Drones. Drones are cool.
A quarantine endeavor turned into a comprehensive blend of tinkering, software troubleshooting, and adrenaline.
Cinematic Flight of Homebrew 5in Race Quadcopter. 07/2020
The Big Y (Formally the Big T)
During my work at Sunlight, and smack dab in the middle of quarantine, I set out to make a flight platform of my own. Something weird, and something big. With the help of some wonderful people I met in a local Facebook group looking to get rid of some spare parts (as well as some stimulus reinvestment of my own) I created the Big Y.
A hybrid carbon fiber and reinforced PLA frame serves as the base platform. Power transmission provided by 3 professional grade T-Motor brushless motors, and 18” Carbon fiber composite props. PX4 autopilot (pixhawk cube 2.0) with GPS flight path programming capability and custom control firmware. No FPV camera currently onboard, flown LOS.
With a barebones platform takeoff weight (wet) of approx. 1.5kg, and a total flyable payload capacity of approximately 3kg, it allows for the mounting moderate professional camera platforms (SLR + gimbal).
Due to tightening FAA restrictions and dwindling motivation to secure a qualified license just to test a hobby platform, this project is being grounded until further notice.
A homebrew, open-source tricopter platform.
Custom Yaw control on rear motor, high-torque servo allows for tilting of rear prop, providing torque about the center axis while maintaining hover position. Unfortunately, this platform is suboptimal when compared to quad or hex platforms due to added mechanical weaknesses and lack of inherent stability.
My favorite part of the entire project was to design a lightweight, FEA informed, quasi-organic landing strut with an overengineered dovetail retainer. Dovetailed quick change allowed me to replaced struts with ease during harsh landings, and minimizing impact forces on more expensive frame and sensor components.
The rat’s nest control setup, post calibration crash.
The Race Quadcopter
Alongside my tricopter endeavor was a standard “race style” quadcopter. A standard 5” span and 3” diameter race props allowed some insane maneuverability (0-60 in 1 second) and unparalleled action shots. With the addition of a 2K 120FPS camera platform, the cinematic capabilities are endless. Here is just a picture the quad, further videos may be found on my YouTube channel.
