Flying mini quads was a hobby I got into late 2015, my first wasn’t very powerful and was unable to lift the weight of a GoPro. Since then I made a second (after I lost the first to a pool) and now am on my third (after I lost the second over a valley). Flying mini quads FPV is a lot of fun, but it is ultimately an individual experience unless you have a spare pair of goggles, or monitor to share the action live… Or you can record it.
So with a handy 3D printer in my arsenal I went about learning a new program called Fusion 360, a very powerful program that I have barely scratched the air above the surface of.
I fly with my FPV camera angled up 20º so I knew I wanted to mount the GoPro at a similar angle. Using my digital calipers I measured the dimension of the GoPro and designed a snap latch style enclosure for the sides of the camera. To hold the back and front of the camera I used a small extrusion, smaller at the front and larger at the back, enough to offer it a strong support. This enclosure was tilted back 20º, adding a small base the length of the enclosure itself and with the width of the mini quad’s top plate. I printed it in a ‘clear’ PLA with 20% honeycomb infill and the first version printed out successfully, though I hadn’t accounted for shrinkage of the plastic. I used a hair band to hold the two latches closed, as without it they didn’t hold firmly. I attached the case to the top of the mini quad using a velcro tie over the top, front and back, in between the power button and lens.
In the field it took a bit of a bashing and held up well. In fact it worked so well that in a crash it the velcro broke first, hurtling the GoPro and mount across the ground with no damage.
There are some definite improvements I could make to this design in future if I was to update it, but I don’t intend to.
