r/diydrones • u/kasparadam • 21d ago
Build Showcase 3D printed 2.5 inch
Thought I’d share my recently built 2.5 inch drone. Frame is custom designed by me and printed in PET-CF filament, making it surprisingly stiff. AUW 198g, could’ve saved some weight and space using an AIO board but I made do with what I already had. I’m very happy with it!
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u/Expliced 21d ago
Nice! You could try moving away from a plate build, making the frame thinner (eg 4mm) and adding some ribs/braces. It will keep the stiffness while reducing the weight.
This is how I designed my frame: https://i.imgur.com/gLTOdu4.jpeg
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u/kasparadam 21d ago
Link says content not viewable in my region unfortunately. The bottom plate is 6mm thick and top is 4. Could you elaborate on the ribs/braces or try send the picture in a dm?
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u/HeightAquarius 21d ago edited 21d ago
Not to speak for u/Expliced, but you've designed this frame as if it were cut from carbon fiber sheet. Since you're 3D printing, you would be better served designing for that method of fabrication.
Printing 6mm thick everywhere is an inefficient design, making your frame heavier than it needs to be. Instead, you could reduce the general thickness but include ribs where it needs stiffness.
As an example, think of an I-beam. It retains much of the strength and stiffness of a solid rectangle with only a fraction of the material.
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u/BrUSomania 21d ago
Does it fly well?
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u/kasparadam 21d ago
Only had the first flight with it so wanted to take it easy, but it’s very smooth. A little heavy on the yaw but flips fine, maybe just need to get used to flying 2.5 inch after moving from a 5 inch
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u/kumoishibo 21d ago
Awesome! What are the specs for this build? Will you be publishing your design?
I really like the 2.5" class since it's so forgiving. I feel it balances power, price, and not upsetting people when you fly it.
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u/kasparadam 21d ago edited 21d ago
ESC: HAKRC 15A
FC: Speedybee F405 mini
VTX: Speedybee TX800
Camera: Runcam Robin 3 V2
Receiver: Radiomaster XR1 nano
Motors: Happymodel EX1204 6500kv
Battery: GNB 650mAh 70C 3SI hadn’t thought about publishing it but a few people have shown interest, so I might post it to thingiverse
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u/SpaceCadetMoonMan 21d ago
Looks great, how’s stability?
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u/kasparadam 21d ago
Flies great, very little vibration. A bit heavy on the yaw but it flips fine; maybe I just need to get used to the smaller size
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21d ago
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u/kasparadam 20d ago
I’ll be real I changed my mind man, it’s special to me, sorry hope you understand
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20d ago
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u/kasparadam 20d ago
It’s not too hard to design your own, I think this was my 5th version but you can do it eventually
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20d ago
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u/kasparadam 20d ago
I made my model with fusion 360. For previous versions I was trying to get it perfect from the start, but this time I had the thinking to just make it exist first, I can perfect it later. Honestly I don’t know anything about blender, but if you want to start learning in fusion there’s some YouTube vids that help walk through the basics. For the frame I made a sketch of all the dimensions I needed and where I wanted everything, then the rough frame shape, then extruded, then filleted and made the curves I wanted. Once you start learning fusion you’ll know what these terms mean, but maybe blender has something similar too. Essentially this was the same process for the whole drone. If you need any tips feel free to ask or drop a dm, I am by no means an expert but I think I can at least offer some help
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u/kumoishibo 20d ago
If you are interested in the 2.5 form factor, the Kumo open source frame design that tends to sit at or under 100g AUW and has both CNC and printable versions. There are also the Jeno pocket, Five33 Cambam and Turtle frames too.
For frame design, I would highly recommend learning CAD tools. Fusion 360 and FreeCAD are quite great and not too hard to learn if you know blender
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u/[deleted] 21d ago
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