to 5" props. Send me the info and I'll check it out for you.

cheers,
Andrew

With battery and all my lil scale is saying 669.2grams or 23.60oz.

Originally Posted by Banjo5

What's the RTF weight of your quad, including your battery? You could enter the data into ecalc and see what it comes up with as a "for instance". I would think that there'd be a significant reduction in thrust going from 6 to 5" props. Send me the info and I'll check it out for you.

cheers,
Andrew

Hey Chris, I'd love to place an order.

-CNC 355 RXR
-black anodized top & bottom center plates
-black anodized rear arms and orange powder coated front with props to match
-matching spares
-black anodized cnc skids

I'll send you an email to confirm PayPal information.

Thanks

Stef

Originally Posted by MrBiggz

Chris can you tell me if these 5in props can work with the m230. I know you gave me it with 6in props but that website you buy your props from is ridiculous with there shipping price. Im finding it hard to buy $20 worth of props and turn around paying $30 in shipping If anyone know of a US store let me know. These are the cheapest I found with decent shipping.

5x3 reverse = http://www.hobbypartz.com/88e-prop-r-5030.html
5x3 normal = http://www.hobbypartz.com/88e-prop-5030.html

They have the 6in but only the reverse, there out of stock with the normal
bump!

Yo Biggz,

Meant to get back to you earlier about this but I forgot. I wouldn't buy those 5" props you may struggle with lift and especially landings when the props will be less effective due to rotor wash.

The best deal I've found yet on the 6" props are these that I found on eBay:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/290770825670...84.m1423.l2649
http://www.ebay.com/itm/300774837474...84.m1423.l2649
http://www.ebay.com/itm/300774837502...84.m1423.l2649
http://www.ebay.com/itm/300774837530...84.m1423.l2649
http://www.ebay.com/itm/300803743100...84.m1423.l2649

They come in sets of eight (4CW, 4CCW). They have many different colors too. I ordered 16 of them and have already gone through about half of those after many crashes. Granted they are coming from China so that kinda sucks, but then again, most of the props that are affordable do come from there. I didn't have to wait to long to get mine. I upgraded the shipping on both orders I placed (8 green, 8 black) for only $.50 extra and they got here in like a week. <---Not bad at all. Great prices too. Check em' out.

Hello Chris, this is a response to the pm sent you for my order of 2 cnc 355 rxr
-black top & bottom center plates
-black rear arms and orange front with props to match
-black cnc skids
. i will PP asap for my order. thanks again Lonnie

Originally Posted by Michael L

For those who are interested, I have been doing aerial photography using large kites to lift my camera rig for the past 8 years. Two years ago, I added a 5-foot diameter helium balloon to my toolkit. I use the kites when there is a steady breeze, and the helium balloon when there is no wind, up to about 7 mph. The kite flies at an angle and therefore needs horizontal space. The helium balloon goes straight up when there is little or no wind, making it a better tool for urban aerial photography where there are power lines, roads, buildings, etc. to contend with. The price of helium, however, has tripled in the past year and now costs me $80 or so to fill my balloon. My hopes are that a quad or other multirotor will also allow me to shoot still aerial photos when there is little or no wind, or too little horizontal space to fly a kite.

Here's an example of a fun project I shot recently: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ml_kap/8331933847/

Anyone interested in seeing more aerial photos can check some out here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ml_kap/...207855/detail/

Wow, Michael I just checked out all of your photos that you linked. Those shots are pretty amazing. You truly have an eye for art and natural beauty. I love seeing aerial photography. Its just such a unique viewpoint that most people are never lucky enough to enjoy. Thanks so much for sharing and best of luck using your new Armattan to capture even more amazing photos.