My Experiences with Multi Rotor Drones

I'm going to log my experiences with the quadcopters I own and provide some opinion along the way.  I have numerous quads and will eventually step through them from the most recent "toy" to the earliest one.  Not the normal progression but it will be more entertaining for me to document that way.

My current project is a 500mm wheelbase (distance between motor centers) quad copter is what is known in the marketplace as the Alien X.  I liked the look of the wide and narrow "V" arms rather than a traditional "X" (don't fret, I have that one too).  The project started with the frame kit purchased from Ebay.  The price was $13.78 shipped from the east coast of the US.  Great deal.  If you are interested just search Ebay for "Alien X frame" and you will get auctions.

Alien X in kit form

Assembled Alien X kit

Assembling the kit is trivial and came with all the right size screws and all need hardware.  I put the 2 white arms forward and the red ones aft.  Note there is no landing gear outside of the simple extensions below the motor pads.  I'll add something later for a landing skid / gear.

The internet says to use Loctite Blue to help insure the frame screws do not back out due to vibration.  I stopped at my local Harbor Freight and bought their version of Blue.  We'll see if that was a bad decision later.  So far, things are staying tight.  While at the Harbor Freight I also picked up some hook and loop tape (aka no name Velcro), a new helping hands for holding items while soldering and a variety of small cable ties and shrink tubing.  These supplies will be used later when the motors and electronic speed controllers (ESC's) are added to the frame.  Note, this frame does not have a power distribution board (PDB) integrated into the bottom plate.  I'll have to add wiring for that.  Frames with an integrated PDB make ESC wiring very easy and quick.