Development - cornellmotionstudio/DylanDrone GitHub Wiki

Dylan Development

10/11 - 10/22

Development of CAD model with all components:

  • Frame
  • Motors
  • ESC/FC
  • Receiver
  • Ducts
  • Propellers (Note: arbitrary propeller model included, see Parts List for exact propellers in final prototype)
  • Battery

Dylan_assembled CAD of fully assembled quadcopter

Dylan_exploded Exploded view of quadcopter construction

10/22

Ducts printed through RPL received - printed in TPU but quality was subpar, lots of extra material. Evaluated options to get them printed:

  • Ask RPL to print again
  • Print in Maker Space

Decided to try printing temporary ducts in the Maker Space to accelerate development while also requesting new prints from RPL.

10/23

Discovered that the ordered motors do not fit the mounting size of Dylan's frame. The ordered motors had a mounting size of 16mm x 16mm while the frame has 12mm x 12mm --> 3D printed motor adapters to transition between the two sizes.

Motor adapters

10/27

Received enough parts to develop a second construction of Dylan - herein dubbed Dylan #2.

11/1

Nikolai printed two sets of ducts, one in TPU and one in PETG. Quality was sufficient to allow the propellers to rotate without interference.

11/2

Soldered Dylan #1 motors to ESC and attached PETG ducts. They seem to have the proper ratio of flexibility to rigidity to sustain crashes.

11/3

Completed construction of Dylan, attached motors, ducts, receiver. Configured Dylan with the controller. See hardware section for specifics.

11/6

First flight test with Dylan #1

  • Ducts broke after one crash, so they are definitely too brittle. Want to go back to using TPU (contacted RPL to get them reprinted)
  • Successfully flies, but slightly unstable

11/14

Received TPU ducts from RPL, quality is great.

Started construction on Dylan #2, but motor adapters leave motor wires misaligned with frame arm. Solution: wrapped wires under arm and zip tied to keep them in place

Wires ziptied to the frame arm

11/28

Finished soldering Dylan #2 motors to ESC, attached ESC/FC stack to frame.

11/29

Completed construction of Dylan #2

  • Bind flight controller to transmitter
  • Corrected rotation direction of each motor
  • Attached propellers to each motor
  • Secured all components to the frame
  • Tested flight successfully

2/28

Updated various BetaFlight parameters on Dylan 1 (with white ducts) to make the flight experience better, such as setting the max throttle threshold to 50%, and adjusting various rates to the ones shown in the screenshot below: