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Modifying the Chassis

A project log for The THz Drone Project

I am working on a project to fly a THz Spectrometer on a drone. This will enable spot measurements of important atmospheric molecules.

joseph-demersJoseph Demers 05/28/2016 at 20:230 Comments

After making sure that the SBC would operate the system, the next question to answer was could the drone lift the system: I had a 7 kg weight limit. I put all of the components onto a scale and did an initial weigh in. Surprisingly everything together weighed 3.8 kg - well under the 7 kg weight allowance. I was told this would give me approximately 15 minutes of flight on the DJI-S1000. While this is adequate, it would be nice to have more time. So I set about trying to find ways to cut the weight. I took a careful look at the chassis and found section of the chassis that could be physically removed to save weight. I then marked these sections and sent them to Descher Automation in Raleigh NC out for machining. I also sent along an extra chassis cover that needed to be modified to allow the SBC and hard drive to be mounted to it.

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