My Second Crash

[jhitesma]

If you tightly wrap three or four layers of wood-glue soaked cloth around the break, along with gluing it normally, it is almost guaranteed not to break in that spot again.

Problem with that is on the knuckle I'm flying 98% of my breaks have occurred at a screw hole so they're under the knuckle plates. So adding any extra thickness to the boom won't fly.

I tend to only use the re-glued booms as temporary solutions while I wait on paint to dry on new booms or just don't have the time to make new booms. I've never had one break in flight or be the cause of a crash. But once they're reglued (especially around the screw holes) they don't tend to last through more than one or maybe two crashes.

And in a way it's kind of nice because it makes me fly a bit more carefully since I know I'll be looking at a 15 minute+ repair if I crash and because when I do crash it gives a nice fuse that seems to protect anything else from breaking. Probably saved me almost $0.10 in zip ties already! The only real down side is when the boom breaks instead of a motor coming off or a prop breaking it also usually damaged my LED strip. I haven't mentioned it in my build/blog thread but my LED strips are now really hacked up. I've had to add jumpers on them to bridge broken sections, scavenge resistors from sections with smashed LED's to replace resistors that have been knocked off or smashed on sections that still have good LED's and the reverse of that too. All because I'm so stupid cheap and because of that my quad is so cheap I just don't see much cause to take it easy and avoid crashes with it. At least not crashes that only put the quad itself in danger.

 

[meowmixdelivers]

Okay I can see how having extra cheap booms will be helpful later. I will grab a bunch of .5 in. next time I go to home depot. I bet I can bike there faster than walking. I believe my campus actually has power tools for use, so I wouldn't have to get a saw.

jhitesma,
Where did you get the LED strips that you use, and how did you hook them up? Nighttime flying with lights sounds almost funner than day (and more dangerous). Do they affect flight time?

 

[jhitesma]

I just used the strips from HK, I put green on front and http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewitem.asp?idproduct=26489&aff=687394 on back. But that was just because I was placing an order anyway and had some weight left on my shipping so I tossed them in. There are dozens of places to find flexible 12v led strips cheap - ebay and amazon being two biggies.

I just wired them right to my battery harness since the strips are designed to run off 12v and I fly a 3S. They're bright enough that they help me with orientation even in the daytime. Night is fun but does take some getting used to! On mine with just the strip on front and strip on back it's a little more disorienting at night than I expected because as I turn they don't seem to get "shorter" as quick as I'd expect them too for some reason. They trick my eyes into thinking the quad hasn't actually turned. But once you get a feel for how your lights look at night it gets easier.

The current draw of LED's is so low they really don't affect flight time. How aggressively you fly will have a bigger affect than a foot or two of LED's.

 

[meowmixdelivers]

Awesome. Now that I think about it, I would probably use the LEDs more for low light conditions than pitch black. I lose orientation really quickly when the sun is almost set.

I really like your budget quad thread. I think one day I'll read all the way through it. I discovered it when it was already a novel.

 

[DDSFlyer]

If you have a Lowe's close or closer I was able to get the half inch pine booms in a 10 ft piece! Got two and was able to saw it down to 11 booms for a future Anycopter hex build.
As for the LED's it's really easy and cool to put red on one side and half front and back with green on the other. (I think it's usually red on the left and green on the right) and you could even put front white or LED spotlights in the front.
Glad you got it down! Keep flying!