Mavic Mini Propellor Guard

thingiverse

Here is my final propeller guards for the Mavic Mini. My goal with this design was to create a compact size that wouldn't require a larger pocket than the drone itself, while also meeting other key requirements. These include: designing for FDM printing with minimal tensile stress in the Z direction and no support required; making each guard interchangeable; locking onto drone arms without scratching or damaging the Mavic; and achieving a minimalist design with 360 bumpers that provide protection from hitting ceilings but aren't overkill. To maximize grip around the motor while leaving room for extended arms on the front of the Mavic Mini, I had to ensure the guards would fit on both the front and back. This also meant making them interchangeable left-to-right; just flip a pair over to use on the left side. After printing four guards, cut eight short (70mm) pieces of your favourite colour 1.75mm PLA. Make loops by pushing the PLA pieces into the holes in the guard. A needle-nosed pliers helps bend the filament into a short arch. If the holes are blocked, use the smallest allen key from your printer to clear them out and cut the filament on an angle. This creates an arch that extends just over the propellers if you're flying indoors and don't want to wreck your ceilings. Remember that two guards are flipped over to use on the left side! The next hurdle was fixing them securely onto the Mavic prop arms without scratching the soft side or getting around the different front and rear arm size. My solution works, but it's a bit more fiddly than I'd like. If anyone has an improvement, give it a try! You'll need to print three locking pieces for each guard. They lock into place when you slide them over the two extended pieces of the guards – two down and one up, just like in the picture. My print time was 1:36 for a pair, so about 3:15 hours for a full set. The total kit adds 40g weight to the Mavic Mini (heavier than the 26g OEM prop guards, so maybe the next version needs to be thinner and lighter). Cheers!