Hi all,
Maybe an idea for revision E of the 3DR Hexa?
After having played for some time with my 3DR Quad, I decided to make some changes. Actually, I wanted a hexa for more lifting power. And I was inspired by the guys from Team Blacksheep and their awesome FPV platforms. So I wanted a 'low-rise' Hexa with not too many stacked plates.
What to do? I bought a complete second 3DR Quad frame including motors, and when you add them together... you can build a Hexa AND you are left with some spare parts! 2 spare motors etc. which is great!
As you can see, it's really based on 2 Quad Base plates stuck together by an undermounted Quad arm/leg.
(OK, I had another extra black arm lying around). This also allows for perfect mounting of the small and lightweight HK Pan/Tilt GoPro camera gimbal.
Here's what it looks like, and below a test video (1:12mins) which was it's maiden voyage! I was a bit worried about stability, but it was amazingly stable (using APM 2.8.1)
Let me know what you think! As you can see, it's pretty slim!
Comments
Maybe it's possible to remove two of the legs of the landing gear? (to save some weight)
The copter looks great. Good job!
@ Hasufel
The above image shows not the final setup of the copter. I still use a riser there so the cover plate at the back is raised so the the hexa is not yet as slim as in the final version. This is what is showing in the very first picture in the original post. You can see the top is flatter there.
@ Carl La France
Thanks! With my current battery (3S 3600 mAH) I used to get about 10 mins. of flying time (fully loaded with camera) and now it's about 8.30 mins which is more or less what I had expected. Now I would want some more flying time than this so I'm going to try and see what happens when I use two batteries (3600 + 3000 mAH).
Of course, it adds weight, but I notice that the 6 motors have more excess power than the Quad did (which also makes sense).
Curious to see what happens. It's a challenge to find out what the best performance ratio will be, flying time vs battery power and battery weight.
@Hasufel
Sure. Here you go. Note that it took a bit of experimenting to have the right use of the screws to find out what works best. The arm underneath is secured using 4 screws. Two pre-drilled holes can be reused and I had to drill two new ones. It works very well!
Looks great! do the extra 2 motors shorten flight time significantly or did up up the battery size?
Very nice! Can you take a pic of underneath to show how you managed to stack the two bases? Thanks!
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