Flone Starting Kit EN

De Documentación colaborativa de Flone
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Before to have a flone

Why a drone?

Why flone?

We wanted to put on a UAV our ethical and political concerns about the technology of power. Creating an accessible disruptive platform for experimentation and research of airspace, discussing their uses and opening the black box around the UAV's.

Political Principles

The Hardware and Software Flône is and will always 100% Free Libre Open Source. We do not want to base our innovation on speculation of knowledge, we want to be an example of open knowledge. Ensuring that licenses are GPL v3 for Software and Creative Commons by-sa for hardware and documentation.

We want to empower people to create collective constructions encouraging restless and creative communities. Flone moves in the airspace, we seek recognition as public space.

Economic Principles

We live in a world where economic conditions of individuals and countries are very uneven. We conducted a self-built to make it as accessible as possible flone ​​digital design and low cost. We seek to socialize the production of aerial images to not only large corporations and governments with resources to produce such documentation.

Ethical Principles

We condemn the use of UAVs for surveillance of people in private, either by state security forces or any other group. The security of society can only be achieved by building a fair society, and not maintained since surveillance. The drones are a total technology ideal for totalitarian regimes control.

However, we also defend its use by organizations working to defend the rights of humans, animals, or the territory.

Environmental Principles

We flone ​​lying if we say we have a footprint 0. engines, battery chemistry and other electronic components are not biodegradable. So we pursue their maximum life. Flone structure is wooden and whether it is biodegradable, in case of accident can be repaired with white glue or discarded without generating waste if it has been a major accident. In this case the electric flone ​​skeleton can be reused in a new structure changing flanges.

We have designed flone ​​to minimize the electronics required to fly, why not use a radio control station, looking for re-use and re-cycling components we already have, such as smartphones. With flone ​​help organizations with aims of reforestation and conservation of ecosystems with documentation of environmental crimes as pollutants discharged or deforestation.


Making mistakes in building or operating a drone is human, sometimes there are accidents. To avoid them, we must follow some safety rules before starting to fly.

The first rule in building a drone is the last element to be installed in the drone are the propellers. It is better to be down and want to be up to be up and wanting to be down.

How and where to acquire the materials

The difficulty of getting the components to build a flone ​​is highly variable from one country to another. Overall in Europe and the United States can be achieved without major problems, but there are other countries where the task can lead to large tax, to be held in customs and even imprisonment. The origin of electronic components is China. We want to support local economies but it is very difficult to find these materials locally. Aeromodelismo local stores are often merely resellers of Chinese products. Shop at local stores can be multiplied up to 5 flone ​​the total price, however they can be useful if you offer any technical support or to meet the modeler community.

For the structure you should seek some FabLab, Hackerspace or nearby University who have access to a laser cutter.

From Europe, USA and Asia

Almost all components of the drones are manufactured in Hong Kong, from industrialized countries have no problems to buy them Hobbyking, Banggood or Ebay.

From South America and Africa

There are countries that do not respect the fundamental rights of its citizens, Brazil requisition drones by entering their airports, imprisoned in Egypt a foreigner traveling with her accusing him of spy drone. Of course the bureaucracy and customs duties make it impossible to buy a drone in many developing countries. We present these cases several techniques for introducing drones in countries with controlled entry.

Buy fragmented

One possibility is to buy flone ​​in parts, so it is difficult to associate each part separately with a drone. China's exports are so many that have made the shipping charges on a marginal amount, so there are some shops like banggood, aliexpress and some sellers on eBay who sell their products without shipping. We then split our order in parts of 50 $ and buy each one separately. Because they are small amounts, they will cross the border without being inadvertently retained either for inspection or for tax collection.

Entry by plane

For countries that have prohibited or restricted the sale or possession of drones, you'll go into a flone ​​in the country if you follow some minimum precautions. Flone will have to be completely disassembled and if you have several suitcases components divided between all the luggage, always in checked luggage. Depending on the airport can be also checked bags scanned with X-rays to see inside, so that there can not be any X-shaped figure that can betray a quadcopter.

The most important thing is to be relaxed, knowing the law and have prepared an alibi. Be prepared some answers about the purpose or use of those components. Ideally if you can also defend it written about the fate of those components documentation.

The LIPO batteries, for safety, you need to transport them in the cabin. Regulation of the mark dangerous goods IATA international agency that protects your rights as a passenger charge LIPO batteries in your hand luggage but not in checked luggage. There are 3 kinds of batteries Lipo:

  • 100Wh Under no quantity limit.
  • Among 100Wh and 160Wh it is limited to two batteries.
  • Above 160Wh is not allowed.

The batteries are recommended flone ​​1500 or 2200 mAh and are below 100Wh.


The construction process has welding parts, modifying configuration files, test steering motors and much more. Let's go there!

Mounting structure

Soldering XT60 - ESC

Finishing of connector end XT60 soldier

We will solder the connector XT60 to the four ESC. Instead of having a Power Distribution Board, in flone the ​​XT60 connector is directly soldered to the ESC's.

Pay attention that the connector has positive (red) and negative (black).

There can not be any contact between the positive and the negative, a short circuit that can blow the battery would occur. Also think about how to isolate them, you can do with heat shrinkable sleeve, duct tape or hot glue.

Put all black wires on the negative side of the connector XT60 and solder them, do the same with positive cables. When you're done be sure that it is well insulated.

You can use some help for make the soldering

Flashing ESC

This step depends on what type of ESC you have, you should use simonk or BLheli firmware. If you have not flashed ESC, like the Turnigy Plush, must be flashed following this steps, otherwise you can skip this step.

Configuration MultiWii

To set the MultiWii, you can do so through the config.h. Arduino Open and replaces the contents for this other ConfiguracionMultiwii


To calibrate the plate use the GUI program that you can find in the MultiwiiConf folder.

Connect the board to your team. By entering into this folder you will find different applications depending on the operating system you are using. MultiwiiConf run the file. Select the input port Com Port and press START.

Accelerometer Calibration

To calibrate the accelerometer to let flone ​​on a flat surface and press CALIB_ACC not move for 8 seconds.

Magnetometer calibration

To calibrate the magnetometer CALIB_MAG press and turn in all directions and axes for 30 seconds.

Maiden flight

Stress test

Test Manual

Pre Flight Check

Ready To Fly

Now, you and flone are ready to fly. Enjoy, and have a nice flight.