Here is a great wood quadcopter project made with Pixhawk. The top speed is over 60mph and flies for 15 - 25 minutes depending on 4s or 6s batteries. It is able to lift 15lbs with reliability and tolerates crashes very well. Enjoy the test footage.
Future tests are planned but the operating budget is very low at the moment. New designs are under development
Comments
@Hans D. Jung Thanks for the heads up! There was a bad configuration that was consuming all of the server's memory allowance. The site is working now.
Hi magjogui
The quadcopter in the video is made from 1/4th inch wood square rods and 1/8th inch wood flats. I used only a mini hand saw with fine teeth and epoxy glue and heavy duty zip-ties for the motors to complete the build in only a few hours. I do intend to make more wood quad copters and tri-copters and improve them in the future, along with blog posts to explain things nicely. Both on DIY Drones and the DroneCrasher website.
It is only a test platform and does not have a finalized design as of yet. . If you look closely in the video, the first half shows the quad with no lower frame section. It looks nice and flat. The video clip near the end shows an extended bottom section to hold more batteries and components. I added more 1/8th thick plates and smaller wood square rods and glue. It is VERY STRONG haha. It is literally a scratch project as if I sketched on paper. 100% free-form building with no planning. Roughly 500mm~ H-style diagonal motor pole to pole with a weight of 3 - 7 pounds depending on the batteries installed. The primary purpose for building it was to teach myself more about how different components play together and how much precision is needed or not needed.
I had to put the quad project in a box for a while due to financial stumps but If you want a very similar 1:1 copy, just use bigger brushless motors at least 35mm diameter and medium KV (IE 300 - 600KV). Select your ideal propellers for speed or for flight duration and payload. The wood quad has been flown with 11 inch, 12 inch, 13 inch, and 14 inch propellers along with 3 different motors. All of them work very well. You have to make the decision on what kind of performance you are looking for. Look at the wattage and amps you will require. Look at the specifications for the motors you want and the recommended propellers. Then you can deviate about 20% on your final list of parts and achieve the perfect balance.
All the rest of the magic is the Pixhawk autopilot and some 20 - 40 amp speed controllers for multirotor use. Hobbywing speed controllers are great and very affordable. But any flight controller can work. If you do not need an autopilot, there are many high quality controllers available for $30~ for the basic stability features. If you want more advice, I can help you more. Hopefully I answered good enough :)
Thats a nice copter, I would like to know if you can share the list of parts and design to reproduce it?.
KR