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Erle Robotics: Erle-copter

Assembly of Erle-copter

The following content will explain how to fully assembly Erle-copter.

Erle-copter is shipped mounted. The following guide provides a step-by-step walkthrough on how to build your own copter using Erle-brain

Index

material

Material needed

material

In order to make a minimum flying vehicle you'll need at least:

For safety precautions, at Erle Robotics, we recommend the use of a dedicated RC transmitter (+ controller) and receiver.

Besides the minimum set of requirements to get a flyable vehicle, the different flight modes might require extra sensors/actuators. Here're some of them:

All these components are available through the Erle Robotics store, either through kits or individually.

Soldering the speed controllers

material

The Electronic Speed Controllers (ESCs) allow the hardware autopilot (Erle-brain in this scenario) to interface with the motors appropriately taking care of converting the PWM logic that the autopilot transmits into rotation speeds on the motors. The ESCs are directly soldered into the base of Erle-copter which avoids using additional cables.

Besides soldering the ESCs we also add a XT-60 male connector that will be used for the Power Module.

Mounting the copter core

NOTE: We'd recommend you to use yellow legs for the front and black legs for the back of the copter. This will help you identify the position of your copter while flying.

legs

Once the ESCs and the XT-60 connector have been soldered, you should screw the legs to the base board

legs

legs

legs

Additionally, you could add separators between the legs and the bottom frame to increase the available space (e.g.: add thicker batteries, place components inside, etc)

Mounting the motors

legs

Mount the motors at the end of the copter legs use 4 screws for each motor to fix them.

NOTE: Depending on what kind of motor/propellers you use, there might be clockwise and counterclockwise motors. Refer to the following picture for the motor ordering number:

legs

Battery holder assembly

legs

The battery holder allows to easily attach and detach the battery inside of the copter. We use two simple screws to fix it.

legs

legs

legs

Mounting the upper frame

Next step is to mount the upper board and screw it.

legs legs

Mounting the autopilot

We will now mount Erle-brain in the copter. The autopilot comes with tiny flaps that allow to attach it pretty much anywhere with an elastic band:

legs legs legs

Holding the ESCsC

legs

We generally hold the ESCs using flanges but feel free to do it your own way:

legs

Connecting everything to the autopilot

It's now time to start connecting all the peripherals to Erle-brain. Start with motor 1 connecting the signal (white cable) in the upper part: legs

Following motor 1, connect 2, 3 and 4. Next, you should attach the RC receiver that should be placed in the last row (number 14). If you plan to use a USB hub as we do now is the time ;).

After you've populated the motors and RC input we start hooking the DF-14 connectors with their corresponding devices. The power module and the buzzer are easy to identify. Depending on which GPS you've selected you'll have either one or two DF-14 connectors (the second will correspond with the external compass).

Propellers

We offer two kind of propellers:

Propellers generally come in pairs. One should turn in clockwise direction and the other in the opposite. Clockwise propellers are also known as "pusher kind" propellers and are marked with an "R" (sometimes it's a "P").

According to this assembly description:

  • Motors 1 and 2 are counter-clockwise propellers
  • Motors 3 and 4 should have clockwise propellers (marked with an "R" or a "P")
RC receiver

The RC receiver must be connected in the channel 14 of the rail. You can stick the receiver to the frame and stick the antennas: rc antenna

Power Module Connector

In order to power-up the Erle-Brain from the power module, you have to connect its 6 pin DF-13 connector to power: power

Note: The power module connectors wire could be crossover in some cases. The only detail user has to be worried about is to insert the connector in the next way:

connector

Before shipping, all the drones are tested. We deliver the drones when we have assured they are working as they should

Dongles

Connect the dongles (WiFi, 3G, 4G, Bluetooth, ...) to the USB port: dongle

Complementary Devices

Let's focus on how to connect the rest of the devices to Erle-Brain.

Buzzer

The buzzer must be connected to the only 2 pin DF-13 connector that Erle-Brain has. buzzer

GPS and compass

The case of the Erle-Brain has a hole in order to place it with the help of a screw:

GPS detail

The GPS should go into the SERIAL port and the compass (DF-14 4 pins) should go in one of the I2C ports.

GPS mounted

legs

You can watch the mounting process here

The hardware is now ready to fly :) but before you do so, make sure you check the software aspects.