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
Sorry, I don't know much about ESC's. I'm using standard 2012 JDrones 20A ESC's. Just had to adjust the timing to high otherwise it could hardly get off the ground, as mentioned earlier in the blog.
Curious to see the foldable Alien locust.
Right now I'm running blheli firmware since the Turnigy 12As have a silabs chip. I have noticed strange noises from the motors when spinning them up for a test and tilting the quad. Then I just reflashed the flight controller (for another reason) and the sound was gone. But maybe what I heard was the cogging issue and it probably only appears from time to time. Will replace the escs with red bricks and flashed with wiiesc just to be sure. But you say Simonk would work as well?
Old Simonk firmware did have some cogging with some motors. That was a long time ago though. The latest Simonk works fine without the cogging. I noticed cogging on some of my motors a few year(s) back. I reflashed the firmware (from Sep something) and the cogging was gone. If you have cogging you'll hear it...sounds like a clanking sound from the motors when running.
Now I put my old Crius Multiwii Se flashed with Bradwii on it and after autotuning it flies great....but:yesterday I crashed badly from about 50m on a meadow. In mid-air one of the motors broke. I had a camera on board (which survived) and can hear the motor windings breaking. The motor bell is gone with the prop that was on it. Luckily the foldable design saved the day and apart from the motor only one other prop broke. The brand new Mobius cam, fpv equipment, flight controller and receiver all came out without any harm.
Now I read not lately that pancake motors ( I have 620kvs with 10" props from rctimer) are prone to cogging when used with Simonk, Blheli or original firmware and that I better should flash the escs with Wiiesc.
Any one in this thread can share his experiences in this issue, please?
Before I fly again I will swap the now Turnigy Plush 12A with RedBrick 20A (although the 12A would be enough, but I have the RedBricks lying around) and flash them with WiiEsc, but would love to find some more answers on this topic, especially as I still couldn't find out yet what's the typical behaviour of a "cogging" motor and if that was the fault or not....
Thanks for your help, will post a pic of my build and maybe a vid of the crash soon.
Thank you Murray. I'll have to retry mine with a little more forward c/g. First is to get some more ESCs...I just 'borrowed' the ones from the Folding Quad for another project for a upcoming trip.
Sure Lee, my CG is around 30mm in front of the back plate in the photo above. Just about in-line with the back of the electronics box. My battery is a 5000mAh 4S. It will be safer to have the CG in front of the 1/2 distance point than to have it behind. It doesn't need to be that accurate, but I think you'll notice a reduction in flight time if you go more than about 45mm in front of the back plates since the front motors would be working harder.
Murray, could you post where your quad balances (perhaps xx mm in front of rear frame, etc). I balanced mine by the 1/2 distance between front and rear motors. This lead to my 4000mAh battery hanging behind the rear of the rear frame piece. Yours has the FC more forward than mine and your battery is certainly more forward than mine. I'm wondering if I'm to tail heavy. I was having an issue with it pitching up badly in forward flight.
No problem at all Andy. Looking forward to seeing it. I've been thinking about using a 3D printer for a vibration isolated pod on top that contains battery, electronics and camera. Possibly just to print the side walls with provisions for connectors then use thin Carbon plate at the bottom and semi-see-through plastic on top.
Hi Murray, Great design! I am working on a 3D printable derivative of this and I would like to make all my files open source. As you already freely publish the plans here I hope that won't be a problem. I will clearly link to your posting and state that it is the basis for the project.
Thanks, Andy
...and here is a close-up of where I mount it with velcro.
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