These are the parts that arrived which we purchased for the waterproof ability.
We opened the instructions on the website to follow and the first thing was to test fit the front window and rear watertight covers. Being able to ‘not sink’ if it lands in the ocean doesn’t guarantee the drone will survive, but it really helps keeping the internal electronics dry and re-usable for the next version of the repaired drone. Unless a shark eats it or maybe a whale decides it would be fun to tail slap it.
The top picture shows the water-tight window in place and the bottom picture shows the hatch in the rear that has a water-tight seal as well. We twist the simple tabs to firmly hold the front and rear covers in place. These covers sit on a nice round rubber seal that will keep out any water if properly seated in place.
The fasteners were carefully tightened to make a snug fit while not over tightening. Over tightening could result in damaging the painted surface.
Next, we put the buoyancy aids on the body utilizing two large Velcro sections. These are what give the drone it’s ability to float. Along with the special salt-water sealant that will be applied at all the entry points on the inside of the drone body.
These Velcro fasteners hold on these two buoys onto both sides of the drone. This is one of the easier steps in construction of this drone.
Then, we are to build the top plate assembly which is part of the wing/arm assembly(they hold the motors out away from the main body). First we install the arm holding devices. Later, after assembling everything, it was discovered that installing the arms prior to fitting the top and bottom plates together was much easier than trying to force the arms into their positions. The directions are obviously not for novice builders as most of the details of construction are left out.
The Top Plate is part of the arm assembly that carries the motors. This part will face upwards once the entire assembly is complete.
Also, the predrilled counter-sunk holes (green arrows above) did not allow the screws to sit flush and required additional drilling to fit the bolts properly. This proper fit allow four of the arms to collapse and fit together into a more compact package for transporting. On each bolt were two washers on each side of the arm retainer.
In this picture we can see the non-movable arms mounting hardware. There are two clamps on each side of the center cut-out that will squeeze the round graphite arm shafts to hold them in place.
Next, the instructions had us place the Movable Arms Retainers on the bottom plate. We will put the top and bottom plates together facing each other and the bolts will hold it all together.
Bottom plate showing the retainers that hold the ends of the arms in place with a screw that passes through the sides and squeezes the device together. The piece that looks like a C is the component that holds the arm in flight position.
As was mentioned earlier, it was easier to install the arms before attaching to the top plate. Then, the grommets, standoffs and breather tubes were to be installed. First, the grommets were installed by squeezing them into the holes on the top of the body. This was tricky and required or was helped by fingernails. Perhaps a small flat device like a screwdriver might have worked but the grommets were somewhat soft and damaging them seemed possible with a metal device, so they were pried in with fingers and fingernails as it were.
The rubber grommets provide a passage for all the wires that are used to power the motors that will sit at the end of each arm. There will be three wires for each motor, so that’s 18 wires of 16 gauge that must be manipulated through these holes.
The Standoffs were next and we noticed the screws did not sit flush, but the first time around it was left as-is because the directions said “pre-drilled” and it was assumed they were as they should be.
These four posts that are sticking out of the bottom plate are the standoffs. They lift the plates off the body and hold all the arms in place.
Then, the breather tubes were installed through the two outermost grommets leaving at least 4 inches extending above the top. The inside length was fastened to each side with two cable tie clips that had double-sided tape and two zip ties.
The breather tubes are just tubes that will allow air into the drone inside compartment. They will prevent the air inside the drone from getting too hot.
Figure 7. Breather Tubes Installed
This is the shot of inside the drone. You can see the breather tubes running down each side of the drone body.
The next step is to fit the GPS unit to the top of the Plate assembly.
This is the picture from the instructions. I noticed a few thing about this picture that were left out of the instructions. We actually guessed(correctly ) what some of the components were attached to.
Wait, hmm, the arms are attached? Well, the instructions don’t tell you to put them in. So, we take it apart and install the arms. This leads us to discover that the arms require adjustments to fit properly in their respective locations and the bolts that aren’t flush require gentle drilling so they also fit properly and allow the arms to collapse. This is the nature of instructions, they aren’t always complete and a more experienced builder is always needed to guide the novice. Thanks to Dr. Alberts for being there on this day, we were able to continue.
As a result the six arms were skillfully attached and the motor mounts were leveled with a small included bubble level. Anyone besides Dr. Alberts see what’s wrong with this photo?
We mounted the arms 90 degrees out from their correct location. This was the first thing our instructor noticed when he had a look at this blog. Attention to detail, experience, a willingness to learn, and the ability to laugh at your silly mistakes are all a few of the valuable lessons we learned this day.
This is where we ended our first day of construction. Total time spent for one team member was almost 5.5 hours. It was also determined that our Camera Support Gimble needed to be customized so as to not hit the window. We also need one or two other parts and expect them to be in after Thanksgiving.
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