Mud Skipper Build

[Raidwing]

Built the frame last night, but wouldn't you know it one spacer was missing from the kit............they put 3 26.5mm spacers in the kit when there should only be 2, and only 2 36mm spacers when there should be 3......

Looks like I need to go to the hobby store and see if I can find one (the ZMR250 uses the same spacers), might as well get a PDB while I am there.

Other than the missing spacer the Toro 250 is a nice bird, lots of room and the FPV camera mount is tilt adjustable for 360 degrees. It has a good battery location. A deck for the video transmitter (I am not going to use an action cam this area was for so I took off the vibration isolated camera mount).

Tips if you get one, there are tabs the battery and video deck have that locate into slots on the side frames, epoxy these in....it makes the frame stiffer and it will twist less when glued. Don't use the "landing gear" the kit has, get a 450 size helicopter landing skid or use something else (the kits gear attach to the motor arms where the ESC's go, the screw heads could cause a problem).

Battery, I have a "testing" battery Turnigy nano-tech A-SPEC G2 1800mah 4S 65~130C Lipo Pack (US Warehouse) and it fits, but is a little long. Main thing to remember is most any battery up to 36mm wide will fit, the 1800 4S I have (above) is 102mm long......90mm or less length would fit better so I will be looking for some 1500 4S batteries. these will be perfect, Tattu 1550mAh 14.8V 75C 4S1P Lipo Battery Pack Racing with XT60 plug (will see if my local hobby store has some while I get the missing spacer and a PDB).

More to come later....................

Awesome, sounds like good progress. I am looking forward to some pics!

 

[IceFyre13th]

Frame built and Video Transmitter, Radio Receiver, and FPV Camera mounted.

The radio receiver is mounted under the Video transmitter, the two red tubes are the dual diversity antennas.

Yes the stick video antenna is temporary, I will be using a left hand polarized cloverleaf antenna....this one is just for testing before first flight.

 

[Raidwing]

Looks good don't forget to swap one motor wire on 2 of the esc. If looking down onto the craft, the right front motor and left rear should be reversed. I believe left front is motor #1, left rear #2, right rear #3 right front #4. So normal rotation is clockwise/cw. Swap any of the 3 motor to esc wires to reverse the motor to ccw. #1 and 3 will be cw, #2 and 4 are ccw. I kept the jst plugs on my esc signal wires and soldered pins to my fc, after flashing the esc I shortened the signal wires to make it tidy. I recommend the plugs over direct solder to the board for the esc so that changing them out is easy. You will be able to make repairs much easier. I used clear silicone double sided mounting tape to secure my esc and other electronics. Course you probably already know these things, oh well it's there for anyone else who reads.

 

[Raidwing]

And yet another day goes by with no tx. I'm beginning to lose faith. I bought it from the last, and they had already ordered them the day before I came in and bought it. So here we are 16 days in. I should have just bought online, had it 10 days ago tops. Not our store's fault but it is aggravating.

 

[IceFyre13th]

I know how you feel. I my area the hobby store count has gone from 10 to 2.5......even a HobbyTown went bust (actually he got forced closed for not paying the rent on the store front).

I actually hate buying on-line, I like to look at first and make my mind up.......on-line you never really know what you get until it gets there.

The two stores left in my area one is for big scale RC planes and R/C buggy's / cars / trucks (great for the radios and receivers), the other has multi-rotor, but very limited on what they sell (did I ever mention I hate DJI)...they do have every small part you will ever need though, screws / standoffs / wire / connectors....there actually is a third sore (the .5), but only sell model kits and those Magic the Gathering / Pokemon stuff (nerd herd store).

Weekend is here.....more build time for me.....................if I can keep from playing No Mans Sky...lol

 

[Raidwing]

Lol, well I knew if I complained it would happen just to make me look bad, the tx is in! I will be attempting the maiden this weekend, we'll see how it goes. Now I'm gonna get butterflies and jitters. I always get nervous when I fly a new bird.