I am looking at various designs and see a few different types of arms being used:
- Flat cut carbon fiber sticks that join in the middle of the frame, sandwiched by CF plates and screws through them; used in FPV drones up to a quite large size (13+ in), at 10in and above they start coming with braces at the midpoint to rigidify them (see the MK4V2)
- Carbon fiber hollow tubes that end on the edge of the frame, held by mounting brackets sandwiched between CF plates, sometimes folding; usually seen in bigger Ardupilot drones 450mm and up to massive sizes.
- Less common, plastic arms of varied composition and configurations (hollow, trusses, etc) that if we exclude cheap toys are usually hinged for transportable low-performance camera drones like the Mavics.
I am wondering what are the pros and cons of each; which offers the best vibration dampening, strength, weight, cost; and so on. Why are flat CF arms prevalent in FPV drones while larger drones prefer tubes? What are the compromises?
1 post - 1 participant
