Not much space if you're going on holiday with the family in a Renault Clio. This design fits into a 52cm toolbox with transmitter and all accessories.
Just thought I'll share my crash resistant design that has evolved through many drops and repairs. On impact it is now usually just a matter of replacing a rivet or a prop. The electronics and battery can quickly be removed for installation on another airframe.
The props are 15" RC timers and as shown I get about 23min flight time with a slightly damaged 5000mAh 4cell Lipo at 1500m above sea level, 25 deg C.
The difference in spacing between front and rear props doesn't have a noticable effect on stability and it flies waypoints very well.
I'll post basic plans if anyone is interested or if you want an airframe let me know.
Update: Plans for the airframe
Comments
@jeff: There are other H-quad designs with light weight in mind that and it might be worth looking at them before going further with an carbon fuselage:
*on openpilot http://forums.openpilot.org/topic/13603-typezero-mk2-evo/: Jbkappirossi did try an ultra light version but had problems of twisting and vibrations. He used wood more than carbon because carbon is not necessary the lightest material.
*A more current and successful light fpv frame with a carbon with folding booms is Benny’s black mantra https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbv9J-w0-aQ http://fpv-community.de/showthread.php?26245-Bald-im-Shop-Black-Man... on FPV-commuinity.de, with round booms and the quick deployment „bumb“ fixtures concept. The body price (EUR200) is high and it probably will not be as easy to repair. Benny has 1200g FPV AUW; which I presume is light; I am not sure because I am not doing FPV yet.
@jeff: what is you weight situation at the moment, and how did you shave off 700grammes? Sounds like a lot, where you transporting gold bricks?
I have seen many builds and I think Murray’s idea with separate nose and tailpiece the most practical concept for repairs. A noob (like myself) cannot just copy Murrays design exactly because of many reasons, eg:
1) Everything is not shown down to the last wire connection, which leaves a lot to the imagination for the beginner. And yes I made a CG mistake but half the fun is finding and correcting the mistakes.
2) The build shown (except for my noob build) are advanced setups with fpv and endurance in mind. A beginner can’t or shouldn’t do that.
I'm hoping to add a gimbal one day. Probably upside down on top if they work that way. A top mounting plate like Jeff uses should enable you to move the battery right back.
Otherwise add landing gear, hang it below nearer the CG and change the GoPro lens?
A lightweight gimbal that I like for front top is this one
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1793759
Good to hear APM 3.0 is doing well. I'm still on 2.9.1 for my three APM boards...if it ain't broke, don't fix it...yet. ;)
Anyway, I'm getting into using gimbals for my video recording. My concern is the extra weight of the gimbal up front may make balancing more of an issue. I'm currently using 4S 3700mAh and 4000mAh batteries. Any inputs from those flying this frame already?
Today I upgraded to Arducopter 3.0.1 and took the 10" quad pictured earlier for some tests. Wow - rock solid! Big improvement over 2.9.1, especially with altitude control. An interesting thing was the compassmot procedure. According to the tutorial 30% interference is on the limit - mine sits at 53% and 51% for the retest. The quad has no metal between ESC's and APM, so probably needs it. Still it flew waypoints better than ever with the quad pointing exactly where it should.
Thanks Murray! My primary goal here is weight savings. I have noticed that my quad handles MUCH better as it gets lighter so I am going to proceed with the mind set of light weight = stability = fewer crashes. I appreciate and respect your push toward replace-ability. I read a quote somewhere that went something like "when it comes to aeronautics there are three options: weight, strength, and cost. Pick any two."
Landing gear is definitely an issue that remains to be dealt with. I am thinking of cutting up and using my daughters water noodle when shes not looking.
The EM issue is one of my biggest motivators here as well. I think the aluminum ground plane may actually help for long range because it acts as a reflector and gives the antennas an array factor which will narrow the e-plane pattern. The problem is that you can't really fly overhead. I am hoping that the composite material will help maintain the antennas intended radiation pattern.
A 3D printed enclosure would definitely be nice. I like how you drilled the holes in yours for heat dissipation. A 3D one could easily be designed to have plenty of holes which would reduce the weight. Definitely on my FPV bucket list.
Thanks again for the feedback Murrray!
I would like to take this opportunity to shout out to all the noobs reading this. In retrospect, I wish that I had just copied Murrays exact specs from the very beginning. If you are planning a build, just copy Murray.
I think it looks great! For the main plates I would still consider keeping the arm attachment sections separate so they can be replaced individually if they break. The carbon will probably break where the aluminium could be bent straight again. A shaped foam block should work fine as landing gear. I'm going for upper fuselage plates without holes as I hope the carbon will reduce electromagnetic interference. A vacuum formed or 3D printed enclosure for all equipment on the floating plate would make it look quite proffesional, even though it will be a bit of a weight penalty.
I am planning to cnc some fiberglass or carbon fiber soon. I thought I would try and get your guys feedback first though. Will you guys take a look at the pictures and provide some corrective criticism?
For some time I've been wanting/looking for a nice folding frame for travel purposes. I forgot how I ran across this one, but it looks very promising. I'm seeing about having the frame pieces cut from G10 and using, perhaps, the RCTimer HP4215 460v motors with...maybe 14" CF props on 4S. I'm sure it'll be a time before I get to it...gotta get the frame parts first, then having to decide on a power system.
A few words to quick deployment ideas again:
Quick fasteners need a connecting bade which is a bit large and needs riveting. They also have a large diameter; more than 3mm diameter is not good because it inhibits motors wires in a 10mm square profile.
Spring plungers may work, but a threaded nut insert is needed which adds unwanted height, as Murray stated already.
The red 3D-printed "bumps" from Steadidrone can be seen on http://vimeo.com/68636722 or http://www.steadidrone.com/index.php/airframes/steadidrone-qu4d.html. These obviously work well and other people have done this as too, just not so nicely as Steadidrone.
For the moment I will use wing nuts on my square booms which work quick enough for me. I may try round boom arms and design a "bump" arm locker in the next few months.
Pictures of my motor mounts with HobbyKing's 3-LED and DT750; and my boom arms with a "vibration control spacer" attempt.
@Murray:
The painted quad I have not got flying yet. I want to change a couple of small details to get the CG right and I have to take it apart completely.
Those are two different quads in my postings; but had originally the same plate design. On the painted quad I showed first I filed out the slot "stops". On the unpainted quad the slots were not filed out. I made this slot design so I could test out the difference, it's all experimental.
The motor mounts (shown on the unpainted quad) were designed to hold motors with different mounting holes; and also fit the Hextronik DT750. It is really difficult to get motor mounts for the Hextronik DT750s; I didn’t find any so designed them myself.
The motors are not designed for vibration control. But the boom connections to the plates on the painted quad are. I will post a photo in the next few days. I am not too sure if it works though; I will only be able to tell once I have the same motors on the two quads; one quad with vibration control design and one without.
I have thought about quick release a lot and have the same idea that you have. This idea is already well implemented by the Steadidrone quad, and there are some people doing elsewhere (I can post a link if I find the site again). But I will need round booms for this idea.
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