Steam Punk Flying Drone

This is taken from some plans that I designed for a drone. I used Autocad Inventor to design this done. The idea was to create a drone that could be made in a typical home workshop environment. I didn't want to invest in a 3d printer, and didn't want to use a CNC machine to cut out the parts. It had to be light, easy to cut and mold or finish, easy to assembly, and be able to create as many parts that are needed for replacements. This is where the plans were born from. You can read more about the plans and how to purchase them here. http://multicopterdesign.com/

I made the first prototype out of Acrylic and wood. The first design was built with 935 kv motors and 9x7 props. The bolts and nuts came from a local hardware store. The motors, esc, flight control board, propellers, jst plugs, lipo battery, and the landing gear all were purchased from hobby stores online. The first design even had its own created power distribution board designed and built from bullets and wires. Weight and motor displacement was critical in the first design. The first motors I used were 2220 kv and were not powerful enough to lift it. I used the 2220 kv motors in another design that was built for indoor use. You can learn more at the website listed in this description. After finally getting the first prototype to fly and fly stable, the next step was to perfect the plans and the design with a smaller footprint, more fluid design and was modular. The drone had to have the parts easy to reproduce, to come apart quickly for repair and modifications. This is where the next design change came from. Everyone either zip ties their speed controllers to the arms or they put them inside the body of the drone. Why not make it a 2 piece design? I have not seen this done before and it would make the drone easier to repair. The upper body will contain the flight control board, the receiver and the motors. The bottom will contain the landing gear, the battery, and the power distribution board. See it in action here on You tube.

Browse the channel if you want to see more demonstration flights and other designs. The second prototype was made out of acrylic, wood, had lights added to it. Again in keeping with the 2 part design. The led lights were fed off of the battery's balance plug. This did not have any effect on the life of the battery. I was still able to get 6 to 8 minutes out of a flight. The second design showed itself to be more stable and flyer friendly. Everything was working as designed.

The third design.

I was running short of purchased Acrylic and wondered if I could make it out of hardwood planed down to 1/8". This is where the Steam Punk drone came from. I used walnut for the body, cherry for the arms, and this time I cut out my own motor mounts from a reed wood. I showed this to the group I am part of on a FB group and someone challenged me to make it Steam Punk. Going to Inventor I started designing the parts for the Drone. It had to be light, part of the modular design, and artistic. This is what you see on this website. I will be selling this drone on Ebay once I get the black props and have finished painting and antiquing the parts. If you don't like the Steam punk look you can take everything off and it will be just a nice walnut flying drone. I am at 800 to 900 grams with the battery in. I would venture this could lift another 900 grams with some sacrifice to the battery life on a 3s 3000 mah battery. I love designing these drone. I think they are the future. I may be getting a 3D printer with the sales from this drone. I hope to keep learning, building and designing for a very long time. I am still a novice flier and there is a wide range of learning for me to do. I bought some FPV goggles and will be learning more about this type of flying as my skill develop.

Please like and share and purchase some plans so you can make your own.