Thursday February 17, 2011 at 12:38 am | Filed under Hobbies, Projects, Quadcopter
The last of the parts has arrived. That means it’s time to do all the work and assemble this sucker. It’s supposed to rain all the way until Sunday, so I’m hoping to make some serious progress on this thing. I don’t have every detail planned out so I have to adjust in the fly. Tonight I cut out the motor mounts and did some soldering of wires until I got tired of ruining deans plugs, so I took a break and TV sucked me in til bedtime. Time to call it a night!
Sunday February 13, 2011 at 10:45 pm | Filed under Hobbies, Projects, Quadcopter
Throughout the weekend I found pockets of time to work on the quad. The bulk of that time was spent getting the arms on the new body made of G10. I screwed up and miscalculated the arms causing them not to be square, so I had to correct that which took some time. This project is really bringing geometry back to my head. I tried to use the towel bars I had already drilled with the wood and that kinda screwed me a little since those holes weren’t as precise as they should have been. For the G10 body, I planned a bit beforehand with Omnigraffle. I don’t want to brag, but Eddie Vedder is a fan of the new body design.
This weekend I bought a receiver to go with the transmitter I picked up on Friday. It was more trouble than I thought it would be to find a receiver for the radio I got. But hopefully the one I have will do the trick. I got the Walkera RX2806 for $48 at wowhobbies.com.
The last thing I did tonight was add a 2nd level where the controller and maybe the receiver too will be housed. Since this is the part that contains the gyros and accelerometers that keep the quad level during flight, I’ve tried to take some of the shock and vibration out of it by adding rubber grommets at the top of each support leg. I’m assuming I’ll be creating a lower level too where the battery will live and the camera will attach. I still have to figure out what my plan is for the legs. I’m expecting my motors/ESCs (Electronic Speed Controllers) to arrive early this week, so that’s when things will really get interesting.
Using the Electronics shelf
Saturday February 12, 2011 at 1:44 am | Filed under Hobbies, Projects, Quadcopter
Today some new components came that I ordered, it was like Christmas… if you bought everything for yourself. Batteries, a terminal block, a switch, servo wire extensions, and some new material called G-10 for the body. I didn’t really want to depend on the wood for the body integrity and exactness (wood could get a little play going after time). I also picked up my transmitter. It’s a Walkera WK-2603 6-channel Tx which isn’t the best radio I could buy, but for the $20 I got it for (craigslist), it will be more than adequate. More on most of these parts later, when I need to install them.
The plan for tonight was to cut into a little G-10 and maybe getting the arms on it instead of the wood. G-10 is a glass-epoxy laminate that is incredibly strong. It’s like fiberglass on steroids. I chose 1/8″ in thickness and when I ordered it I thought it might be too thin as my plywood was much thicker, but my fears were soon disproven. I was in for a surprise when I tried to use my hole saw with my cordless drill. It didn’t have enough power to get through the stuff! So I called my dad and borrowed his ancient corded drill that has a lot more power (Thanks Dad!). That did the trick and I cut the two circles within a few minutes. Maybe tomorrow I’ll make more progress assembling the body.
G-10 is tough stuff!
