DJI FPV modding

[anethema]

Been thinking of playing with modding the drone. One of the main interesting things would be transplanting the guts into a normal carbon fiber frame.
The main question I had was in most quads the IMU gear is mounted on the flight controller board but on this drone it’s in the front soft mounted on 4 bungies at an angle to the level direction.

I imagine if I could cool everything I could mount the other boards flat or in a stack, but the IMU would probably need to get a printed part to mount it at the same angle no? Anyone have a guess? Gonna order a frame and try it out anyways be interesting to see!

 

[Anzacjack]

I would have thought that as long as you recalibrate for the new position, it shouldnt matter if its mounted flat

 

[rktman]

I think any significant changes, which will require a complete retuning of PIDs (and more) will fail.

The firmware is proprietary and closed. It will probably never be opened because of warranty concerns.

It may (certainly will be attempted) be reverse–engineered, but you're gonna have a steep mountain to climb.

 

[dirkclod]

It’s called modding guys. We’ve done it since the FC40.
sometimes there’s no answer till you bite the bullet and experiment.
Before there were wind surfers you could buy we used pie pans, coke cans cut open. I even tryed useing a Turkey pan with a P2V
then along came itelite panels. Had three on different birds at one time after trying everything else.

My point is being this drone is new someone has to break new ground. Be the first ?
Go for it we will all learn.
OK I’m done. Now with what time I have with being in most of our forums I’m just trying not to do this with this one. ?

Added..trying not to ?

 

[DanijelT]

Been thinking of playing with modding the drone. One of the main interesting things would be transplanting the guts into a normal carbon fiber frame.
The main question I had was in most quads the IMU gear is mounted on the flight controller board but on this drone it’s in the front soft mounted on 4 bungies at an angle to the level direction.

I imagine if I could cool everything I could mount the other boards flat or in a stack, but the IMU would probably need to get a printed part to mount it at the same angle no? Anyone have a guess? Gonna order a frame and try it out anyways be interesting to see!

I was also thinking about this! Would be great to do but not being able to tune the pids could be a problem…

 

[anethema]

I was also thinking about this! Would be great to do but not being able to tune the pids could be a problem…

For sure. Hopefully the PIDs being as conservative as they are will give it some headroom to prevent flyaways etc in a much lighter frame.

 

[rktman]

For sure. Hopefully the PIDs being as conservative as they are will give it some headroom to prevent flyaways etc in a much lighter frame.

Well, flyaways would certainly be a first–order concern ?

I brought up the PIDs mostly in the context of flight control... with significant changes to weight and distribution, it's gonna be hard to fly without tuning.

Unless the modder is extremely lucky.

 

[anethema]

Well I ordered a frame, gonna get the 3d Printer fired up and see how it does.

I will probably kind of 2-sided tape and electrical tape everything together at first, see if it can even fly in a few frame, then print parts and make adjustments as needed.

 

[DanijelT]

Well I ordered a frame, gonna get the 3d Printer fired up and see how it does.

I will probably kind of 2-sided tape and electrical tape everything together at first, see if it can even fly in a few frame, then print parts and make adjustments as needed.

Really awesome to see somebody do this. I will follow your proces.

 

[anethema]

Should be interesting to find a way to fit this many boards on the frame somehow!

 

[anethema]

Well started it. Still a ways to go.

Main issue is the battery has 0 slack. So it’s super far back on the quad I’m not even sure it will fly with the center of gravity so far off.
The short camera cable too is a ( Mod Removed)After zip tying it in the picture I saw it was actually upside down haha.
I still have to extend the motor wires and mount those, the frame will need drilling for the holes.
The ribbon cables are all snapped in and when I power up I get gps, no IMU errors, video, etc. but they are held down in the actual drone against a metal frame with screws holding metal covers over them. I’m pretty worried they will disconnect mid flight. Might have to figure a way to secure them.
More to come !

 

[Anzacjack]

I think you will have issues with that CoG
I just checked my drone and centre of gravity and centre of pressure are very close.
can you extend the battery leads and move it forward?

maybe a hot glue gun for the ribbon cables.

I remember doing this with a blade 350 drone way back. We attached everything to a core flute panel and was able to glide it around once at height. Fun days ?

 

[anethema]

I think you will have issues with that CoG
I just checked my drone and centre of gravity and centre of pressure are very close.
can you extend the battery leads and move it forward?

maybe a hot glue gun for the ribbon cables.

I remember doing this with a blade 350 drone way back. We attached everything to a core flute panel and was able to glide it around once at height. Fun days ?

The problem is the battery is some proprietary connector. Be nice if I could get a female connector and extend it that way. The only way I can think of is to get a donor board from someone’s broken drone and build a cable by desoldering the connector from the board. Unless someone knows the connector name for me to try to source one.

 

[thetechnobear]

cools stuff..its great to hear it powered upok



yeah the CoG is going to be way off... also Im not sure you really want to start landing on the battery.

a couple of ideas...
- desolder the battery connector off the pcb, then mount it on the top plate of the frame?
- disasseble a battery, and try to put its battery management pcb on the drone
and then run a normal XT60 connector to a normal battery (it be nice to run non-dji batteries on it, of same capacity)


what size frame is it?
almost looks like a longer frame might be better - so you could put the camera up front - or is the ribbon cable not long enough?


great stuff, looking forward to the next installment

 

[anethema]

cools stuff..its great to hear it powered upok



yeah the CoG is going to be way off... also Im not sure you really want to start landing on the battery.

a couple of ideas...
- desolder the battery connector off the pcb, then mount it on the top plate of the frame?
- disasseble a battery, and try to put its battery management pcb on the drone
and then run a normal XT60 connector to a normal battery (it be nice to run non-dji batteries on it, of same capacity)


what size frame is it?
almost looks like a longer frame might be better - so you could put the camera up front - or is the ribbon cable not long enough?


great stuff, looking forward to the next installment

The ribbon cable is super short. I haven’t yet even found a way to mount the camera yet. It is upside down in that picture just so it would sit an not dangle.

 

[anethema]

cools stuff..its great to hear it powered upok



yeah the CoG is going to be way off... also Im not sure you really want to start landing on the battery.

a couple of ideas...
- desolder the battery connector off the pcb, then mount it on the top plate of the frame?
- disasseble a battery, and try to put its battery management pcb on the drone
and then run a normal XT60 connector to a normal battery (it be nice to run non-dji batteries on it, of same capacity)


what size frame is it?
almost looks like a longer frame might be better - so you could put the camera up front - or is the ribbon cable not long enough?


great stuff, looking forward to the next installment

The main problem with extending the battery that way is I’d need to put a connector to that extends to all cells since the battery internals monitors them all. Not that tough I guess though third party packs come with that connector.

 

[rktman]

The problem is the battery is some proprietary connector. Be nice if I could get a female connector and extend it that way. The only way I can think of is to get a donor board from someone’s broken drone and build a cable by desoldering the connector from the board. Unless someone knows the connector name for me to try to source one.

Cut the battery flat cable and extend it. That's very doable with the two Power wires and the smaller signal wires.

 

[anethema]

Cut the battery flat cable and extend it. That's very doable with the two Power wires and the smaller signal wires.

Don’t really want to do that as much. I’m liking TB’s idea of desoldering the connector and using a balance female connection so I can plug in non DJI batteries actually.

 

[Kilrah]

They are not "balance connection" i.e. directly connected to the cells, they are data line to the BMS built into the battery.

Will need to figure out if you can set the FC to work without it, AFAIK on other recent models DJI have locked out the ability to set to non-DJI battery so if the BMS isn't there you'll just get an error.

 

[anethema]

They are not "balance connection" i.e. directly connected to the cells, they are data line to the BMS built into the battery.

Will need to figure out if you can set the FC to work without it, AFAIK on other recent models DJI have locked out the ability to set to non-DJI battery so if the BMS isn't there you'll just get an error.

Oh I kow that.

what I’m saying is I would tear apart an official DJI battery, move the smarts to the quad, then extend the smart batteries internal balance lines to a female plug.
So then when I plug in the XT60, and the balance plug, the quad will think it has a freshly charged smart battery.