Royal Institution Coding for Year 9 Documentation

Building Instructions for Modified HubSan X4

For reference purposes, these are the instructions that were given out during the Royal Institution Coding for Year 9 session on 5th March 2016. This explains how to add the HubSan X4 flight controller and motors to our own 3D printed frames using the custom connectors that we made for them.

Parts

2 green propellers marked A and B
2 black propellers marked A and B
2 motors with black and white leads
2 motors with red and blue leads
1 flight controller PCB (green)
1 3D printed frame
1 battery pack
1 controller

Building Steps

• Take the 3d printed frame and stretch elastic bands around the centre which will hold the flight controller and battery in position when it is flying.
• Push the flight controller and wired under the elastic bands on the top of the frame so that it is held in position – HINT the flight controller needs to point forwards.
• Locate one of the motors with blue and red wires. This fits in the front right corner of the frame. Push the motor into the hole from underneath the frame. It should push all the way up until the base is level with the frame bottom.
• The remaining 3 motors are installed in the same way – HINT everything works on diagonals, so front right and back left motors are the same. This is also true of the propellers. Everything needs to be in the correct corners because diagonals spin in different directions. Push the second blue/red motor into the back left, then the other two are both black/white motors.
• Connect all the motor wires to the flight controller, making sure that the colours match up i.e. red motor wire to red flight controller wire.
• Locate the green propeller with an ‘A’ marked on it. This is pushed onto the front right motor. Front left is green ‘B’, back right is black ‘B’ and back left is black ‘A’.
• Push the battery in underneath the frame, making sure it is securely held with elastic bands.
• At this point you might want to adjust the elastic bands, or add some more to make things secure. Just be careful not to break the wires.
• Make sure that when the propellers turn they don’t snag any of the wiring and the quadcopter is ready to fly.

Flying

• Ensure the left stick on the controller is at the bottom. Turn on the controller, plug in the battery on the quadcopter and wait for the blue lights to flash and then stay solid blue.
• Calibrate the sensor by placing the left stick in the bottom right corner while moving the right stick left to right rapidly. The blue lights will flash to signal successful calibration.
• Use the left stick to increase thrust to take off. If the quadcopter won’t lift off, then one of the motors or propellers is wring, so re-check all the colours.
• Control the height with the left stick to increase or decrease thrust while using the right stick to keep the quadcopter in position.