I Cut My Legs OFF !!

[Calvin]

Yup, this morning I removed them from the air frame, set them in my miter box and cut 30mm off each leg.

The camera used to sit about 2 1/4in off the ground with the stock Rakon legs, now it's about 3/4in off the ground which is a bit higher than in the stock air frame.

Also got & cut the H camera gimbal cover / transport lock or what ever you want to call it, that project is still in the works, plastic weld from Permatex is the glue I'm using, very strong stuff and bonds to just about every type of hard plastic but not nylon.

Don't worry, I'll post pics when everything is in finished condition, right now during construction it's kinda ugly.

 

[Merlin274]

What was the reasoning for cutting the legs? I'm getting ready to do a rebuild myself ever since we talked about it before, very interested in seeing it in before pictures during and after. If you could or send them to me directly as you have my number ( it's Dennis) good luck

 

[Calvin]

I wacked them off because when I got all done with the build it increased the camera ground clearance almost 2 full inches, it looked like it was up on stilts.

Once things are together with the Loc-Tite it's very difficult to remove the screws just to show it,

I'm still in the process of finishing the cross brace for the legs, need that piece to reduce deck flex and maintain the strength of the air frame.

I'll try to post a pic or two in the next few days.

The difference is really astounding, even the H looks like it's up on stilts to me, top heavy, won't get an idea for the H until I have some flight time with it.

 

[Calvin]

Well, it's raining outside so this is as good as it's going to get for now

This first set of 3 pic's you can see how low things got with the legs chopped.

The last on one the right and the bottom pic I pulled from the net so you can kind of see the difference it made when I cut the landing gear down.

Also is the gimbal transport support I made out of an "H" camera gimbal support

 

[Calvin]

Now with the cover off you can see the foil under the GPS like it was,,,, sort of was in the stock Q500 airframe, then with the top deck off you can see how I ran my wires,

These are belly shots, you can see the little white "Compass Sensor" flag looking thing, yeah that's where and how it mounts.
Took a lot of searching the net for a photo of it cause in the instructions it wasn't clear to me.

 

[Calvin]

And here are some pic's of where the wires run up along side the outside of the battery box, and another of the compass sensor bracket.

You might notice the little black blob's of hotmelt I used to keep the wires in place.

 

[Calvin]

And let me add to this, the feet of the landing gear are long enough that if the bird tilts forward the camera will barley touch before the nose piece of the body shell, it's kind of hard to see but the camera is still almost a full inch off the ground.

There ya go Dennis, if you have questions I'll be glade to help.

 

[Merlin274]

Very very nice I love the look much better then the pictures I've seen on YouTube that is awesome. Keep me posted and I'll definitely refer to you when I get around to doing mine . I just bought a whole bunch on drone and racing drone parts, motors , frames esc's to much to name but like a large tote box full for very cheap. I swimming in parts , looks like enough to build about 5 or 6 really nice drones

 

[ryler3]

Thank you for sharing the pictures, Calvin. It helped me figure out where to place the compass. I'm almost complete with my rakon project except for a motor I had to replace due to a stuck aeronaut prop. Previous owner crashed the drone and didnt bother repairing it so I bought it and put it on a rakon body. May I ask what the main advantage is when you cut the legs off?

 

[Calvin]

It puts the airframe center of gravity, CEG, closer to the ground, easier to land in the wind

With the longer legs it seemed to teeter when first touching down, the foot print of the landing gear doesn't change much but you will also have to shorten the cross brace, that I did with a stiff plastic tube that I found at work.

First I cut the cross brace in half at the center, then installed it on the landing gear and made one more cut so they were touching butt to butt.

Then I smeared some plastic weld on each half of the rod plus on the end, pushed some into the tube too.
Not too much because it won't push out around the rod, so just enough on the ends for them to touch inside the tube.
Finally installed it on the landing gear while the glue was still "wet" that let the ends rotate to match the angle of the legs.

it was some work but I think it was worth it, replacement legs are easy to get if you screw up.
The alignment holes for the leg screws were a bit tight, ended up just making the holes larger for them.

One thing I should have done was to completely assemble everything before applying the Loc-Tite to the screws.
Doesn't take that long to pull it all apart again and add the loc-tite.