Vibration damping motor mounts - clever or stupid?

[@PhilipStubbs]

I call this a success. May not have fixed the problem you wanted, but makes for a very resilient platform.

[@mainsail1235]

Wrapping the booms with vibration dampening material, such as honeycomb foam, may help. It is basically a low-pass filter. Have you ever touched a vibrating guitar string or a ringing bell? That's the dampening effect. Among other things, the thickness and size of the cells in the honeycomb would determine the cut-off frequency (and harmonics) of the filter. Try experimenting with it. Even a kitchen sponge would help. Some types of wood are actually pretty good resonators. Although changing the metal booms to wooden material may help a bit, I don't think the gains would be very dramatic. There are three major rules to solve almost any vibration issue: 1. Generation -- try to generate less vibration in the first place. I think that's obvious. (Dont' worry, I will not tell you to balance the props and the motors again) :) 2. Isolation -- try to mechanically isolate the vibration generator from the rest of the system to filter out most high amplitude noise. it may be as simple as a few layers of foam tape under the motor mounts or as complex as a high speed actuator (e.g., a speaker connected to a phase inverter circuit with a microphone) that would generate phase inverted vibrations to cancel out the unwanted noise. This is analogous to a noise canceling headset. 3. Dampening -- try the low-pass filter method above to filter out most of the remaining vibration from the system by dampening the conduits (here, the booms).

[@DutchRC]

To bad man! But it sure was a good experiment. New knowlidge in the bag I'd say! What would you think of swapping the allu arms out for wooden ones? I would think wood would transfer less vibration?

[@iforce2d]

yeah wood should be slightly less vibration than aluminium, but also not a huge change I think.

[@DutchRC]

***** I think there could be more dampening then you think :) Wood isn't used on axe handles for nothing :)

[@wiatroda]

I think that solid piece of wood, esp hardwood transfers vibrations more than a skeleton-type construction although it is still better than aluminium profiles. My very first and 100% plywood copter does seems to be quite stable. plus.google.com/photos/110599126923439344534/albums/6114518952892242081

[@DutchRC]

Hoopoe Good point! The kind of wood definately has quite an impact on the vibration-stransfer.. I have to admit I have no reall knowlidge in that field.. But yes.. I've sen quite a lot of self-build wooden copters perform Very well :)

[@wiatroda]

does the vibrations of the motors affect the gyro, stabilisation and behaviour of the quad?

[@iforce2d]

I've heard people say they do, but that has not been my experience. It's more of an issue for recording nice video from the camera.

[@CutterSlade001]

It does if you set Multiwii to use the standard lowpass filter, but if you set it manually to 42Hz your vibration must be VERY bad to disturb it.

[@wiatroda]

very recently i've made a 4mm plywood quadcopter and it seems to me that plywood absorbs a vibrations.Although I don't have a camera to confirm it. That how it looks like: plus.google.com/photos/110599126923439344534/albums/6114518952892242081

[@Bob_Burton]

At about 5:30 you mention testing. What was the purpose of turning the propeller upside down ?

[@iforce2d]

Just to reduce the risk of it jumping up off the desk and hitting me in the face :)

[@Bob_Burton]

***** Sorry, but I don't see how putting the prop on upside down would do that.

[@iforce2d]

UKHeliBob ah... heheh right you are :) I mean I put the other direction prop on.

[@Bob_Burton]

***** I must admit that I did wonder if that was what you meant.

[@Latvina123]

what did you use in between the motor and the arm? what kind of foam?

[@MrDriveAndFlyRC]

Yeah man I just came to the same conclusion that aluminum arms transfer to much vibration. I redesigned everything to be wooden.testing tomorrow, but I've built wood armed quads before and they rock

[@RobertShaverOfAustin]

Was that Mt. Fuji on the horizon near the end of the video (just before the landing gear test)?

[@iforce2d]

yup!

[@miniwarrior7]

that vibration clip is very very similar to a missing C Clip on the motor.. speaking from experience!

[@morez39400able]

if you use two different materials to never fall on the resonance of the engine ?

[@morez39400able]

résonance(fr)=harmonic (eng)

[@owenkilleen]

What quadcopter frame is this? I'm looking for a good foldable one. :)

[@iforce2d]

+owenkilleen This is a 'X525' frame. It's not that good though, you might want to try something else :)

[@owenkilleen]

Ok, thanks. :)

[@thElectric01]

"Testing the landing gear" :D:D What motors are you using?

[@iforce2d]

These cheap-ass motors: www.banggood.com/Simonk-30A-ESC-With-QM2812-980KV-Brushless-Motor-Set-for-RC-Model-p-931807.html They seem to work perfectly fine so far though.

[@ThunderBret1]

I guess some of the vibration is caused by the joints on the mainframe, because it's not a realy solid connection. Have you tried putting something there for better damping ?

[@iforce2d]

No, that's a bit awkward because the mounts need to swing around to fold the frame. My idea was to keep the frame as one piece, so to follow that plan I would be wanting to make that connection as hard as possible rather than damped.

[@muh1h1]

did you actually balance your props or are they straight out of the factory? :)

[@iforce2d]

Straight out of the factory

[@PaulRogalinski]

Balancing the props made a huge difference in wobble-terms for me.

[@muh1h1]

Paul Rogalinski For me Too, btw, hi paul, can't believe to find you here :D

[@overpowered-decal]

I think that the only way to stop jello, is to put a vibration dampener directly on the camera mount

[@nielsencs]

I think this is a definitely an improvement on the previous layout. I don't know if this will help, but I did see a youtube video where a guy had used 'moongel' (idrums.co.uk/moongel/?___store=default&gclid=CjwKEAiAmuCnBRCLj4D7nMWqp1USJABcT4dfUZ9mmtTACyb5ccSv9DWdXPH9xbzqBX7xfSlhBIb_cRoCJi7w_wcB) designed to dampen vibration on drums - worth a try?

[@birdseyeview1543]

Balance your props and motors. You'll be pleasantly surprised.

[@donovanpl]

Well, if the effort was to decrease the vibrating effects on the camera, why not mount the camera on dampeners instead.

[@iforce2d]

The effort was to see what difference this would make.

[@rickburnout666]

Try using wooden arms and you will get a lot less vibration

[@rjmprod]

Not related but why not try ping pong balls instead of golf balls...lighter and can take a beating, and probably will help float if you land in water!

[@kn2002wroc]

This is foam! Not sponge.

[@iforce2d]

ok

[@CutterSlade001]

You should try laser balancing your props AND motors, it worked wonders for me. kzbin.info/www/bejne/hqLXhoaJmctrmJY . But additionally I had to construct a very soft gimbal for my Mobius. I sent you a video of my successful but ugly Mobius gimbal.

[@iforce2d]

This was a test to see how much difference the motor mounts made compared to my last video, so I wanted to keep everything else the same. I also wanted to have some vibration so that the mounts would actually have some work to do. Wouldn't the shifting center of mass of your camera cause a problem for the flight controller trying to stabilize the aircraft?

[@CutterSlade001]

***** I get that, promising idea I think! I just ment in general if you want to eliminate jello you should start there. But if you want to notice a difference I get that not balancing might help. But if you really want to see the differences you have to try the laser method it's genius! Maybe you could try another foam, like the one used in hearing protection ear plugs because I think your foam works more like a spring than like a dampener. Foam from ear plugs is viscoelastic which actually "destroys" the vibration energy into heat more and is not as "springy". Actually the copter flys excellent. My experience now is that if you set up Multiwii accordingly you can get a very robust flying platform. Also I think my gimbal acts like a lasy pendulum and unless I fly extreme maneuvers it's not moving much. I hoped the pendulum nature of my gimbal would help in pointing the camera at a stable angle to the ground/horizon when pitching forward but as it turns out the airspeed cancels that out almost completely.

[@ilanmagen]

How about do eventual prop balancing ? with something like this : amzn.to/17bADUg

[@iforce2d]

Yes, I know about balancing motors/props. This was a test to see how much difference the motor mounts made compared to my last video, so I wanted to keep everything else the same. I also wanted to have some vibration so that the mounts would actually have some work to do.

[@ilanmagen]

***** Love to watch your final conclusion. Thank you for your videos