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Protective bumpers for boom ends?

Discussion in 'Cinestar 8' started by Steve Maller, Nov 1, 2012.

  1. Steve Maller

    Steve Maller UAV Grief Counselor

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    Has anybody found something to protect the ends of the booms (in particular the motor wires)? I'm imagining some kind of plastic or light aluminum cage that would wrap around the boom ends and be easily removable for maintenance. I have the Quadrocopter build DVD, and the guy's instructions for using that coiled cable protector seems counter-productive, and in my estimation is of limited value.

    Or, if I build something, would people buy them? :D
     
  2. Andy Johnson-Laird

    Andy Johnson-Laird Administrator
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    I put the motor wires inside about four inches of heat shrink tubing that starts right at the motor, and then I use about five inches of plastic spiral wrap on top of that. I used 1/4" ID so that you really have to unstretch it to go around the motor wires (and therefore it has a good strong grip on it). Here's an example -- there are numerous vendors. Just ask Mrs. Google.

    Mine has been "field tested." Well, more accurately, "tested in an arboreal environment with subsequent ground contact." :rolleyes:
    It's tough to get mud out of the spiral wrap, but at least the boom ends didn't cut through the motor wires.

    Andy.
     
  3. Sam Slape

    Sam Slape Member

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    I covered the spiral wrap in another layer of heat shrink, keeps it tidy.
     
  4. Steve Maller

    Steve Maller UAV Grief Counselor

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    My concern is if you buttress the cables enough, the cable connection to the motor itself will become stressed. And if/when the boom arm hits something, it could cost you a motor. What I'm proposing is building a little bumper for the end of the boom arm without contacting the cables. Something like a tiny fencer's mask. :)
     
  5. Steve Maller

    Steve Maller UAV Grief Counselor

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    BTW, Andy, I'm enormously grateful for the hard work you put into your DVD. I purchased a CS8 kit from Quadrocopter, and I am enjoying the process of building it alongside you. :) Apropos, do you have a preferred way of collecting suggestions and/or feedback? For example, you drop these little wondrous tips and hints about tools and other widgets that'd be helpful in your suggested build. But I feel like it'd be very helpful to have a shopping list somewhere (like in a text file on the DVD) so that your customers can assemble the relevant bits before they start their build. I have a few other suggestions, but I'll hold onto them. Thank you again!!!
     
  6. Andy Johnson-Laird

    Andy Johnson-Laird Administrator
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    Yeah, you're right, Steve. If there's too much rigidity in the cable protection it will serve to transmit the impact force to the motor. But the spiral wrap around the heatshrink is not that right and it's only really there to cover the part of the motor wires that transit past the boom edge -- that's the "cutter" that's going to do a nasty to the wires -- so you really don't need more than a couple of inches of spiral wrap.

    I guess I put a longer length of spiral wrap on than I need to under the doctrine of "if some is good more is better." That doctrine probably doesn't apply here....

    Andy.
     
  7. Andy Johnson-Laird

    Andy Johnson-Laird Administrator
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    First and foremost, thank you for the compliment, Steve. Very much appreciated.

    Feel free to email me -- ajohnsonlaird AT me.com for suggestions regarding the DVD -- I'm not sure whether we'll do a corrected version, but I'll accumulate the suggestions and either post them at www.rathergoodguides.com or even on this forum.

    I've had several emails asking for technical support, or opinions on purchases etc. and I'm happy to answer those too, but truth be told, it would probably be better if you just start a thread on this forum and ask your question to me there, then the community of members can benefit from the questions and the allegedly helpful answers. I watch all the sections on the forum so I'll see the message.

    Secondly, regarding the shopping list: from our Better-Late-Than-Never department, see this thread, message #5 and 6, where I list a bunch of the things that I purchased with the URLs where you can get them.

    Things that I'm currently looking for (and someone else may know the answers) are:

    1. Good light weight solid rubber wheels for the landing gear. The lightweight foam ones that I original put on, end up deforming under the weight of the C8 and gimbal. (Sorry Morgan and anyone else who trusted my opinion on this....they just didn't hold up over time.)

    2. A good moderate current (e.g. 1 Amp) LED strobe circuit that's RC channel controllable, so that I can flash some Hobby King LED clusters. I tend to do a fair amount of low-altitude work and need all the help I can get to maintain copter orientation awareness when it's 20 feet up, 100+ yards away. I've tried the Flytron strobes (not bright enough for sunlight and they sent one dud but won't acknowledge the problem on their forum Edit: I just received a replacement in the U.S. mail -- no warning that they were going to do that, but bonus points for sending the replacement all the way from Turkey! Thank you Flytron!). I'm going to try actual RC aircraft strobes (concerned about the pulses of RF the system emits), and would also like to strobe the Hobby King LED clusters. I'm also going to try these bicycle strobes (may be too narrow a beam width, but they fit nicely around the booms and have their own power supply).

    Andy.
     
  8. SteveWilson

    SteveWilson Member

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  9. Andy Johnson-Laird

    Andy Johnson-Laird Administrator
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    Thanks, Steve. www.dpcav.com also carry switches.
    It's the strobe flasher product that eludes me... I could build one, but that's not the cost-effective use of my time.

    Andy.
     
  10. SteveWilson

    SteveWilson Member

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  11. Andy Johnson-Laird

    Andy Johnson-Laird Administrator
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    Hi Steve:

    I'd wondered about putting a second Extension PCB on the frameset, but as I use the first one for the boom LEDs to show low battery, I wasn't quite sure to what to connect the second Extension PCB up to. I need to look at the source code for the FC board to see whether there are any addition provisions for LED flashing and then burn some custom firmware.

    Andy.
     

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