F450 Quad With Illumination Module

Hi everyone here is my quadcopter build with an illumination module. this quadcopter can be used as night time searching uav. this quad weights 1600grams and flies at 30m/s speed and hovers 400m altitude.Total flight time is 15 minutes. It can be controlled via telemetry from a smart phone. I tried to keep this instructable as simple it is.

f450 quadcopter frame

pixhawk kit (including gps, telemetry, power module, etc.)

gaui 960kv motors x4

gaui 18A esc x4

turnigy 3S 5000mah lipo battery

10x4.5 propellers x4

1 watt power leds and lenses x9

small power led drivers x3

power distribution wire

zipties

double sided tape

thin leftover metal grill (for mounting leds and heat reduction)

leftover package foam (for vibration dampening)

First I assembled the frame and mounted the motors on the frame. then connected esc wires to the power distribution cable underneath the frame. Then I soldered a xt-60 output wire from pdb to the power module. Power module was mounted below the upper plate of the frame and shielded with aluminum tape.

I cut a foam to place under the pixhawk flight controller to minimizze vibration levels. I also placed piece of foam under the frame to prevent damage of the pdb wires. later Flight controller and other electronics were mounted with a double sided tape and zipties. Gps stand is attached with a lock nut on the upper plate. Since the flight controller is powered up with both esc and power module, a zener diode is connected to the power rail of pixhawk.

After all connections were done, initial configurations and calibrations are done from mission planner. Arducopter v3.3 is loaded to the FC. All necessary info can be found on pixhawks' official site. Propellers are attached and the quadcopter is ready to fly.

I decided to mount power leds on a leftover grill in order to maintain air flow to the leds. I soldered 3 leds in series then I soldered these leds to the led driver. I did the same for the rest two rows. Finally I connected all drivers in parallel those operate with 12v input. (same as battery voltage) Each led draws 350mah current. In total current draw is 350mah x 3 =1050mah. This module designed to provide minimum 20 lux at a 5meter altitude. In guided mode you can illuminate whereever you want.