3D-Printed Drone
Spring 2021 ~ 2 Person Collaboration
Overview
I aimed to create a miniature 3D-printed drone aimed at higher flight time, faster airspeed, and cheaper cost. At the same time, I wanted to practice my 3D CAD skills in SolidWorks and to develop proficiency with my newly purchased Ender 3 3D printer. This is a collaboration project with a friend, whose specialties were the flight electronics.
Objectives
- Reuse parts from a scrapped SYMA X5UW drone, wherever applicable, to save on costs and design time.
- Improve the groundspeed from 5 mph to 10 mph and flight time from 7 to 20+ minutes primarily by reducing structural mass.
Skills
Mechanical Design: CAD (SolidWorks), 3D design, structural lightening, design for manufacturing, design for cost
Prototyping: 3D printing (FDM), testing procedures
Electronics: Circuit design, battery & motor selection
Other Skills: collaboration, communication
Key Tasks
In our 2-person team, I was responsible for the mechanical, propulsion, and structural aspects of the design.
Initial Prototype
Product Isometric View
- Designed, printed, and assembled a 3.5" long x 3" wide x 1" tall drone comprised of 9 parts.
- Iteratively designed a frame that reduces size by 800% and weight by 200%.
- Selected new set of motor and propellers with similar power requirements to increase groundspeed.
- Increased expected flight time 4x by replacing original 3.7V 500mAh Lithium-Polymer (Li-Po) batteries with a 3.7V 2000mAh Li-Po battery.
Main Challenges
Challenge: During test flight, the propellers spun for half a second until the power indicator on the electronics board turned off. This occurs repeatedly upon power start.
Result: After repeated testing and review of our design, we concluded that the SYMA electronics board was not designed to take the current draw required by the new motors and thus shut itself off in protection. This was previously missed in the electronics analysis.
Outcomes
- Gained experience with weight minimization and design for manufacturing
- Practiced working with SolidWorks and FDM 3D Printer
Exploded View
Assembly
Size Comparison
Links
