3D-Printed Quadcopter

GOALS:

With previous experience with 3D-printer, I want to combine my dreams of making with my favorite hobby: flying an airplane or a quadcopter. Buying motors and processor from an online store, I would still have to 3D design a working model and solder any component onto the processor.

PROJECT:

Quadcopters come in all sizes and shapes, so I spent 2 weeks on selecting the best and most cost-efficient model to fly. After hours of YouTubing and reading online forums. I decided to go with parts from the RC Eye One Quadcopter. After 2 weeks of waiting, the parts came in.

I received 4 motors, 1 processor, 4 standing gears and one battery holder for $60. It does not get any better than this.

Quadcopter body can be categorized into two main shapes: One round hollow shell or an X-shape body. I decided to combine the two and went onto 3D Fusion to test it out: 

After an hour of wrestling with the program, I came up with this. But I wasn't very happy with this design because I know it will take the printer a long time to print because of its solid shape. Time for the 2nd design:

I managed to create on hollow shell, time to add more to it.

It took me 2 hours to fully design a close to working model. This looked exactly like what I wanted, until I found flaws in this design after the first print.

Because the four connectors are not on the same ground with the main body, the printer had some trouble with printing them without any floor support. Time to design the next one:

With this almost complete model, I was very happy with what was printed out.

Going through a similar trial-and-error process with the connector pipe, I finally managed to design a fitting pipe:

Things look good when I put them together.

However, it never flies. My quadcopter spins like crazy on the ground like this one:

So I had no other option but to dissemble my drone to rebuild everything with the new 3D-Printed body. This time, instead of using super glue which may have been heavy enough to change to balance of the drone, I switched to use tapes instead to connect everything together.

After much modding and messing up, I finished building this drone. This one is capable of flying 15 mins and its very easy to maneuver.