How to make an octocopter? – Homemade octocopter

Are you an octocopter enthusiast? Do you ever wonder how you could avoid all the expenses of purchasing an octocopter by making one yourself?

How to make an octocopter? Well, good news is: it is in fact possible for you to make your own octocopter. However, for it to be effective, you need to employ utmost care.

The first question you need to ask yourself is: what are the parts needed to make an octocopter? After that, you also need to know how to assemble every part accordingly in order to come up with something effective.

 

PARTS NEEDED TO BUILD AN OCTOCOPTER

1. Motor: Sunnysky (Motor X4108S)

2. Frame:Tarot IRON MAN 1000 Carbon Fiber Octocopter Frame [CHECK PRICE]

3. Electronic speed controller: TBS Bulletproof 30 A ESC set

4. Motors: 8×850 Kv motor bells

5. Lipo: 2* 5000Mah 4s Lipo Batterys Hobbyking or Tattu

6. Flight controller board: 3DR APM 2.6

7. 3DR UBlox GPS.

8. Radio.

9. Camera: Canon 650D

10. Propellers: T-Type High Efficiency Prop 13×5.5 1355 Carbon Fiber

Other accessories

1. Voltmeters.

2. Servo plugs (male to male).

3. Extension leads (female to male).

4. Stickyback Velcro.

5. Approximately 2cm rubber bands.

6. About 3mm wire.

7. Hot glue and gun.

8. Allen key set.

9. 6 Meters silicone wire.

10. Solder.

11. Props 4 clockwise and 4 anti-clockwise.

12. Sandpaper

13. Numerous shrink tubing.

 

MOTOR FOR HOMEMADE OCTOCOPTER

This is the first thing that you require when you are planning to build your own octocopter. And yes the motor must be able to provide twice the thrust of the overall weight of the octocopter.

This way, the motor will be convenient to use for the octocopter. You should also ensure that you check other aspects of the motor like the maximum current as well as the watts. This way, you can ensure that the motor you use is good for your octocopter.

 

FLIGHT CONTROLLER FOR HOMEMADE OCTOCOPTER

Flight controller is yet another important requirement for you to have before you can commence the building process.

Although ensuring that it is of the highest quality is paramount, starting off with a less expensive flight controller is advised.

Why is that? This is because as you are testing your octocopter, chances of crashing are very high. And yes, it is obvious you don’t want to have an octocopter crashing on the first trial with your expensive flight controller.

For that reason, you need to start off with a less expensive one and upgrade it as you become more experienced.

 

CAMERA FOR HOMEMADE OCTOCOPTER

If you need an octocopter for taking aerial photos, you may also need a good camera.

Basically, the idea of including a camera on your octocopter is great especially when you want to use it for investigative journalism.

The camera ought to be more than just the normal ones.

 

PROPELLER FOR HOMEMADE OCTOCOPTER

This is yet another worthy ingredient in your recipe for coming up with a nice octocopter. While the quality is supposed to be high, price also needs to be considerable for the first attempts.

It is advisable that you follow the instructions provided by your propeller manufacturer quite keenly to avoid confusion that would result in huge losses.

The propeller ought to be made from the best material that ensures great durability given the fact that it works continuously.

 

ESC FOR HOMEMADE OCTOCOPTER

This item is quite crucial and should be present before you start your building process.

It controls the flow of power from the batteries to the motor. This makes it quite crucial since without proper flow of power things would get ugly.

This electronic speed controller should have a higher Amp than the motor in order for it to work properly.

 

BATTERIES FOR HOMEMADE OCTOCOPTER

However obvious they may look, these are very crucial items needed in the whole octocopter building process.

You need to have enough power in order to avoid unexpected landings which could jeopardize your building process.

The batteries ought to be of the highest quality in order to offer impressive results.

 

HOW TO BUILD AN OCTOCOPTER

Building an octocopter requires you to follow several steps in a strict order. Let explore the steps. In order to understand the whole process clearly, you can watch this video.

Step 1. Building the frame

Building the frame is the first step you take when you get into the actual assembling process.

To assemble the frame, you can follow instructions and guide from the manufacturer of the specific frame you are using.

This is quite an easy task since it does not involve many technicalities. Assembling it is well stipulated in the guide provided by your manufacturer.

 

Step 2. Mounting the motor and the flight controller

This is the second step when building an octocopter. You need to carefully mount the motor to the flight controller as indicated in the image above.

At this stage, you also need to solder the ESC to the power distribution board. This way, power control is managed and this step is quite crucial. In fact, a blunder at this stage could get really catastrophic.

For that reason, you need to ensure that the motor is properly mounted to the flight controller and the ESC well soldered to the power distribution.

First, in order to ensure that all the connections are accurate, you will need to mount the motor to the motor mounting plates. Although there are four holes, you are allowed to use only two screws to mount it.

 

Step 3. Mounting the electronic parts

This is a rather tricky step that requires utmost care. Mounting the electronics is not as hard as it sounds, but it is indeed tricky.

At this stage, you are basically supposed to mount the ESC, the flight controller and the receiver appropriately. This starts with taking the ESCs and mounting them onto the frame. This is done using zip ties.

After that, the flight controller and the receiver are properly put in their positions as indicated in the video below.

 

Step 4. Setting up the flight controller

After mounting all the electronics, you need to set up the flight control so that you can be able to manage it using your devices or remote controls. This calls for proper linking and configuration of all the required items. You can watch this video to understand what happens.

 

Step 5. Prop balancing and mounting

You need to balance all the props after setting up the flight controller.

This way, you will have everything in order. This is a very crucial stage as well.

It calls for proper understanding of the props so that you can avoid making errors. The magnetic balancers are most ideal for prop balancing. You can watch this video in order to understand this step better.

 

Step 6. Soldering

At this stage, you are supposed to use iron to mount the Esc, flight controller and receiver in a process called soldering. You can watch this video to see how it is done.

 

Step 7. Flying your octocopter

After you have assembled all the parts and put them in their right positions, you can now test your octocopter. A fully assembled octocopter will look like this.

Video from Youtube (just a example)

In conclusion

I would say that the overall construction of how to make an octocopter, which is an easy process that when all steps are followed, there are no mistakes anticipated. However, failure to adhere to the given steps could lead to losses. Armed with this information, it is time you tried building your own octocopter.