I was wondering if there were some common boards/receivers in the now vast range of micro quadcopters that you can buy. I have an Attop YD-717 and on its board is marked ABEUFO-6A. The Attop looks very similar to a lot of quadcopters,except for the shells. The Hubsan Quads X4 and the Viper look identical but the motherboards in my x4's are marked Hubsan Quads. Although the replacement board for the X4 is not marked Hubsan Quads but has similar serial numbers to the original. Has any else discovered same/similar boards?
It seems there are only a handful of actual designers and makers of these small boards - and those are often sold under many brand names. The X4 has at least 4 other names - traxxas, dart, viper, etc. Others are simply copies (reverse engineering), etc. I think we will actually see more and more of this as the basic quad setups become commodity items. Keep in mind that a lot of the setups are open source, so it would be foolish for many companies to develop from scratch when the code and the chip designs are there for building upon. I think it will be like apple and android where a few setups (multiwii, arducopter, CC3D, etc.) will end up at the heart of many quads. The innovation, IMHO, is in the add-ons and interfacing of these with various parts and additional sensors and programming. As with the phones and computers, the "guts" will be less important and the interface more.
Patrick, as another owner of the YD-717, I thought I might reply to you about the YD717. I probably did not try flying my 717 for a week before I decided to change the board, I just did not like the flight characteristics or the transmitter. And I had a V202 that I liked much better. Now I have a V202 board on my YD717 and I think it flies even better than the V202. That may be partly because it is slightly smaller and lighter, but the props of the YD717 are also 6.5 mm compared to 5.5 mm on the V202. The YD717 props seem to be in high demand and a lot of people have been spending up to $7.50 for a set of 4 717 props. The motors and frame of the YD717 also seem very good IMHO. I put my spare set of props on my V202 and it helps. Several different reciever boards are a direct fit to the YD717, but will not work with it's transmitter. My suggestion would be to get a V202 rtf so you have the transmitter, and get a spare V202 board and put it on the YD717, then you would have two much better quads than the YD717. In fact, I ordered another YD717 for less than $30 because I wanted 2 more sets of the props and I like the frame and motors. But I don't think I would pay another $35+ like I did for the first one. I will probably try it out just to see if it flies better than the first one, then add plugs to the motor wires so I can put the V202 board on it.
Many thanks for the top tips siriusflier. I found out how to calibrate the X4s, which was not in the manual, and they fly much better. I bought them as a job lot of three and managed to make two flyers out of the three. The YD-717 was one of my infamous very late at night eBay buys. I have found it a bit trickier to fly but I have not had it for long. Just over a week. But I may well try a V202 board. On the subject of transmitters, I have a couple of 2.4ghz transmitters that I bought purely to use with a flight simulator. They have trainer ports that I hook up to a usb dongle. Is there any way I could use them with the quads I have? Would it be a case of buying new crystals for the controller and quads? I can solder so I do not mind 'tinkering'.
Yes: I've read that the Nine Eagles Alien and Heli-max 1SQ are identical. As are the new Traxxas micro quad and somebody else's. I've seen speculation about both piracy and legitimate licensing deals in both cases, but don't care enough about the subject to find out what the truth is. Ran
Maybe: the WLToys V9xx series use the Turnigy/FrSky protocol, and will bind with one of those transmitters unmodified. The new V2xx series is proprietary, but some hackers have reverse-engineered it for the Devo transmitter: see deviationtx.com. The Devo and Turnigy 9x hackers have reverse-engineered other protocols, too. So, if you have one of those, you may be in luck. Ran
Thanks Ran. I have been 'playing' with helis for a while now, without really getting 'into it'. I have lots of mini/micro and slightly larger helis that my daughter and I fly, albeit in straight lines LOL, but now I want to actually learn more about the mechanics/electronics/flying, DIY and 'tinkering' with the ones I have. I have been repairing games consoles as a hobby but it is becoming tedious. Helicopters take up less space and there is such a huge variety but I particularly like the muli rotor ones. My wife is looking forward to not tripping over games consoles and reclaiming the kitchen/dining room (my workshop)!
