Plates are 2.4mm carbonfiber/kevlar Red over cf cross lay. All parts are cut. Its 12" across so the arms are shorter. Aluminum folding arms (16x12mm cf tube) I tested the heavy 16 mm tube and its very strong. I designed the retracts with 2 motors per side and can each hold a 4s-10000 battery if I want to place them there. It is designed to hold my DYS eagle eye. I have the (8) 5010-360 motors and 18 x 5.2 folding props. Will be taking lots of pictures and uploading as I go along. motor to motor is 1225mm. The motor mount are my design with 4 rubber mount points that can be individually adjusted-made from 3mm cf (I tested the mounts with and without the rubber and gained about 40% less vibration). e-calc comes out to 58 min. hover with the 2 batteries and it has room for 4. Ill load pictures up to my website dp-designs.biz for easier viewing
Attached are pics of my plates on my cnc, the dys I built and its custom stand and the first design Hex with 2212-920's and 11" props that flies very stable.
plates.jpg
dys-stand.jpg
hex-design.jpg
Replies
This looks great! :)
Do you mind sharing the cnc files for the octo? :)
ready to fly this thing but can't get the 3dr telemetry to connect to tne Mission planner software. Both V2 units power up. I have them talking to each other-green lights and in initial setup I can get the setup information for both ground and air. But it will to talk to the Pixhawk?? I'm pretty sure this is the problem. As I said I can read the ire module from the ground module but when I try to connect with the upper right button it always times out. I do have all the com port settings correct. I have 3 different sets, 3dr usb and one cuav bluetooth-the bluetooth connects just fine and the 2 modules communicate but just don't talk to the Pixhawk. I check the serial settings in the pixhawk parameters and serial_1 is set to mavlink (1) and baud rate is set to 57. Been working on this since yesterday. I get the exact results with my desktop PC, My encore tablet and my android tablet. I individually connected each module to the PC and upgraded the firmware without problem. Probably should set up a new past and will if I can't find out what is going on.
There is a lot of help out here on making sure the modules talk to each other properly but not on why the air end and pixhawk are not communicating. I'm sure just because the 2 modules are talking to each other doesn't mean the pixhawk and air module are communicating properly.
Found the problem. I have been using the cable that came with the cuav and just noticed the rx tx wires reversed on the module end! Switched them and everything works now. tomorrow I will go out and calibrate the compasses and hopefully fire it up.
That is fantastic work Don.
I am curious to know if there are many discussions (or data) in the heavy lift community about vertical CG/pendulum stability and performance/endurance? Just wondering if you get any endurance gains by running your motors under the arms so you can move your rotor disk a bit closer to where the vertical CG might be; assuming you do not bring the props too far into FOV.
R,
Coby
There are lots of discussions no the subject and multi's with the motors slung under. My opinion would be that the closer to cg the less the motors are working to stabilize so there would be some gain but I am not sure how much. There are a lot of people out here with more knowledge than me that will know. This octo will have 2800 g of camera under it and 1600 g of batteries on top so I will be close. If I had the time I could input all the weights of everything that goes into this and the software will calculate gs's but that is a lot more work than I have time right now.
Thanks and no worries. I really like to see the craftsmanship people like you put into these things. Good Flying!
R,
C
Hi,
Nice project, congrats. It is always very satisfying to learn and build isn't it?
You say you have motor mounts with four rubbers? Can you show details of these mounts ?
The motor mounts on this one are designed with grommets in each mounting hole sandwiched by thin washers, the top half of the arm clamps are threaded so i can adjust tension on the grommets then tighten the bottom half of the clamp to hold it all together. I also have a design where the clamps are on both side of the motor and I think much more sturdy. The ones here are 3 mm and the ones with the clamps on both sides of the motor are 2 mm( they do not hang out past the tubes).
Ill try to get some details up in the next couple days.
Those arms and legs look too thin for serious heavy lift work. This look more suited to endurance + medium lift capabilities.
The arms are 16 mm x 2 mm wall twice as heavy as standard arms and the legs of heavy lift are usually a single 25 mm tube which to me seem to twist all the time so I built mine with two 16 mm legs per side-a lot more holding capacity of a a single 2 5mm tube and 10 fold more stable. So far there is minimal flex in the 500 mm long arms with the 5010 motors turning 18x5.5 props-I have tested them a lot. The rigidity of the retracts are instantly noticeable compared to my hex with heavy retracts, single 25 mm tubes.
I am lifting a DYS eagle eye and canon 60d camera and do not plan to lift any more than that (2800 grams) so maybe heavy lift is overstating!
In the future I will go to 25 mm tubes for the arms as they are cheaper and most people feel as you do that the 16 mm tubes look too small. Looks beefier but not really! With metal tubes the diameter of thin wall tube gives it the strength but I think with the way CF is structured the wall thickness is just as important as diameter-just my take-but I can't find anything to verify one way or the other.
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