Hot behind CT's announcement of the Electro/magnet v2, my payloader is almost ready for it.
But as usual, there are problems. Some mine...some with the CF supplier.
1. The search light boom is too weak. My fault. It's only 2mm CF, and the light weights 100g. It bounces, way too much, even on the the bench. I dread what it'll be like in the air. And as a result, the camera image will be next to useless. Dammit. Not an easy fit either. Then the measurement of the hole for fitting it, is way off. I'm checked the CAD, and it's right - somehow the supplier got it very wrong.
2. The target plate is too thin. It works, and as you can see it's carrying this 1.4kg 6S no problem - but I'd like it a bit stronger. No biggie. That's why we prototype stuff.
3. The light cable needs to be much, much shorter. Can't wait to try it out at night...pity my quad is in bits, getting upgraded to a Hex.
So...almost there - just a few things to tidy up, then it's out to the beta testers. Volunteers? Preferably someone who can test it with Ardupilot 3.2, and autonomous functions.
Some pics:
Comments
Hi Euan, to get rigidity you absolutely need a design where you have two plates as far apart as possible and linked to each other by spacers. Each plate must be in a material that has high tensile strength (like carbon fiber).
I would suggest you diminish the thickness of the carbon plate from 2MM to 1 MM but use two with spacers as suggested : you will loose weight by reducing the thickness but will increase by addding spacers.
Or a more complex design could be a T shape boom made by adding just one plate perpendicular to the one you have now, and fixed to it by positive/negative rectangular holes+glue.
Re: Cutting - it's plain ol' CNC
Re: weights - 380g, including *everything* - 2 becs, the magnet, the lamp, board cam, cables, full metal risers etc. The lamp alone is 180g. I'll strip it down, and weigh it without the BEC's (a lot of us will be able to re-use an existing 5V circuit).
Re: Amp draw of lamp - it's 8.4V obviously, but I'll need to fix my amp meter to find actual amp draw. It's a lot...
That's in the works, but I can't combine the two at the moment.
what abiout attaching the light to a gimbal
Are those parts laser cut?
Hi Euan,
i am following your great work for long time. Posts from you have always prooved to be very interesting!
Keep it comming! ;-)
What are wattage and weight (including all necessary hardware) of this spotlight?
can you curve the plate?
even a tiny curve will gave rigidity
It works well - I just need to find a way to stop the light from bobbing up and down. I could make the part thicker - 3 or 4mm carbon - but I suspect that won't be enough either. I could strap another CF strip on top, rotated edgeways, and that would solve it, but introduces 2 new brackets, 2 nuts and bolts and adding at least $20 to the price (which is already coming in at around $90 without the light and boom, and $150 with the light and boom).
A dilema.
Hello,
I see better how the parts are used.
Nice design.
Regard
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