Open Sky Anchor WiFi Drone Brings The GIG

This is the newest and lightest assembly for the 5G and 2.4G WiFi gimbals, this is meant to serve a 65 degree cone from the gimbals. 7.4 ounces before the 4 rubber grommets are inserted and the 2.4G and 5g wifi unit. We have already weighted the 5G unit at 3.6 ounces and the 2.4G and 6.6 ounces. Adding those up should give us a little over 17.4 ounces, just a little over 1 pound all together. 

The was the previous frame for the WiFi array. We dropped 1.6 ounces off these two parts by themselves.

Here is the weight in for the V5 WiFi Array frame and servos. An even 1 ounce for the frame and mount by itself.

Sometimes it is hard to tell what the actual weight will be due to support filament during prints, but I believe I have shaved off at least 50 percent. Thurindu made changes first then I went over the edges with a fine tooth comb to reduce it even more. It is basically a skeleton in comparison to the first one. Like my friend DInk says, Build it to fly not to crash! I think he means as long as it works in the air, that satisfies all the parts requirements. This is an 11 hour print so we will get pictures of these bad boys tomorrow and also a weight in.

It is not exactly headline news that pushing a power supply above its 80 percent threshold will cause heat buildup. Luckily Delta , the manufacturer of the AC to DC voltage converter has an entire aluminum plate as the top machined surface. I have the challenges of both keeping this module cool in operation on the drone and also keeping the modules weight down as much as possible. Clever placement can take advantage of downward prop wash of the 12 propellers. So a fan directly on the heatsink is probably not an avenue I need to take. I do however need to make sure the entirety of the surface of the hot side on the converter is covered. The size is weird, about 112mm x 52mm. A standard size would either be too large and wasteful as far as weight conservation or much too small leave 12mm in each direction uncooked. I opted to buy a much larger heatsink and I will try to cut it down to the perfect size and smooth over mounting tabs so I can use screws to hold it down. Screws holding both the module and heatsink in place means I can take advantage of a decent thermal past like Arctic’s Silver for good heat transfer without the need of adhesive. Actually correction , I will use the MX4 since it is non conducive 

I received the first box of parts a few days ago , but the writing is on the wall , I needed to go ahead and get the parts for the second power supply 

Arrrg, We are here to take your Gee Bees!

This design is 4 pieces. First is the flag shaped back ground in black PLA , Next are the two Jolly Wrencher logos , one for each side and lastly the end strip with press clips that should just press fit to the 4mm GPS mast.

I will be using a couple different areas for testing. I will need to move out to the country for one test and then testing the urban area i have chosen here. I have posted on my facebook looking for volunteers to get connected on the project.  This does not encompass there entirety of the disaster area, however we need to start somewhere with testing, so I picked a more conservative  area of space about 1/3 to start with.

This is a 3 piece black and white 3D print which I plan to attach to the GPS mast of the Sky Anchor Drone, AAARGH, We Get the GeeBees!

This is the original DJI arm which weighs 1.8 ounces 

Success! The lightened design is both stiffer that the original, has a dihedral angle for stability and .4 ounces lighter as well supporting two motors in contra rotation.

Here is the newest 3D design for the drone arms. We have both 8 degree and 5 degree dihedral axis versions with " Hackaday 2020" on one side and "Sky Anchor" on the other. A variation of the Jolly Wrencher logo adorns the space between the text. After physical modifications I found that I was able to reduce the weight to the OEM 1.8 ounces and now with the newest variation of the design it could be even lighter, yet still maintain strength and more rigidity than all the previous versions. The first two arms are on the printers now with an estimated print time of 12.5 hours. I will update everyone once I have the new ones off the print bed. This is not where we will stop to reduce weight on the air frame. We still need to lighten the top and bottom plates of which currently we have 4. The spacers between plates are just rectangular and these could be lightened a couple ounces between all of them. Also the entire top level that is vibration isolated will be removed in favor of only vibration isolating the Pixhawk itself. The new power supplies will be 3/4 the size of the old ones, so we will likely design a newer and lighter power supply frame. The current landing gear will likely be removed in favor of a wider landing gear that doubles as a mount for 360 degree mounting for 8 of the 5G long range access points.