AutoQuad Forum

I have a few questions as I embark on my first Quatos based build.

Here is a pic of the frame to be used...

The main part of the frame is unibody. The arms aren't separate. There is a small protrusion on the front where a pico camera will sit. On top there is a protective piece of carbon fiber held up by 4 standoffs. Then there is a lower level cage, which consists of a battery holder in back and camera holder up front. The arms are on standoffs which lifts the craft up.

Excuse me for my ignorance. Math and geometry isn't my strong suit.

Being that the arms are attached how do I determine the weight (mass) of each arm in the XML? Should I just measure the weight of the unibody and divide it by 4?

What would the body center be? My guess is if I put all 4 motors on and tied string from corner to corner that would give me a center. In terms of looking at the bodies dimensions, I'm going to assume that I'd measure the center portions length, width, and height -- this includes the unibody sans arms and the bottom cage. Is my thinking correct? Or is the unibody (main carbon layer) considered on entity and the cage another?

What if the ESCs are not in the same place on the back as on the front. How would this be represented in the XML in terms of distance from center?

Do I need a caliper to do measurements or is a simple ruler sufficient?

Thanks for helping out!

Hi Mullet,

well, you Need to make some assumptions with this frame!
Here is a complex model of a RCTimer Spider frame that I've created as an example: viewtopic.php?f=48&t=4456&start=40#p33002

For your frame I would slice the unibody to see if it gives some weight for the arm. If not, just use 0g for the arm or add a little weight to the motors. The rest is pretty much up to you! You can make it complex, weighting/modelling all Major parts or just treat it as a box.

Where will you Mount the battery?

Joerg as always thanks for your guidance. Your spider frame looks quite complex! I'm going to have to spend some time to analyze this.

The battery fits into the bottom level battery / 808 #16 v3 camera holder shown below. It's actually 3 carbon fiber pieces held together with the blue dampers.

I plan on using the holder as one cube and then the battery and camera as separate cubes within that cube if that's possible.

I'm not sure what you mean by "slice" the frame. My assumption is to weigh the piece and divide by 4 or 8. Otherwise, I could try 0 for <arm>.

Looking at a few XMLs I did see a <geometry> option that I didn't see in the wiki. It looks like it's based on the custom config. What is the syntax for this - <motor port="1" rotation="+1">+0.175, -0.180</motor>

I understand the first two variables but not the last two.