PeasantCopter 3.0 User manual

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PeasantCopter 3.0
Instruction Manual
Revision 1.0
Manual compiled by John McNelly
Questions or comments? We’d love to hear from you at [email protected]

Introduction
Congrats! You opened the instruction manual. In fact, you even started to read the
first page! You’re way ahead of the game here; I bet half the people with a
PeasantCopter didn’t even know that this manual existed. Wow, you’re on a roll!
Nearly five sentences in, and you haven’t even broken a sweat. I haven’t gone that
far into a user’s manual in years. Have a sticker, you deserve it. (No, seriously,
email me at [email protected] with the subject line “I read it!” and your
shipping address, and I’ll send you a free PeasantCopter sticker of some sort).
Table of Contents
I. Assembly Instructions
A. What’s in the Package
B. Required Tools
C. Recommended Components
D. Assembly Sequence
E. Extras: FPV
II. Recommended Setups
A. The Air Circulator
B. The Proximity Trainer
C. The Usual
D. The Crack-Addicted Jackrabbit
III. PID Tuning
IV. Disclaimers
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I. Assembly Instructions
What’s In the Package
The PeasantCopter frame kit comes with everything you need to assemble
the frame of your quadcopter, including frame plates and necessary hardware.
Upon opening your package, you should find:
1 x 1/4" Plywood Arm Set (4 arms of either the 5” or 6” variety, depending on
what you ordered)
1 x 1/8" Plywood Body Plate Set (1 front top plate, 1 battery tray, 1 skid plate,
1 main body plate, 2 side plates)
20 x 5/8" 4-40 Black Nylon Pan Head Machine Screws (arm mounting)
20 x 3/32" 4-40 Black Nylon Nuts (arm mounting)
4 x 2" 4-40 Aluminum Standoffs (camera cage standoffs)
4 x 1" 4-40 Aluminum Standoffs (rear cage standoffs)
10 x 3/8" 4-40 Zinc Steel Pan Head Machine Screws (standoffmounting)
20 x 8mm M3 Zinc Steel Pan Head Machine Screw (motor mounting)
1 x Epic PeasantCopter Sticker
If you think that anything is missing from your package, please shoot us an
email immediately at [email protected] and we’ll get things sorted ASAP. If
you have lost components that were originally included in your package, via the
dreaded oh-crap-it-bounced-off-my-workbench-and-I-can’t-find-it move or through
good ‘ol fashioned crashing and bashing of your frame, shoot us an email as well
and we’ll see what we can do. Many hardware parts are also available separately
on the PeasantCopter online store and your local hardware store (most
PeasantCopter structural hardware is of the standard 4-40 variety).
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Required Tools
Phillips-head screwdriver
Blue (removable) Loctite
Soldering Iron
Solder, Heat Shrink, Zip Ties, etc.
~40min of time
Recommended Components
Despite the fact that it’s a 270-ish sized quad (larger with 6” props, smaller
with 5” props), the PeasantCopter can run reasonably comfortably on a heavy-duty
250-sized miniquad setup. Here are the basic things that you will need to get in the
air that are not included in the PeasantCopter frame kit.
4 x Outrunner Brushless Motor (2204 size or larger)
4 x Propellers (5030 or larger, 2 x CW and 2 x CCW)
4 x 12-20A ESC’s (preferably with multirotor-friendly firmware like SimonK,
Oneshot, etc.)
1 x Flight Controller (Naze32, CC3D; RIGHT ANGLE PINS RECOMMENDED)
1 x Flight Controller Mounting Kit (recommended, available separately from
PeasantCopter.com…but velcro also works)
1 x Receiver
1 x Small Power Distribution Board (I recommend the Mini Hub PDB w/ 2
built-in BECs)
1 x XT60 Pigtail (male)
~2ft x 16AWG Silicone Wire (or thinner)
∞x 3S / 4S Lipo Battery (below 2200mAh for lightweight zippiness, above
2200mAh for endurance)
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Assembly Sequence
The parts depicted in these assembly photos may differ slightly from the
ones in the frame you are assembling, as these photos were taken during the
prototyping and design process, and some changes have since been made.
However, the general idea of the build sequence images (4 arms, same number of
body panels and screw holes) remains identical to the build process of a current-
model PeasantCopter, so this guide should still provide a useful reference during
the assembly process.
Step 1: Lay Out the Parts
Got everything you need? Good. Let’s keep going.
Step 2: Install Flight Controller Standoffs
If you plan to use standoffs to mount your flight controller, now’s the time to
install them (the bottom screws are tough to get to once you install the bottom
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plate). The flight controller hardware kit sold on peasantcopter.com includes 4 M3
10mm nylon standoffs and 8 M3 6mm nylon screws (not what’s pictured here). In
other news, look at this amazing collage I made about the extremely complex
process of installing four screws!!
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Step 3: StandoffInstallation
Let’s install the standoffs! Make sure you’ve got the main body plate
(middle), the skid plate (right), the 1” standoffs, the 2” standoffs, and the 3/8” zinc
steel screws. For good measure, let’s prep for the next step, too; get out the arms
(left), and all those little black rod-like things with the rough sides and the “X” on the
top. What were they called again? Oh, and those black hexagons with the holes in
the center, get those too.!
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Install the standoffs by screwing in from the underside of the plate, as shown
below. The definition of “underside” is up to you; the plate is symmetrical down the
center, so either way up works just fine. Adding a dab of blue (removable type)
Loctite to the screws and standoffs is a good idea, in case the screws decide to
wiggle loose in-flight (they’re kind of hard to get to once you install the arms and
the skid plate).!
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Step 4: Arm Installation
Fun Fact: the little divot in the edges of the arms
are there to provide clearance for the screws for
the flight controller standoffs. Nifty, right? I bet
the guy who designed this was some kind of
handsome genius.!
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Screw in the 5/8” nylon machine screws from the underside of the skid plate,
holding the nylon nuts on the top side with your finger. Be careful while screwing in
the nylon machine screws, as they can strip easily. If you encounter difficulties with
the screw stripping, proceed more gently and press down hard with the tip of the
screw driver to get a better grip in the head of the screw. On the top side of the
plate, the screws can be trimmed as necessary using a regular pair of wire cutters,
scissors, the edge of a broadsword, or an x-acto knife.
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