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Butterfly Drone flown with no battery!

Posted by Daniel Lukonis on November 29, 2014 at 4:00pm

DIY Butterfly Drone designed by DWDrones

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Hi all, just wanted to share a new drone design. It's a lightweight drone made out of foam boards and 3D printed motor mounts.

I've been working on this design for several months and it is now ready for sharing.

If you want the files to produce your own just head here:

Butterfly Drone

I augmented this design with rain gutter screens to protect the items in my house. It is also powered by an old computer PSU. Now I can fly for hours ;-)

Here is a short video:

Some more pics:

Bottom view

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Top View with cover off

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Comments

  • viktar pisarchyk December 3, 2014 at 5:37am

    http://youtu.be/PXWJrpA8FnE?t=10m40s looks exactly like this lol.

  • Lauri Showler December 2, 2014 at 2:04pm

    Very nice, I have often wondered about this, what guage of wire to use and the weight/length ratio, like how long a cable could you run before the weight of the cable would start to become a real drag?

  • Daniel Lukonis December 1, 2014 at 7:29am

    Picare, I'll try to get the exact product, but it's something similar to this:

    http://www.lowes.com/pd_11632-205-85198_4294806369__?productId=3009...|1&pl=1&currentURL=%3FNs%3Dp_product_qty_sales_dollar%7C1&facetInfo=

  • R. D. Starwalt December 1, 2014 at 3:43am

    I augmented this design with rain gutter screens to protect the items in my house.

    Picare, rain gutter screen material is usually found at hardware stores in the US. Sometime these are referred to as 'DIY Stores'.

    -=Doug

  • Picare December 1, 2014 at 1:20am

    Hi, nice project! What did you use for the wire mesh of the props guard?

    I'm searching for carbon, aramid or light but rigid inox mesh without success...

  • F1P November 30, 2014 at 11:35pm

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=UbjAMlM...  + tethered drone =)

  • Daniel Lukonis November 30, 2014 at 3:06pm

    Thanks guys! It takes quite a bit more throttle with the screen on, say about 30%. I put a screen on the bottom and top as well for a test, 60% or more throttle. I love the tether! I have friends and family that love to watch me fly the drones, but they don't want to, for fear of crashing. This makes it fun for them now, there is no where for it to go ;-) I flew it today again for about 30 minutes on tether. I'll laugh once I start using batteries again. I'm getting spoiled with unlimited duration.

  • Gary McCray November 30, 2014 at 10:09am

    Nice design Daniel,

    Curious to know how much more throttle it needs to hover with the screen protection cover on it versus not?

    In a normal open propeller design, thrust actually benefits from having the motor / prop mounted downwards as you have done, because in the normal prop on top position their is direct loss of thrust against the supporting spar(s).

    But in a ducted design such as you have the forces are more complex and it is not clear which would produce less loss, the same is true for the protecting screen.

    It might be worth experimenting with a bit to see if you could tell a difference with the screen on top - below and without.

    The tethered concept could actually work for a wide ranging video tripod or "dolly".

    Best Regards,

    Gary

  • Greg Dronsky November 30, 2014 at 6:48am

     @lot, research shows that its better to reduce elements above propellers to increase efficiency. So engine facing down generates less efficiency. So does these net guards, but i think they are super useful. I wish we could protect all drones with efficient guards one day...

  • lot November 30, 2014 at 6:23am

    Nice design,

    maybe mount the motors looking down will increase eficiency with the same desing.

This reply was deleted.