Quadcopter for Donkey ST2204 motors

thingiverse

CAUTION - body is too soft! Update 2017-03-14: After being hospitalized for a while, I tested the quadcopter again and found that the body is way too soft and wobbly. The arms are pretty good, but the body can't handle vibrations. However, I didn't balance the propellers at all, so that might be part of the reason it's wobbly. If you're planning to print this and try it out, be advised that the body needs some redesigning before it's satisfactory. It may work fine for you, but I'm not convinced yet, even though it can fly - albeit not very well. Until next update... This is a work in progress and will eventually become a small quadcopter frame to support HobbyKing Donkey ST2204 motors due to their large footprint that doesn't fit on most regular quadcopter frames. I include SketchUp files for editing as well. As soon as I'm finished with the project, I'll clean up the files and description to make it neater, but until then, I'll just pop in some update info. Update 2017-01-27: I uploaded version 2 of the arm with major improvements and it's still very stiff! Cura calculates 25 grams for the thing... let's see. I changed infill to 50% and wall thickness to 0.8 mm. Update 2017-02-03: I switched to glass, printed four arms, and put them on a scale after that: 20 grams each... seems reasonable and they're very stiff but still allow a bit of flexing when bent really hard. Feels just right. I uploaded two more pics showing all sides and the cable channel. Now that the arms are finished to my satisfaction, I need to start working on the center frame/plate/box/whatever thingy. I have some kind of slot-in system in mind... Update 2017-02-09: I designed and uploaded the body for the quadcopter. I made it so that it can take two different kinds of control boards - diagonal or horizontal? mounting. There's no compartment for the battery yet, but that might be an additional part that screws onto the body afterwards. There will be a top plate screwed on which still needs to be designed. I'm going to print the body as is out as soon as I have time since the print seems to take about 12 hours... So stay tuned for some pics and as always: all feedback is appreciated, so give me comments :). Oh, and I removed version 1 of the quadcopter arm as it was absolute overkill... but if someone wants it, I still have the files and can pop them up again. Update 2017-02-10: So I printed the body out in... well... pink/magenta...(just wanted to check some new filament.. ahem).. It does flex, but not too much, and as soon as I made the top/lid, it won't flex at all anymore, I think. The whole thing will be really stiff for good acrobatic behavior. The holes intended for screwing the arms to the body are not really needed anymore since the arms are pretty snug in the body sockets and won't come out without using quite some force. And the lid that will get screwed to the body will stop them from coming out anyway. So now I can use the small holes to feed some wire through for LED strips or something like that.. Print Settings Printer: Anet A8 Rafts: Doesn't Matter Supports: Doesn't Matter Resolution: 0.2 Infill: 50% Notes: Filament: ABS natural 1.75 mm layer_height = 0.2 wall_thickness = 0.8 solid_layer_thickness = 1.6 fill_density = 50 nozzle_size = 0.4 print_speed = 30 print_temperature = 245 print_bed_temperature = 100 support = None platform_adhesion = Brim printing on glass How I Designed This I designed this by measuring the motor and then playing around in SketchUp :)