As some of you might agree on, the transportation of a foam airframe can be a pain when transporting it on the backseat or trunk with the constant fear of braking and turing too quickly I finally got enough motivation to build myself a transport crate and a "Swim & Fun" pool telescopic budget antenna mast with an integrated usb cable. I will just throw the results here for inspiration:)
The crate/frame/box is made of wooden sticks and the fittings such as handles and corners is bought from dj flightcase accessory dealers online. The soft foam holds everything in place even if the crate is shaken wildly. (no more oldie driving to the field).
The design as seen above also enables complete assembly while the drone is firmly placed. Making things alot easier.
The antenna mast consist of a "Swim & Fun" telescopic pool cleaning rod, a 5meter usb extender integrated in the tube and a wooden spike bolted to the bottom. (around 38$ worth of materials) 1,6meter when collapsed and 3,6meter when extended. It feels quite sturdy, especially at that price.
The 3dr radio module is fastened at the very top with a homemade dipole attached directly to it. the ftdi usb plug and the usb extender is placed inside the top tube (perfect fit)
I hope someone will find this post useful for inspiration when they get too stressed out when transporting and assembling their fragile drone on the field or someone who drools over the multi-grand portable antenna mast solutions on google:)
Comments
Thanks guys!
I might add since my initial worry about a long usb cord between computer and radio module, that the measured voltage drop over the 5m usb cable was between 0.05-0.1 (@3dr 433mhz txpower 20 and a cheap multimeter) bringing the voltage down to about 5.1V at least on my lenovo laptop.
Very nice :)
The transport frame is brilliant.
I've been looking to build a portable mast/tower for quite some time now. This seems to be the perfect solution.
Great work, Jakob, keep it up.
Good Job, keep it coming.