Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Quadcopter frame update 1

After a playing with the frame I found some flex, I want the frame to be as rigid as possible so I thought about how I could eliminate the flex.

So using a old woodworking technic I purchased a 6mm dowel and proceeded to remove the small bolts in the corners and the screws from the middle brace. I then made the hole larger with a 6mm drill and then glued in dowel plugs.

This certainly reduced the flex in the frame.


Drilling out the top holes to 6mm and then gluing in the dowel plufs with CA glue.


Repeated the process for the middle cross member


I also added two extra cross members using the 6mm dowel. They were placed above center so I could run the wires easily underneath. 




Next step was to light and allow airflow for the speed controllers, the handy hole saw came into good use.


Thats the frame to date, I am now just waiting on all the parts to arrive to start the electronics.

As a backup plan I have purchased a BlueSkyRC xRotor IFrame Quad. This is my failsafe as I really dont like the SM450 plastic frame. However in my hast I forgot that its really hard to get 10mm square wood rods here that are any good (this frame uses 12mm). So I am now on the hunt for some 10mm square aluminum rods.  Either way I will have a flying quad of some description .... until I crash it.