Open Sky Anchor WiFi Drone Brings The GIG

All the motors and ESCs are going back in their homes on this next build. I believe this is version 3 build now.  Instead of the larger coast guard approved LEDs we have downsized them to LEDs that bold directly to the bottom of the motors. These should save us a ounce or two and have lower power consumption. I should have weighted the new LEDs and compared them, but I forgot in once I was in the groove of assembling the motors and running wires through to new locations to make the build much cleaner.

I have decided to move to a 5G ground facing microwave back haul connection instead of a physical Ethernet being hoisted into the air 200’ First being weight and reliability. This is a mini parabola mount on the landing gear that is intentionally ground facing. A sender /receiver will also be on the ground in the connection window.  This part is being printed right now and will be ready in the morning.

The whole frame with foiled plates for EMF interference blocking from any noise that may backfeed through the power wires or power supplies. 14.4 ounces, that is at least 2.4 ounces lighter than the OEM F550 frame and the arms have a dihedral angle and also two motor mounts per arm. This equals more performance features less weight. Being slightly lighter should hopefully translate to a slightly lower hovering power requirement as well.

This is the 3D printed parabolic reflector we made for the 5G unit. Around 20 percent or more of the RF energy is recovered and directed forward for better transmission power, as well as better reception for incoming signals as well.

 This is a nearly all 3D printed parts, but PLA plastic does not reflect RF signal. So we will be using some gold foil glued to the back reflector to make that work. There are stand offs that I have glued nuts into.  The antenna assembly has four plastic bolts that thread through the antenna into these nuts for a perfect fit.

There is a great selection this year and a lots of talent.  I am humbled to have made it this far and Hackaday competitions are always awesome. Though it would be awesome for Sky Anchor to be awarded Grand Prize, realistically these are the guys to beat first.!  I would love to check out their projects, note their usefulness and maybe tips they could take away to make it even better. Positivity is everything and even though this is a competition I would help any of them with their projects.

PolySense

DIY hobby servos quadruped robot

naminukas

Sky Anchor WiFi Drone with AP brings the GIG

SOLO, A Universal Motor Controller

BlueRetro

Arduino controlled photogrammetry 3D-scanner

ARMAWATCH & ARMACHAT - long range radio messengers

JBC soldering station

DP Ventilator

In weighing options ( pun intended ) for higher altitudes, we started brainstorming lighter high speed air frame to ground connections. Higher altitude results in better long range coverage and the least amount of direct line interference. The  physical Ethernet sky to ground connections starts getting heavy for the drone the longer the length. As an option to save weight when above 100 feet, we are building a load out option to have a downward facing direct CPE to CPE link. The 5G 2x2 MIMO CPE and AP weights in at just 3.6 ounces. This is hard to beat even for a 20 foot long ethernet.  We may try either / or the 2.4g or 5g ,but weight is about half on the 5g antennas. Also if needed the downward link can also be a standard WiFi AP using one of the two 2x2 MIMO antennas or enabling TDMA ( Time Division Multiple Access) which is the same tech that cell phones use to increase the number of customers served at once on a single cellular tower.

Here is my super awesome descriptive doodle. We would still have the 220 volt tether, but it is much lighter per foot than a Cat5e or Cat6 200-400 foot cable.

The above picture describes the ground station to air frame tether, but a downward direct WiFi link could lighten the load in contrast of the much higher weight of a 200-400 foot long Ethernet.

JOIN THE RESISTANCE!

DIY DUMMY LOAD for testing the home made power supply before being tested on the drone in the air.

I wanted and needed a way to safely apply a load to the power supply to test the capacity of the power supplies I am building. They are rated from the manufacturer at 504 watts on 12 Volts and 42 amps. I do not want to damage the brand new power supply so we will gradually apply a load and connect a amp meter and thermocouple to monitor temps. We also need to know what heat sink would be best if any to keep it within operating temperature. We have a FLIR ONE camera to monitor both the temps on the power supply and the resistor bank too. It this case we have a 1/4" aluminum bar with double sided heat sink tape holding the resistors on. If this tape is not good enough we will move to past and screw in the resistors, but I think it will be OK. Plus we are only running the resistors at half capacity to reduce the chance of damaging one or more of them.

Let me say, the standard landing gear mounts that come with " heavy lift" kits. Basically the ones that are taller and raise the drone up off the ground. So as with everything else on this machine I and Thurindu have engineered a two piece clamp style that is much easier to remove and make adjustments to. The part is already so small there is no room for weight reduction, instead I added strength and functionality for approx the same weight.

Here are all the 8 degree dihedral arms in their place on the 6 point frame. Originally it was a DJI frame but we have since modeled and 3D printed lighter PLA based alternatives. This is good for anyone who cannot get their hands on a DJI or similar 6 point clone frame. My friend Tharindu added his idea for light landing gear. It should be similar in weight to the 1.6 ounce arms. I’m consider 6 legs but that might be overkill. I believe I will take the frame apart tomorrow some time to start swapping parts to the next versions