DIY $10 Drone Racing Gates

by FliteTest | February 21, 2017 | (0) Posted in How To

Before you start building your LED racing gate, you’ll want to gather the materials you’ll need to build it. We used:

  • LED lights (5/16”)
  • Flexible PVC tubing (1/2” (outside diameter), 3/8” (inside diameter))
  • Power drill with 1/4” and ½” drill bits
  • Telephone cord or strong twine to pull LED lights through tube
  • Stable wood base
  • 3-cell LiPo battery (or 9V battery)
  • T-fittings (3/8”—match to inside diameter of PVC tubing)
  • Heat gun or hair dryer
  • Battery ends
  • Soldering materials: iron and metal
  • Scissors
  • Tape

Next, grab a friend to help you. Although we know you could do this on your own, it is much more fun and will take less time to assemble several gates if you have more than one set of hands. Additionally, this is a great activity to do as a family!

Now let’s get to the good stuff.

Step 1

Cut your PVC tubing to the size hoop you want to create.


Step 2 

Drill a hole in the PVC tubing on the outer edge.


Step 3

Feed telephone wire or strong twine through tube and tape to the LED wires. Then pull through the tube until the wires come out through the hole you drilled in Step 2. 


Step 4

Cut the LED lights on the cut line at the length you need them to be.


Step 5

Solder the LED wires to the battery ends.


Step 6

Heat both ends of the tubing with heat gun/hair dryer and insert the t-fitting into each end.


Step 7

Cut a small length of tubing from your scraps (however long you’d like it) and insert bottom part of t-fitting into it.


Step 8 

Drill 1/2” hole in wood base and insert tube into it to get the LED racing hoop to stand upright.


Step 9 

Plug in battery (make sure it’s properly charged!).


Step 10

Have fun flying!

Who plans on making these gates? Share with us your versions in the comments below!

COMMENTS

Spitba11 Warrior on February 22, 2017
How well do these size up?
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FoamTest on February 27, 2017
I'd imagine that they would size up well if given the proper support. You could use some wood on the outside to support the hoop, and maybe some rope and some tent stakes (I'm just assuming that you want this for a race quad outdoors) to secure it further. Or you could change the design entirely to a U shape or something similar to a normal race gate and run the LED strips through it. Just a thought.
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Flying_Debris on February 27, 2017
Would also be great hoop for a track of racings wings. Just need to make them bigger
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daddio on February 23, 2017
Cool. Any sources for the LED wires?
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DIY $10 Drone Racing Gates