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The End of Wiring Woes

Posted by Michael Colton on June 23, 2013 at 1:48pm

Hi everyone! I am finally ready to show off something I've been working on for months! It's a motherboard (which I am calling the MAXboard) that all the various electronics for a multirotor aircraft plug into. It eliminates pretty much any possible wiring mistakes, and all soldering. It makes it much easier to build, repair, and upgrade your aircraft.

This is an open source project, and am I running a Kickstarter campain to get some funds to continue development. I am also really hoping to get the support of the DIY Drones community to help me test it and work out bugs.

There is also a frame I designed to go with it as well as a ground station I think you'll like. I'll post more information on those, as well as some videos, soon.

For more info, or to help support the project, please take a look at my Kickstarter. Thanks! http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1703258614/maxrotor-open-source-plug-and-play-modular-quadcop

apm2, arducopter, maxboard, maxrotor, maxstation, utah aerials, utahaerialscom

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Comments

Luca Passone June 23, 2013 at 6:57pm

Definitely goes in the awesome bucket! Puts what I'm designing to shame!
Michael Colton June 23, 2013 at 6:40pm

Thank you!
Rana June 23, 2013 at 5:55pm

That's really, really awesome !
Michael Colton June 23, 2013 at 4:52pm

Gary, thanks! I really appreciate it! A lot of work and trial and error were involved, but I'm pretty happy with how it's turning out. Yes, the top frame is ABS.
Gary McCray June 23, 2013 at 4:12pm

Wow!

That is a great design,

I really like the propeller protection concept and this is one of the best implementations I have seen.

You have one of the most innovative shock isolation concepts Ive seen too.

(ABS top frame?)
Michael Colton June 23, 2013 at 3:20pm

Garry, thanks for your comments. I think some of this will be clarified more easily with a picture.

The entire upper portion is vibration isolated. The MAXboard goes on top, protecting the components on both sides (there are cutouts for the sonar and optical flow sensors). Regarding the GPS and Magnetometer, I was very careful to route any traces carrying large current as far from them as possible. In my flight testing, I haven't had any issues with them.
Moderator

David Anders June 23, 2013 at 3:19pm

Firstly, very nice work Michael.

Secondly, given the recent push on reducing magnetic interference, has there been anything thought to that on this board?
Gary McCray June 23, 2013 at 3:18pm

I usually let one or 2 small typos slide, but more than that I just copy the current post into a new "Comment" box edit it and delete the old post.

You can also edit the whole blog, but then you have to wait for a moderator to re-post it.
Gary McCray June 23, 2013 at 3:14pm

I really like the plug and play concept and it is nice and tidy as well.

But there are few issues: like Monroe said, the flight controller board really needs vibration isolation and with all that DC wandering around in the vicinity of the magnetometer, you probably need to use an external magnetometer as well as the GPS.

Obviously it is designed to be on the bottom of the Quad facing down so it would really help to have some kind of cowling or cover, but then the Sonar and Optical flow would still need ports.

It will be interesting to see how some of these issues are tackled.
Michael Colton June 23, 2013 at 2:56pm

I keep catching typos right after I post. Is there a way to edit posts?