New Frame and Rebuild

Side view of new quadcopter frame.

I'm still not sure that I'm really satisfied with the Turnigy Trust ESCs - they claim to have automatic throttle calibration, but that doesn't seem to be satisfactory for a quadcopter, so I might have to purchase the Turnigy Plush ones that I've now recommended on the Quadcopter Parts page.

Top view of new quadcopter frame

However, I did go out and pick up a new frame from HobbyKing - the Talon 550mm Carbon Fiber QuadCopter Frame.  The frame was easy to assemble and went together in about 10 minutes.  The one problem is that the power distribution board was too big so I had to solder the ESCs together - I'm not great at soldering, but it worked for me and all the engines are getting their power.

The frame is a perfect fit for the motors and for the control board, which is incredibly helpful and can be set up both the + and X configurations - for now I'm going with the + configuration.  The reason I'm doing that is  that + is the default and I've had some trouble programming the control board - and this is after I burnt one up - oops!

I did a couple of test bounces and it handled okay, but I can tell that it needs some fine tuning and I'm not sure if that should be done on the control side or on the gyro side.

I think tomorrow I will head out to a grassy field and see how it handles, try to do some test hovers, and see if I can actually fly it around for a few seconds.  I'll post an update once I get some flight data.