Building a Monster Tarot 690s Hexacopter
Want some buttery smooth aerial drone footage?
If you just want some smooth awesome drone
footage, like I did, you're going to need a drone
capable of lifting lots of weight. I wanted a "budget"
filming multirotor so I went as "cheap" as possible
(cheap being around 20,000INR). However I did get stuck
between a budget frame, that was also somewhat
high quality. After hours and hours of researching
drone frames, I decided on building a Tarot 690s Pro. Why? Its the cheapest, most reliable and sturdy
frame of its size, and it even folds to save space. Id
like to one day build a multirotor larger than this,
maybe even one that I can fly in, so this was great to
build skills while making an awesome multirotor. So
with that in mind I decided to jump straight into the
build!
The first part was choosing which flight controller to
use. Now Pixhawk is known for being easily
customizable, but DJI is the big name in the game. Its
sort of like the debate between and apple and android
phone. In the begining I was going to use a Naza,
however after watching a couple fly away videos on
youtube, I nervously choose to use a pixhawk.
Overall i'm glad with my choice, however I would like
to build a multirotor with a DJI Naza maybe another
time. Next up was to pick the motors I was going to
use, and although tarot has motors for a 6s battery, I
cheaped out looking at the price (remember you have to buy 6!). That choice left us with a 4s battery, which
im using two 5500mah 4s lipo batteries in parallel for
longer flight time, which gets me about 15-30 min
depending on how aggressive I am with the controls.
For propellors I just bought some generic prop
designed for tarot motors, and the landing gear was
also some off name brand. The landing gear however
I regret buying. It was cheap and flimsy, if anything Id
buy a better landing gear set or stick with the stock
tarot legs.
Main Parts List: These are all the Must have parts of
the Multirotor
Frame: Tarot 690s pro
Flight Controller Kit: Pixhawk Px4
Motors:
Tarot 4006/620 kv
Receiver: Frsky L9r
ESC: DYS BL 40a
Props: Generic props
Battery: ZOP 5500mah 4s Battery
Landing Gear: HML650 Retractable
The rest of the parts are typical drone parts I had
lying around such as nylon nuts and bolts, bullet
Step 1: Assemble Frame
The first part of the build was to assemble the frame
of the Tarot 690s. Luckily the frame came with
instructions, however, they were not in English so
they were useless...
On the plus side, the assembly was very easy and
didn't need any instructions. The build consisted of
assembling the main frame, then pushing the arms
into the main frame and sandwiching them together.
After tightening, make sure that the arms can still be
opened or closed into the locking position. Also dont
forget to use thread locker! You dont want your
multirotor falling out of the sky! It's happened before,
and dont ask me how I learned my lesson. Once all
your screws are in place make sure the arms and the
base is level, or else it can lead to major problems
down the road. After the frame was assembled, I
removed the stock landing gear to be replaced with
some retractable landing gear. That just slid over the
mounting arms underneath.
Step 2: Add on the Motors!
Next it was time to add on the motors. To do this, unscrew the carbon fiber plate on each arm and mount the motor
to the plate. Again, don't forget to use locktite or thread locker! When mounting the motor to the plate, screw the
screws in a star shaped pattern if possible, this will evenly distribute the force and help to make sure nothing
breaks. Once all 6 motors were mounted, install the carbon fiber plate/motor back onto each arm.
Step 3: Mount ESC's
Next it was time to mount the ESC's. To do this I used some zipties and fed them right under the motor mounts,
then trimmed the excess. This way the ESC's will get active cooling from the props and the signal doesn't have to
travel as far.
Once all 6 esc's were mounted, it was time to break out the soldering iron and get to work
Step 4: Connect Motor to ESC
Next its time to connect the motors to the esc's. Start
by stripping a considerable amount insulation off the
escs motor leads. Next I used some helping hands to
hold a male bullet connector in place while I soldered
the esc lead to the connector. Remember to head the
connector and wire, rather than the actual solder
itself. Once that was done I slid some heat shrink
tubing over the connector and shrunk it using a
lighter. Repeated that for all three wires of the ESC,
and then did that 5 more times for each arm. For the
Motor leads, I did the exact same thing, except this
time using female bullet connectors. And then again,
repeating for all 6 arms.
Once that was done, I plugged in the leads (order
doesn't matter for now) and went to the next step.
Step 5: Power Distribution Board
Next it was time to assemble the "heart" of the
multirotor. This is where all the electricity will be
flowing through and energizing the board, so its
essential to order a good high quality PDB. To start, I
soldered a XT60 Connector to the battery input and
used some heat shrink to seal the leads. I then
installed the PDB using nylon nuts and bolts in the
center of the frame.
The next step was the worst part of the entire build. What you have to do is push the power leads of the
ESC and the signal wires through the arms of the
hexacopter. The tight space was quite difficult but in
the end, what you should have coming out of each
arm is two signal wires, and two power leads which
should be soldered to the PDB
Step 6: Mount Flight Controller
If the PDB was the heart of the multirotor, the flight
controller is essentially the brain. I attached the FC to
the anti vibration mount that came with it using double
sided foam sticky tape. I then used nylon nuts and
bolts to assemble the flight controller to the frame.
Its important to note the arrow on the flight controller
(Bottom center first picture). This arrow points to the
front of the hexacopter (the two red arms). Make sure
its pointed in the right direction or it will act crazy!
Step 7: Add on the Toys! Now its time to add all the peripheral gadgets and
whatnot's. This step is the most important, however
the easiest since everything is labled for you.
The only add on you really need is the receiver. I
used a l9r for long range telemetry and using a 3d
printer, printed a mount for the receiver that I got on
thingiverse.
Next I mounted the gps mount onto the frame, peeled
off the sticker and stuck on the gps. Again make note
of the arrow and point it towards the front of the
multirotor. Next I plugged in the compass and battery
monitor into the assigned slots on the flight controller.
The next step was to plug in the ESC signal wires. Make sure to orient the motors from 1-8 as stated by mission planner, and plug the leads into the correct slots of the Main Out section on the flight controller. I found that using tweezers helps alot in the tight spots.
Step 8: Last Minute Checks!
While nearing the finish line everything gets a little bit
easier! Now that the majority of the actual hardware
building is complete, its time to start on the software.
Flash the FC with the latest version on mission
planner and connect using a USB cord. Then go
through the required steps to setup the hexacopter.
Now the reason im not going to go too in depth here,
is because theres so many tutorials on this part, that
another would just be too repetitive and alot to write.
The steps are pretty self explanatory and the
instructions are on screen. The best tutorial ive seen
is from Painless 360 and his 5 series YouTube playlist on pixhawk and mission planner.
During the motor test portion of the install, make sure
all your motors are spinning the correct direction, if
not switch any two of the three motor and esc leads
with the bullet connectors for that arm.
I then installed the props for the arms, being sure to
separate the clockwise and counterclockwise arms. I
then bound the receiver to my taranis, and plugged in
a battery to maiden the multirotor.
Step 9: Takeoff!
And there you go!
Your multirotor should be in the air! Now just add a gimbal and a camera to get those buttery smooth aerial shots
you see all over YouTube. Be sure to be careful when flying this! Its not a toy and you could seriously hurt
someone.
if you enjoyed this project, then perhaps you would enjoy some of my other projects here on instructables and
YouTube. Remember, new project every month!
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