So it's that time again....winter pasttimes?

[LePhillou]

Ordered all the drone parts, now lets practice soldering until they get here
Still can't figure out what hyper cheap 4k cam i'm going to use (when you don't need a dedicated battery, those things are LIGHT!)
Hawkeye thumb 4k or runcam thumb pro v2...

Could probably make for half decent dashcams too if there's a power source somewhere

 

[LePhillou]

Most of the parts have come in...minus the FPV cam, but ali express was pretty darn quick (ordered on feb 25th and most have gotten here today)
Now i have to do my soldering homework that ive been putting off before i actually do it on the the board and put all the parts together!

 

[LePhillou]

Fully built, and it flies!



It's pretty light, about 150 with the battery but it packs a punch. I don't have a gps on it so i can't tell you speeds but it's darn fast.


I'd say overall, for a beginner solderer it was an easy project
but i was challenged by the video transmitter chip which, in it's "nano" size, has super tiny hole/pads. I ended up ruining 2 of them at about $25 a pop lol so i went for another one that had muuuuuch better pads/spacing. It's just so easy to bridge when it's that tiny.



Obviously now that i'm done and ready to fly winter is back

 

[GreyGhost]

Fully built, and it flies!

View attachment 66764

It's pretty light, about 150 with the battery but it packs a punch. I don't have a gps on it so i can't tell you speeds but it's darn fast.
View attachment 66765

I'd say overall, for a beginner solderer it was an easy project
but i was challenged by the video transmitter chip which, in it's "nano" size, has super tiny hole/pads. I ended up ruining 2 of them at about $25 a pop lol so i went for another one that had muuuuuch better pads/spacing. It's just so easy to bridge when it's that tiny.

View attachment 66766

Obviously now that i'm done and ready to fly winter is back

What was causing you solder issues on that? If they did solder mask properly and you don't booger on too much solder, the solder should sort itself out with no issues. If they didn't get the masking right, it would be a bugger.

 

[Rob MacLennan]

With smaller pads you sometimes need more flux than flux core solder can provide, to get it right. Years back, when I routinely had to repair surface mount boards, I kept a bottle of liquid flux next to me.

 

[GreyGhost]

With smaller pads you sometimes need more flux than flux core solder can provide, to get it right. Years back, when I routinely had to repair surface mount boards, I kept a bottle of liquid flux next to me.

Agree. I normally flux before I start. Flux is a lot cheaper than a $25 board and it makes life simple. Rinse with alcohol after.

 

[LePhillou]

What was causing you solder issues on that? If they did solder mask properly and you don't booger on too much solder, the solder should sort itself out with no issues. If they didn't get the masking right, it would be a bugger.

The issues were
- i'm new at soldering
- those pads were tinier than the wires i wanted to use for colour coding i had (i had awg24 black, shouldve used awg28) so much easier to bridge by accident which made me resolder these 2-3 times
-i thought i only needed V(ideo) G(round) 5V(volt) but i also needed (smart) A(udio) to send updates;
the first one, when i ended up going back to fix it i ended up dropping some solder by accident on some of the resistors/capacitors on the nano board... and one of them came off, dont know where it went.
the 2nd one, i ended up plugging everything properly, but plugged soldered it to a 10v input thinking it could take it/regulate it... but i got smoke when i first plugged it in (weird because i didnt get that witht he first one)
- just overall the size and proximity made it hard(er) for a noob like me to work with it (you can also see some of the components i messed up on it lol)

so i said eff it, ill get a different one, which turned out to be WAY easier to work on. and it has features that make it easier to use (like barcodes to change channels, brilliant)

i mean the whole flight controller and other components didnt cause any issues for my soldering. i have a syringe of flux paste that worked GREAT for everything, but even with flux on this, quarters were too tight for me. basically intermediate level work and i'm a beginner and my hands aren't steady enough

It was an awesome experience though but it makes me want to build using "bigger" components so ...bigger drone? LOL