Lasercut Y6 multicopter

It’s rare that we get a non windy day out here in the Oklahoma Panhandle. So I’ve had in my head for a while that I wanted a powerful yet dense multirotor design to help combat the wind.

I’ve also been wanting to get an APM flight controller to play with position/altitude hold, waypoints, sonar, minimOSD, etc...

I had been waiting for the latest and greatest from 3DR, so when they announced their APM 2.6 I jumped on it. They also announced a Y6 design around the same time, which really must’ve planted the seed in my head for this particular design.

Other inspiration comes from having one of RC Explorer / David Windestal’s tricopters and really liking the simplicity and power of the design. The Flitetest anycopter design really gave me confidence that plywood could make for a simple and effective multicopter frame.

I had gotten a laser cutter from fslaser.com about a year ago, but only recently had begun to use it and feel comfortable using inkscape to draw up parts, so I really wanted to produce something cool. So it has all come together in a “perfect storm”...

Components

Electronics

6x dt750

2x pack of bullet connectors

6x 30 Amp Afro ESCs

1x APM 2.6 w/external GPS/Mag

Frame

~2x sheets of 12x20 3mm baltic birch plywood

3x ~25cm x 1cm square wooden dowels

lots of 20mm, and 30mm 3mm cap head screws and nylon locknuts

3x 3cm and 2x 1cm spacers (I 3d printed these)

2x 3mm thumb wheels for bolt that holds arms out

Build Process

I followed David Windestal’s guide for cutting the motor shafts and epoxying the wires..

My “extra hands” were el cheapo and crapped out on me. I saw Josh bixler using this method on one episode of Flitetest and thought I’d give it a go...

I actually used scrap from broken arms off of my tricopter. I had based the length on an estimate of how long the 3DR y6 arms are

Here is a just finished “folding bulkhead” (which doesn’t quite fold all the way due to design error..) You can also see the where the motor mounts were cut. An extra set is cut out because the first attempt wasn’t very assembly friendly.

With the bulkhead assembled you can see the close fit of the screws that doesnt allow complete folding.

The idea of a separate bulkhead was so that if it broke, the whole frame wouldn’t have to be replaced, and I could easily cut a new one. It was also so that I could experiment with different designs. A T6 maybe? This is where I ended up placing the 1cm spacers to help stiffen up the arms when they were folded out and put in place

I guestimated on the size of the frame by mocking up an APM and drawing around it. There must’ve been a spot where the plywood had extra glue :( Not a huge issue though. That’s what drills are for..

I liked how David’s tricopter design used a floating plate with the extra mass of battery on it to kill vibrations/Jello in the video. I thought I’d try to use the same concept with the flight controller too. So I came up with this floating foam sandwich, loaded with battery and topped with the APM.

I didn’t really anticipate the amount of wires I’d need to run under and around the foam. Luckily the foam compressed and formed around them. I’ll be revisiting this with some wire management...

The bottom of the foam sandwich is zipted to a larger plate that I plan on using as something of an electronics tray. The zip ties are in the way of the foam as well and the whole thing is a pain to assemble. so this will be redesigned later as well.

After test fitting the ESCs, I didnt like the pressure the zipties alone put on the components of the ESCs, so I threw this little esc mount together.

The foam on the insides was a bit useless. I should have just made the tolerances tighter. Later I added a zipties to the center to keep the mounts from sliding side to side.

I had a vision of the stacked electronics tray to mount the GPS on top, but failed to incorporate any spacers into the laser cut design. Luckily the 3d printer has been working great :D

You may also notice a missing spacer. USB Port access was also not well thought out..

First vibration test gave adequate results...

I quickly came up with this to hold the foam “training gear” on with rubber bands.

Then took it out to the field to give it a basic flying test..

Second flight video:

www.youtube.com/embed/uXxGmYf7GKw

Build files:

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:135301