Devlog #1: designing and printing the arms

kicking off a new project, an autonomous fire detecting and firefighting drone. the goal is a drone that can find and report fires on its own. starting with the hardware, so today i designed and printed the arms.

did the design in onshape. the arms are carbon fiber tubes for the length and stiffness, paired with 3d printed plastic attachments that clamp onto the tubes and hold the motors out at the ends. carbon fiber keeps them light and rigid, which is exactly what you want for the arms, and the printed parts let me make mounts that actually fit my motors and bolt onto the frame.

this session was mostly the build and assembly side, getting the carbon fiber pieces and the plastic attachments fitted together. feels good to have the first structural parts of the drone done.

solid start, the skeleton’s starting to take shape.