3d Printed Drone
Introduction
Nothing has given me the feeling of real-life podracing like FPV drones. I could spend hours just watching these drones perform gravity-defying stunts — in fact, I did! I used to spend my afternoons watching drone compilations (such as the one on the right) and various drone racing competitions. After watching those videos, I knew I had to design my own FPV drone. I wanted to make sure that it was simple enough that anyone with a 3d printer could make it. So without further ado, here’s my take on an FPV drone.
This is actually a project I started in my freshman year of high school, so I apologize if some of the parts are not the same. I will try my best to update it to the parts I include in the BOM.
Now this is podracing! Almost…
With any design, one must first make sure they have the money and materials to make it work.
First off, I designed and created all of my parts with an Creality Ender 3 in mind. Other 3d printers will work as long as the build space is the same or larger than the one found on an Ender 3. I used PLA to print the parts and I plan to try out ABS soon. Feel free to build the drone out of ABS and post the results!
Make sure to have a soldering kit for this build as well. I have included one in the “Drone Materials” spreadsheet and will provide a soldering blog soon.
As for the drone, make sure to have enough money for spare parts. Enough for a replacement ESC and Motor and a LOT of propellers. The first drone project with be most expensive, replacement-wise, but once you get the hang of it, subsequent drone designs will need less replacements.
I designed my drone using the Naze32 which is a lot harder to come by these days. In the expenses I have added the F4 Advanced Flight Controller. I chose this controller as its layout is nearly identical to the Naze32. I plan to do another build with the new flight controller to make sure the process is the same. If you get to it before me, let me know and feel free to talk about it!
I have included the FPV materials I use in the spreadsheet. They are certainly not essential to a drone build, but if you are not limited by cost, flying in FPV is an experience everyone should have.
Also, make sure to purchase some LiPo batteries and a charger. Purchase as many as you seem fit for your usage and drone. I have linked to the charger and batteries I use, but feel free to try another charger and battery.
And last but certainly not least is a Flight Simulator. It may not seem necessary, but it will save you countless hours rebuilding and printing a broken drone. I chose Liftoff as it is the most easily accessible simulator and has an extensive tutorial to teach newcomers how to fly.
Now, let’s get to the build!
Inspiration
My idea for my own 3d printed drone came from another company that did the same. They designed the Hovership MHQ2 which is a foldable, printable, and cheap entry into the drone market. I loved the idea of creating a cheap drone that anyone could print from their home. I took the Hovership design and modified it to my needs.
This version of a 3d printed drone uses the same sandwich design that the MHQ2 uses, but removes the foldable aspect of it. I liked the idea of being able to fold a drone up for space, but felt that it detracted from the rigidity and flying characteristics of the drone as articulating wings could alter flight. So, as a result, I decided to remove the foldable aspect altogether from my version of the drone.
Along with that change, I reduced the amount of parts that needed to be printed by removing the middle layer. While it helps with dampening for the flight controller, I wanted to try a design that reduced the materials it used.
The build
Parts:
Drone Wings 2350kv (x4)
Body Spacers (x6)
Naze32 Base (x1)
Top Plate (x1)
PDB Base (x1)
Naze32 Flight Controller (x1)
Clockwise 2350kv Motor (x2)
Clockwise Propellors (4”-6”) (x2)
Counter-Clockwise 2350kv Motor (x2)
Counter-Clockwise Propellors (4”-6”) (x2)
It took a couple of drone prints but here is a finalized look of the drone internals. The structure was extremely rigid with this current spec, so with my next redesign I decided to focus less on stiffness and focus more on reducing drag.
This drone incorporated a 2 slab design where all the internals were housed in between two slabs in the middle of the drone body. It was simple and efficient with the space allocated for the design. However, there were ways to improve it. Those improvements came with the version two design shown below.
Here is the general design of the drone without the top assembly. The blue arms of the drone are separate from the main body to allow easy replacement without disassembling the entire drone. The pink middle section houses the expensive internals and protects them from the elements with a sandwich structure. The Electronic Speed Controllers are underneath the top plate ensuring they have a lower chance to get hit and broken as they are some of the most expensive parts for this drone. Placing them in the sandwich also makes sure that they do not cover the wing trusses so they do not increase surface area and therefore drag. This design kept the same weight as the original but was made more viable and aerodynamic with the upgrades in version 2. Overall this design helped me with understanding the Solidworks environment and gave me more experience with the design process that I would take into future projects that I worked on.
Final Drone Rendering