How do you mount your flight controller? Flight Controller Integration for FPV and RC

I'm guessing I spend way too much time on my Flight Controller installations.
I know many folks simply glue theirs into their RC or FPV aircraft, but I can't. I enjoy the design and build of Flight Controller mounts and integrating the other components and accessories involved. I try to engineer for crashworthiness and reusability.
These are some of my efforts.
Here's a link to the Flight Test Card Antenna Mount:
www.thingivers...

[@mikebergman1817]

You are a kindred spirit. I will spend my weekdays lining up parts and ideas to set myself up for building planes are quads on the weekend. More than flying them. It is just my favorite thing to do. Cool content, thank you for sharing it!!

[@usefulaircraft]

Thank you, I completely understand. In many ways, there is a deeper satisfaction to getting that build just right. It puts order and satisfaction in my universe. I'm glad we share that.

[@MrZeek101]

Another great video Brent and I totally agree with your thoughts on sharing laser cutting designs and other designs you did the homework . And I really love the idea of your little placards to go on your antenna for switch positions that's genius . Take care

[@usefulaircraft]

Thanks! I really like the placards. I've had some guys ask why I need them - and I remind them in the jets I fly at work - we have written checklists that tells you to put the landing gear down before landing - and both of us read that out loud and verify it on every flight. These models are all different - and can be amazingly complex and capable devices with subtle (yet important) differences. Cheat sheets help keep it all straight. Thanks for your note.

[@cj1563]

Learnt a lot. Thanks

[@usefulaircraft]

Thank you. Glad to try and give back to the community.

[@eyalporat3027]

Awesome designs! really inspiring.

[@usefulaircraft]

Thank you. I've got a few more things tucked away in planes that I'll get to as well. I'm glad you enjoy.

[@JetJockey_RC]

Great video Brett, Thanks for the tips!

[@usefulaircraft]

Thank you!

[@KofiAsare0]

Really nice work!

[@usefulaircraft]

Thank you!

[@chiparooo]

Very interesting discussion. I like the innovation in your designs. Could you discuss your transmitter and receiver set up a bit in a video? I saw where you responed to a comment you were using the Radiomaster Pocket and I am intrigued by this for the foam planes. Most info available is for drone usage. Thanks for sharing!

[@usefulaircraft]

I'll get a video together on this. I want to discuss the flight characteristics and some of my radio setup. Give me a week, as I'm working for a bit and I'm not around and flying, but I'll put something together. Thanks for the comment!

[@chiparooo]

@@usefulaircraft Awesome! I’m new to this and have only built a FliteTest foam 3 channel trainer. Building is no problem, but the electronics is confusing with all the brands, protocols, sizes, etc. Thanks for the reply and sharing your knowledge!

[@MeRejaul]

0:25 0:25

[@usefulaircraft]

My favorite parts too. Thanks!

[@itskevscott]

Cheers mate, very useful video, lots of great ideas! Thanks for sharing them! Interesting to see your move from Matek to SpeedyBee, I was thinking of doing the same. Did you encounter any gotchas going from one to the other? Keep up the good work 👍

[@usefulaircraft]

My transition to Speedybee has been pretty seamless honestly. While I thought I preferred soldering on the large Matek pads - I really hated the floating ESC signal lines (the flat pads just floating in the middle of the board). For the money - I'm not going back - unless Matek really competes on price or adds features that enhance it's feature set to a level that changes my view. It seems to me that Speedybee is really competing at a price/features proposition that's hard to beat. Now all my builds are relatively inexpensive - with the most expensive airborne components being the FPV gear - so I'm not really feeling driven to more robust systems that would be better suited for commercial operations - I'm just enjoying the flights. Thanks for your note!

[@itskevscott]

@@usefulaircraft Great advice, thanks!

[@rdyer8764]

Just found your channel and subscribed. Looks like lots of "Useful" stuff. :)) A quick question. I haven't extensively looked through your videos yet, so feel free just to send me to a previous one... Have you ever used vibration-isolation (rubber washers, etc.) on your controller boards to keep the higher frequency "movements" away from the accelerometer ICs? Foamboard construction may perform this function naturally, but I was wondering more for CF or other more solid frames. Thx. Glad to be aboard.

[@usefulaircraft]

Eliminating vibration is critical. Foamboard has some natural dampening tendencies - but the first place I always start is the propeller and flight control attachments. A misbalanced propeller will produce more vibration than anything else. Start with a well balanced propeller - both track and balance. When possible - multi bladed propellers are often smoother than two bladed props - but there are design considerations in selecting propeller types that may dictate certain choices. Loose flight controls also can lead to vibration. Check that control linkages are tight, and there is no slop at the flight control. As I can be a very lazy man - I’ll often just hit a loose linkage with a blob of hot glue, and that will often fill in loose tolerances until a proper repair can be implemented. As far as vibration dampening foam or rubber inserts - there are a variety of commercially available foam tapes (often times double-sided) that can work to reduce vibration. I’ve had a roll of something by 3M that works fairly well - but I have no clue where or when it appeared in the garage, and I doubt it was aviation related. The best advice is to simply experiment. You can put the airframe on a test stand and see where the source of your vibrations are (although some vibrations only appear in flight - I’ve done plenty of test flights in jets chasing noises and vibration). The best effort would be in eliminating them at the source - piston engine planes use rubber mounts for the motors to help reduce vibration - and maybe that could be something to try - rubber motor mounts to reduce as much of the vibration to begin with - but again - start with balancing your prop and powertrain. Now you’ve got me wanting to experiment with rubber mounts incorporated into my motor mounts. Interesting… I’m curious what you find is the best path forward for you. Thanks for your note. I hope this helped.

[@rdyer8764]

@@usefulaircraft Absolutely it helped! Thanks for taking the time. I haven't played with quads for a while, but I bought 3-blade props for the last one I was building. I was using isolation rubber mounts for my controller, and I was balancing my props, but I hadn't thought of mounting the motors with vibration in mind, so thanks for that idea. I'll keep you up-to-date with whatever I do when I get back to it. Thanks again.

[@PolarisPilot]

Do you share your 3D print designs on any of the share platforms? I really like that placard idea.

[@MeRejaul]

@@PolarisPilot 📷📸

[@usefulaircraft]

I'm happy to share most of them - I just uploaded the antenna mount for you: www.thingiverse.com/thing:6690735 Let me know how it works out.

[@SwoopsRP]

What was that thing attached to the servo you showed at the end?

[@usefulaircraft]

That was a full flying surface flight control that I'll show off in another video. I was inspired by the F16's tail surfaces, and was looking to minimize parts count. It's effective at both, but it's needs significant airspeed for effective control. I'll have more on this later, I'm still experimenting. Thanks for your note.

[@danielzhou9968]

The pivot point needs to be at 1/4 chord, as that’s the location of the aerodynamic center for a symmetrical airfoil.

[@elegantcourtier]

What is the brand and model of your laser cutter?

[@usefulaircraft]

It's a G. Weike LC1290