3D Printed Quad MF-Diablo

To the FliteTest Community:

With the snow pounding the Front Range region, we have been couped up in the classroom creating some pretty cool stuff.  This past week we have ventured into creating a 3D printed quadcopter, the next phase of our Multirotor Creative Grant project.  We have found that working with the 3D printed material is the best solution when creating an awesome looking, structurally sound, multirotor platform.  Being able to have the design saved when in need of a reprint due to a crash is priceless, especially with a group still learning the works of a multorotor.  Below are important links that allowed us to create the MF-Diablo.  Hopefully in the near future, we will have these files available for those individuals that have access to a 3D printer.

The software we used to create all the parts is FREE and can be downloaded at the following link:

http://www.123dapp.com/design 

Here are the drawings worked out on 123D Design for the MF-Diablo.

The first section of the design was creating the cover seen here,

After the cover it was time to create a top and bottom plate to construct the chasis to house the arms.  Seen here...

Now we had to select arms prior to this design in order to make sure our measurement for fitting was just right. We used an arm that was designed by Gyrobot, see link for files: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:160607/#files

After we created the 3D drawings we exported them to an .STL file, once this process was done we were then able to open this file in a program called Makerware, see link below for download.

 http://www.makerbot.com/makerware/ 

Once the parts were printed, we had the kids put the quad together, and everything matched up perfectly.

These pictures already show the gimbal mounted, below we referenced Team SSG username Crezzee for the design and construction of the onboard servo equipped gimbal. This pic here is gimbal mount...

The below picture is the gimbal top plate.

After printed and constructed together they look like this..

Here is the link to Crezzee's creation: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1793759

After we created the quad it was time to get the firmware we needed in order to use the gimbal.  We download all the necessary firmware software needed in order to flash the kk2 board.  We used the following firmware that was already in the KK2 Mulitocopter Flashtool library.  To download the tool: http://lazyzero.de/en/modellbau/kkmulticopterflashtool . As you scroll throw the library, choose the rc911 version for gimbal settings, here is some info on the firmware: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2094442

Once your board is flashed, here are the settings we used....

PI Editor:

Aileron:

• P gain 60
• P limt 20
• I gain 30
• I limit 10

Elevator:

• P gain 60
• P limt 20
• I gain 30
• I limt 10

Rudder:

• P gain 50
• P limt 20
• I gain 30
• I limt 30

Mixer Editor:

Channel 1:CW

• Aileron -70
• Elevator 70
• Rudder 100

Channel 2:CCW

• Aileron 70
• Elevator 70
• Rudder -100

Channel 3: CCW

• Aileron -70
• Elevator -70
• Rudder -100

Channel 4: CW

• Aileron 70
• Elevator -70
• Rudder 100

Once we placed all the necessary data into our KK2 board it was time to go test it out.

We love to bring back MESArcFF Alumni, season 1 Danny Liebert came to check out the quad to make sure we were on the right track.

Thanks for all the support FliteTest Community!

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