DIY cheap landing gear

I have a DJI F550 Hexacopter, and I purchased the landing gear for it, and all the legs broke in just a few lightly hard landings.... those legs are way way way too fragile!!

So I decided to do my own DIY landing gear, and I am really happy with what I came up with :)

I went to Home Depot to look for some wooden sticks to make my landing gear, and I looked around and I was in the pipes area, and I found the perfect thing!

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I found a Plastic Hose Pipe Splitter with the hole diameter perfectly matching the wooden sticks I found there (7/16 inch). So I purchased 12 pipe splitters (70 cents each), and 2 wooden sticks ($1.30 each).

The wooden sticks are very easy to cut with a cutter just cut a little bit all around the wood, and then just snap it. Very easy to repair the landing gear in the field, or even pre-cut some sticks and bring it with you...

So far, I had harder landings than the ones I had with the original landing gear, and my DIY landing gear still did not break.

What I like the most about this, is that it is easily removable, since the sticks go inside the plastic pipe splitter by force / friction, so there is no need for glue, or screws... easy to remove, easy to repair, also surprisingly light! and best of all... very cheap!

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  • My current landing gear on my big quad are four aluminum strips screwed to the legs. They're sturdy as anything, although they don't really look that nice. I may go to something nicer-looking like what you have, however.

    • Hi Owen,

      I was thinking to use aluminum also. I was holding in one had an aluminum rod, and another hand wood stick (the one I used in my landing gear), and the wood was MUCH lighter than the aluminum... Also, I was thinking, that the wood sticks are much easier to replace if broken... not that the aluminum landing gear would ever break... but I was also thinking that the wood landing gear might act as a bumper (equivalent to a car) so that the drone itself will take less damage in case of a hard landing. If I were to use aluminum, then it would transfer the forces to the drone, so I would rather replace/repair the wooden sticks than the drone...  just a theory :)

       

      Anywyas... can you post a picture of your landing gear?

  • Hi Michael!

    Isn't that Gear a bit heavy for the F550?  Mine is loaded with all kinds of modules, i.e. Fat Shark, 2 cams Ground Station Module, Can Hub, ... On top of that, I have an H3-2D Gimbal underneath this platform...

    But all in all, I like the way it looks!  VERY solid, for sure!  I couldn't help noticing the Motors' wire colours.  What kind (brand) of Motors have you got mounted on this?  And what about the ESCs?  What brand are they?

    Regards,

    Daniel.

    • Hi Daniel,

      The landing gear is very light because the wood is light like a feather :) and the plastic pipes is light too... the black thing at the bottom is a soft foam used for pipe insulation, that is light too.... I don't have anything that I can measure weight in grams, but the whole thing feels light, so I am happy with that :)

      The motors: NTM Prop Drive Series 28-26A 1200kv / 286w I hate these motors, the bearings on it break at the lightest crash, but I could not find any other motors that are 1200kv and also for 4 cell battery. I am flying my drone with broken bearings, the motors are more noisy, but it flies OK; I cannot afford to replace the motors every time I crash it. I already purchased 20 of these motors!

      Battery I am using: Turnigy 5000mAh 4S 40C Lipo Pack

      Propellers: 8x4.5 Carbon Fiber Propellers 1pc Standard/1pc RH Rotation

      ESCs: NFS ESC 30A Multi-Rotor ESC SimonK Firmware (OPTO)

      Since the ESCs don't have female bullet connectors, I removed the bullet connector on the motors, and soldered the wires.

      Once I get the correct PIDs on it, and I can get the altitude to work properly, I will add the Tarot gimbal under it, with the GoPro, also, I will add the camera and transmitter for FPV at that time. But right now I am still trying to make it stable, and still learning how to fly it.... so it will be a while until it will be complete.

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