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3D printed T4 and T6

Posted by Brendan22 on March 8, 2014 at 6:54pm

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These are the fully 3D printed T4 (quadcopter), Mini T4 (quadcopter), and T6 (coaxial hexacopter) designs I've posted on Thingiverse.com (aside: "T" is for Tubular).  The comments section on Thingiverse doesn't provide a great place for discussing designs so I've created this topic here instead.

These designs are based on a tubular arm with a vertical "I" beam running down the centre.  This design seems to be very strong and rigid and all of these designs are very stable in flight.

Other common features include:

  • motor wiring is routed through the arms and down into an enclosed (ventilated) power and ESC tray.
  • batteries are located in the centre of rotation (T6 is designed for dual batteries).
  • bevelled cable "tunnels" provide a way to route cables between the power tray and top plate.
  • Top plate is designed for Pixhawk or APM flight controllers with elevated GPS.
  • Bottom tray has mounting points for a Tarot Gimbal.
  • Optional long and short legs include "springy" feet.  The legs are designed so the 3D printed threads "wrap around" the arms which makes them quite strong for their length.
  • Sketchup files are included so folks can modify both designs to suit their needs. 

I figure I've put hundreds of hours into these designs with prototypes and drawing time.  I'd love to get feedback from anyone who makes one.  Together we can improve these designs for everyone's benefit.

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Tags: 3d, printing, quadcopter
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Replies

  • glenn nafin October 25, 2014 at 11:00am

    how are you guys calibrate the qbrain? do it with the APM? or use that hub they sent with it?

  • Erik Sundheim September 23, 2014 at 8:45am

    Thanks Brendan! 

    I am working on getting the small one flying also, and tidying up all the cables :-)

    3701837237?profile=original3701837084?profile=original

    4-in-1 ESC: Hobbywing Quattro 25A *4
    Motors: Sunnysky X2212 980KV
    FC: APM 2.5
    Battery: Turnigy nano 5000mah 3S 35~70C Lipo, fits perfect!

  • keith smith September 22, 2014 at 11:17pm
    hi there im currently eagerly waiting the arrival of my t6 print. im looking into motor prop combos and im thinking of the ntm pro 800 kv motors with 12x 45 slow fly props any thoughts on this? im going to be using the eagle tree vector fc as y6/t6 config is currently in the beta testing for it. cant wait to get building :-)
    • Brendan22 > keith smith September 23, 2014 at 4:43pm

      Everything's an experiment!

      I had a very quick look on the HobbyKing site.  Are these the ones you mean?  

      If so they quote about 18 amps max current with 12" props - giving 1.2kg thrust each.  Given your T6 would probably only weigh in at about 2.5kg you'd probably only need about 40% throttle to hover (complete guess).

      If they drew say 10 amps each at hover that would be 60 amps so you might get 10min flight time with 2 x 5,000mah batteries??  Again - all complete guess work.

  • Benj. N. Sugar August 18, 2014 at 12:55pm

    Hi everyone,

    I have a where to get started on getting started question.

    My name is Benjamin and I am the co-founder of a place called CivicLab. We've partnered with a local library to help them build the T4. We've 3-D printed all the parts, and procured all of the hardware per the Thingaverse instructions and now we're ready to build. As for my skill level, I've worked with Arduinos before, but this is probably the largest project I've encountered. I feel we're up to the challenge.

    I've searched pretty exhaustively for A-Z instructions on how to build this (including reading this entire thread) and I'm still a bit disoriented. I might not be using the right search query, "T4 quadcopter instructions" yields only references to entries about this specific 3D printed copter. I'm also a bit lost on a lot of new terminology and what it refers to (T4, Arducopter, APM, APM2, PX4, 3DR Iris and so on).

    Based upon the original Thingaverse entry which gives a link to the arducopter wiki, this thread, I was able to find the following instruction sets:

    http://copter.ardupilot.com/wiki/initial-setup/
    http://copter.ardupilot.com/wiki/assembly-instructions/
    http://copter.ardupilot.com/wiki/initial-setup/assembly-instructions/
    http://3drobotics.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/quad-rev-d-kit-ins...
    http://www.instructables.com/id/Basic-Quads-Systems-My-Easy-Quad-Build
    http://www.instructables.com/id/The-Almost-Complete-Guide-to-Buildi...

    Of course, these instructions don't match the design of this copter exactly so it's hard to know if any of them will take us down the correct path. Are any of these instructions good for building the T4 on this page? Or, is there a better place we should be looking, maybe some other threads on this board?

    Thanks for your help!

    • Benj. N. Sugar > Benj. N. Sugar August 18, 2014 at 2:11pm

      Update:

      Okay.  I think I'm getting it now.  The assembly instructions at ardupilot wiki (http://copter.ardupilot.com/wiki) aren't consecutive they're a bit more choose your own adventure based upon whether you have an APM, Pixhawk, or PX4. 

      I'd say based upon the parts that we've obtained listed in the original Thingaverse, the following is my favorite assembly instruction:

      http://copter.ardupilot.com/wiki/advanced-pixhawk-quadcopter-wiring...

      I actually didn't think it was very advanced at all, actually quite straightforward, although I get why it's called that given all the other optional things you can hook up.  The crucial element that it has though is a description of how the ESC fits in, which, if I'm understanding it correctly, makes connecting the RC pins to the forward side (side with arrow) of the pixhawk unnecessary.

      That takes me up to vibration dampening and battery installation the former of which has it's own wikipage but the mount and pixhawk for this copter is different than the ones discussed.  For the pixhawk, is it as simple as some vibration gel and ruberbands as described in the pictures on the Thingaverse page?  And does battery simply go inside the body?

      I'll keep looking of course but if someone has anything it would be greatly appreciated.

      • Brendan22 > Benj. N. Sugar August 18, 2014 at 2:47pm

        Great to hear you are making a T4.  You are correct that there haven't been any specific instructions about doing a full build.  I'll try to make a video with some T4 specific details.  That copter.ardupilot.com wiki has much more detail than I could every hope to provide.

        Sorry, I didn't quite get...

        makes connecting the RC pins to the forward side (side with arrow) of the pixhawk unnecessary.

        My "basic" summary is:

        • the Radio Control receiver listens to the wireless signal from your transmitter (thing you hold with sticks and switches) and can be plugged into your flight controller (eg PIXHAWK) so that it can respond to your controls.  There are several different ways that receivers can be connected to flight controllers so you need to make sure you have a receiver/flight controller that match.  With the Pixhawk it allows for either PPM (sum) or SBUS signal into one end (as in the diagram you linked) or a Spektrum DSM signal into a plug on top - these are both single cable connectors.  It does not allow for the older PWM type signal where there is a cable for each radio channel (so up to 8 cables between the receiver and FC!),
        • The flight controller then connects into 4 ESCs (one for each motor) using a small servo cable for each.  The flight controller tells the ESC how fast it wants the motor to run.  It is the ESC's job to do the "heavy lifting" and actually drive the motors.  The ESCs get their power directly from the battery whereas the flight controller gets it's power from some sort of 5V regulator or power module.

        For your specific questions:

        • The Pixhawk comes with small self adhesive foam pads (one for each corner) and those are fine to simply stick it to the top of the T4.  I was moving my Pixhawks around a lot so I found it easier to use gel pads and rubber bands.  Both options work fine.
        • Yes the battery goes inside the T4.  If there is too much space you can use some foam padding.  I used some foam self-adhesive window "draft stop" tape stuck to the battery for padding. 

      • Benj. N. Sugar > Benj. N. Sugar August 18, 2014 at 2:44pm

        Update:

        The photo of the vibration dampening gel is in the lower right hand corner of the 8th picture in the photo carousel on Thingiverse page.  The one with the computer screen and the X, Y, Z vibrations.

        As for the battery, there is a reference to it on the features portion of thingiverse page:

        "designed for a single 3S or 4S battery located right in the center of rotation/thrust with room for up to a 6000mah 3S or 4200mah 4S battery (155 x 50 x 30mm capacity)."

        Also.  Thingiverse is not spelled thingaverse.  Apologies.

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