Flexbot Hexacopter

Compared with the quadcopter, the hexacopter have two more motors and propellers, thus it is bigger and looks more beautiful when it flies. Of course, if you have a Flexbot quadcopter already. You can turn it into a hexacopter by uploading the hexacopter software. Then, download the hexacopter design and print it out. After some assembling and DIY work, you’ll have a Flexbot hexacopter of your own. The process must be fun. Well, have a try, make one by yourself~

This is a new version of Flexbot. We’ve made many changes and improvements on the basis of the previous design. For example, the design of the battery holder: the previous design would fall out easily when the copter dropped on the ground. But it would be much trouble for the user if we design it much more tightly.

One day, I was listening to music with my Beats headphones when suddenly it ran out of power. I found the design of its battery part was rather special while I was changing the batteries. The cap was put in by rotating. It worked well. That’s where my idea of the 3D battery holder came from. The battery holder can hardly fall from the frame in this way. The battery part is actually very important because it plays as the landing gear of the copter.

For the frame, it depends on two parts: Weight and Strength. Weight… strength…..strength……weight…..then….bang, the structure comes out. Well, that’s my hope. The process took longer than I thought, as a matter of fact. We developed many versions which did not work. Flexbot either flew unstably or fell down on the ground and crushed. The final version took many efforts. We even did the dropping finite element analysis in a simulation environment. It was quite a long way of testing and experimenting. Now the frame is good-looking (at least from my point of view), strong and neat.

The new frame also embraces other changes, for example, the motor seats are wider on the top part so that it will be easier for users to push in the motors.

I find 3D printing bringing much convenience to us. Whenever we want to change some details of Flexbot, I just sketch up on computer and print it out. Think about how much trouble it will be if it is by molding. That’s why we enjoyed the digital fabrication so much. It’s fun, creative and limitless. It’s good for products, and perfect for prototypes as well as testing.

Currently, we are still working hard to improving the structure and and developing new relevant products. If you have any feedbacks or any ideas about Flexbot, feel free to contact us. Anything would be good. Really, I mean it, anything.

Waiting for you ; ) Find us on
Twitter: https://twitter.com/flexlabshare
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hexairbot/?ref=bookmarks
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/DesignMakeShare/
Website: http://flexlab.cc/

Want to make friends and know more? Cool. Geeks together, we can spark some intelligence and bitchy ides out ; )
http://pando.com/2013/09/13/meet-hex-a-smartphone-controlled-drone-thats-tearing-up-kickstarter-from-the-backwoods-of-china/
http://techcrunch.com/2013/09/02/hex-airbots-shatters-crowdfunding-goal-for-its-cheap-3d-printed-drones/
http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/at-work/start-ups/hardware-startups-the-class-of-2013-launches-at-haxlr8r
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9a5b912e-f570-11e2-b4f8-00144feabdc0.html
http://www.techinasia.com/3d-printed-hex-airbot-adds-drone-skills/
http://www.techviewasia.com/asian-drone-startups-could-reach-new-heights-as-amazon-announces-drone-delivery-plans
http://www.golem.de/news/drohne-nanocopter-hex-mit-smartphone-steuerung-1308-101230.html
http://www.techinasia.com/chinese-startup-smartphone-controlled-hex-drone/

http://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/technology/article/1600980/young-tech-entrepreneurs-west-head-china

Flexbot is an open hardware based on Arduino. So, we are on GitHub too
https://github.com/HexAirbot

And we are on Thingiverse
http://www.thingiverse.com/Flexbot/designs

About Flexbot:
Flexbot, build your own copter, learn for fun. Flexbot is a copter DIY kit for all ages. It comes with a comic book illustrating the stories and knowledge behind Flexbot. With the open source and 3D printing features, Flexbot enables us to recode the program and customize how it looks besides the fun of DIY and flying experience. What will Flexbot be like? We want you to be a part of it.