Yet Another Build Log (YABL) - Part 1 - Reducing Arducopter vibration - Blogs

Hiya, folks!
First of all, if you're sick and tired of looking at Arducopter official frame builds, you might decide to skip the whole post right about now ;)

Yes, it really is going to be just another ArduCopter build (my first quad, actually), but i hope people doing the same can learn from some of my mistakes and, perhaps, avoid them. So let's get on with the show, shall we...

Since i've been having some pretty nasty vibration issues with a traditional heli i've been messing with for the past 3-4 years, i felt somewhat queasy about just straight on mounting the motors to the holders. I've originally intended to pad both contact planes of the arms with foam, but decided i'm being too OCD about it and did just this:

It looks like (and is actually billed as) a two-sided sticky tape, but is really a transparent gel used for mounting things on uneven surfaces (i.e. a mailbox to a wall). Like a permanently non-setting hotglue that's not really hot.
Okay, you got me, it's really nothing like hotglue.

The thinner variants usually have higher strength (20kg/m), while the thicker one (1mm) i've used has lower (10kg/m). But since i'm not actually using it to bear any weight, thickness is all i'm interested in.
Here's what it looks like from the other side:

How well does it work?
From my initial tests - surprisingly well. It filters the high frequency buzzzzz vibe from the engines pretty nicely. Without it, you could clearly feel it at the end of the arms. With it, it's nearly all gone, except at lowest RPMs. I'm now considering padding the screw holes with it as well (punching through it with a screw, like through a washer).

Coming up next: devising a semi-permanent, practical way to hook up motor mount LEDs to the A8-A14 ports of the IMU shield.

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Comments

Nikos Korobos November 4, 2012 at 8:07am

Hi Ante. Your suggestion looks really nice. I m interested in reducing the high frequency vibration which makes my gopro videos bad. Did you see any improvement compared it with the simple setup (without the tape)? What tape did you use?
T.D. Gonzales April 7, 2011 at 5:20pm

Thats why I recommended lock tight. That way you can leve the screws pretty loose so you don't loose any thickness. The padding is a good idea although I think I would just pad the camera mount.
Ante Vukorepa April 7, 2011 at 3:01pm

@T.D. Gonzales: I'm currently experimenting with different levels of tightness/looseness. But yeah, i need to leave them slightly loose. That's why i thought padding the screw head recess in the motor mount and driving the screw through it might be a good idea.
Ante Vukorepa April 7, 2011 at 2:59pm

@Juan Gomez: I don't know yet, haven't finished assembly yet. Although the input from the gyros and accelerometers should be filtered, so it probably won't have a huge impact. It might prove useful once i mount a GoPro or something similar on it.
Ante Vukorepa April 7, 2011 at 2:57pm

@I.S.: the tape i've used is rated to withstand temperatures from -10 deg C to +90 deg C. If the motors reach 90, i think pads will be the least of my worries :)
Seriously, though, i don't know yet. I've never exposed it to high (enough) temps. If it starts to go rigid, i'll just replace it.
T.D. Gonzales April 7, 2011 at 12:00pm

Did you use something like locktight on the screws?

Since tightening them down will reduce your padding and increase vibrations you have to leave them just loose enough right?
Juan Gomez April 7, 2011 at 8:45am

Great!!

I suppose, that your Quadrotor has become more stable on fly, isn't?
I.S. April 7, 2011 at 8:31am

I like it!

How the pads bear heat produced by the motor?

This reply was deleted.