DJI Inspired Quadcopter

[nitewatchman]

After sitting on the fence for a while I have decided to build a QuadCopter. I was really attracted by the DJI Inspire 1 when it was introduced but the $3000 price tag made it not a possibility. I then saw rchobbiesuk.com version of the machine and saw that it was designed to be entirely made by 3-D printing with a smattering of Carbon Fiber and other expensive bits.

Purchased the .stl files and away we go. The design is very well executed with parts fitting exactly after printing. Parts like the Tail Canopy bridge three printed parts with 6 screw holes and line up perfectly.

So I am printing the air frame primarily from HIPS. Weight so far is about 600 grams but the final weight with a battery on board is likely to be in the 1900 gram range. The arms rotate to transform between landing and flight and pivot on the same bearings used in the Cheap Skates.

Hopefully it will fly as good as it looks. One change I will likely make is to add a battery pod below the existing frame and canopy. The space inside the frame is just too close to fit in a 6S battery of ample size.

The photos so the state of the air frame this morning. There are several more parts to print including two more motor pods, the arm linkage and remaining canopy parts.

[Holy1]

Very Cool, I'm looking forward to the final product! Great project.

[mvansomeren]

I'll be following this build....

My last build was an Octocopter with a 50" "wing" span. But I built it all out of carbon fiber. I did build a DLSR gimbal our of 3D printed parts and carbon fiber.

Which flight controller are you planning on using with this build?

[nitewatchman]

I'll be following this build....

Which flight controller are you planning on using with this build?

Haven't decided - tinking about starting with a NAZA32+GPS

[Jimustanguitar]

That's an awesome looking build, great job!

Is the retractable landing gear worth the extra weight? I guess it sounds like you're well under the stock weight of the DJI anyway, isn't the Inspire more like 3KG with a battery?

[Eric]

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:593132" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Eaglezsoar]

This is going to be an interesting topic, thanks for posting it nitewatchman!

[barry99705]

That's an awesome looking build, great job!

Is the retractable landing gear worth the extra weight? I guess it sounds like you're well under the stock weight of the DJI anyway, isn't the Inspire more like 3KG with a battery?

The gear is also the arms for the props. They swivel up out of the camera's way while in flight.

[nitewatchman]

That's an awesome looking build, great job!

Is the retractable landing gear worth the extra weight? I guess it sounds like you're well under the stock weight of the DJI anyway, isn't the Inspire more like 3KG with a battery?

It is including the 4K Camera and Gimble and a large quick change battery pack. Biggest problem with this design is the limited space inside the canopy. The retractable gear takes up a considerable space and limits the battery size. I and several others are working on a "long wheelbase" model that relocates the battery to the lower bay and extends it to 142mm. This allows a 6S 6000ma battery which raises the weight quite a bit. Also requires reevaluation of the CG location.

The machine may never fly but it sure is fun to build and assemble. There are 72 screws hold this together and so far all have lined up with there respective hot set bushing or helicoil. Bearings were a snug press fit as printed. Kinda cool to see things actually work as they are supposed to.

[barry99705]

Kinda cool to see things actually work as they are supposed to.

Yea, that usually requires a human sacrifice.

[nitewatchman]

A little more progress. It is now apparent that there is not enough room in the frame for the "stuff" required. The current battery bay is 35mm high x 35mm wide x 65mm long. I have redetailed the frame to expand the bay to 55mm high x 65mm wide x 145mm long while keeping the same canopy outline.

The pictures show the as-furnished frame. I am now starting to print the 3/4 Ton - Long Wheel Base Model.

It is coming together. Looks like the AUW will be 2750gr +/- with an 6S 8000mah battery. With 3508-380kv motors and 1447 or 1550 props the available payload should be about 1300gr. We will see.

[Brian]

That looks really amazing.
By the way, what drive system powers the handing gear retract? Does it use some kind of worm gear or something?

[DdeWaard]

I love it! what material is the brown-ish main hull made off? and where did you buy it? I've been looking for a color like that, looks "engineering material"

I love how it is does'nt appear shiny.

[nitewatchman]

That looks really amazing.
By the way, what drive system powers the handing gear retract? Does it use some kind of worm gear or something?

The original design uses a 5mm screw coupled to a continuous servo controlled by either a pair of limit switches with directional diodes or an arduino processor or a 5mm screw powered by a stepper motor and arduino processor counting steps. I have the later system inbound and would like to interface it to a sonar sensor to deploy upon landing approach after gear down is selected. The other popular mod is to use an 8mm trapezoidal screw for fast deployment.

At this point mine has a screw in place to hold the lower lifting block in place. It can be turned by hand to raise the rotors above the top of the canopy for stability and clearance in the camera field of view.

Fun but frustrating at times the frame shown here just has no room. I have my 3/4 Ton Long Wheel Base frame largely printed and will start moving the arms over. The larger frame allows room for an 8000mah 6s battery, flight controller, GPS, Power Module, FPV and telemetry.

[nitewatchman]

I love it! what material is the brown-ish main hull made off? and where did you buy it? I've been looking for a color like that, looks "engineering material"

I love how it is does'nt appear shiny.

I really like it also and it prints very smoothly and uniformly.

The material is GizmoDorks Brown HIPS. The yellow material is also HIPS. I have had very good luck printing HIPS and the shrinkage is very small.

I print it with an 80C bed temp and 210C extruder and have never had a problem with it sticking to the bed when hot and breaking free when it cools.

[DdeWaard]

I love it! what material is the brown-ish main hull made off? and where did you buy it? I've been looking for a color like that, looks "engineering material"

I love how it is does'nt appear shiny.

I really like it also and it prints very smoothly and uniformly.

The material is GizmoDorks Brown HIPS. The yellow material is also HIPS. I have had very good luck printing HIPS and the shrinkage is very small.

I print it with an 80C bed temp and 210C extruder and have never had a problem with it sticking to the bed when hot and breaking free when it cools.

Thanks!
Too bad I live in the Netherlands and a spool costs me about $55 incl. shipping...
I still want to buy some HIPS tho, I'll look for some closer by then

[nitewatchman]

Thought I would update my progress status. Travel has kept me from making as much progress as I would like but it is coming a long. The first prototype was printed from whatever was in the printer when the time allowed. Because of the mix of materials and colors, it was nicknamed "box of crayons". After evaluating the prototype, several areas requiring attention showed up. Primarily there was no room for the required electronics and the battery area was VERY small.

So many parts have been resigned/modified by me and several others to improve the breed. The lower deck has been widened and extended to accommodate an 8000mah 6S battery. The second deck has been expanded to provide room the require electronics, a NAZA V2 Flight Controller and Telemetry Receiver. The third deck was extended to provide space to mount a Power Distribution Board and the NAZA Power
Module. ESC's have been rack mounted between deck 1 and deck 2 and will be later cover by a printed cowing. The arms have been swept 20 degrees to compensate for the CG shift resulting from the added battery weight. Booms and Arms have been extended to allow the use of props up to 16". The diagonal Motor Center to Motor Center is 690mm. All Up Weight is 3.2kg, I am using Tarot 4114 330KV motors with 15.5" props and eCal predicting a Payload of 2+kg.

I have a large box of rejected printed parts, these include obsolete parts, design iterations and not so good quality parts. Many parts have gone through several iterations. I have replaced the rigid landing struts with landing gear made using a spring coil over shock. The printed parts are on rev.10 and the design on rev.16.

This has been a lot of fun, however, if my time was considered to have any value, I could have bought a DJI Inspire for less.

I have several days to a few weeks to finish depending on travel, I am in Perth now and return to leave for Amsterdam but the quad will finish this summer.

Now just hope it will fly.

[Khalid Khattak]

I am very interseted in your build. Can you tell why u not going with Ardupilot APM?

[Eaglezsoar]

Can't wait for pictures of the first flight!

[nitewatchman]

I am very interseted in your build. Can you tell why u not going with Ardupilot APM?

Naza is much smaller and in my opinion better plug and play modular solution. The modules for power supply, GPS, OSD and a data buss can be split and mounted almost anywhere. Plus I had some bits already. Even after significantly increasing the frame however, space is still at a premium.

Travel has kept me doing as much as I have wanted to but there is still slow progress. Attached are photos of the landing gear struts. Printed from ABS with Integy Coil-over shocks and TPU foot pads. Blue for front Red for rear. They are upside down sitting on the engine pod connection flange. One photo shows a front engine power plant assembled to a short piece of tube. The blue box helps identify front from a distance and serves as an electrical junction box for the motor wires which are run inside the tubes. On the printer bed between the two struts is a wire loom for arranging and bundling four electrical wires. These are printed from TPU as is the red Prop Strap seem on the Power Plant. These were designed with Design Spark which is starting to work very well for me.

[Khalid Khattak]

Thanks for information. I am going with APM 2.6. Can you please share 3D STL file

[nitewatchman]

I can share the files I have produced, it will be a little while until all the bugs are killed.

[Khalid Khattak]

Thanks man. I reread the thread and found that you have purchased the stl files. Sorry for asking the files.
I m also thinking of redesigning a quadcopter frame by using readily available material. I have ordered electronic stuff from Aliexpress website at lowcost.

[Khalid Khattak]

You are using heavy battery and powerful motors. What you think estimated time of flight considering the weight and battery u r using.

[nitewatchman]

Thanks man. I reread the thread and found that you have purchased the stl files. Sorry for asking the files.
I m also thinking of redesigning a quadcopter frame by using readily available material. I have ordered electronic stuff from Aliexpress website at lowcost.

That is why I said that I will share the files that I have produced. The frame has been extended and widened by me to give room for the battery and electronics. I have also swept the booms back 20deg. The inner arm joint I designed and the outer was shared on RC Groups, the landing struts are mine which are open, the engine pods are redesigned and shared on RC Groups and the canopies are been redesigned - modified and shared on RC Groups also.

Between theses sources and what was placed on Thingiverse by the original designer almost everything is in the open. This was originally designed last winter as a ready to print/fly model. I printed the first version complete with modifying any parts. The general experience was that this just won't work. So the redesigns started with very little support from the original designer. Since then several have flown, some quite well. None look like the original model.

Still be glad to share anything that I have designed or modified, I think that his will be a good flyer eventually but there is more than a casual amount of work involved.

gary