AeroQuad Frame Redesign

James Young · May 20, 2012

As discussed earlier, I rebuilt my quadcopter frame.  The original design worked fine, but I had a few new design goals with this frame;

  • Integrated motor mounts with the arms for simplicity
  • Separate arm holding plates and electronics module for the ESCs
  • Bigger central FCU container (for an AQ 2.0.7 shield)
  • FCU board mounting direct to a levelled metal plate
  • Vibration decoupling between the arms and the electronics module

Anyway, here’s the finished result;

Finished frame with AQ shield installed

The finished frame appears above.  Design is very similar to the old design, except now there’s four plates.  Plates 1 & 2 bolt together to hold the arms in place.  Plates 3 and 4 bolt together with spacers to provide an enclosure for the ESCs and other electronics.  The ATmega attaches to the top of plate 4 with nylon standoffs, and the FCU container bolts onto Plate 4.

Finished frame, side view

The landing gear is a set of TRex 450 (I think) landing gear that I got from HK for like $3.  The battery straps on with velcro under the landing gear.  The end result is quite a lot taller than the original design, but it has a lot more space inside and can be disassembled in a much more straightforward manner.

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