I’m making also very slow progress on my custom enclosure, inspired by elevate rocks.
The part is now going to production in PA12. I’ve good faith in it. I also plan to add a FC to benefit from the telemetry, accelerometer, barometer & gyro !
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Are you planning this as a load bearing part then? I doubt it in plastic even with thicker walls, since any twisting could affect the seals.
- The front section could be done with screws too. I have found some clips which could work though.
- ESC placement could be at rear, top, bottom or sidewall. Havent decided just yet. I think once the mockup has printed then it will be easier to see.
- Could definitely be bonded
- laying the cells cleverly can get them to ±40mm. I have a 44mm gap so room to play.
It will be a special composite so should have plenty of rigidity at a lower price than aluminium.
It will be sandwiched so should avoid twisting…
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Why not carbon fibre? 3d printed molds and two flanges for the seals and threads?
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Because speed, with the method I want to try I’d be able to use rapid production in comparison to carbon fibre and also massively reduce housing cost.
Nothing will be 3D printed other than mockups for sizing. I pretty much loathe 3D printing because it so slow for prototypes vs CNC. BUT it does massively reduce waste and cost so for this it will need to do…
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3D Molds would only be to shape the carbon, it’s easy enough to get complicated strong parts done quickly and the carbon cost is only like 50 bucks for such a small assembly. Anyway, will be interesting to see what you produce in the end.
For stability a sandwich structure would be preferable, I think. So the 3d print would act as the core of the structure.
Maybe than there is no need for a cnc part @Jezza?
Pressure molding rough composite structure and then finishing with CNC. It should produce a good solid part.
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I would prefer if Jezza is doing us CNC alloy cases 
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Plastics with chopped CF?
With the emergence of Bambulab, today printers are 2-3 times faster than a year ago.
Keeping the edges of the case straight would give you more space inside.
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Love it @okp !! Could you please share the components in your box? ESC, Transmitter and BEC + what are the other 2 items? thank you!
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Yes, I really wanted to have something “good looking” as I’ve way more space than I need. But I’m with you Jeremy.
@patfoil I’m going to run the very first dronefoil ! jokes aside, as the controller is a BLHELI32 based controller and that I’m (was) a bit into drone, I have added a FC (Flight Controller) to benefit from all the additional telemetry such as gyroscope, accelerometer, barometer, temperature etc etc… with the blackbox. This will allow me also to correlate the data after the ride remotely. It’s just for fun.
The controller does not provide 5V to the receiver so I’m using a 12S BEC and also another 12S BEC a bit more powerful to provide 12V (3S) to the FC.
Foil Technology I’m coming with my stupid ideas! in the meanwhile and now that it’s getting cold, I can’t wait to be back in Greece for my next holidays! https://www.instagram.com/p/CwuDPOhKGVr/
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Thank you!! all makes sense now, I was hoping for an Arduino in there too haha
Some updates
Battery size is 11s3p molicell 21700
I need to make some modifications now and also simplify some design elements which I think make sense.
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well done mate. you can put the controller on the front and then charge the battery via the square section on the rear. smart & effective. you may need to add few cms on the rear to allow cable passage.
so now you copy foil drive gen2?
No, I had designs dating back pre FD2. But it makes sense to build a prototype similar to theirs as well to see what design issues they may have ironed out along their path. One of the most obvious is that they have a database of over 100 masts and base plates. Looking at their slots automatically means you don’t have to get all these drawings and can progress at a much faster rate with good compatibility.
Every highly intelligent company would buy a competitors product and investigate the how’s and why’s on design decisions and normally reverse engineer and test. Then they redesign according to their product goals maybe incorporating some of the already solved issues.
Ultimately there are various areas I feel FD2 falls short in already which can be improved. So the 3D printed model has already helped with that…
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So one of the weird things here is that boards with a short, sloped tail will leave a longer rear exposed. Hence the need to keep a rear length in a sweet spot… I actually already feel its longer than needed.
Another element is I can now see why they went with aluminium as it allows the ESC to be heatsinked anywhere in the enclosure. giving a vast amount of options…
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