Aero Club

Presents

Introduction to RC Modeling

Module 3

Building a QuadCopter

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Aero Club - Intro To RC Modelling Module 6 - Building a QuadCopter

Table of Contents
Introduction: ..................................................................................................................................................................... 3
Components of a quadcopter ........................................................................................................................................... 3
Frame ............................................................................................................................................................................ 4
Brushless Motors .......................................................................................................................................................... 4
Propellers ...................................................................................................................................................................... 4
ESC - Electronic Speed Controller ................................................................................................................................. 5
Batteries ........................................................................................................................................................................ 5
Power distribution board: ............................................................................................................................................. 5
Control Boards: ............................................................................................................................................................. 5
Design................................................................................................................................................................................ 6
Frame ............................................................................................................................................................................ 6
Motor and Prop Selection ............................................................................................................................................. 6
Construction and Assembly: ............................................................................................................................................. 7
Frame ............................................................................................................................................................................ 7
Electronics: .................................................................................................................................................................... 7
Exercises ............................................................................................................................................................................ 8
Acknowledgements:.......................................................................................................................................................... 8

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Aero Club - Intro To RC Modelling Module 6 - Building a QuadCopter

Introduction:
A quad copter is basicaly a helicopter that uses two pairs of counter rotating rotors to obtain its Thrust and hover in
air.
On a regular helicopter, one big rotor provides all the lifting power and the tail rotor offsets the torque generated by
the big rotor. Unlike a helicopter, a quadrotor has four rotors which work
together to produce upward thrust. Each rotor lifts only 1/4 of the weight, so
less powerful motors can be used.
These rotors are aligned in a square; two on opposite sides of the square
rotate in clockwise direction and the other two rotate in the other direction.
If all rotors turn in the same direction, the craft would spin would spin due to
the unbalanced torque; just like the regular helicopter without a tail rotor.
The torque of the first rotors pair is cancelled out with the torque created by
the second pair which rotates in the opposite direction, so the quadcopter
stays in the same direction.

To maintain stability, the quadcopter continuously takes measurements from sensors, and makes adjustments to the
speed of each rotor to keep the body level. Usually these adjustments are done autonomously by a control system
on the quadcopter.
Before going further, it is recommended you go through Module 3 in this course- Electronics in Avionics.

Components of a quadcopter

Frame The structure that holds all the components together. They need to be designed to be strong but
also lightweight.

Motors Brushless AC motors that provide the necessary thrust to lift the quad.

Electronic Speed Controllers

Propellers

Battery

Control Boards

RC Transmitter

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Aero Club - Intro To RC Modelling Module 6 - Building a QuadCopter

Frame
Frame is the structure that holds all the components together. The Frame should be rigid, and be able to minimize
the vibrations coming from the motors.
Most commonly used materials for the frame are:

Carbon Fiber

Aluminium

Wood

Aluminiumbox channels are the most popular choice for the

QuadCopters arms due to their relatively light weight, rigidness
and affordability.
Hylam or plywood is generally used for the centerplate.
The size of the quadcopter frame is influenced by the diameter of the propellers. The frame needs to be atleast large
enough so that the propellers have enough space to freely rotate without being influenced by the others.

Brushless Motors
Brushless motors are similar to normal DC motors in the way that
coils and magnets are used to drive the shaft. Generally brushless
motors spin in much higher speed and use less power at the same
speed than DC motors.
Brushless motors are differentiated based on their Kv-Rating. The Kvrating indicates how many RPMs (Revolutions per minute) the motor
will do if provided with x-number of volts. The RPMs can be
calculated in this way:
RPM=Kv x Voltage

Motors and propellers go hand in hand; the motor and propeller together affect the performance of the quadcopter.

Propellers
The nomenclature of the propellers has been discussed in the 1st and
2nd Module of this course. Do go through it for complete information.

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Aero Club - Intro To RC Modelling Module 6 - Building a QuadCopter

ESC - Electronic Speed Controller

The brushless motor runs on three phase AC supply, so the DC
batteries cannot directly power the motor. The ESC is a motor
controller that has a DC input and a three phase output for the motor.
It converts the DC input to AC according to the signal it receives from
the control board.

Batteries
The capacity of LiPo batteries are rated based on their capacity and the number of cells they contain. The voltage of
LiPo batteries is measured as
Max Voltage= 4.3 x Number of cells
Most brushless motors run at 12V, so they use 3 cell LiPo. The energy capacity of batteries is measured by the mAh
rating. A 2500mAh LiPo will generally give 10-15 minutes of flight for an average sized quad.

Power distribution board:

The power through a single battery is used to power all the 4
motors. The motors are connected in parallel and this task is done
by the power distribution board. This can be seen in the image.
It has one input and 4 outputs.

Control Boards:
A control board is an essential part of the quadcopter. Itmanages the
input, controls the motors independently and corrects for equal
balancing.
Most commonly used control boards are the KK and APM. The KK is a
simple control board recommended for beginners and simple flying.
The APM is a more sophisticated control board which allows the user
to modify its control algorithms and add custom functions to it.

A KK Board

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Aero Club - Intro To RC Modelling Module 6 - Building a QuadCopter

Design
Frame
A quadcopter remains in the air purely due to the upward thrust exerted by the four motors. There is very little
effect of the frame on the aerodynamic performance of the quad. However the frame needs to be sturdy enough to
take the impact of a crash, while remaining as light as possible. A heavy frame will make the quad seem sluggish and
unresponsive.
Quadcopters generally have two basic configurations, X configuration and + configuration. The difference between
both the configurations is in the selection of the front. In + configuration, the quad considers one arm as the front.
The motion of the quad is considered taking this reference frame.
In X configuration, the quad considers the diagonal between two arms as the front.
The choice of configuration does not affect the performance of the quad, but must be specified in the control board
prior to flight.

Motor and Prop Selection

Before building a quad, we first need to how much weight the quad will lift, and then work out the thrust required to
lift the quadcopter. As general rule of thumb, the quad should be able to provide thrust that is atleast double the
total weight of the quad. If the thrust provided by the motors are too little, the quad will not respond well to inputs.
But if the thrust is too much, the quadcopter will become very sensitive to inputs and hard to control. Most average
sized quad copters weigh around 1-2Kg.
Required Thrust per motor = (Weight x 2) / 4

A quadcopter uses two clockwise (CW) and two counter-clockwise (CCW) propellers. Propellers are classified by
length and pitch. For example 94.7 propellers are 9 inch long and has a pitch of 4.7.
The pitch can be defined as the distance travelled by the prop after one single rotation.Generally, increased
propeller pitch and length will draw more current

When deciding on length and pitch, you need to find a good balance. Generally a prop with low pitch can generate
more torque. The motors dont need to work as hard so theyuse lesser current. Lower pitch propellers will also
improve stability. A higher pitch propeller allows the quad to move faster and be more responsive, but increases the
load on the motor. Using a low kv motor is recommended with high pitch propellers. High pitch propellers also
introduce large vibrations in the quad.
When it comes to the length, propeller efficiency is related to the square of prop length i.e. larger prop lengths will
have higher efficiency.
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Aero Club - Intro To RC Modelling Module 6 - Building a QuadCopter

Most motors come with a data sheet which mentions the thrust achieved with specific propellers. Refer the data
sheet before choosing motors and propellers.
After choosing a motor, select an ESC that has an Amperage above the max current consumed by the motor.
Having chosen the components and design for the quad, the most difficult part of building a quadcopter is done.
You can build a quad copter from scratch, or begin with a prefabricated frame.

Construction and Assembly:

To build a quadcopter from scratch, you will need:

Aluminium box channels

Hylam sheet
Control Board
Brushless Motors
2 pairs of Propellers (Push and Pull)
Power distribution board
LiPoBattery
Tie wraps

Frame
Cut the Hylam (or plywood) sheet in the shape of a square; this will be the
center plate.Mark lines perpendicular to the sides, passing from the center of
the plate. Cut eight trapeziums of height 5cm and longer edge 5cm.
To make the arms, cut the box channels into four pieces the required length.
Place the arms on the lines marked on the center plate and drill through both
the sheet and aluminium. Join the center plate and box channels using bolts as
shown in the figure.
Now attach the trapeziums on either sides of the ends of the arms. These will
act as landing gear and prevent the whole quad from coming in contact with the
ground.Now attach the motors to the ends of the arms.

Electronics:
Solder the wires on the power distribution board and fasten it onto the center plate. Fix ESCs to the arms of the
frame using the tie wraps. Fix the control board onto the frame with the front of the board pointing forwards.
Connect the ESCs to the motors and the power supply board. The connection between the ESC and motor can be
determined by trial and error. If the motor turns in the wrong direction, reverse the connections. Connect the ESCs
to the control boards output pins. Now connect the channels of the receiver to the corresponding channels on the
control boards input pins.
Before fixing the propellers, connect the battery to the power supply board and make sure all the channels are
working. Check the direction the motor are rotating in; opposite motors must turn in the same direction.
Interchange the cables of the ESC (after disconnecting the batteries) to reverse the motor direction. Disconnect the
battery and then install the propellers. Make sure to put identical propellers on opposite sides of the frame.
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Aero Club - Intro To RC Modelling Module 6 - Building a QuadCopter

After following the above outlined steps, you will end up with a quad
which looks similar to this one.

If you are learning to fly a quad, it is recommendedyou attach a block

of high density foam under the center plate to absorb the impact when
you crash(and you most definitely will).

Exercises
After you have built and flown the quadcopter, try answering the following questions to check your understanding
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

What type of propeller is recommended for use with a high Kv motor?

How does the control board know the status of the quad in midair?
How does the control board determine the power to be transmitted to the motors?
How does installing the landing gear help?
How does the quad yaw while remaining perfectly horizontal?
Try to design a better frame than the one described above.
Think in terms of a lighter and more robust design which can resist more crashes. Also design a feature
which will help protect the propellers in the event of a crash, while not blocking the airflow under the
propellers.

We hope you have liked the module, and are ready to build your own QuadCopter!
For any queries/feedback please send an email to the following address aeroclub.cfi@gmail.com
Do send your answers to the above mentioned address too!
To join aero club, go to the Clubs tab -> Aero Club on the CFI website, and click on Join Aero Club.

Acknowledgements:
This course on Intro to RC Modeling was formulated, prepared and compiled by the following members of Aero Club:
(In the order of the module of the courses)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Anil Kumar
Hanut Vemulapalli
Dheepak N Khatri
Sanjesh Hoskopple
Nikhil Gupta
GuruPrasad Kallanje

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Indian Institute of Technology Madras