Monday, February 23, 2015

Quadcopter Drone - New Landing Struts

With the new gimbal installed, I thought I was good to go with for aerial videos. Turns out I was wrong.  Although I had about 2cm of clearance between the gimbal and the ground while using the carbon fiber landing struts, I quickly found out that 2cm of clearance on a flat workbench surface does not equal 2cm clearance out in the field. Grass and uneven surfaces would still touch the gimbal, and cause stabilization issues.  So I set out to find longer landing struts to fix the issue.


I eventually want to get a retractabal landing gear system, but not going to worry about it until I change to a larger Hexacopter frame in the near future. As a shorter term fix, I went with the landing struts made by DJI for the F450 Quadcopter frame.


Here is what is included within the packaging, x4 landing struts, a few screws, and an instruction sheet.  Seems pretty easy, but I did have to mod the front struts a bit to accommodate my gimbal.


Here is a look at the modification.  Just used a rotary (Dremel) tool to eliminate part of the plastic that was conflicting with the gimbal.  Doesn't  seem to affect the stability or strength of the strut at all, so should work out well.


Close up of the modification and install onto the frame.  Gimbal compression grommets now sit neatly above, but done touch the struts. 


Underside shot of the frame.  Pretty simple install.


New clearance is around 4cm.  Still not a lot of clearance, but that's about as high as I can get for now.  Should be enough to do what I want outside. 


Final picture of the new install. I removed the carbon fiber ones since they are no longer needed.  I do think they look better, but can't use them anymore.  Now its time to get outside and get some video... after this March snowstorm passes.


Thanks for looking.  More videos of the new gimbal in action coming soon.






1 comment: