Myself, along with plenty of other people, jumped on the quadcopter bandwagon. I bought cheap drones, $29 to$39. I bought midrange-priced drones from $40 to $200. I never purchased an expensive drone, $250 plus, up to a couple thousand dollars. Nope, can't just let that kind of money blow away in the wind or crash and burn it, let alone strap a $500 GoPro to it. Although, the GoPro captures amazing crash footage in high-definition, I did not in any way want that to be my crash.
I have watched hundreds of videos learning about building quadcopter. I have researched parts, prices, and places to get them. My goal: the best parts for the least amount of money. I used the better part of three months coming up with design, parts, and the build. I took my time because I was sourcing the parts from a Chinese wholesaler and I was trying to get them on sale. Without further ado, here is what I came up with:
The build parts:
Four 2200kv motors. They spin 2,200 revolutions per volt. 11.1v battery output equals 24,420 RPM. (that's really, REALLY fast)
Four 12-amp motor speed controllers
One flight controller
One home-brew frame, made from hobby plywood, glue, and Zip Ties to hold everything on.
This is the really exciting part: I finished this project during an inside playday because the weather outside was horrendous.
Since I couldn't go outside and do testing because it was raining, HARD, and water and electronics don't mix, I decided I would just do some simple little test flight and turns in the living room. No harm, no foul. I planned to hover it about a foot off the ground and to some flight controller tuning and so on and so fourth.
After about five second of flying stable, the copter pitched at me and screamed towards my midsection. Panicking, I dumped the throttle and braced for impact, trying as best I can to block my body with the remote controller. I crashed it into my controller nonetheless. I smelled smoke...heavy smoke. The copter crash alarm was blaring. The smoke detector in the house was as well. I started to assess the damages to the quadcopter. I noticed right away the propellers were badly damaged and there was some minor charring on the speed controllers. When I bent down to pick it up and I dripped some blood on it, I realiesed I was definitely more damaged than the quadcopter. I had three huge deep gashes in my the outer palm of my left hand! I said a few choice words and proceeded to grab a towel. I suppose those propellers spinning at Mach 10 were actually quite dangerous! I had just realized that I would have to notify my wife who was "trying" to nap in the bedroom. I don't think the nap went well with the smoke detectors blasting warning. I went back and showed her my "incident." I will spare you the gory bloody photo. This wound was a serious bleeder. Here is a photo after the bleeding had subsided and clotted out a bit.
I suppose it goes without saying, my wife was really pissed. The next thing she said to me, "I'm taking your wings. You are not allowed to fly anymore." I was slightly heartbroken, and a little sore, but with 20/20 hindsight vision, maybe I shouldn't have been flying in the house. My daughter smelled the smoke and obviously heard the smoke detectors and came out of her room. "Holy crap, Dad! What happened?" she said. "I crashed my copter into my and cut it." I replied. She was looking around and assessing damages. She then proceeded to remove propeller parts embedded in the sheetrock and saying, "Wow, that's crazy!"
I remember thinking, "I need stitches" and "Oh, great. Its Sunday. This may turn out the be an expensive trip to the doctor's office."
I drove myself to the doctor. I parked the car and got out. I think I may have stood up too fast because I was seeing spots, I was lightheaded, and I felt very, very hot all of a sudden. I'm not sure if I sat back into the car or fell, but it helped to lower the elevation. I sat for a few minutes and sipped a water bottle I left in the passenger seat. I walked into our local Instacare and was admitted immediately due to bleeding from an open wound.
After waiting for 45 minutes, the doctor finally came in and check out my injuries. I thought this sort of thing was triaged and I would be in an out in a jiffy!
Long story short, I spent more on the doctor and stitches than I did on my entire quadcopter, including the controller. I honestly think it was the home-brew frame. Nothing on it was square or level and the flight controller couldn't handle the angles. A real machined frame to specific tolerances would have set me back a mere $16. The shipping from China was like 24 days. I couldn't wait.
Have a good one!
Q