Simple V-tail quad copter

cults3d

I've printed a few Multicopters from Thingiverse and have had very good luck with them, so I felt it was time to design one of my own completely from scratch. My goal was to make it simple, with a minimum of parts, sturdy, and also have easy removal of any individual part for replacement in the event of a mishap. Finally, I wanted to have the ability to easily change the configuration from a V-tail to an H-quad. I had some 12mm carbon tube left over from a Tilt-Rotor project, so that seemed like a good starting point. The front, middle, and rear tube mounts slide snugly on the CF tube and can be screwed in place once the right placement is found. The middle mount can be shifted back and forth for the correct CG and it has routing slots that help keep the wiring a little neater. I haven't tried it in the H configuration yet, but it flies very well as a V-tail. There is also a camera mount for FPV flying. I have included the Sketchup file for the front and rear arms for those who may want to experiment with lengths. Please remember to remove the props on any multi-copter project, including this one, when setting up the Control Board, motors, and ESC. Good luck with this project and let me know how you do. 3/26/2016-Update: I just uploaded a revised STL file for the V-tail arm. The original arm needed about 1/16" trimmed from the bottom in order for the holes to line up correctly with the pilot holes in the rear tube mount. This update corrects that. The arm has been revised on the Sketchup file also. It's a mistake that I found when printing the green one and I just forgot to make the change before posting the files. Sorry about that. 4/23/2016 - Added on-board flight video