Friday February 18, 2011 at 2:17 am | Filed under Hobbies, Projects, Quadcopter
Tonight I put the motor mounts on the arms, then mounted the motors. I used more of the G10 to make little platforms to give the motors a better base. I’ve made straighter cuts before in my life, but they don’t need to be perfectly square, so they’ll do the job. I’m trying to skip great detail to get to the whole “let’s see if this thing flies” part so that if it doesn’t I won’t look back and wonder why I spend 3 hours on something that didn’t matter.
Motor Platform
Once that was done I turned my focus to the wiring. I had been sketching out the wire routing and I finally landed on a plan.
Quad Wiring Diagram
It actually makes sense to me now. Getting it on paper helps. So with that plan and all of the parts in front of me, I started soldering wire connectors and stuff. I did all of the ESCs, one battery, and the battery switch (which I got to work!). After that I felt a sense of accomplishment, so that was enough. More tomorrow night!
Wired Switch (it even lights up!)
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
