That depends what level of competition you're aiming for. At the highest levels of competition sure, but the vast majority of people are going to be limited by time commitment and thus flying ability. If you're not aiming to be a serious competitor, the weight isn't going to be that much of an issue. Work on reducing weight when your current quad is bottlenecked by weight rather than your skill.
OP here. The weight is very important to me personally, and I spent a lot of time trying to shave as much plastic and CF as possible in the design, while still maintaining rigidity and strength. We are shooting for an all up weight of under 380 grams. My previous design is all up with 1,200 mAh battery is 452 grams with an HD camera attached.
However, I do agree. Skill and durability are really limiting factors nowadays, along with maneuverability. In the California Cup races, a few months back, most races were won by default, by the drone that was simply able to finish the race. Basically, the problem is, any contact with walls, nets, or gates currently knocks the drone out of the race. We are working on a few ideas to address that, to make it a bit more interesting. I'll post some more info once we have our prototype built.
That's surprisingly light! Well done. I happened to fall into a flying group that is very serious and they obsess about weight. My personal flying skills are not to the same level, but they are competing in (and winning) several competitions nationally. They've gotten down to 260g (everything but battery) with 12:1 thrust to weight ratio. Definitely a racing machine, no bells and whistles.
I like the idea you've got. How sturdy are the arms? We found with trial and error that a straight connection between the motors (think an 'X' and a 'box' overlayed) really improved crash durability.
I am guessing you are talking about Bolt XBR? It's a very awesome frame! I was considering adding webs for reinforcement, and may still add them as an optional extra bolted under the main frame in the front and the back. But the durability should be solid, of course I don't want to say much before I test it properly, I have a motto of under-promise and over-deliver :)
What I really wanted to concentrate on in this design is thrust path for the motors. Bolt is pretty good about this, but still not ideal. Many other frames really don't take this into consideration at all. But if you have a prop that develops 1,000g of thrust, but well over 30% or more of the area under the prop is blocked by the body of the quad and the arms, you are not really getting 1,000g of thrust at all. This is also my main objection to tilt rotor designs. I tried to slim down the arms as much as possible while maintaining rigidity, and still being able to place ESCs in the thrust path to keep them cool. Again, I don't want to say much until I build a few final design prototypes and test them though :)
If you would like, could you send me an email through my blog. I would love to talk to you more, perhaps see if guys from your group would want to test a prototype when I have a few done.
Nice work! What are you modeling in? Any in-flight beta units of with video? Once you're considering a couple of beta units you might consider RTV molding.
I am modeling in AutoCAD for Mac, which is quite annoying, because, by comparison to the Windows copy, the Mac copy lacks proper materials facility and a lot of other features. Even basic stuff, such as Copy to Layer. But oh well, such is life. AutoCAD is what I know :)
No beta units yet. My previous source for carbon fiber CNC production is out of that business. We just acquired an X-Carve CNC machine, so I'll be starting on cutting the frames as soon as the holidays are over. I have a previous design which has a similar layout, but this should be lighter, and about 25% more thrust, so it will be very fun.
As for RTV, I have to research that. I really like the toughness and finish of the nylon parts from Shapeways, but the price point for them is insane. It's fine for prototypes, but for production I would love to do injection nylon plastic. I never done anything like that though, so it will be interesting to research and do.
Yeah, I am. I am designing a vacuum system for the X-Casrve CNC. CF dust is really bad for electronics and your health, as you mentioned it. My vacuum will have a filter and outlet to the outside.
