Following on my Carbon H-Quad, I have now built a foam one!! (Ok, it has a bit of carbon too)
The problem with the full carbon one was weight. Yes, it was super stiff but it was around 300g heavier than my X525 frame and thus my flight times were 3+ minutes shorter, thinner carbon plate would've helped but it's fairly expensive, difficult to come by (here) and difficult to work with.
My main priority was portability, it has to fold as small as possible and I also really do prefer flying the H-frames, orientation being the major advantage but also no props in onboard video.
I had a few blocks of a hard black EPP foam and I picked one up the other day and it was really firm (no twist) AND light (100g for the whole block), suddenly... bing!... I had spare arms for the X525 so why not.
A quick drawing in CAD to check the angles and sizes and some problem-solving with mountings and construction and here it is... took about 2 hrs to make and another 2-3 to assemble. I used the carbon pivot plates cut off from the old frame and they're just cyanoed to the foam with 2 bolts right through and 2 through just the arms and plates. Flies really well with very little twist (not enough to cause the yaw problems associated with twist)!
Weight is 925g ex-battery so 78g lighter than the X525 with the same components (The carbon frame was ~1300g).
| Diagonal (open): | Motor to motor (open): | Length (folded, max): | Width (folded, max): | Weight: | |
| EPP-HFQ | 690mm | 490mm | 435mm | 160mm | 925g |
| X525 | 550mm | 400mm | 795mm | 160mm | 1003g |
| Before attaching the motors, closed | Open, no components |
| 3 | 4 |
| 5 | In the old box! |
Comments
Now you believe me, Louis...
Will we see it fly tomorrow ?
Very very nice !!
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