Retractable landing gear with shock absorber

thingiverse

A set of retractable landing gear with built-in shock absorbers, suitable for a quadcopter project, is available. The shocks come with adjustable pre-loading and are robust. The bracket is designed to fit a 14mm tube and is compatible with Turnigy Talon v2. I utilize the same brackets to mount battery cages, electronics, and various other components on my quadcopter. Assembly instructions along with the required materials are provided at the end of this post. The pictures illustrate the step-by-step assembly process. Firstly, insert a #10-32 nut into the shock's bottom part. Then, place the spring inside the shock. Next, thread the #10-32 bolt from the top into the nut and adjust the pre-load by tightening or loosening the bolt. After that, secure the #6-32 bolt at the top of the shock with a small amount of epoxy. Finally, insert the shock into the retract and tighten it. To attach the retract to the bracket, place two nylon locking nuts on the lower half of the bracket. Then, position the retract over the nuts and secure it using four #6 sheet metal screws. Note that there is space for #4 nuts inside the bracket if you prefer to use #4 bolts. To mount the bracket onto your quadcopter, utilize a #6-32 machine screw to clamp the bracket to the tube. The required hardware for each landing gear includes four #6 by 0.5" sheet metal screws, one spring measuring 1" in length, one #10-32 machine screw (3" long with a nut), one #6-32 machine screw (3" long with a nut), two #6-32 nylon lock nuts, and two #6-32 machine screws (0.75" long).