It’s been fun learning about the amazing technology of quadcopters the past week or so, and I am nowhere near knowing everything I need to in order to get this project completed. I did want to give a quick update as far as 3D printing is going, along with some issues I am facing with warping due to cold temperatures in my area.
The cold temperatures outside along with my printer being in my basement has created a combination that is quite challenging due to the fact that cold makes prints warp. My print bed was at 18C. In a previous post I wrote about using hair spray to help get your prints to stick to the blue painters tape on the print bed. My print bed was so cold that the prints warping was actually pulling the tape off the print bed. Needless to say, I made a few prints that went to the garbage.
The temporary solution to prevent the warping for now is bringing my printer upstairs into the warmth. The only downside is the noise especially if my son is sleeping. The best place I currently have is in my laundry room which has some sound deadening in the walls. A longer term solution will be to get a heated bed which I had been thinking about already. Along with that, it would be cool to make some sort of enclosure than I can keep warm air in. I’m currently kicking myself for missing out on PrintrBot’s 15% off during black Friday, and hoping that another sale comes around in the near future. If a sale pops up, I will be getting the X axis upgrade with the heated bed.
Back to the quadcopter. I started out with some simple google searches about generic quadcopter builds. If you are looking for a single site with a wealth of knowledge related to quadcopters, check out http://blog.oscarliang.net/. It has been an amazing resource for me. After researching some information about frames, I then started looking around thingiverse. I decided to print out a frame from tosjduenfs. Here is the direct link, Mini Flame Wheel Style Quadcopter frame. Other than some initial warping issues, the files provided printed very well, as you can see in the picture above. One note was that I had an issue with the recommended length of m3 screws. I could not find the 25mm ones at home depot for testing, so they will need to be ordered. Also, home depot’s 8mm length m3’s were not actually 8mm. I have a feeling this was a home depot issue and ordering hardware from someone else would be a better option.
From my previous post, I had some requirements such as size and ability to carry certain objects. Well, I printed this frame and am already considering moving to a larger frame. My current reasons for reconsidering are the ability to fit more of the electronics in a cleaner package, and the ability to put larger props on the motors.
As for now, my test printing of the first frame came out very nice. Now it’s back to planning and decision making. Stay tuned!