Modding tiny holes in 2013 frame for ESC placement on rear like 2014 model. Good idea or Bad idea?

Posted by Craig P. on February 18, 2014 at 11:32am

Just curious, as I am constantly looking for new ways or ideas to clean up my wiring (power distribution board/ESC's) between the base plates, as I have not been able to find much in the line of ideas online (I'm always up for suggestions) and I have recently noticed that in the new 2014 Y6 model they have 2 of the ESC's placed towards the rear (black arm) of the Y6. I feel this placement may help clean things up.

So my questions are this, what is the plate material made of? has anyone added holes in any form into them? And if so what is the best manner for doing a clean job of it? Finally are there any cons to this such as weakening of the structure strength in any form, or any other negative effects in which this should be completely avoided?

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Replies

  • Doug Walmsley March 26, 2014 at 10:18am

    When I build my Y6B I decided to run all motor wiring through the frame arms to and drilled holes to the carbon fiber top and bottom plates to allow the ESC to be tie wrapped to the side of the copter.  This gives a cleaner appearance but the down side is that I can no longer fold back the forward arms for storage/transport.  Small price to pay for a cleaner look.

    20140302_115454.jpg

  • Cadbury March 17, 2014 at 6:40pm

    I 3D printing an ESC mount to make it easier to attach the ESCs to the arms. I'm using larger ESCs and they didn't really fit in the usual location. I ended up reversing the landing gear to make this fit a little better. Here is the link to the part: Shapeways

    3701687168?profile=original

    3701687207?profile=original

    Or landing gear the normal way:

    3701686644?profile=original

    -Cad

    https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3701687093?profile=original
  • Philipp Walker February 19, 2014 at 3:41pm

    What I've done during Christmas holidays was drilling some extra holes into my 2013 RTF Y6 and now, all my ESCs are between the plates. (I always hated the ESC being on the front zip tied to both plates.)

    It's not that easy - your wires should be soldered directly to the PDB wothout any connectors and the stock cables are a bit too short - but worked out quite well: Looks and also folds much better now!

    I used some regular twist drill bits (HSS or wood, not sure anymore) and some needle file. - not nice, but it works.

    3701665652?profile=original3701665482?profile=original

    3701665679?profile=original

  • Josh February 18, 2014 at 12:31pm
    The plate is fibreglass and can be cut easily with a cheap dremel tool from your local hardware warehouse. I've used the 561 bit to drill holes and cut chunks out of it. Don't cut too much out :)

    I had to lose the deans on the pdb to get enough room to put two escs inside at the back.
  • Geoff February 18, 2014 at 12:03pm

    I just used a couple zip ties to attach 4 ESCs to the left and right side of the rear arm, it's worked great and keeps them out of the way so that the front arms can fold back (I live in NYC so have to travel with my copter to fly it).

    Here's a pic:

    https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-sAmBHdXkXoA/UtdhZC2jKhI/AAAAAAAA...

  • Pektusin February 18, 2014 at 12:02pm

    I placed all ESC's, power board and some other component between the plates. It looks much better and way more convenient than hanging ESC and wires sideways. I've flown a couple hundred hours already and like this setup.

    Still I have to admit that 3DR did not do a great job of thinking Y6 mechanical design through.

    12215576395_3bf412e11a_c.jpg

    • Josh > Pektusin February 18, 2014 at 12:31pm
      Nice. What battery and resulting flight times do you get on that?
    • Pektusin > Josh February 26, 2014 at 8:53am

      With 3S 5000mA/h batteries in configuration pictured above, I'm getting around 12 minutes of loitering while spending 4500mA/h of the battery juice.

  • Jesse Krembs February 18, 2014 at 11:34am

    I have done something like this on my 2013 Y6.

This reply was deleted.