Well it has been quite long since last update...
the project was kinda delayed....
almost all of the hardware arived.
soon all parts will meet each other... to create the greatest of all..... the.. ____ (still looking for a name)
I've been drilling the arms to make the frame lighter...
it was about 470g, now it's ~420g.
i'll keep on drilling the arms from the horizontal side a bit
some stock of composite 12x45
apm, imu, sonar, gps, magnetometer, soon also telemetry
motors and ESC junkyard:
motors and ESC soldered and tested:
and now for the surprise...
a DroneCell with a SECOND GPS.
which are currently under development.
this standalone device will, once completed, send GPS coords over text messages to my cellphone.
this will help to find the copter if it gets lost.
Turnigy nano-tech 4S 6000mAh are on the way,
video TX\RX also on the way,
left to build is the DSLR camera mount... which is basically existing, just need to add the servos.
i'm waiting a 150g 33kg servo. will provide a smooth and powerful movement.
I know,
this is lots of stuff but not many work...
i soon will have more time for this, and i promise a kicking beast.
Comments
your arms look very wide. and heavy
i use 14mm wide, 1.5mm thick tubes, and they are super rigid even after drilling the holes.
By drilling the holes in the arms of the quad, wouldn't this also decrease the effect of wind on to the quad? Because the wind will blow less on to the armes. Or will this effect be negligible? My arducopter has also become a bit larger then expected due the stands I have constructed later. On the other hand, it is always possible to scale the arm-length down :-)
the arms are still super rigid.
i have a feeling that if i drill the same amount of holes at the opposite direction, they will still be rigid enough.
I saved about 50g. not huge, but still. why not...
The Dronecell device will be powered by a 2S 370mAh lipo.
yes, it could be charged by the main battery, but i will need a dedicated charger.
i'd wanted to connect it 1:1 with the main batt 2s through some low value resistor and diode,
but the problem is that the main batt voltage will quickly drop below the small one's voltage so it won't charge...
I've ordered some supercapacitors, but i'm kinda skeptic about it powering 300mA transmitting DroneCell for long.
i will use a supercapacitor on the APM's GPS, to keep it alive while changing the main battery, so GPS wouldn't take more time to re-fix.
my flying weight will be around 4.5-5kg including battery.
i might be forced to use two batteries in parallel to about 12,000mAh to increase the flight time, but then it will get heavier... i will have to test it a lot.
Looking good! I calculated that each 1/8" hole I drilled would save me less than 0.1 grams so I decided not to bother. I'd save more weight by cutting the excess length off my bolts.
I hope you leve enough aluminium behind for the frame to remain rigid!
I was kinda dissapointed when I added the wholes to my frame. I did all that work to subtract 20 grams. UGH!
What will your flying weight without batteries be?
do you charge the batteries of the phonedrone via the copters main battery?
if not you would have to check the batteries every time...
you could also use some big caps to power the device... just a thought...