Don't know if this is of interest to anyone here, but I'm working on building a new frame for my pixhawk controlled 250, and I thought I'd share the first bits. I built the 250 with a CC3D flight controller to practice on before buying the Solo, and then added a mini pixhawk and GPS to learn the inns and outs of mission planner and autonomous flights before attempting them with the Solo. The few mishaps/crashes I've had have resulted in repair costs in the $15-$25 range, not the several hundred that the Solo would have been!
My only complaint about the 250 is that it's a butt ugly contraption, a bit on the heavy side, and with wires zip-tied all over the place, it's ripe for something coming loose or getting snagged on something and causing a crash. So, I thought I'd build a new frame specifically to be clean, light, strong and streamlined.
I need to clean up the tool paths a bit, but this is 1st draft of the motor mount. I milled it on a small desktop CNC milling machine out of a solid nylon rod, so it's light and darn near indestructible - not that glass filled nylon that breaks so easily. The ESCs will fit into the CF arms, and they're rated for over 2x the current the motors typically pull, so heat shouldn't be a problem now that they won't be in the airflow. I wanted the motor wires to pass cleanly through the mount into the arm, and I milled a similar slot on the bottom for the wires for a set of lights to be mounted on each arm. The mounts fit nice and snug in the CF tube, and will be secured by a single bolt.
Anyway, let me know if you want me to continue posting updates. Progress will be slow between work and family, but the motor mounts are the most complex part design/milling wise, so hopefully the rest progresses reasonably quickly.
My only complaint about the 250 is that it's a butt ugly contraption, a bit on the heavy side, and with wires zip-tied all over the place, it's ripe for something coming loose or getting snagged on something and causing a crash. So, I thought I'd build a new frame specifically to be clean, light, strong and streamlined.
I need to clean up the tool paths a bit, but this is 1st draft of the motor mount. I milled it on a small desktop CNC milling machine out of a solid nylon rod, so it's light and darn near indestructible - not that glass filled nylon that breaks so easily. The ESCs will fit into the CF arms, and they're rated for over 2x the current the motors typically pull, so heat shouldn't be a problem now that they won't be in the airflow. I wanted the motor wires to pass cleanly through the mount into the arm, and I milled a similar slot on the bottom for the wires for a set of lights to be mounted on each arm. The mounts fit nice and snug in the CF tube, and will be secured by a single bolt.
Anyway, let me know if you want me to continue posting updates. Progress will be slow between work and family, but the motor mounts are the most complex part design/milling wise, so hopefully the rest progresses reasonably quickly.