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Ahhh the holidays.
I'd never have the time for an indulgence like this little project any other time of year.

At least not at the rate it's progressing. So far I've managed to get everything that I have assembled into what looks like a nearly complete Tricopter. I really like the double clam shell center that my old tape cartridge boxes make. Everything flips open easily for access to components. They're not airtight, so the barometer shouldn't have any problem. They're clear, so I can easily see the rat's nest of wires, and also all the LEDs happily blinking to tell me everything's ok. At least, one hopes that what they're blinking...

  I still need to figure out landing gear. There's dozens of options, but first off I'm going to work out how I want to mount the battery so as to get it just forward enough to balance the weight of the yaw platform in the rear.

For landing gear, I'm thinking a piece of wire coat hanger bend in a D shape and zip tied in place on each arm. It's flexible, and my hope is that the tie wraps should allow for enough movement to absorb any less than gentle landings without passing the shock along to the arms.

I measured a few things earlier and found out that my shaft to shaft distance isn't quite as symmetrical as I'd like. Somehow I've ended up with 51cm across the front, 51.2 from right to rear and 50 from left to rear. Hopefully in tuning I'll be able to work it all out so that it can still fly. Though... now that I sit here staring at it, setting the yaw with just a little tilt to the right, which it will need to counter the yaw from the 3rd prop, I get a nice even measurement of 51cm all around.

Not bad for some basement work on the old kitchen table using nothing more than hand tools!

Missing bits still include my prop adapters, one reverse prop and a battery connector. I could run off and get them locally, but I've already ordered them online. In the spirit once again, of QSC (quick, simple, cheap) I'll hold off and wait for them to arrive.

On the copter itself, I've spent:

$18 on some 3/8" basswood for the arms and some 1/16" sheets for the center. I still have enough to make a whole other copter, or use as spares when the ground interrupts my fun, because it's always the ground's fault... right?

$130 with shipping, on 4 motors(1 spare), 4 ESCs (again, a spare), a receiver, 2 servos (you guessed it, another spare), and random supplies like nylon bolts, zip ties, connectors, servo leads, and props.

$260 with shipping, on an APM2 and a few other bits from 3DR. For now my APM 1280 is in there just to get some things worked out.

So, including some spare parts, a total of $408, INCLUDING shipping. Add maybe another $10 of stuff I already had on hand like ball links, some threaded rod, loctite, velcro and shrink tubing.

I invested a little also, picking up a dremel workstation/drill press and a new soldering gun, because as I found out, my little 25 watt gun just couldn't get hot enough to heat 2 pieces of 16ga wire and flow the solder between them. Oh, incidentally, the ability to effortlessly drill perpendicular holes in narrow bits of wood is akin to a superpower.

I can't wait to see if this thing is in any way stable in the air!