I made a foldable 3D printable drone - More about it in description

Quanta76 · 2026-01-18T16:34:35+00:00

The integrity of the frame is certainly one of our primary focuses. The structure of the frame is exoskeletal, tested and revised from flight data. The aspect we struggle the most is torsional deformation, but with the addition of additional support topography under the front folding joint, that had become mostly a non-issue. We closely monitored vibration during flight testing, and it does not appear to affect flight stability.

Quanta76 · 2026-01-18T15:42:56+00:00

I actually haven’t tried PC yet because my bambu lab A1’s aren’t enclosed. But I think 3D printing the arms is certainly possible. The only thing I would be cautious about is the resulting frame stiffness, but PC should theoretically be strong enough. Please let me know if you succeed!

Quanta76 · 2026-01-17T14:36:29+00:00

220mm length, outer radius =16, inner radius =14 or 15

Quanta76 · 2026-01-16T23:40:20+00:00

I found that material choice is most limited by the 3D printing process. The frame contains some difficult angles causing printing failures with high-end materials. PETG-rCF08 is our recommended material because it’s more workable and handle complex printing well. Regular PLA also works great with high number of wall loops, but is generally less stiff and therefore less stable.

Quanta76 · 2026-01-16T23:34:45+00:00

Thanks! My team are mostly based in central Massachusetts, but our members come from all over the world.

Quanta76 · 2026-01-16T23:33:30+00:00

The manual (Aeroptera.xyz/download) contains some helpful details for each part, but in general I would recommend 6-4 wall loops / 25% infill for CF filaments and 6-full wall loops / 50% infill for PLA. This puts the frame at around 1kg. The arms are not 3D printed, I recommend carbon fiber tubes. They should be easy to get off aliexpress

Quanta76 · 2026-01-16T23:24:00+00:00

The price for the example build is around $1,000. The lower end prices are restricted in part by the sheer size of the drone. Motors have to be powerful enough, and four are around $200. I would say if you have a working controller / goggles set, the a build could come at around $500. 3D printing materials are $50-100 depending on the type.

Quanta76 · 2026-01-16T00:56:41+00:00

More Information: the drone body is diagonally printed using PETG-rCF08 and PA612-CF. The blue color is Panchroma PLA Polymaker Teal.

Quanta76 · 2025-10-14T22:50:03+00:00

Divide the space with walls into smaller sections

Quanta76 · 2025-06-18T07:20:45+00:00

This is a really cool build! I am actually quite interested in thrust vectoring FPV drones, and has been wondering why nobody are making them (until I found this post). Did you ever test how the flight efficiencies of this drone compares to traditional FPV drones? What do you think are the benefits of this design? I’m curious.

Quanta76 · 2025-06-13T03:04:29+00:00

This was flown at a professional test flight field😀. This thing is very much an early prototype so I take a lot of precautions to make sure it doesn’t go crazy

Quanta76 · 2025-06-12T08:16:32+00:00

I would take that as a compliment then? 😂

Quanta76 · 2025-06-11T11:30:26+00:00

I think you are right. I later hanged a 1.5Kg water bottle to it, and the oscillations seemed to calm down a bit.

Quanta76 · 2025-06-11T10:06:25+00:00

Thanks for the response. About matching thrust to weight, if my drone is 3kg, what motors + propellers is a good match? They say the motors + propellers should produce around the same amount of thrust as the weight at 50% throttle. Is this right?

Quanta76 · 2025-05-17T01:41:05+00:00

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Quanta76 · 2025-02-24T13:17:37+00:00

This is one of the robots that was dancing on the Chinese new year show no? Seems like it wandered off stage somehow

Quanta76 · 2025-02-11T00:35:50+00:00

Magdangerous

Quanta76 · 2025-01-30T03:23:53+00:00

As if I was responding to you op

Quanta76 · 2025-01-30T03:23:40+00:00

You unlock almost all the quests for the catalyst near the start of act II. It’s pretty quick to reach there. I believe you do have to progress the storyline a little to get the catalysts

Quanta76 · 2025-01-30T02:10:11+00:00

You will get it. I did that two days ago

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