Bitcraze Forums

Hi,
in case anyone's interested: I've recently built a large quadcopter using the Crazyflie Bolt flight controller board. Here are the basic specs of this build:

Frame: F450 (i.e. 450mm diagonal hub-to-hub "wingspan")
Motors: BLDC A2212/13T, 1000KV
ESCs: 30A
Props: 1045
Battery: 4S, 100C, 1300mAh LiPo (a bit small but I wanted to keep the weight down until the PID gains were tuned, see below)
Total flying weight: approx. 850g

Tuning the inner (rate) and outer (attitude) PID loops was a bit of a challenge since the flight dynamics differ considerably from the original CFs. By now I managed to obtain a good set of gain parameters and the quad flies pretty stable. Next step is tuning the velocity and position PID loops. I've attached some pics.

Regards
Tintin

Nice build!
I just want to check how you are powering the ESCs because I'm not sure how much current the connector and mosfet on the Bolt can handle, at least not 30A. We recommend not more the 8A and if more is needed connect the ESC directly to the battery and the Bolt in parallel. Then just connect the motor signal wire (white) from the ESC connectors to the ESCs.

Hi tobias,
thanks for the kind recognition and for pointing out the current limitation of the Bolt. I was aware of this before I started the build, since it's mentioned clearly in the Bolt datasheet. I did some preliminary tests of the motor/prop/ESC drivetrain and the continuous current per motor should be well below the 8A limit. That's why I didn't use a PDB for this. I'll test the current draw again after putting some more payload on the quad.
The next step will be mounting the Bolt on the bottom of the quad to be able to use a Z-Ranger- or Flow-Deck. I'll have to tune the velocity & position PID loops too, of course.
Regards
Tintin

Sound like you know what you are doing , keep us posted!

Well, let's say I'm trying hard to move up from my "Beginner" status in the forum