Scratch Build – In Progress Quadcopter: Update 2/28: Sounds of Death

In one of my clubs were are build a quadcopter, a single plane helicopter instead of the regular boring 2 plane ones you see everyday. I don't have a ton of pictures of when we first started but I do have a video of it flying.


The a simple parts lists, I'm not totally sure of the manufactures of most of the parts:
30 amp speed controllers
25 amp motors
Push blades
Pull blades
Arduino
Sensors board
Really fancy remote
Carbon arrows for the structure
Custom milled aluminum corner/center blocks
Polycarbonate battery/arduino mount
And a big beefy battery of course


We've restrained it so it doesn't hurt anyone, it has already tasted blood



That was our old frame that we've stiffen with glue and really strong clay. We are currently working on another frame made of aluminum tubing and yet another one made from extruded aluminum. We are also working on a foam blade protection, we have a couple of ideas like making cam shells and shooting foam into that for a more 3D shape or making sheets that fit our copter exactly.

 

Very nice. I would love to own/build/fly one of those. I would rig mine with small weapons and be a national security issue. Or at least on private property be death from above to some small animal.

Me and my dad years ago flew R/C planes, I'd love to get back into something that cant crash very easily - self recovery is a key point here!

What was your costs on this?

 

I've been mentioning a Barrett 50 cal with face recognition software since day one but that might cut down on it's performance due to it's weight. So we are going to settle with the .338 lapua


There is an autonomous fly mode and with the right sensors it could fly itself but we aren't quite there yet. If you look at other quadcopter videos you'll see it flying thought windows by itself and landing on incline plane with Velcro by itself.


Cost: IDK, I'm not paying for it the school it but it's quite a bit. $25 per motor, we have 12. Arduino $30, we have 3. Sensor board $idk, we have 3. Sensors for the board $idk, we have 3 sets. Remote $300, we have 1 . Battery $idk, we have 3. Battery chargers $idk, we have 2. Speed controllers $idk, we have 12.


Plus on top of all that we need test materials for fan guard, the aluminum corner/center blocks, the polycarbonate sheet, spray foam, mesh, wires, solder...... plus all the tooling needed........ and before this we had less powerful motors (only 6 of those)


And we get pizza every time we meet which is twice a week

 

How long does it fly for on one set of batteries roughly?

 

About 15 minutes of average flying and about 10 doing aggressive maneuvers. Those are kinda guessed based on battery energy density and motor output. It could be wrong but we are putting a battery low light on soon. It would suck to have the thing fall like a stone because we ran out of juice.

 

No sound on this rig, but it's body language implied it wanted to feed on the girl. Don't let that thing go free.
This thing's meant to go in close where ranged weapons wouldn't be practical. you need a short-barreled shotgun instead. -After all, this will likely be used to peek in windows and say, "hi!-BANG!"
A UFO catcher claw would make for an interesting option. You could send it out on campus to steal hats.

 

One of the contest for the competition may require a claw


A shotty wouldn't work, it's to loud for it to get within shotty range. When you hear it, you know something bad is coming your way



I'll have an update next Monday with close ups of some of the electronics

 

Improve the speed and target acquisition. The places where this would replace a grenade are few, though... How about a downward-facing claymore. It could single someone out of a crowd and 'exploding head crab' them. Fear is a great weapon.

 

Fear is the BEST weapon. A scared enemy is a weak enemy.

 

I know it's been awhile but I have new pictures and update. I'll be uploading them soon, I should have had them last week but I've been getting dumped on in terms of homework and haven't found the time to get around to doing it

 

As promised an update

Two weeks ago Wednesday 2/16:

The flight before I took that video we broke a blade. It got out of control, hit the prop on the table and the nose cones were facing the floor

Last week Monday 2/21:

Only 2 members showed up and one was me, so we organized and inventoried all of our parts. It took around 2-3 hours to clean it up. You should have seen it before

Last week Wednesday 2/23:

Here is a picture of the quadcopter when the video was taken. Note the quick and fast cable management.






Note the wonderful cable management done by yours truly


Here is a close up of the motor, Alpha 480 25A motor (since you can't read it )


Here is our planned blade protection system. It is one corner split into four pieces, we can only afford one corner since the printing material is so darn expensive. We are getting those parts 3D printed and are going to be shooting expanding foam (Great Stuff Fireblock to be specific) into them. That makes 1/4 of the total mold, we'll make 4 of those corners to make 1/2 of the whole thing. They will be put together with more foam, like glue which makes the design even stronger. Then we'll repeat and do the other half and glue those two halves together.



Long time ago, the first semester, we broke another blade. No one remembers when but we did

 

I've had a ton of homework/other stuff going on recently. This week I've been helping with quadcopter everyday for at least 4 hours a day and have had classes and homework on top of that..... here are a few quick shots that I remembered to take while I was there.


Here is a shot of what we intend to do with this new aluminum frame


Here's a close up shot. We are planning 2 3" plates, on top of and below the frame to support the center. The top will have holes for offsets for the audrino. The bottom will have 2 slots for velcroing the battery on.


Here is the plate that the motors are going to be mounted on. They took a long time since we made "speed holes" to lighten the total weight . Everything worked out and there are only 2 unnecessary holes per plate


On the ends of the center shafts sit these to hold the plates on. Everything is slotted like this, we may or may not have the seems welded depending on if someone can get the TIG working


A transmitter for A/V


And finally a xbee, so we can remotely tune it while in air or even control it via computer. That mean we could control with with WASD, an xbox/ps3 controller, or anything else you can think of......even your mind (look it up on youtube)





In the news: (old frame)
- We've been free flying it outside and with wind
- In those free flights we've broke MANY blades (4-8) and a few of the carbon fiber rods, we are down to one and it looks super dumb
- We bought cameras AND THEY WORK woot woot
- competition is coming up, april 29
- That foam mold, we got the other 3 pieced and are starting production on the foam protection pieces