Eric Monroe's angle arm Drachen (eMaaD) MiniQuad

JohnRambozo

Posted a thousand or more times
Going great! Keep at it. Im soon to finish my build with a different motor setup.
Thanks for the sphere cover idea. Ordered those as well.

Thanks, Reuds!

I haven't heard of anyone using an elegant way to hold the frog domes on. I just use two small pieces of white duct tape. The white helps a bit with orientation, so I haven't tried anything else. I love the red 'face' on black for orientation, too.

What are you doing differently with yours? Are you also using the dihedral arms? Its so stable.
 

Reuds

Junior Member
I have some motors and escs from a qr x350 that im throwing on it for now. Will do the race quad power pack after.
Yea im using angled arms. Should be interesting when done. May make a post on it.
 

JohnRambozo

Posted a thousand or more times
I have some motors and escs from a qr x350 that im throwing on it for now. Will do the race quad power pack after.
Yea im using angled arms. Should be interesting when done. May make a post on it.

Cool. If you don't do a full build log, at least share some pics here. :) When are you starting?
 

JohnRambozo

Posted a thousand or more times
I crashed 3 times in an hour this past weekend and cracked 3 arms. I finished flying out my batteries with the cracked arms but pulled them off when I got home.

I am making new arms and trying to think of ways to do it easier than a bend at the middle of the arm. I'll probably just angle the arms right from the center hub out. I'm also shortening the overall stance by almost 3 inches. I wish I had little 10 degree plastic brackets to mount inside the chassis.

I'll share the details when its done.
 

jipp

Senior Member
you could take a scrap piece of 2x6. cut out a template of the shape you want.. and then take a pot/water and steam in the shape.. all you do is steam the wood. then really quickly put it in your form.. clamp it down.. and then let it cool to the touch. it would be stronger that way.. its the same way you would steam in recurves to a archer self bow :p

but i guess if you do not have any wood tools, or a band saw this probably wont help :( i bet you could cut the form using a jig saw ..

chris.
 

JohnRambozo

Posted a thousand or more times
you could take a scrap piece of 2x6. cut out a template of the shape you want.. and then take a pot/water and steam in the shape.. all you do is steam the wood. then really quickly put it in your form.. clamp it down.. and then let it cool to the touch. it would be stronger that way.. its the same way you would steam in recurves to a archer self bow :p

but i guess if you do not have any wood tools, or a band saw this probably wont help :( i bet you could cut the form using a jig saw ..

chris.

Thanks for the idea. I don't have much for tools, though.

I could probably just use one of the arms I built before as a form. Eh, maybe I'll just use the angle brackets I made. The goal is to make it easier to build the arms since I'll probably be breaking plenty more.
 

jipp

Senior Member
yeah i hear ya man.. i was just thinking out loud.. steaming takes a bit of effort. but you could even figure out the angel you want.. and just bend the wood over a round rolling pin for example.. and you could get a angle that way too. so you would not even wood tools.. just a pot of water, tin foil and gloves and something round with the right angel you want to bend the wood over by hand.

heh

i will say the strongest piece of wood will have the strait lines running down the edge the edge grain.. if it has more than 1 run off pick a different piece of wood if you can. that should help also.
chris.

p.s

also do you have a picture of where the booms are breaking?
 
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JohnRambozo

Posted a thousand or more times
yeah i hear ya man.. i was just thinking out loud.. steaming takes a bit of effort. but you could even figure out the angel you want.. and just bend the wood over a round rolling pin for example.. and you could get a angle that way too. so you would not even wood tools.. just a pot of water, tin foil and gloves and something round with the right angel you want to bend the wood over by hand.

heh

i will say the strongest piece of wood will have the strait lines running down the edge the edge grain.. if it has more than 1 run off pick a different piece of wood if you can. that should help also.
chris.

p.s

also do you have a picture of where the booms are breaking?


Now that's something I can work with! I could make a 'stop' for the bend so they're consistent. The weak point on the angle arms is the angle bracket itself. If that doesn't break, the arms split at the screw holes. That's an easy fix, though. Breaking at the bracket requires rebuilding the arm completely.

I'm using poplar for its rigidity. Is there a recommended time for steaming 1/2 x 1/2 inch poplar?


AGWZYTb.jpg

 

jipp

Senior Member
Now that's something I can work with! I could make a 'stop' for the bend so they're consistent. The weak point on the angle arms is the angle bracket itself. If that doesn't break, the arms split at the screw holes. That's an easy fix, though. Breaking at the bracket requires rebuilding the arm completely.

I'm using poplar for its rigidity. Is there a recommended time for steaming 1/2 x 1/2 inch poplar?


AGWZYTb.jpg



i would say 30 mins and see from there ( pot full of water with tin foil over it, and just put the end of the wood you want to bend in the water it wont hurt it. bring it to a boil/steam the living hell out of it.. should get the job done.. its pretty thin after all. ). also you will want to get some kind of strap to put on the back side of the wood when you bend it.. that will help keep it from pulling a fiber. heck you could even cut a soda can open if that is all you had.

( also, this should be real easy to do with 99 percent success rate compared to a recurve into a wood self bow.. because the degree i had to bend in the curve was pretty extreme... heh. )


you can use any kind of metal that is thin. tin, etc..

you do not have to use such but i would recommend it if you can find something.

i hate to say this but this gonna be trial and error. but i think its worth investigating. :)

also be sure to bend the wood with the edge grain to the side. so look for the lines.. not the grain pattern.. i hope that makes sense.

i still plan on building you some arms this winter out of laminated bamboo too.. :p

chris.
 
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JohnRambozo

Posted a thousand or more times
i would say 30 mins and see from there ( pot full of water with tin foil over it, and just put the end of the wood you want to bend in the water it wont hurt it. bring it to a boil/steam the living hell out of it.. should get the job done.. its pretty thin after all. ). also you will want to get some kind of strap to put on the back side of the wood when you bend it.. that will help keep it from pulling a fiber. heck you could even cut a soda can open if that is all you had.

( also, this should be real easy to do with 99 percent success rate compared to a recurve into a wood self bow.. because the degree i had to bend in the curve was pretty extreme... heh. )


you can use any kind of metal that is thin. tin, etc..

you do not have to use such but i would recommend it if you can find something.

i hate to say this but this gonna be trial and error. but i think its worth investigating. :)

also be sure to bend the wood with the edge grain to the side. so look for the lines.. not the grain pattern.. i hope that makes sense.

i still plan on building you some arms this winter out of laminated bamboo too.. :p

chris.

Awesome. I'll give it a shot tonight. And I do understand what you mean about the grain.

Thanks for all the detailed info.

I'll let you know how it goes. (Thanks again, in advance for the laminated bamboo!) :)
 

JohnRambozo

Posted a thousand or more times
Awesome. I'll give it a shot tonight. And I do understand what you mean about the grain.

Thanks for all the detailed info.

I'll let you know how it goes. (Thanks again, in advance for the laminated bamboo!) :)

I gave it a shot and the steaming would have worked if I had a proper setup to clamp it into. I tried bending it around a small metal bar to get the angle but it just dented the wood. I think I need the full shape and some solid clamps to do it right.
 

JohnRambozo

Posted a thousand or more times
I decided to go as small as an electrohub can go with 6 inch props, which turns out to be 288mm. Due to my lack of adequate bending tools, I just cut small angle brackets from hobby sticks. When gluing, there's no need for all that extra length. They snap at the joint when you crash anyway.

Here's the clamped arms.


Li3I4Md.jpg



There's about a 1/4 inch clearance between the props and the dome.


X8nVSaA.jpg


Update: I ran 6 batteries through the new smaller stance with slightly higher roll/pitch and yaw rates. It needs a bit of tuning but it was a ton of fun. I crashed more than I'd like and never broke anything. Not even a prop. Most of the time, it just rolled over and I took right off again. I think pitch needs more (I) since it levels out a little too quickly for my taste.
 
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