The HPR-Q500 ARF is an almost-ready-to-fly 500 mm quadrotor: a carbon frame with motors, 4-in-1 ESC, telemetry and optical-flow sensing fitted. Add a flight controller, receiver and battery.
This guide takes either ARF kit from the box to its first hover. The kit arrives mostly built: the arms come with motors fitted, the landing legs are assembled, and the 4-in-1 ESC is already mounted on the main plate. Every power and motor joint is a bullet or plug connector, so there is nothing to solder.
The build is in two stages: a bench stage where you fit the battery plate and set up the motors while the connectors are still easy to reach, then an airframe stage where the top plate, arms, legs and sensor go on.
Note
The build photos are in the ARF Kit Assembly Guide PDF.
#The build at a glance
| Step | What you do |
|---|---|
| 1 | Unpack and check the kit |
| 2 | Battery plate: slide in the rail tubes and tighten the clamps |
| 3 | Motor setup over the telemetry radios: order, direction, DShot300 |
| 4 | Flight controller and telemetry radio onto the top plate |
| 5 | Compute plate onto its standoffs |
| 6 | Top plate assembly onto the arms |
| 7 | Landing legs |
| 8 | Optical-flow sensor |
| 9 | Wiring and dressing |
| 10 | Configuration, props and pre-flight checks |
#Two kits, one build
The build is the same for the NDAA kit and the Standard kit. Only four parts differ: motors, ESC, telemetry radio and optical-flow sensor. Where a step depends on the kit, it says so.
| NDAA kit | Standard (Non-NDAA) kit | |
|---|---|---|
| Motors | Ewing | EMAX |
| ESC | ARK 4IN1 | HGLRC |
| Telemetry | RFD 900x-US | MicoAir LR900-F |
| Optical flow | ARK Flow | MicoAir MTF-01P |
The flight controller, its power module, the RC transmitter and receiver, the battery and any companion computer are integrator-supplied. The kit works with any Pixhawk-standard autopilot running ArduPilot or PX4, set up from Mission Planner or QGroundControl. The setup steps say what to do; the exact screens and parameter names depend on your firmware and ground station, so follow their documentation for those.