Just exploring production of our waterproof design developed for use in close in filming of regattas and other boating events. The design is based on the KIS principle, Keep It Simple which means:
- All our frames are based primarily on easily available parts with a minimum of custom fabricated parts. The booms are all made from easy to source aluminum or carbon helicopter tail booms.
- Our frames are primarily all aluminum with aviation grade on the high end machines. Aluminum bends and can be repair easily. Carbon, eglass, etc may be lighter and may be stronger, but these materials break which results in costly repairs.
- Nearly all of our frames are modular and disassemble and reassemble quickly and easily. Most simply snap together.
-Our frames are built to be very strong and can take some abuse. Because fo the clip together designs in a crash the frame simply comes apart thus absorbing most of the impact. One of our quads and a Hexa are used in flight controller testing and development and they have both been involved in several crashes. The Hex once fell from 50m due to a connector failure. It was flying again in an hour. Try doing that with some other frames.
- All of our frames pack for easy transport. The waterproof frames even come with a custom dry bag. Metal or Pelican style cases will are made available for all of our frames.
- Our frames are very flexible in terms of load, configuration, camera mounts, etc. The basic quad frame can be converted to a hex or back to quad in 20min or less. The Octo frame can be converted or built as a quad, XY8, Y8, X6, or X8. We will also offer our own gimbals and mounting systems for other major mounts and gimbal systems.
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Some key features of the WetQuad are:
- The ESCs, flight controller, video tx, telemetry tx, GPS, RX are all keep in a nearly waterproof container. The only opening is a small pinhole which acts as a static port for the flight controller's altimeter in which water is prevented from entering by the higher ambient pressure inside the enclosure.
- The ESCs are mounted to the aluminum base of the enclosure with heat transfer glue or CPU grease. The enclosure base acts as a heat sink for the ESCs. Additional heat sinks can be added to the bottom of the base as required.
- The motor leads and gimbal extensions (if equipped) pass through a silicone seal in the bottom of the enclosure.
- The booms and camera mounting plate clip on. The quadrotor can be assembled or disassembled in less than a minute.
- Supports up to 28xx series motors and 13in props. In testing, we have lifted an Canon EOS 600 with 18-55 IS lens on 12in props. We do recommend flying with the cover off in this case though.
- Total weight without batteries and with jDrones large motors, 30A escs DJI Naza controller, and GoPro mount with waterproof case is 1.1 kg. No landing gear for amphibious flight.
- With the jDrones 880kv (large) motors, flight times on 3sP1 3600ma packs are 6-7 minutes. On 4sP1 5000ma packs flight times are over 12min with a gopro.
- Two types of landing gear are available as an option, camera mount mounted and folding boom attached.
Foam amphibious floats will be available. For testing 4 empty small plastic water bottles were taped to the arms for flotation.
Pricing has yet to be set. We are still working on a method of mass producing the custom parts (CNC machine coming soon!) The WetQuad will be available as a basic frame, with motors and escs, and RTF with DJI Naza, Ardupilot APM, or WKM flight controllers.
We can do one off orders now on demand. Please contact directly to inquire about pricing and configurations available.
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