H4 Alien 680 Quadcopter during initial build…

I’m getting so discouraged on this rebuild that I took a break from it. The Alien H4 680 quadcopter is built and flying, but the vibrations are so bad I can’t get any decent video. I’ve spent DAYS, not kidding, balancing motors and props. Motor #3 vibrates so bad that it almost tickles your hand when close enough. I can see the landing leg under motor #3 shaking badly.

I’m now thinking that this motor is damaged. Perhaps the post is bent, or the bearings are compromised, or both. Now I’m faced with whether to pull it apart and try to replace the parts, or just buy another motor and see how that works.

I’m also not totally in love with this frame. The “K” shape of the bird makes great sense in getting the camera forward and the props out of the field of vision, but it doesn’t handle as well as I want it to. Maybe I’m too used to flying my bigger hexacopter, or perhaps the MiniX flight controller just isn’t as good as the SuperX.

Next steps?

I will either pull apart the motor and try to see if there’s obvious damage, and or buy a new motor. The problem is this stuff comes on the slow boat from China, so it will be another month before I can get to testing if I can’t find a USA dealer.

Tested the new H4 Alien quad yesterday for FPV flight.  It worked great, even with the straight transmitter antenna going to a mushroom.

Alien Quadcopter FPV

I have some work to do on the flight controller mount.  I also intend to get rid of the cheap plastic wobbly landing gear and install some cool retracts which will make transport much easier.

Soon it will be time to mount the GoPro and gimbal.  This will be mostly a portable, packable GoPro craft, and perhaps flying a small point and shoot camera.