3D printed Tricopter Tail/Yaw Mechanism available

I have been designing some yaw mechanims for RCExplorer style tricopters - something has better quality and looking than the scratch built ones, and doesn't need heavy mod to the pricy ditital servo itself. I made the following designs for Shapeways, as it offers so cheap price for 3D printing. And it's material selection is very robust. I tried my best to optimize the structure, to make each design as light as possible (also as cheap as possible, as Shapes calculate the price by cubic cm), while as strong as possible.

If you think my designs are not bad ideas, you can order them from the links at end of the article.

All the servos here if not mentioned otherwise are the good nice Turnigy S306G metal gear digital servo. (http://bit.ly/1aBV5KE) From my experience, I think it's compact, durable, and super responsive.

First I tried an integrated approach - everything is printed include the shaft, just for testing. The servo is vertically mounted. There are reserved holes on the moving part. Use 2 screws to fix the servo arm to it. This can last pretty long, with the 3d printed plastic shaft. 

Then I made the V2 design, as the plastic shaft can wearout if you fly frequently. This version use a 3mm motor shaft to enable the yaw mechanism. The beauty of it is that it's very strong, very smooth and highly accessible. But you do will need to get it if you don't have broken motors around. This version doesn't require special boom size, you can mount it to any square boom from the top. 

Still I don't want to have any modifications to the servo. So you can easily remove the servo for other purpose. First screw the servo arm that comes with the servo, to the moving part. Then just push in the servo, and secure it with screws. Again, the servo I took is the Turnigy S306G, as it was the only decent servo I had around. But I assume you can use other same sized servo without modifying the 3D printed parts. (I noticed the cheap HXT900 servos are of the same size.)

Howerver, to install the machanism, don't rush into fitting the shaft and servo first. Take the lower part and bolt it on to the boom. This will save you trouble trying to screw in an awkward position. This mount fit only 28/26 size motors, perfectly.

Last month, as I planed to get 3 DT750 motors, I decided to update the mechanism to V3. The motor mount is upgraded to 3mm solid, with lager mounting pad that fits the DT750 motor's huge stand. The mount is also moved toward the boom, so it won't break as easy. The lower part is not changed from the V2 design.

Here are the links to the 3 yaw mechanisms.

UAVMaker V1   http://bit.ly/1iLmoJ9

UAVMaker V2   http://bit.ly/1kGx0aC

UAVMaker V3 DT750   http://bit.ly/1lM2ywJ

'brand' name changed to  UAVMaker notice (updated May 29, 2014):

It's very funny that today a guy who claims to own this shop www.DroneMaker.co.il, threated to sue me because he consider me as a big competitor. :)
So, I need to clearify that I'm a individual who has no intend to make my hobby into a business. Yes I spent my passion and time on creating thoses models and I was hoping to get something back for my effort. That's why I need to have a name for my works. But really? Suing me? Clearly guys like this are ruining the maker community.

Any how I have no time and energy to deal with bullies like this. I'll still be interested in the hobby, under a name that is so lame that no other profitbal entities has registered yet, UAVMaker. LOL

P.S. I found that there's no elegant solution for a Mobius pan-tilt mechanism, so I modeled this one (http://shpws.me/sBxd):

Test print with MakerBot:

This pan-tilt mechanism is very strong, as the main parts are 2mm thick. This can eleminate undisired floppiness during flight.

I didn't design the mount for the whole mechanism. As I figure cutting a hole on the foam and stick the lower servo in with some hot glue should do it. I made a Bixler fusalge cover out of 5mm foam board. Works great with this mechanism.

You will need two HXT900 servos and a 3.5mm thrust bearing(golden part above) to make it work best. (Washers would be fine if you can't find the bearing. I used this one: http://bit.ly/1nTPW97) 

Another new design uploaded to my ShapeWays page! (http://shpws.me/ubYd)

This a carefully designed Mobius tray for brushless gimbal! Very clean, light-weight setup. Even with an integrated case to place the IMU! :)