Rotor Bones Knuckle H-Quad Build

The maiden flight of my new Rotor Bones H-Quad. The gains still need a little bit of tweaking, but I am overall very happy with the way it flies.

I started off with the PDF plans of the knuckles and main frame. I dont have a laser cutter, but I do have a PCB mill as well as a 3D printer. I drew up the parts in Inventor and went from there. The knuckles and frame are actually 1/16" FR4 Copper board. For the main plate, I used a rotary sander to remove the copper clad on both sides to save weight. The knuckle braces still have the copper on both sides for added strength.

Although not the most ideal way of coming up with the parts, the FR4 provided a sturdy frame which isnt much heavier than the wood kits from the FT store.

For motor mounts, I decided to put the 3D printer to work. I dug around on thingverse and found this design:

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:128477

These are designed well and have proven to be sturdy thus far.

Taking advice from everyones favorite swede, I used zip-ties to secure the motors to the mounts. I have not had any hard crashes yet, so the durability of motor mounts is yet to be truly seen. Hopefully the zip ties break without causing too much damage to the mounts.

After seeing this done many times, I decided to use the super-huge zip ties as landing gear. At first I was concerned about the "bouncy-ness" of the landings, but the soft jump these provide has proven to be helpful and very forgiving when I make less than perfect landings.

For power I am running the reccomended 2200mAH 3 cell. This feeds a hobbyking power distribution board which is tucked neatly between the main frame plates. The ESCs are Turnigy Plus 18s. These drive 4 of the Turnigy Aerodrive D2822/14 motors. To be so small, these still provide lots of lift, even when carrying the GoPro. The heart of the Quad is the tried and true KK2.0 v1.6. It is housed in another 3D print creation found on thingverse. This link is:

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:142523

I highly recommend this case if you are still flying the KK2.0.

For my initial flights, I have been using the OrangeRX 6-Ch DSM2 reciever. Once I start having longer and more intense flights, I will switch over to the Spektrum DSMX sat reciever. Due to the many problems that DSM2 seems to have, I think this will be a safe move.

Up front I am rocking the GoPro Hero 3 Black Edition. The zip-tie mount is crude, but for my first few flights, It seemed to hold fairly well. I will probably draw up a more permanent solution and 3D print something before I take the risk of loosing a $400 camera.

Overall, I am very pleased with the H-Quad. This is my first (working) multirotor and I hope to continue adding on to it and continuing to have fun exploring the hobby. If you guys have any questions or comments, I would love to hear them!

Thanks!

P.S. My next project is adding Serial Addressable LEDs to this, so stay tuned!