As much as I wanted the Alien 680 H4 I’ve been flying to work out, I’m not happy with it.  I’ve gone through quite a bit of work trying to get this frame to fly well but it just doesn’t.  I’ve started ripping it apart today and have a new, different 680 Alien folding frame ready to build.

Alien 680 Quadcopter

The good part about this frame is the K shape which puts the camera even with the front two motors.  That helps keep props out of the photos/video.  But because of that design, the battery needs to be put way back to counterbalance it.  That means most of the mass is NOT in the center of the bird, where in my opinion it should be.  As a result there are some funky things that happen when flying.  The bird looks almost like a teeter-totter in wind.  When stopping or slowing it is not smooth and I worry about it flipping in the air.  I’m thinking the frame and the mass distribution is the issue and surely hoping that it isn’t the MiniX flight controller.

Soon I’ll be sure.

I’m willing to try out a new, more symmetrical frame with the same hardware. That frame has already arrived and I hope to have Alien 2.0 flying soon.  Naturally I’ll post a build log.

I’ve been quite irritated with my carbon fiber landing legs I came up with for my Alien H4 680mm quadcopter.  The legs are on servo-less electric retracts which I have assigned to a channel on my transmitter.  I can put the gear up or down during flight.  That’s cool, especially with a 3-axis gimbal for the camera.  It keeps the legs out of the photos or video.

The problem I’ve had is with the 6 millimeter carbon fiber tubing I’ve used for the legs.  Those tubes wrap around the 4mm “trunnion” which comes out of the retract.  When taking off, landing, or working on my quad the legs take a beating and over time crack.  Just two days ago two legs snapped in grass as the copter shifted laterally during takeoff.

Lucky for me I have a cousin who has a machine shop.  I had him make me up some aluminum landing legs.  They have a 4mm section which replaces the trunnion, then expand to 6mm.  The “shoulder” between the 6mm and 4mm supports most of the weight, and the aluminum is MUCH stronger.

Yes what about the weight difference?  Each leg of the carbon fiber landing legs with trunnion and rubber cap was 7 grams.  The new aluminum legs with rubber cap are 15 grams.  I’m adding 28 grams to the whole bird with this upgrade.  Not terrible.

Below is a video of the old CF retracts in action.

Continuing on with my reader question and answer session today.  The previous question from Pat was regarding drone lighting.  Today’s question is about my electric retractable landing gear for my big 960 hexacopter.

How do you like your new Arris X-3 landing gear. I’m about to pull the trigger on a set, but would love to know how they are treating you.

The Arris Lander-X3 is made for larger multirotor copters, hexacopters and octocopters.  I really like how wide the stance is and how long the feet are.  The width and length gives the copter a very stable platform for takeoff and landing.  It is much more stable than the stock landing gear this Tarot T960 came with.

Arris Lander-X3 box contents

Setup is relatively easy.  The gear can install to the frame of the copter or to two booms.  Because I didn’t want to take apart my frame I went the boom route.  Plus that makes the width a little wider.  There’s a control box which powers the gear and has a button on it to manually engage the gear.  The control box receives a signal from the copter’s receiver to put the gear up or down.

Arris Lander-X3 Control Box

The control box also has outputs for LED lights, but I have not used those as of this point.

Below is a video demonstration of the gear in action.

Issue

I have a small problem which I believe is my own fault. Due to a wiring short during some maintenance I think I may have fried something in the control box. I heard a pop sound and not sure where it came from. The gear now goes up fine during flight but takes several attempts to come down. The issue only happens during flight and not in the shop. Must be slightly related to voltage. I have a new control box on the way ($20) and will replace and report back if that solved the issue.

The quality of the parts seems to be very good.  I’m hoping the box issue will be resolved when the slow boat from China arrives.