New to building 600mm - 750mm

[Kinder2023]

Dear sir:
Please forgive me for any inappropriate posts here. I am new to Multi Rotor UK. Still trying to figure out this site.

I have been flying RTF for quite some tome now. I admit, I';m hooked. Now I am going to do a first build. The advise I am looking for is as follows: I need a Tx/Rx and control board that will work together without to much difficulty, for a 600mm to 750mm class of hexacopter, 3S - 4S. Self stabilize, (leveling), GPS with mission planner or similar program, RTL, and possibly follow me function.

I am looking more toward the fun of DIY and general flying rather than sport racing. I want to be able to fly low, slow, and steady. As I progress I will add video transmission and telemetry.

Any Suggestions?

Thanks in advance. Dennis

[NorcoT]

Welcome to the Forum (and Family!) Kinder.

You';ve come to the correct place for advice, plenty of knowledge around and as you will find people here are more than helpful.

You have asked a pretty broad set of questions at this stage, so I can suggest some things to look at.

Tx/Rx brand is a personal choice, I use Spektrum as thats what i';ve always used. The consensus however for value seems to be the FrSky Taranis. Its based on opensource firmware and is incredibly cheap for the functionality it gives you. My advice here is to spend more up front and get a more than capable TX as it can progress with you. The essentials, you will need at a very minimum of 5 channels (4 for flying, 1 for flight mode). I would personally advise no less than 6 channels though, and preferably more. Have a think about this, do you need extra channels for controlling a camera gimbal?..

As for flight controllers, you say you want something that will work without too much difficulty. If you want plug and play, DJI Naza is as close to this as you can get with a Flight Control. Other ';autopilot'; style flight controls are the APM and PixHawk boards, both of which have GPS / Mission planner capability but are generally a little more work to set up and get running well. The Naza will set you back a few bucks though if you want all the capability such as mission planner, telemetry etc you will need the V2 naza for that. The Naza has self level / gps hold / altitude hold / RTH / headfree mode which makes it a doddle to fly. It doesnt offer a follow me function from what I remember though.

Other than that, I would take your time and learn about all the processes involved with a DIY build. Motor Prop / ESC / Battery combination is key and will take a bit to get your head around selecting what you want to buy, so I recommend you start looking into that.

[gb0wers]

Welcome.

The Taranis gets my vote, I recently converted from Multiplex. The open source interface takes a bit of learning but its extremely flexible and there is excellent support from the "community". The hardware is a bit "plasticy" but I am able to forgive that due to the excellent functionality. There are plenty of Youtube vids about it but be aware that some are for superseded firmware versions - you will get a feel for it though. Note that it ships with a FrSKY modified version of OpenTx but many users re-flash with the latest opens source version - I have yet to do this. Some of the glider racers are using it, which was a factor in its favour for me from the perspective of reliability. Of  course we refer to "The Taranis" meaning the X9D plus, but the X9E has just gone on to the market. FrSKY receivers are very affordable.

Do have a fish around in the Newbies area. There is  flight controller info in a "Sticky".

I';m pretty much a newbie myself having built a 450 quad and had somewhere over a hundred flights with it. I decided to start off with a simple KK flight controller as it does not need a computer hookup, its programmed by onboard buttons, but it is vary basic. I';ve just "invested" in an Eagletree Vector flight controller which is another one to consider, and its at the opposite end of the spectrum to the KK. I decided on it after seeing another forum member';s fixed wing flying it in the physical world! I also saw (and flew for a bit) a quad of a similar size to the hex you are building on a Naza FC. It flew like a dream but I chose the Vector as it will do either fixed wing or multi rotor.

As NorcoT stated, the battery / esc / motor selection is important. I took in to account other documented builds and had a play with http://www.ecalc.ch/xcoptercalc.php it takes a bit of getting used to, but does give results that correlate well with my quad in hover.

Hope this helps and enjoy

Graham

[Kinder2023]

Gentlemen, I thank you for your advise and for welcoming me to your community. I welcome such fast response, also. I am currently residing in Seoul Korea and am therefore in close proximity to most of the materials required to complete this build. I have been in contact with some Samsung engineers that are willing to help me but have never worked with UAV';s. With combination of Samsung and  the knowledge and assistance of Multi Rotor UK, I am almost assured of a good build.

The right side up is the preferred option. Thanks, Kinder2023