Anatomy of the drone →

• The entire frame is 3D printed in blue and silver filament on my 3D printer (I downloaded the files from Thingiverse. I didn’t design them myself. That is a project for another day).
• In the front of the quad (right of the image), is the FPV camera.
• On the top plate is the FPV transmitter which sends the analog signal of the camera to the FPV goggles which is what I look at.
• The radio receiver is also on the top plate and receives the commands I input into a radio transmitter (a remote controller)
• At the beginning of the arms are the ESCs (electronic speed controllers) which control the speed of each of the four motors.
• The circuit board in the middle is the flight controller which houses the gyroscope and accelerometer and controls all the motors to make the drone fly.
• I soldered everything together by hand

This shows the drone with landing gear that I designed (in Fusion 360) and 3D printed. I designed them to press-fit into the rectangular holes on each arm and give enough clearance to put a camera on the bottom or a flashlight like in the picture at the top. I tried flying at night briefly with the flashlight and it looked cool having a beam of light sweep across a dark field, but it was also kind of scary flying it.

This is a 3D printed drone that I built (the first of my home-built drones). It is an FPV drone (first-person view) meaning that I control the drone from the video feed which is transmitted to me from a camera on it.

Also, check out my more recent drone project: FPV Drone with 3D Printed Mounting System

I particularly enjoyed this project because it combined many of my hobbies: 3D design and printing, wiring, soldering, building, and drone flying. And the best part: it actually worked (well eventually). I had many problems such as some of the electronics shorting which I fixed by covering the circuit boards with hot glue. The FPV video quality was poor at first, which I fixed by shortening the signal wire and covering it in tin foil to prevent interference.

Below is a video I took from my FPV drone. I strapped a GoPro to the top of it and got some beautiful birds-eye-view shots of scenery and the landscape.

At 7 minutes into the video you can see the top speed achieved: 58.4 MPH!

https://youtu.be/8UwYPJmgT0k

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© Jesse Gilbert 2024