I can't help it...It's an illness I tell you...

I have clinical multi-projectitis.

It's incurable.

After seeing the GRASP lab video sof quads literally jumping through hoops, I HAD to make one of my own.

The beginnings:

Although everyone else seems to be going open-rotor, I want zero collateral damage to people, pets, and the living

room walls, so I decided on a ducted-fan design.

4 EDF combos from Hobby King

https://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=11166

Combined thrust of 4400g.

Combined mass of 424g.

The 5Ah 4S 40C LiPo from my currently grounded Swift Heli:

https://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=10307

Mass: 578g.

For testing, the initial fuselage is a chunk of extruded poly insulation.

5 Deans connectors and a new soldering iron later (the old 30Watt one couldn't make a decent joint for the wiring harness), this is the result:

I christen her "The Ugly Pink Quad."

At present, she's brainless. I just did a test with a little solderless breadboard sending the throttle signal to all EDFs simultaneously and, not surprisingly, things were learned:

1) With 4400grams of max thrust pushing 1220grams of pinkness, it only took about 1/3rd throttle position to hand-hover.

2) It wants to rotate.

Next issues: Basic landing gear (The motors are outrunners), basic brains, and an IMU

You need to be a member of diydrones to add comments!

Join diydrones

Comments

hamish January 19, 2011 at 2:39pm

If u vectored them , surely it would be stable when still, but would turn one way alot easier and faster than the other way?

u doin it wrong
Choppy January 19, 2011 at 1:29pm

Darren's idea is good too, BAE use it in their UAV.
Darren January 19, 2011 at 10:09am

How about instead of fighting gyroscopic forces on tilting the motors... use vectord thrust using either moving paddles or moving end duct like the rc jets are using... rpm then becomes thrust, and vectored thrust becomes stability and offsets can be added in to over come lack of counter roating edf's
Choppy January 19, 2011 at 2:15am

How about a simple approach to fix the yaw? Use a brushless motor and prop with a gyro like fixed pitch a tail rotor.
James Cann January 18, 2011 at 4:34am

Not certain why, but sadly, one of my four ESCs may be dead.Will verify Tuesday, and will decide on whether to continue the Quad, or get more pink stuff and go for a Tri-Copter version while the mailman brings a replacement...
Brad Smith January 15, 2011 at 12:10pm

Iv,e thought about this too , but could,nt get by the inefficiency of lost thrust + drag for my purposes but i can see the advantages if you can get ccw fans without them your gonna waste more energy constanly correcting for ever changing torque loads (for every correction u,ll need a correction) you might can find ccw fans from other vendor and grind down and adapt to your motors &shrouds
Matthew Coleman January 15, 2011 at 9:15am

If you make the landing gear from foam the whole thing would float and keep the electronics dry.

Think of it, Water starts from your bath tub or garden pond.

Best not be in the bath with it considering all those nasty rotating bits.

Bring on "The Ugly Floaty Pink Quad"
Russkel January 15, 2011 at 4:46am

This has to be called the Pink Panther...
Michael Colton January 15, 2011 at 1:24am

Tilting two of the fans will work fine, they don't need to be adjustable because the brain will compensate for yaw issues. This is how many of the MicroQuads fly (Jose Julio's and my own included)
Lew Payne January 14, 2011 at 9:23pm

I like it, I like it! If the project doesn't perform well, you can always retrofit the parts into four CPU coolers.

of 7

This reply was deleted.