Build Log RotorX Raiju 155 - Finishing the frame and Test flight

Lots of progress for the Raiju 155!



The wiring loom underneath is fairly intensive - When you need to daisy chain the Power and Ground for each ESC, Potentially signal and ground for ESC, and Three Motor wires each.. That's 42 connections needed to be soldered. Whoa!



There are a few methods to help with this, although please remember that soldering you usually do not want to shortcut. The ESC Ground for power can all be grouped together and connected as one, instead of daisy chaining to each ESC. I did not do this. I did however, choose to not solder the ground for my flight control board from the ESC (So the signal cable only has a signal). This is because in theory, all of the connections are using the same battery power source - and the ground is already being shared thanks to the Ground from the ESC (Thicker bigger cable).



Documented doing the ESC Cables for the motor. Remember now that there is ESC firmware that can latter be uploaded using the 1 Wire flash trick via a Flight controller, with a reverse motor direction alternative version. This means it's even easier to do the motors than I did.



The traditional method is to solder the three motor wires to the ESC Pad, don't worry about the order. Latter on when you spin the motors up, you will test to see if they are spinning in the right direction. If it's wrong, you then swap any two wires around to get it correct.



Now latter on you can use Cleanflight to flash in the different ESC firmware, that does this for you. Saves a bit of time!



I done it manually for piece of mind more than anything.



Pololu Setup

The Pololu is used to convert the voltage from the battery into a usable range for the Flight control board and latter other electronics like the Video Transmission and Camera. This one is a 5v, and it taps power from the nearest ESC power and ground wires. it then routes through to the other side of the frame. Measure enough room to take the wires through with a bit spare to expose wires and eventually place it under the flight control board.



If you have liquid electrical tape, that helps a lot in preventing electronics making contact and shorting.



The wiring for the ESC signal cables took a long while. The small size of the cables, along with overlapping wires and proximity to other makes it tricky to do. in hindsight, this makes me think about the earlier daisy chaining of the ESC power and Ground wires.



If you attach the Wire to the outside (like the photo in the gallery), This gives you more room to do the ESC Signal cables... However it makes the heat shrink cabling process trickier due to the small bulges. Either way has small downsides, although I guess attaching the wire on the top is a mix that makes it a bit less annoying.



The polulu has a rated capacity to draw 1A, so whatever I power will need to be under that. The Camera (90mW), and transmitter (200mW max) should in theory leave me plenty of room for the Flight controller board, and possibly a few LEDs (estimated 50mW for each RGB LED).



Making the D4R-ii receiver weigh less

Using the Build guide, I know what pins needed to be used. you need to bridge the gap on signal channels 3+4 to enable PPM Mode. With that done, you need to take it apart so you can fit it cleanly on to your Raiju!



To Take the right angle pins off which add a fair bit of height, i used a cable cutter to break the black plastic apart. This then let me desolder each pin one by one, at 370c. Took a while but the result is great.



With that done, I used channel one's signal to connect to the right place on the Naze32 PPM Channel. The D4R Receiver is powered by the Polulu.



Getting ready to fly

At this point I get to see the fun stuff! The propellers for example use a two bolts, that attach to the top of the motor. Brilliant idea! Note that it uses M2 x 5mm Bolts. These came with the 1104 Motors I bought. the propeller shaft itself gives a loose fit, but allows for a fast change with the bolts detached. Fantastic design.



The last photo here is of the motors spinning up, and it then hovered well for a few minutes! it does not need much in the way of power to lift off. This will be a beast when completed.