1. Perform the new accelerometer calibration in the mission planner (video).  The auto-trim metho has also changed (video).

2. Add vibration dampening foam between your frame and the APM.  Some suggested materials: DuBro, gel, hk foam.

3. Modify the throttle and altitude PID values:

• Increase your Throttle Rate P, reduce I to zero, increase D
  Increase Altitude Hold P, reduce I to zero
  Tune Throttle Accel P and I terms but try to keep P about 1/2 the size of I

Step1: Arducopter 3DR Power Distribution Board Assembly

Attach the narrow gauge wire as shown. Two Wire Connector Black -  GND Red -  5V Out  Four-Wire Connector Orange - M1 White - M2 Red - M3 Black - M4

Now you need to attach the battery connector.   Take the larger battery wires and strip the insulation off each end by about 4mm Solder the black wire into the large hole marked “-“ and the red wire into the large hole marked “+”. The markings are on the bottom of the board where you will do the soldering but the wires should emerge from the top of the board as in the image below.  Be sure to include the heatshrink and then attach the male deans connector.

Now you need to attach the right angle headers onto the PDB, this allows you to plug your ESC signal lines into the PDB to be routed to your ardupilot mega/arducopter.  Break/snap the headers into sets of 3 pins each. Now solder the 4 sets of headers onto the PDB as shown.

Step2: Soldering ESC/Motor connections - if you purchased the kit

If you purchased the arducopter 3DR Kit that included the motors and ESC, the connectors need to be soldered too.    First solder the male bullet plugs to the three motor wires.  Add heat shrink to cover the connector from the solder joint up to the lip where it meets the female side when connected

Repeat the same setps for the ESC connections with the female bullet connectors.  Cover with heatshrink covering all of the exposed metal tip.

Step3: Arducopter 3DR Frame Assembly

Choose Frame Orientation X or +

Arducopter X Configuration

Arducopter + Configuration

3a: Arm Assembly

3b: Main Plate Assembly

If you want you can also insert the Power Distribution Board onto the nylon spacers on the center of the frame.  Remember to set the orientation correctly and the right way up (the bottom of the PDB board will have a label saying This Side Down).  You can also connect your motors and ESCs together via the bullet connectors. You can mount your ESC to the arms using the included zip ties.

3c: Stack-up Assembly

Next install the Base Cap, note that the two slots close together (marked in Blue) mark the front side of the quad. Align them with the front arrow on your pdb. For setting correct motor orientation plase visit the arducopter wiki (http://code.google.com/p/arducopter).  The Base Cap allows for easy access to the PDB as well as the motor wires. Screw 4x M3x30mm Spacers to hold the Base Cap in place. The stack-ups fit right on top secured on top by 4x M3x05mm Nylon screws (Green) Your ArduPilot Mega flight controller is simply mounted onto the base cap, you can use some nylon screws or some double sided tape.  Double sided tape is better since it reduces some of the vibrations You can mount extra add-ons like a Telemetry Kit or a GPS upgrade onto the stackup plates

Step 4:  Setting correct motor orientation

For more details on connecting your ArduPilot Mega board to your frame and setting everything up have a look at our arudcopter quickstart guide

Arducopter Hexa Power Distribution Board Assembly

Connect both sides with a good amount of solder.

When you are sure of the proper positions, solder each connector in one by one. One technique that helps if you don’t have three hands is to orient the connector then superglue it in place before soldering, making sure not to superglue over the pads or metal tabs.

Next insert the 4-wire cable into the holes shown above taking special care to do it in the right order. It should be Orange, White, Red then Black for motors 1-4 respectively.Solder the wires in from the back side.

Next solder in the two wire connector, wires Yellow and White for motors 5 and 6 respectively

Now take the 10AWG wire and strip both ends about 0.2 inches or 5mm. Then solder the wires to the tabs on the back of the male Dean’s connector. Make sure again to wire the red wire to the + tab and the black wire to the – tab. Slip the heatshrink on the back and heat it to cover the solder joints.

Now solder the loose ends of the 10AWG wire into the large holes on the board marked “+” and “-“. Finally solder in the small two-wire cable into the small holes marked “To APM” “+” and “-“, again with the red wire into “+” and the black wire into “-“.

That’s it, your Power Distribution Board (PDB for short) is now complete!

Hexacopter Center Plates

Attaching arms to the main frame pieces

Attaching the landing legs onto the hexacopter arms

Mounting arducopter electronics

Although it doesn’t matter what direction “front” is on a hexa frame, once you decide which direction the APM 2 board will face, that becomes front.  The board orientation is shown the the right: You’ll note that the mounting holes on the 3DR Hexa default to a “+” configuration, which is to say that the board is facing one of the arms, rather than between two arms (known as an  “x” configuration).  You can mount it in an x configuration with double-sided tape if you want, but you’ll have to drill different mounting holes.  We’ll assume you’re going to stick with the default + configuration for the rest of these instructions.   It’s a good idea to mark your front arm with some red tape, so you can see the orientation of your copter in the air.

Stackup Assembly for your Arducopter Hexa frame

SIX600 Hexacopter parts included with the kit

1 - Mounting the Landing Gear

The first step is to mount the landing gear onto the bottom fibreglass plate.  However if you are using a battery strap (not included with the kit) its a good idea to put this on now. Bottom plate with optional battery strap

Mount the landing legs as shown below, using the bag of screws/bolts included with the landing gear. Remember to align the landing leg tubes and secure them with the self tapping screw Completed SIX600 landing gear Make sure the bolts stick out downwards so that you can use them to mount accessories like a camera gimbal

2 - Attaching the motor mounts to the SIX600 Hexacopter Frame

Important: There are two different size bolts that you can use.  The smaller bolts are used for the motor mounts, and the largers ones are used to mount the arms onto the frame.

3 - Mounting the motors to your Hexacopter

Its a good idea to mount your motors to the arms now so that you can easily feed the cables through the arms.  Simply mount your brushless motor onto the motor mounts as shown.  You should be able to use the mounting screws that were included with your motor.  Also make sure to feed your motor wires through the arm as shown below.

If your motor does not have long wires to pass through the arm, Unmanned Tech have some Motor Extension Wires for you to purchase.

4 - mounting the arms to the frame The last step of the Hexacopter build is to attach the arms onto the central plates.  This is done using the large bolts that should be remaining.   Remember to attach your PDB onto the central plate before securing the top plate onto the frame

Parts that you will get with your X600 frame including the high-rise landing gear

1 - attach the landing legs to the central quadcopter plate

The first step to build the X600 Quadcopter is to attach the legs onto the frame.  To do this take the bottom plate that has X600 cut out of it, and using the small nuts and bolts included with the landing legs, attach them to the legs as shown. X600 landing legs

Make sure the bolts stick out of the bottom of the frame as shown, so that you can attach extras such as a camera gimbal at a later stage.

Once the legs have been attached to the quadcopter plate, you will now need to add the landing leg tubes.  The important thing to remember is that there are small holes that need to be aligned for each tube so they dont come loose during flight.

2 - Attaching the motor mounts to the arms

Important: There are two different size bolts that you can use.  The smaller bolts are used for the motor mounts, and the largers ones are used to mount the arms onto the frame.

3 - Mounting motors to your quadcopter

Its a good idea to mount your motors to the arms now so that you can easily feed the cables through the arms.  Simply mount your brushless motor onto the motor mounts as shown.  You should be able to use the mounting screws that were included with your motor.  Also make sure to feed your motor wires through the arm as shown below.

If your motor does not have long wires to pass through the arm, Unmanned Tech have some Motor Extension Wires for you to purchase.

4 - mounting the quadcopter arms to the frame

Arducopter 2.6 Loiter

Arducopter 2.5.5 Loiter