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construction of the HEXA frame & camera mount

Posted by ARHEXA on April 13, 2011 at 4:00pm

While still waiting for the TX/RX to arrive,

I started to design and build the HEXA frame for upgrade

 

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each arm is made of 14x14mm 1mm wall square tube,

arm length: 40cm from center, 80cm from motor to motor.

center plate is 16cm dia., two 2mm thick plates.

 

 

Also, i have done weight calculations and measurements:

 

Frame: 470g

camera mount: 460g

motors: ~500g

battery:~500g

DSLR camera: 950g

Lens: 550g

electronics (ESC, pilot, servos): ~500g estimated

For a breathtaking scary total of 3930 GRAMS

 

well, that scared me a bit, i will consider:

-drilling plenty holes in the arms and everywhere i can to take material off

-using a lighter DSLR (can save max 300g)

-using a smaller swivel plate for the camera mount (though the smaller ones have much smaller center hole, thus heavier)

 

 

here are a few pics of the construction:

 

 

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If the motors will allow this and that beast will take off,

i will use a 8000mAh 14.8v battery, it's around 900gr

 

 

Still have to think about / order:

- wireless USB solution for connecting the DSLR to ground

-wireless video and cheap tiny camera

- try out HK's 9050 3-blades props if they are better than the jDrones 12x45

-design landing gear

-design a swivel mount for the camera yaw axis

 

 

Comments are appreciated !

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Comments

  • ARHEXA April 14, 2011 at 4:11am

    ordered.

    :)

     

    could you explain ?

    they are stiffer thus more resistant to the air ?

  • I.S. April 14, 2011 at 4:03am
    pretty much sure
  • ARHEXA April 14, 2011 at 3:58am

    i currently have the cheaper "black" props.

    do you think the "stronger" composite ones (at the same size and pitch) will give better performance ?

  • I.S. April 14, 2011 at 3:55am

    I have been looking to Jdrones motor data.

    Both the 2830and the bigger 2836 shows quite impressive gr/W performance.

    However, I would like to know which props were used, the soft EPP Black or the stiffer EPP Composite.

    Forget about 3blades (only used when larger prop can't be used), however you should try with different prop/motor/cell_count combinations trying to get the highest efficiency which is one of your major problems, though your 12x45 / 2836-880Kv / 4S looks like a good starting point.

  • ARHEXA April 13, 2011 at 10:28pm

    Justin you are right, though the bottom part of it relies on the bearing (it is mounted vertically)

    will try to find the plastic ones locally to be able to 'feel' it before i get it

  • Justin Stiltner April 13, 2011 at 10:16pm
    The lazy susan bearing you have there is not intended for a pull load on its bearing, only a compressive load.  meaning if you mounted the bearing in the traditional fashion and below the airframe, you would not see any action of the ball bearings, but instead a sliding action between the plates where they are crimped together.  You may want to look at some of the plastic bearings offered by the company igus or some others to save weight here.
  • ARHEXA April 13, 2011 at 10:16pm

    Phil, thanks,

    but 166 grams sounds a lot, 800w sounds too much, and 70$/ea is expensive.

    the current jdrones motors should give about 250W i think,

    if i do the upgrade i'll go for 400w or 500w turnigy's that i found for ~100g, ~20$

  • Phil Warner April 13, 2011 at 7:12pm

    i already thought of ordering bigger motors...

    I have 6, NIB Scorpion SII-3020-780 motors for sale that would be perfect on your hexabeast. I was going to build one myself last winter but I never got to it.

  • ARHEXA April 9, 2011 at 12:00am
    Yes the 4kg is an optimistic guess.

    I will use mostly the 17-40 4 L lens, which is 550g.
    of course that if i'm having good success with it, i'd think of using heavier tele lens ;)

    I have to re-think about the motors.
    currently the jDrones motors i have are these
    http://store.jdrones.com/product_p/ac2836358.htm
    the table shows 1300g thrust per motor X6 = 7800g....
    and that is with 3S lipo. i will use 4S,
    so it might be still doable, though i already thought of ordering bigger motors...
    we'll see...
  • I.S. April 8, 2011 at 7:28am

    You put 500gr of batt, the 8000mAh or double 4000 will be much heavier than that, so surpasing 4Kg.

    What DSLR and lenses do you plan to use? Camera body could be heavy but DSLR lenses could be even much heavier.

    Looking for seeing your hexa flying!

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