The second quadrocopter is a lot easier to build. The whole world of quadrocopter and radio controlled model making in general was very new to me. I made wrong decisions or just didn’t know how I want to have it in the end… Here is a small lists of improvements I made on my second quadrocopter. It might help other beginners to do it better in first place

Battery connectors

XT60 plugs

On my first copter I bought the same connectors for the quadrocopter which the batteries had: 4mm Bullet connectors. But connecting them was dreadfully: My connectors were a little bit to big, so I had to deform the plastic of the connectors a little bit. The plastic on the front was battered. Connecting them was very tough, in the end I didn’t connected them fully, it simply wasn’t possible anymore. So it was time to switch. I decided to use the XT60 connectors from Hobbyking (an alternative to the popular Deans connector system). They are cheap and you can also buy batteries with this connectors. The connection holds strong but you can connect and disconnect them without problem. No more half connected plugs in the air.

Power distribution

Power distribution

New landers: Claws

Landers and centerplate

Having good landers from start is also very convenient. Starting from grass is no problem, calibrating the acceleration sensor is easier too. I already wrote about my new centerplates. They look good and are very strong.

LED’s

Its easier to distinguish the front of the quadrocopter with colored LED’s. I planned to add LED’s to my first copter already, but because the power distribution was inflexible I desisted installing them. On my second copter I bought 3mm plugs to connect them, and also added a cable to the power distribution system.

Carbon fiber centerplates

For my next Quadrocopter I plan a bit nicer frame. Because construction isn’t my strong point I prefer something simple but reasonable priced. These out of the box frames were too expensive. Construction one by myself was not an option. Fortunately Robert made some very nice Frames and Centerplates. At first I wanted to build a CargoNG. I opted for centreplates only but in exchange with carbon fiber. Without a full frame it is easier to build and I have more freedom In terms of adding more circuit boards or a digital camera. Also if once I test some newly developed code and undergo a heavy bug, its not that expensive to repair the Quadrocopter

Centerplates arranged in AutoCAD

But where can I let it mill? Several team members have a mill by them own, but sending plates around, over the frontier, was a bit too complicate. I found the little company Keiro located in Switzerland which makes kits for air planes and also has a CNC mill service. I found carbon fibre plates at suter swiss-composite group at reasonable prices. To minimize wasting of space I descided to mill two 340mm x 300mm, 1.5mm thick prepreg plate in one procedure. I never used a CAD software, so I’m an absolute noob! I tried to put together the dxf files with QCAD, which is open source, but I didn’t succeeded. It was the control concept which I could not work with, the simple functions like moving and coping weren’t at places I expected them. And once I found one item, I had to try several times until it worked as I wished and I searched it again the next time. AutoCAD is a very popular software, so I tried it with a trail version of it. Even with AutoCAD I needed some time to arrange all parts. But as you can see, I finally succeeded. Two weeks later my brand new centerplates arrived. As you can see, there are also some landers and some spare parts for crashes or another Quadro-/Hexacopter!