As some of you might have understood I’ve done some experiments with multirotor helicopters for the last couple of years. Mainly because I think it is extremely interesting what you can do when you combine these machines with cameras. Stuff like this:
And if you want the best images you need to be at the right place at the right time. And for images like this you need to be there with your copter. So the copter needs to be easy to carry.
I wanted to build a FPV quad that I could carry in my ground station case together with my radio and some batteries. I have built several mini-multirotors that fits in that space, but now I wanted to build a bigger quad that should be able to carry a bigger video Tx, gopro and even a Sony RX100.
I ended up building a foldable quad. So far I am very pleased with the result.
I’ve built several multirotors during the last two years. Quad, hexa, Y6, X8, tri, octo. I’ve built in wood, alu, carbon fiber and combinations.
But i like wood. It gives less jello in my recordings because it is slightly flexible so it absorbs some vibrations. And the flexibility also makes sure that it survives a lot of crashes. But it is not too flexible, so it is stable. And it is cheap. And environmentally friendly. Doesn’t block radio signals. Doesn’t transfer current. And it is easy to work with.
So, here is my wood based foldable quad:
There is a bit of jello in the recordings here. It is 2.7K @ 25p with no ND filter. Will probably get rid of it with some tweaking of the mount.
Update:
First FPV test flights. Now with GoPro Hero2 at 720@50p and a horribly misplaced ND filter. But: absolutely no jello!
The arms are tightened with four screws. Folding and unfolding takes approx 30 seconds.
Spec:
Motors: Sunnysky 2212 980 kv
ESC: HK F30A SimonK
FC: DJI Naza GPS
Props: 8 inch
Motor-to-motor: 58 cm
GoPro mount with Tilt
4S Batteries
Some images from the build:
eirikso 