Comment by Bart on February 16, 2012 at 4:46am

Looks good. I'm still in the process of designing with solidworks and then CNC cutting it myself. Can you comment on the end-mill/bit sizes you used to cut (especially the slots)? I'm still learning how to do CNC.

Comment by Ian on February 16, 2012 at 5:38pm

Everything is rounded with a 2mm fillet, and all the holes/slots are 3mm, so for almost everything I used a 2mm & 3mm spiral endmill. The "happy hacker" Defcon logo is done with a combination set down to 1mm for the detail. I would aim to use the largest endmill wherever possible for better tool life. Good luck with your build, hope to see a post when your done. (or along the way...)

Comment by Zach on May 21, 2012 at 1:00am

That is a great design! I just finished the SolidWorks design for my quadcopter. Out of curiosity where did you source all of your parts? (ie. motors, esc's). Also where did you source the nylon bolts? Thanks for your help!

Comment by Ian on May 21, 2012 at 3:31pm

The nylon bolts I had, not sure where they came from. The motors/esc's are Turnigy/HK.

Comment by Zach on May 21, 2012 at 9:49pm

This is my first quadcopter build, and I would like your opinion on something. I read somewhere that reducing the vibration from the motors will improve performance of the accelerometer and gyro. To what extent should I worry about vibration? My initial design just included mounting the motors on foam grommets. However, I also came up with a nifty design that holds the motors suspended in springs (see rendering). Is this totally overkill and unnecessary? I appreciate your input.

Comment by michael_au on May 21, 2012 at 10:07pm

You are trying to dampen high frequency vibration only, so perhaps neoprene rubber top and bottom of where the blue plates mate with the square boom. 

 There is stack of variables to consider with vibration in general, and even more so with a quadcopter.  Some things to consider are frequency, load, and compression.  If you look here this gives yo  u some idea of paramater for a typical vibration dampener.   I am still learning about all of this myself.  Apparantly there is an Android/ iPhone APP that allows you to measure vibration.  I am not sure if you can use the APM to do this also.

Comment by michael_au on May 21, 2012 at 10:09pm

BTW - nice frame..  CNC'ing is so rewarding..

Comment by Ian on May 22, 2012 at 1:13pm

@Zach, Your on the right track that reducing vibrations is a good thing on a multicopter, however if this is your first quad I would just mount the motors directly to the booms. Springs on their own, and most foam, make for poor vibration isolation.... Vibration comes from the motor, prop, and components spinning and being off balance, buy a high quality prop balancer (not HK), blance the prop, the balance the motor, and finally get a good quality prop adapter. If you have the tools check for runout of the prop shaft. If you do this you may find "shock mounting" your motor will not be needed. If your not doing video or FPV you won't notice slight or even moderate vibration. Also as M.A. pointed out neoprene or some type of harder compound is required for mounting your motor.

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