After scouring most of the shops in my area for a cover/box/hat for my 3DR Quad I found the Orthex 140 0,75 liter kitchen bowl.
The fitting is so good it almost brings tears to my eyes.
It sits on the bottom plate just outside the nut on the arm and I could even reuse the nylon screws on the top.
Highly recommended!
Comments
You don't really want the risers to shear off easily. You want them to take the load and transfer it to the frame. If they give, everything starts collapsing and ends up crushing the boards. My mate's crash did that - the CD case took the impact and shattered. The base (black part) of the case was also shattered from the shock. While it did protect everything very well, the mag and some pins still took a beating and broke. Had the risers or case given way easier, the boards would have been toast.
Think car doors - you don't want them flying off in an accident. You want them to stay put and protect you as best they can. :)
Maybe swap your nylon risers with brass ones. Would make a lot (enough?) of difference.
I'm doing something similar as well... using a recyclable plastic tomato box from the store, attached with nylon risers. It's super-light, and the way the risers shear off gives the board a lot of protection.
http://eastbay-rc.blogspot.com/2011/12/my-farm-fresh-quad-helmet.html
Here's a photo with a multi-wii board mounted. I've got a standard foam-based mount size so I can easily swap out multiwii, apm, and kk boards as I like. As per what everybody has mentioned, these don't attach to the nylon risers holding the helmet, so vibrations and shocks aren't transferred to the boards.
As everyone said--mount the bowl to the frame, not the standoffs. You'll rip the APM mounting plate in a crash which is not good. Zip ties or even foam tape is good enough unless you are aggressively flying (then screws are needed). You want the bowl to absorb the impact, not the frame/APM plates.
And I know people are sticklers on wind turbulence, but the taller the bowl the better--it's more impact cushion. You have a piece of plastic right up against the mounting plates and it will all get destoryed from the flexing during impact. I've used cut out home depot PP plastic flower pots ($4) numerous times for test/tuning flights and had direct nose down into the ground from 30 feet and zero damage to the frame or APM plates (of course the pot pretty much shattered).
cool, I'm doing the samething for mine, a bowl I found at 'Dollorama'.
Unless you use leaded paint - I would not think so :)
Only thing to make sure of is that you do not make it air-tight. The baro needs to be in open air (A simple hole in the bottom and top of the lid would be fine.)
Problem with painting it black is you cannot see the status LEDs (when it is armed or not). You have to do a mod to bring those out onto the cover.
My team went as far as using a kitchen bowl as a mold for composites for our octorotor at one point :) They are a nice find.
in no way knocking what you've done but some friendly advice - don't mount the bowl to the screws like you've done. Rather have the bowl's lid mounted and the bowl clip into that. When you loose a motor or prop mid-flight, it will flip upside down and land on its head. All the energy is transmitted through the pillars and they ultimately break which ends up in your electronics being crushed.
A recent crash a friend had crushed the oilpan beyond repair. He fitted a CD case for protect and had another crash. landed square on it's head. The CD cash took all the impact but diverted it all around the electronics. Not as much damage this time...
Looks good though - paint it black :)
Stefan: Glad I'm not the only one that looks for stuff to put on my airships while grocery shopping... I'm always saying in my head as I look at each item: "could I put that on my plane?" : )
Great find.
No worries penpen. I flying it like an old lady... :o)
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