Tick Quad

RichB

Senior Member
I started out with an Electrohub kit. I like the spider quad shape, but I wanted to go smaller, so I cut the arms in half.
Forgive the messiness. This thing has been flown hard already.
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First step was stripping the 12A Magic ESCs of shrink wrap, then removing the motor leads and power and ground leads from the signal line.
The motor leads from the SunnySky x2204s-2300 motors could go right to the ESC, which was heat-shrinked right to the shortened booms.
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Left side:
5V BEC with battery alarm under a fully stripped (case and pins removed) HobbyKing 6-channel Receiver.
All internal board (even ESCs) are painted with liquid electrcal tape.
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Right side:
RCTimer mini FPV setup. SMA jack has been removed and replaced with a flexible lead with a bulkhead SMA.
Channel / Band indicating LEDs face out, and channel-changing button is accessible on right side.
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Front:
FPV camera peeking out between the plates. The front of the lens is actually slightly behind the leading edge of the plates. The camera is fully protected.
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Rear:
NAZE32 mounted between plates with spacers.
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I wanted to do a super-clean build of a mini-scale electohub. Aside from fasteners and antennas, there is nothing on top of the top plate, and nothing under the bottom plate except battery straps.

There are almost no connectors on any of the boards inside the plates, everything is soldered right to the boards with hand-built custom wiring. Sorry I don't have a photo of the inside, I'll get one next time I open it up.

The legs from the electrohub can be screwed into the side of the booms with servo mounting screws, but I have removed them for the photos.

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Frame is 375 grams without the battery. I've only run it on 3s 2200mah 20C packs, which brings it to just under 600 grams.

It has plenty of punch with Gemfan 0530 props.
 

Robbie

Senior Member
Wow man that looks like a beautiful clean build....lets hope it flies as well as it looks, heh. :)
 

Ocean

Member
Man that is a beautiful and compact build, I love the integration of everything on the electrohub plate.

I would upgrade the props to 5040 to 5045 at least though, you are missing out on a lot of extra power.
 

Greg2B

Senior Member
Nice build, pretty cool and different seeing something that is used for larger quads made so small. If you have some video of you flying it would be cool to see.
 

jipp

Senior Member
i bet that is bullet proof considering the arms so short.. if you break them.. i think you would have split the center section too. im surprised the camera fit between the top/bottom pieces of the eletrohub. heh.

what size is it 300mm?

looks fun to fly.
chris.
 

Darkback2

New member
This is a really sweet looking quad! It would be awesome of Flitetest made it into a kit somehow! Great work. Can't wait to see video.

DB
 

RichB

Senior Member
i bet that is bullet proof considering the arms so short.. if you break them.. i think you would have split the center section too. im surprised the camera fit between the top/bottom pieces of the eletrohub. heh.

what size is it 300mm?

looks fun to fly.
chris.


It's already taken some nasty hits without breaking anything but props and on one occasion some velcro battery straps.

Between the excellent flite test motor mounts which are slightly larger in diameter than the motors, and the fact that all components are protected between the top and bottom plate, there really isn't anything to break except props.

The camera doesn't quite fit. If you look closely you'll notice a little bit of warping in the plates and some relief cuts on the top plate.

I just measured for you. Diagonal distance between motors is 260mm

It is a blast.


Update: I've added a Mobius underneath. Footage to follow

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jipp

Senior Member
This is a really sweet looking quad! It would be awesome of Flitetest made it into a kit somehow! Great work. Can't wait to see video.

DB

all you need to do is cut the arm down. you can get a cheap saw that would do the job for under 10.00 if you do not have a way to cut the arms.. heck even cheaper you could do it with a simple hack saw blade if one wanted.. and took there time.

chris.
 

jipp

Senior Member
It's already taken some nasty hits without breaking anything but props and on one occasion some velcro battery straps.

Between the excellent flite test motor mounts which are slightly larger in diameter than the motors, and the fact that all components are protected between the top and bottom plate, there really isn't anything to break except props.

The camera doesn't quite fit. If you look closely you'll notice a little bit of warping in the plates and some relief cuts on the top plate.

I just measured for you. Diagonal distance between motors is 260mm

It is a blast.


Update: I've added a Mobius underneath. Footage to follow

View attachment 47664

View attachment 47665

thanks for measuring it. my next build will be 280mm i think.

now i look closer yeah i guess its lifting a bit maybe 1/16" i wonder if you could sand that much off the camera i fit causes problem in the future.. but it sounds like you have crashed enough anything that was gonna break would of shown up by now.

the mobius maybe not in the best spot for landing tho :p
chris.
 

Darkback2

New member
Nice flying and what a great quad! I am wondering how waterproof it is, and when this will be a kit. :) It you can completely waterproof it then I think that would make for an awesome backpack quad...I envision something you could throw in a backpack and take pretty much anywhere and then just take it out and have a great time with it!

DB
 

RichB

Senior Member
Nice flying and what a great quad! I am wondering how waterproof it is, and when this will be a kit. :) It you can completely waterproof it then I think that would make for an awesome backpack quad...I envision something you could throw in a backpack and take pretty much anywhere and then just take it out and have a great time with it!

DB

We have similar visions.

Underneath the shrink wrap, the ESCs are coated in liquid electrical tape, excepting the face of the heat sinks. They are absolutely weatherproof. I suspect they are waterproof for short amounts of time. I wouldn't leave it in the pool for an hour though.

Similarly all the circuit boards buried in the frame, except in my zeal to get it flying I did not coat the Naze32.

As far as a backpack quad goes, I think it's ideal. I would Like to convert the receiver to an SMA connection like the vtx antenna has. With the battery and both antennas removed it stands barely over 1.5" tall, not including the props.

A frisbee worn like a hat on top of the quad with holes cut for the prop nuts would make a decent case. Add some velcro straps to hold it down and you have a slim backpack quad in a case.
 

RichB

Senior Member
A couple mods. interior pics

Since I burned through all my props until the mailman comes today, last night was a good time to crack it open and make a couple mods.
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Just spin off a few nuts and...
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Tick guts.
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Here's the Naza32 sitting on its standoffs. I was going to do 4 but 2 seems to work fine (plus only 2 extra machine screws and nuts came with the electrohub kit).
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Brain Surgery. The orange wires are the signals to the ESCs. The rainbow bundle is the 5 channels plus power and ground between the receiver and the Naze. I really need to get more into PPM receivers!
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The buzzer and battery voltage lines are added the the Naze
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After adding another line to the bundle coming off the receiver (remind me to get into PPM receivers!) so that I have a secondary AUX channel, the Naze is replaced.
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I also tilted the FPV camera up this many degrees. There are new reliefs cut int he top plate to accommodate the camera and hold it down.
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All back together, ready to fly!
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Thanks for watching!
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