My first drone is (not an hexacopter but) a Q450 quadcopter with 3DR's Pixhawk flight controller

Here's the follow-up of my previous article "Help needed for my FPV hexacopter" .

Thanks to the help of the "Drones in Belgium" community, and a few friends (Benjamin, Dominique, and Maxime), I finally could get out and have my drone flying for the first time.

In a previous article, I asked for help choosing all the components that I would need to build a FPV hexacopter in order to take videos with a GoPro.

My previous article is the entire story about selecting the components and where I bought those but here's a resume:

Ordered in the international warehouse:

• 1 3.5mm 3 wire Bullet-connector for motor (5pairs/bag)
• 1 10CM Male to Male Servo Lead (JR) 26AWG (10pcs/set)
• 1 OrangeRx R620 Spektrum/JR DSM2 Compatible Full Range 6Ch 2.4Ghz Receiver w/Failsafe
• 1 (+1 spare) XT60 to 4 X 3.5mm bullet Multistar ESC Power Breakout Cable
• 2 (+1 spare) 10x4.5 Carbon Fiber Propellers 1pc Standard/1pc RH Rotation
• 1 Q450 V3 Glass Fiber Quadcopter Frame 450mm - Integrated PCB Version
• 1 Multifunction Care-Free High Crab FPV Landing Gear Set (Black)
• 1 White 16 LED Circular Light Board with Lead
  In order to facilitate the direction identification 
• 1 Tarot T-2D V2 GoPRO 3 Brushless Camera Gimbal and ZYX22 Controller

Ordered in the EU warehouse:

• 3 Turnigy nano-tech 4000mah 3S 35~70C Lipo Pack
• 4 Turnigy nano-tech 2650mah 3S 25~50C Lipo Pack
• 4 (+1 spare) Turnigy Multistar 30 Amp Multi-rotor Brushless ESC 2-4S
• 1 Turnigy Multistar ESC Programming Card
• 4 (+1 spare) NTM Prop Drive Series 28-30S 900kv / 270w (short shaft version)
• 4 (+1 spare) NTM Prop Drive 28 Series Accessory Pack

I have a Spektrum DX6i remote but I finally bought a Taranis FRSSKY X8R (from http://www.gulliver-modeles.fr/) in order to have more channels. It appears to be a very good choice.

3DR's Pixhawk Flight Controller.

Last but not least, I decided to order 3DR's Pixhawk flight controller with the corresponding  3DR GPS uBlox LEA-6 with Compass (from https://www.buildyourowndrone.co.uk).

As recommended by Benjamin, I removed the batteries banana plugs and switched them for XT60 connectors.

Here's a picture of the final result:

After multiple trials to set up my quadcopter with Mission Planner and changing some remote controller settings, thanks to Maxime, I could finally fly for the first time with my own drone.

The day was sunny and with nearly no wind... it was perfect for my first time.

There were a few minor crashes (because of some bad settings and the low-battery alarm that I did not connect correctly) but no damages.

Here is Maxime's video of this day that he took from his own drone.

I want to thank everyone who helped me having this quadcopter flying. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.

Next steps is to mount the GoPro and FPV system... but that's another story ;)

How to replace Parrot AR Drone's battery and protect your house from taking fire.

This post will explain how to protect your house / appartment from damages when charging the Parrot AR drone battery and how to use other batteries.
A friend of mine, Sébastien (@sarbogast), left his AR Drone battery charging for too long.
It sounds like the charger is not detecting when the battery is full and it keeps charging until you remove the battery.
This is really dangerous as the battery could explode.

Here's a picture (taken by Sébastien) of the battery. Hopefully, Sebastien did not need to call the fire fighters.

I then decided to recommend him to use a Lipoly charge bag * when charging his batteries to prevent damages caused by a battery on fire.

* The links provided are for EU residents, you will find the corresponding links for Hobbyking's international warehouse at the end of this post.

You may also use another battery, with higher capacity (meaning more flying time), with your Parrot AR Drone (v1 or v2). I recommended Sebastien to use this Turnigy 1300mAh 3S 20C Lipo Pack:

To be able to use it, you will have to use a cable adapter: Female Mini Tamiya <-> Male XT60 . I've seen people complaining that the cables (red and black) where inverted (reversed polarity) on the female side (Mini Tamiya connector). Make sure to check this before connecting to prevent any damage.

Finally, you may want to buy a better battery charger (like the "Turnigy Accucel-6 50W 6A Balancer")  that will optimize the life of your batteries:

You will need to add a power supply as the charger does not come with one.

These are the links to use for non-EU residents:

• The charge bag
• The battery
• The cable adapter
• The power supply.

All the links are provided to help but they also contain an affiliate code that will allow me to receive a small discount on my next purchase, you won't pay more by using those links.