300 Size Mini-Quad

thingiverse

I've done a fair amount of experimenting with mini-quads over the past year or so and found that the popular 250 size carbon fiber models are just a tad too small to fit all electronics comfortably on-board. They lack features I consider key as well. So I designed my own fully 3D printed mini-quad with features I needed like a holder for the power cable male end so it doesn't float around and get cut by propellers - happened to me, by the way. Also some frames don't allow enough space between standoffs to easily slide a video transmitter in place. My goal with this project was to build the cleanest most streamlined yet functional mini-quad possible. It's my first design with some tweaking still needed, so please feel free to leave your suggestions in comments! This is just a proof of concept - it's not the final product. I'd love to have it machined out of carbon fiber and mass produced with a PDB board that includes LED lights in the future. If you or someone you know has equipment to CNC carbon fiber frames on a large scale, please let me know. The quad is designed around the RC Timer mini-quad power system, available as a complete unit from their website, providing ample power for this frame. The design allows any mini flight controller to be mounted dead center with 30.5mm hole spacing - Naze32, CC3D, KK Mini etc are compatible options. Personally I prefer the KK Mini because it's so easy to set up and tune right on the quad. I strongly advise against using CPPM for any RC setup unless you really know what you're doing. Some people crash due to electrical pulse bias in CPPM when too many channels are used, causing sync pulses to become small. Your control inputs can get mixed up leading to a crash. However I do recommend the "Hobby King Super Clean RC Male to Male Extension" for connecting receivers to boards as it's clean and looks great. For the video system it is designed to be used with the Mobius action camera - I use the wide version of this, by the way - as well as the Immersion RC 600mw transmitter operating on the 5.8GHz frequency band paired with Immersion RC circularly polarized antennas. I integrated an anti-vibration mount for the Mobius camera using a custom-designed system that utilizes earplugs instead of isolation balls. Most mini-quad frames include mounts, but this one is unique because it's designed to work perfectly with earplugs that have a soft and marshmallow-like consistency. In addition I wanted something to land on besides just the bolts protruding from the frame which can cause them to get gouged or thread-damaged if they come into contact with concrete frequently.