DIY FPV Quad Frame - Timelapse part 1: Prototyping

Decided to make a quad frame from scratch with some goals in mind.
- Is able to fly
- Is sub 250g with 850mAh 4S battery, Caddx Vista, naked Gopro, and some decent motors for 3in props like 1404 or similar.
- Looks cool
This is the first prototype I used to get a feel for real life scales. Do some hardware fit testing, and to develop strategy for mould making, carbon layup and contour cutting on a CNC router.
It took me:
- 9 hours of modeling
- 12 hours of unattended 3D printing
- About an hour of print cleaning and curing
- About an hour of final assembly
I'm kinda satisfied with my efficiency, taken I improvised the entire process.
Next, I plan to make some tweaks on geometry. Design some camera cage, antenna holder, naked Gopro case. Also, got to figure out battery - ESC connection, battery strap connection points. Maybe some motor - ESC connectors...
Software used:
- Sidefx Houdini for modeling
- Ansys for center of gravity check
- LycheeSlicer for slicing
3D Printer:
Anycubic Photon Mono X
Music:
Covers by Justice Der www.justiceder...
Love that guy, listened to his covers most of time during the design.

[@drew-ie9xw]

Great job!

[@mariokotlar303]

freakin awesome :D

[@AlenHR]

Thanks my dude :D

[@CarbonGlassMan]

Fantastic work! I am a mold maker in the race car industry. I make molds and carbon fiber and other composite parts and have been wanting to make a frame that is not just CNC cut flat plate carbon fiber. Your design looks awesome. I think FPV frames are flat carbon plates because it's easy, fast and cheap to make them that way. It's by no means the best way to make a good frame.

[@AlenHR]

Thanks! Yea, I think most of it comes from the racing/freestyle FPV community. They are breaking their frames all the time. For more casual flyers that do not crash as much, this technique could be viable. Production would be quite expensive, tho. But the success of the DJI FPV quad shows there is a market for more expensive "do not crash" quads. This was more of a proof of concept to me. I would like to explore it some more in the future.

[@arcanusjunior2317]

Nice one, will you post the carbon layup video? This looks like an interesting project!

[@AlenHR]

Thanks, Yea, I just made some molds a couple of days ago. I'm trying forged carbon fiber combined with cf tow for directional strength. If strong enough, it could open many possibilities with varying thickness of frame parts. Forged one half and looks promising. It is way faster and easier to apply than laminate, and almost no post-processing is needed, just some cleanup of flash lines.
I hope I'll post part 2 soon.

[@arcanusjunior2317]

@@AlenHR Great! I'm looking forward to it!