I accidentally discovered a perfectly fitting cover for my APM stack:
Yup - a cold-cuts box.
I am using a set of thumbscrews to hold my stack to the hexacopter frame , and the cold cuts plastic box fits over the thumbscrews perfectly. The cover doesn't budge in a hard landing or while carrying the hexacopter.
And it looks cool in the dark. (Not that I am planning night flying).
Comments
Link to a related thread.
@John, Thanks for the link to the post! An informative and interesting discussion. In my case, it won't hurt to put some holes in the sides and tops (since anyway, flying in the rain is not my idea of fun). I plan to do mostly low-altitude flying, with minimal rapid ascents or descents, however it's good to know that there can be enough pressure changes to cause some possibly undesirable effects. As always, lots of design tradeoffs to consider.
You know, I think I have seen that effect with my covers. None seal airtight intentionally, but maybe not loose enough. Mostly when rapidly descending/ascending, just a quick but very noticeable bounce (not from me!). [APM 2.5] Thanks for the info.
you need to put a lot of holes in the top and sides so you don't get pressure build up when descending and vacuum when ascending. This will cause your barometer to get the wrong information and make your copter bounce around. See this post. http://diydrones.com/forum/topics/barometer-issues-and-pid-tuning
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Good idea. I looked at a bunch of different plastic containers to use as a top for a quadcopter, should it ever suffer the fate of an upside-down crash. Found a very rugged one from fit-fresh dot com. See photo with tie-down hooks (hooks are from those small suction-cup products at a hardware store; the black things are o-rings of a size for enough tension).
Inner dimension at the base is 5.5" square. 4.25" height on the inside. Some tapering toward the top on the inside.
I don't think so, the cover is more physical protection for a crash, and keeps stuff out of the electronics too, like dirt/wet grass etc. in my case and maybe even a bit of rain. The official case does keep airflow away from the pressure sensor too, no reason you couldn't have both.
I'm considering using APM for my first quad, so I ask this out of ignorance. Does the APM case sold at the DIY Store serve this function. Are there other parts which must be protected from air current other than the barometric pressure sensor?