Folding Circuit Board Quadcopter

by saitek93 | April 13, 2014 | (17) Posted in Projects

THE IDEA-

I should probably start with saying that I am sorry for taking so long to post this. I designed this frame well over a year ago, but I have been busy with other stuff and it just got away from me. Anyway, this quadcopter frame is a circuit board, so the FPV gear, control board, and the RC receiver are wired into the frame. I printed it with a circuit router we have at my university. The point was to eliminate all unecessary wires by integrating them into the frame in hopes of making the frame lighter and more durable. My other requirement was to be able to set everything up, from arrival on loaction to being in the air, in under a minute. Overall I would say I definitely achieved this. The video here shows how I made everything...

 

 

Ready for flight:

Folded Size:

 

PORTABILITY-

This frame is a 670 size quadcopter, but folds up to a petite 14"x6". This makes it ultraportable and yet still maintains the ability to carry very heavy equipment, and has a large surface area to mount all sorts of gizmos too. I made this video to show how I can carry everything that I need to the field in one convenient, waterproof case. It will hold my groundstation and everything in one box.

 

 

FLIGHT VIDEO-

This is my best flight video I made with this frame. I did it for the pumpkin launch at my school. It was a lot of fun, and I got angles that no one else wanted to because no one wants to get his by a pumpkin for some reason.

 

THE BUILD-

Now, enough of the boring words, if the videos weren't enough, then here are some pictures of the frame throughout the build process.

 

Here was my prototype for the KK2 circuit. It runs the motor wires out so you never have to guess which one is correct. This isn't as big of a deal for the KK2 because it has the LCD scree, but it still made setup very easy. The idea is to eventually use this same design for an APM flight controller.

This is the circuit router cutting my frame! I was so excited watching it. These kind of tools are what makes me really not want to graduate.

Here you can see the pins soldered onto the top plate. I had to solder a few jumper wires as well, but overall the frame hardly has any wires.

The frame prepped for painting

I went with blue since it's one of my school's colors.

Since the router digs a ditch in the board, it was very easy to mask off the areas to solder to later.

Again, this frame was supposed make it easy for younger people to get involved in multirotors. So I labeled everything on the board. 

I recovered the ESCs because I replaced the motor wires with a little heavier gauge. I also shorted the signal wires so they wouldn't be hanging everywhere.

This power distribuition works extremely well and keeps everything tidy.

 

FUTURE PROJECTS-

This project will hopefully be able to be produced by the BERSTD program (Broad Engagement Robotic Spiral Demo Team). They are the people who originally started my interest in multirotors and provided the funding for my first quadcopter. The idea is to make a box of parts, and then send it to a school in the area and then have them assemble the parts for a competition. 

If you have any questions about the circuit board part, or the quad in general, then just let me know.

If you'd like to see other videos I've made, you can check out my website at:

codyalger.wix.com/sluquad

Or you can check out my YouTube channel. Thanks!!!

 

 

Eagle files for routing the boards:

Cutouts

COMMENTS

PaladinDG on April 17, 2014
I have been working on a design for a foldable quad and the layout I have is almost the same as yours, except for the circuit board... that is AWESOME!! I have struggled with what material to use for the plates. I thought about ply, but I can't see that lasting very long. Some other options are CF or Kydex... any suggestions?
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Leg0er on April 17, 2014
Glass fiber is good and you can use hand tools to cut it. It's strong as proven by David's tricopter :P
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PaladinDG on April 17, 2014
Thanks for the suggestion... any idea on where to purchase glass fiber?
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Leg0er on April 18, 2014
The batbone uses 1.5mm G10 but
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dditzler on April 22, 2014
You can get it at McMasterCarr here in the USA. I don't know about other locations outside of the USA.
http://www.mcmaster.com/#grade-g-10-garolite/=rnc49g
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saitek93 on April 17, 2014
Thanks! I designed it a while ago because I've been working with the school here and it takes them like 15 minutes to set up, so I made this to show them up. Lol

It is possible to make your own circuit board at home without a router. There are many tutorials online if you are interested. They require just a printer, an iron, and some chemical thing. David actually has a tutorial on his website about it (rcexplorer.se).

The material that I am using is copper clad FR4. You can get just plain FR4 thigh too. It's a type of glass fiber. The other really popular one is G10. Just be prepared for some twisting in the middle of the frame. That's why I had to put the pieces of wood in between the plates. I just bought some half inch aluminum standoffs that should be able to replace the pieces of wooden dowel.
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PaladinDG on April 17, 2014
G10 FR4 looks like an economical material to use... any suggestion on the thickness for the top and bottom plates?
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PaladinDG on April 18, 2014
I have been researching on the web places to buy material... there is a website called mcmaster.com that sells Garolite, which is G10. Another place is Eplastics.com, but they are a little more
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saitek93 on April 19, 2014
I've always just used what my professor has had just laying around. The FR4 I have now is right about 1/16th of an inch thick.
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Cyberdactyl on April 17, 2014
I have the same problem of tube compression, but with the Hobby King 10mm square carbon fiber tube where it is clamped at the frame. But unlike you, I have no option of using a square wood filler, as I have my wiring running inside.
But as suggested, yours in an easy fix. Just purchase, or fab yourself some square wood dowel and insert. Also, no need to fill the entire boom, just where you're clamping or screwing.
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saitek93 on April 19, 2014
Yeah I have all my ESCs and wiring on the inside of the frame, but I just cut out notches for the battery wire. It was meant as an extremely temporary fix which is why it looks so bad. I will post another article once I get my next frame done with the standoffs in place of the dowel. Hopefully they will work just as well without getting in the way of wiring.
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Aquanot on April 18, 2014
Hey saitek93! realy nice sollution!

I wonder if you would publish the cutting-data.
Have not found a possbility to write a PN to ask you for that.
I Would like to build your frame too. A friend of me has also a cnc-router and i could cut it there.

Thks, Aquanot
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saitek93 on April 19, 2014
I have all my designs done in Eagle. You can get a free download at http://www.cadsoftusa.com/

If you haven't used Eagle before, you can use the CAM processor that's built into Eagle to generate gerber files that should be able to be used by the router. Eagle is a circuit board design tool, so you may have to play around with it a little bit to get it right.

I will post the files in the article here soon. Let me know if I can help at all!
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saitek93 on April 19, 2014
So I can't upload the file for some reason, but just email me at:
cody alger @ hot mail . com

(no spaces of course)
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Folding Circuit Board Quadcopter