There have been a few posts lately about making your own cheap racing gates, because gates are a fun way to improve your skills. A lot of posts are for mini-gates for a Tiny Whoop, and many of these designs don’t scale up well for outdoor racing quads. Buying good gates gates can get expensive, and many of the off-the-shelf gates by big names in the hobby are honestly more complex to set up and take down than they really need to be - same goes for pop up soccer nets, which are a common but not inexpensive substitute.
We wanted to get some gates that were dumb and easy. The goals were:
• Inexpensive
• Simple to set up, take down, and put in the car (few pieces, and as many the same as possible)
• Light weight
• Durable, but also not so strong as to cause damage to the quad
This is a very short description of a VERY simple solution using good old Schedule 30 PVC pipe (the cheap, thin-walled stuff) and pool noodles.
Here is a video made by my flying buddy Paul (skinlabfpv) using a GoPro Session on his custom-built Skinlab 250 frame, chasing either my Kreiger or Atom. Its a mix of actually flying through gates, or smashing them so you can see how they look and work. And below, and update video showing how you can also use your gates to make a long pole to rescue a quad from high in a tree, safely.
Each gate costs about US$10 (based on $14 Canadian) and breaks down to 6 pieces, 1m each in length. They set up and break down in seconds, are clearly visible in FPV, stand up straight, and take a few taps from near-misses but if you really hit them they break apart and absorb the blow (and take only seconds to fix again). We gave them a good workout training for a few days, and they do the job nicely. Up front, other gate designs out are pretty similar, so this is not some genius breakthrough, but there are a couple design tricks here to make it simpler and cheaper.
Parts:
For each 1mX1m gate you need:
• 20 feet of 1/2 inch diameter Schedule 30 PVC. This is thin-walled pipe (HomeDepot has 10 foot pieces for CDN$2.10 - get two per gate). You can use the normal PCV pipe but it’s heavier and a LOT more expensive
• 2X 1/2 inch PVC 90 degree elbow (CND$0.50 each anywhere)
• 2X 1/2 inch PCV “4-way branch” (CDN$2.50 each - I got these at my local hardware store but they are for furniture-building and not plumbing so are slightly harder to find. One mail order source is Lee Valley Tools: http://www.leevalley.com/en/garden/page.aspx?p=67332&cat=2,66758). If you can't find these I added an alternative design that just uses elbows and tees
• 2X Pool noodle (CND$2 at my local hardware store)
I used schedule 30 PVC, which is the thinner one to the left.
To Build:
1. Cut both 10 foot PCVs into two pieces of 1m each, and cut the leftover piece into two equal lengths (~45cm).
2. Cut both pool noodles in two pieces each, one 50cm and one 90cm. Slide both 50cm pieces over a 1m PCV piece. Then attach 2X 90 degree elbow on each end. I attached with screws and not glue so I could take it apart later, but glue if you want. (see picture) Make sure the two elbow point in the same direction.
Using screws instead of glue to fix joints keeps set up simple (the joint always ends up on the same piece when you dissassemble) but allow you to go back and re-design (e.g. longer pipe) if you want.
3. Slide each 90cm noodle piece over the other two 1m PCV pieces.
4. Take the 4-way, and insert 2X45cm pieces of PCV into two opposing holes and fix them with screws.
5. That’s it. You’re done.
Here are the six pieces when you are done (with the alternating colour modification described below)
Here is the assmebled gate.
To assemble:
Put the base together as an "H" made with the three bare PCV pieces (see picure) with the empty joints facing up. Add the two uprights that have no joiners to these (see picture), and cap them with the the PVC that has two elbows.
Three simple steps to assemble: build "H", add uprights, cap with cross bar.
The gates stand up straight even in strong winds or uneven terrain. They are not "floppy". They take minor hits without falling over, and if you really smash them they will fall apart at some of the four joints, but only take a second to put back together. The pool noodles make them easier to see, can be used to distinguish them (“I’m walking out to the orange gate!”), and take some of the force of a hit. My impression is they will save you a few props and will pay for themselves pretty quickly that way. I have been thinking the PVC pipe would also be good for mounting a GoPro using a bike mount for some cool in-gate shots.
Gate Crash - when you hit them they don't break or break your quad, they just break apart at a joint (these are low res screen shots from another quad recoding direct hits to the gates). Watch the movie to see a lot more crashes.
Modifications:
Larger - If 1m is too small (it does take some practice to nail these but I think that it is a good idea to train on challenging gates), it would be easy to scale these up to 1.5m with one more PCV pipe and 1.5m pieces (probably don’t need another noodle, just short-change the corners a bit). This would add $1 per gate to the cost.
More contrast - I made one where I cut two noodles, one blue and one orange, into 15cm pieces and alternated them on the pipe with hot glue. It made the gate more distinctive (see pictures in the assembly section). However the blue is harder to see against green, so I am on the fence about this modification.
Can't find a 4-way branch - This piece is the least easily available. If you can't fine one there is a design modification that costs less and uses common 3-way tees. Make it the same but where the 4-ways go, replace it with two 3-way tee joiners right beside and at 90 degree to one another. Use one for the uprights, and the other for the base cross piece. Because tees are cheaper than 4-way branches, this ends up costing less, its just a bit less elegant so I like the 4-way design.
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