A new foldable quadcopter made from scratch

by sirtoby666 | June 11, 2013 | (11) Posted in Projects

I always had problems with the transportation of my quadcopter and this is how i soled it.

This is my build step by step...

I had som plans for a foldable quadcopter based of David Windeståls tricopter and this was the outcome.

I made the quadcopter in 3 mm lauan plywood, its cheap and if something goes wrong you can always do a new one.

Consider it marked.. i taped it so it would be easier to saw.

I used a standard jigsaw to make the parts. The point by doing this is as i did was that i wanted to use as much materials that you can buy in a ordinary hardware store and use ordinary tools.

Testing the frame functions, I changed the positions of the arms after i first mounted it. The angle of the front booms where to tight when i folded it together. The booms are about 10" or 25cm (see the drawings in the end of the presentation)

I used a Hobbywing Quattro ESC for a tight fit and a slim look. Bare in mind that if you use a flight controller with digital compass its better with standard ESCs because it can create some nasty interference on the flight controller if its to close. 

This was before i changed the front booms, it is a much better fit further down in this presentation.

I used a bit of vulcanising tape to tape the cables together so they shouldn't get caught in between the booms and the frame when you fold it.

Cables from the ESC and power cable to the BEC.

Some ugly green ties and we are one step closer to the end.

Some big as 1000kv motors, a little bit oversized but you take what you've got.

A special velcro for kitchen panels, it has excellent capabilities of reducing vibration so its very good to use on your flight controller.

A stripped receiver.

An ordinary straw makes a excellent antenna holder.

Just drill a hole and "woala" you have a nice bendable antenna holder.

So when you want to fold it and put it in the bag the antenna stays in one piece.

Antenna and lipoalarm.

Almost ready to test out on the backyard. I use a "Crius AIOP V2" flightcontroller, its the same as Hobbykings "Multiwii AIOP V2.0" and it works excellent.

I use a Hitec Optic Sport 6ch for this quad, i usually fly in Acro so it will not require so much channels on this quad.

Ready to test. Check out the video on youtube of its stability.

Here is a clip that shows the folding

Lets fold it... the back booms folds pretty tight.

and next the front booms and the antenna.
It fits in a small bag like a backpack so its really easy to bring

I use rubber from an old cd-rom to make the dampers for the camera, it has great capabilities to absorb vibrations.

I fitted the camera mount with the same velcro as i used on the plate before.

Ready for new adventures.

I hope you liked this little preview of my new foldable quad.

Have a glorious day.

Black Forest Copters - Växjö Sweden


Here are the drawings for the quadcopter (all plans are A3-format)

This is the drawings for the booms (I used 12mm aspen tree)
Boom drawings

This is the bottom plate (i used 3 mm lauan plywood)
Bottom plate drawings

This is the top plate (i used 3 mm lauan plywood)
Top plate drawings

Hope you like it as much as i do.

//Sirtoby

COMMENTS

DennisSwe on June 16, 2013
that quad was really nice! :)
will try that design when I crash my t-copter! :D
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Corsair2014 on June 12, 2013
That is really cool! good work man
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Brocknoviatch on June 12, 2013
That looks great! I love the design! what motors are you using?
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sirtoby666 on June 14, 2013
It´s cheap chinese once from eBay, heres some specs.
Model: N2830/11
Kv(Rpm/V): 1000
Weight: 62g
Resistance (MΩ): 104
Idle current: 0.6A
Wire winds: 11
Power: 270W
ESC requirement: 20A (not included)
Power supply: 2-4S Lipo
Suggested prop: 9x4.5, 10x6, 10x5
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RoyBro on June 12, 2013
I agree. And thanks for the plan drawings.

Can you detail your GoPro mount a little. It looks interesting, and obviously does a decent job.

Thanks
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sirtoby666 on June 14, 2013
The gopro mount is just 4 rubber dampers from an old cd-rom, (almost everyone have one in their closet) in an small piece of glass fiber plate with 4 screws through it, and the camera is fastened with a special velcro. Simple as that. :) But you can use something else like a small pieces of plastic or foam instead if you don´t find velcro in your local hardware store.
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danallen82 on June 14, 2013
Wow I can't believe you got the Crius AIOP 2.0 to work! I personally hate its guts.

I love your David Windestål's approach to the frame shape. The booms are pretty long too, has that helped your design?
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sirtoby666 on June 14, 2013
If you really get to know the Crius V2.0 board it quite simple to setup, if you have problems ill be happy to help.

The length of the booms have been changed many times to get the right response, to long and it get a little bit slow and to short get the quad to be a little bit nervous and unstable.
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hbelanger on September 21, 2013
Hi sirtoby666

I want to stat by thanking you for your design so far I have build two frames on for a friend with very similar specs to yours except I used kk2 and rctimers 2830/13 850kv motors and it works great.

I'm on my second setup now and I'm having some issues I thing the motors are just to much for this little frame what do you think

Suppo 2836/8 1100kv

Also do you have megapirate or multiwii on your board ? I'm setting up megapirate on hk multiwii pro with gps on it -
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sirtoby666 on September 23, 2013
Thank you for your kind words.
You can almost make anything fly, big or small motors, big or small frames it doesn´t matter much. The thing to bare in mind if you have to much power in your motors you may have to have smaller props to decrease the thrust or it can be almost impossible to tune.

Another thing to bare in mind is that some esc doesn't work with multiwii or crius flight controllers. I used a Crius AIOP V2.0 on one of my tricopters with some cheap escs from ebay and i couldn't get it to fly but when i changed it to a KK2.0 it flew like hell.

Try to have as much weight as possible as low as possible it helps to make it more stabile.

I use Megapirateng R2.8 and i tune it in mission planner.

Have a nice one.
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SalH on September 4, 2013
HI there
Just finished my build couple of days ago, as per the original template, build detail:
-Openpilot CC3D
- Turnigy Aerodrive SK3 2822-1275
- HobbyKing 12A BlueSeries Brushless Speed Controller (SimonK)
- Turnigy 2200mAh 3S 40C, I have also tried 2 cell (950 mAh) and it was fine
- 8*5 props
All up 780 grams only (without gopro)
All I can say what a sweet little thing, mounted my Gopro, no vibration what so ever, exactly like my QAV400, the most practical frame from a whole lot that I have build the past three years
Well done mate, excellent work
Sal

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sirtoby666 on September 5, 2013
Thanks Sal
I really appreciate your feedback
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kenbocbr on August 4, 2013
Many thanks for this, I have just completed the frame and the booms, but I have never built one of these before, Would you be able to list all the parts you used, you have a board in a white box, where did you get that? I'm not sure when it comes to all the wiring stuff.
Thanks again
Kenny
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sirtoby666 on September 5, 2013
The white box is just made of some plastics from a jar that i had laying around, its just to keep the air from the barometer on the controller board.

i used
Hobbywing Quattro ESC 4x20A
N2830/11 1000kv motor with 10" props
An ordinary BEC to power the card
A Crius AIO Pro V2 Controller board
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Cnystrom1 on March 3, 2014
Hey bud, love the design ideas. Exactly what I want in a quad copter scratch build. I tried clicking on the link for the plans but the page says it doesn't exist anymore. Any ideas how I can get my hands on those plans? Thanks
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sirtoby666 on March 3, 2014
Sorry about that, i updated my website and forgot about them.
They are up and running again... enjoy
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Zucky on October 23, 2014
I would really like to get the designs as well, seems they are missing again. Any chance you could post them up again?
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sirtoby666 on October 24, 2014
It´s up and running :) enjoy
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Zucky on October 24, 2014
Appreicate it!
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sadabmostafa on October 29, 2016
is there any risk that on flight time the arm will fold by it selF??

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sirtoby666 on October 29, 2016
No, you can make the bolt and nuts tight and it will be OK 👌
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A new foldable quadcopter made from scratch