Carbon fibre foldable quadcopter

BigX is a bespoke vehicle designed and built to support research projects. It’s big, with a 900mm wheelbase which means it can hold up to 21in propellers.

The frame is manufactured by SoliDrone, the model of the frame is FR4X 900F. I got this prototype frame in order to build it and test it. The company will start selling this great frame soon, so, check their website for updates. They have a beautiful render that you can see here:

 

Specifications of the vehicle:

Frame:	FR4X 900F
Motors:	Foxtech S5010 288kv
Propellers:	18×6.5in CF
Wheebase:	900mm
FC:	Pixhack
ESCs:	Hobbywing XRotor Pro 40A
Weight(no batt):	3kg

 

The carbon fibre plates are really thick, 3mm, which makes it very very hard and solid… SoliDrone, hehe… But that is one of the reasons why is a bit heavy. But considering the type of applications this one is going to be use in, it is just right. It’s big, 900mm wheelbase, and because of that, it can be equipped with very large propellers, but being foldable, makes it very easy to transport. This is a great feature.

 

Building process:

 

So, how big it is??

At the moment I’m putting 18in props to this one, and its performing quite well, maybe I will put bigger props on the future.

Hovering time:

I did several tests using two different batteries. Both  batteries are Multistar LiHV from HobbyKing. The longest flight was almost 32 minutes.

Battery	Flight Time
10,000 mah	25 min
16,000 mah	32 min

Then I added a Raspberry Pi and using DronePilot, I made it fly autonomously in very different ways, and it performs great!! You can see in the video how good it flies. And as usual, the Scottish weather does not help, but this vehicle was able to fly under raining conditions and strong wind gusts, with ease.

 

Video:

Racer Hexacopter v1

 

This is a vehicle designed to race!

Glass fibre frame, extremely light yet very hard to endure the common crashes when doing FPV racing, Multistar Baby Beast motors, 6 of them! and 3 props 5×3 in props! Very very responsive package!!

 

Specifications:

Frame:	HK Thorax Mini FPV Hex
Motors:	Multistar 2206-2150kv “Baby Beast”
ESC:	Afro 12amps, SimonK
Props:	3 blade 5 x 3
FC:	naze32 (afro)
Battery:	2.2A

 

Some photos of the building process:

I’m using a neopixel strip (because its fashion now to use it… and its cool). The next photos are of the vehicle flying:

 

Carbon Hexacopter Foldable v2

Hexacopter built to carrying heavier than normal payloads (aprox 2.5kgs).

Specifications:

Frame	Tarot FY690S folding
Motors	Multistar 4822-690kv
ESC	Afro 30 (BL Heli)
Props	Foldable 12 x 4.5
FC	Pixhawk
Landing gear	Electric
Weight (no battery)	2096 grams

 

Tidiness:

 

This vehicle was made thinking in vibration issues transmitted to the camera and flight controller unit. Several techniques to ensure the vibration is damped to ensure great flights and reduce jello effect on videos.

 

Foldable:

 

Trying to take advantage of the foldable frame, making this vehicle easier to transport/carry while not flying. Sacrifices were made to ensure the foldable capabilities, one of them is the not-so-efficient foldable propellers.

 

 

Flight performance:

 

The sound made by this rotor configuration is different from the common carbon props one (which I prefer), but it appears to be more silent. Wind resistance is normal-great, the propellers stiffness might be a crucial factor here. It handles pretty well, especially when the landing gear is retracted (more agile…). Videos will come later.

 

The vibrations measured with the flight controller accelerometer when hovering (test performed at the firsts flights of a vehicle, to ensure it will perform great) are between the accepted values which are -5 to 5, the vibration showed on the plots never exceed +-3 which proves the vibration dampening of the motors and the flight controller is performing well. This will ensure great autonomous mission capabilities.

 

Flight times:

 

There is no enough data to have a conclusive opinion. Only 3 flights have being performed. The two batteries tested so far are Multistar 4s 10C (max 20C) on different capacities.

Predicted with eCalc:

Real flights:

Battery (mAh)	Flight 1 (min)	Flight 2 (min)	Flight 3 (min)
10,000	11:13 (hover)	15:16 (hover)	14:29 (hover)
8,000	n/a	14:19 (mixed)	13:45 (hover)
5,000 (65c)	n/a	n/a	≈10 (mixed)

 

 

Pilot:

 

Aldux.

TestQuad Carbon version 1.

After several crashes with AlduxHexa, and the extra parts for repairing it… I had excess material to build a quad, so, I did.

The parts come from Tarot, so, its very close to a Tarot 650…

I’m currently using this vehicle to test navigation algorithms using a companion computer, a Raspberry Pi 2.

Before doing the tests of autonomous scripts for the iMechE UAS Grand Challenge, this scripts were tested in this vehicle, ergo Test Quad. It performs beautiful.

 

Videos:

Second version of 3D printed quadrotor, but 3rd version of TEGO. Using Rotites. Several configurations were built. Different range of motors. This version was used by lots of students, and its the most famous TEGO quadcopter. Some of them are in display in the James Watt Building.

This one fly’s autonomously using a MoCap system inside the MAST Lab.

 

Videos: