Homemade Chassis

[kitsune]

Hiya, About time I attempted something stupidly ambitious with the Iwaver. Inspired by the Carbon-fiber chassis and my desire to run a 5 cell Iwaver, but most definately not inspred by the price of one, I bought an Iwaver cos I m a cheapskate. (or the lack of 5 cell designs) I ve decided to design + build my own chassis, I dont have any carbon-fiber (except for some H plates which are no where big enough to do a whole chassis), besides at this point I m prototyping so it s not worth commiting the design to CF until its been tested.

This is my first attempt at a chassis build, so any tips/comments/advice would be appreciated.

I ll be posting as I go so here s the opening installment.

Concept Chassis that can take 5 AAA cells as low as possible (for COG reasons) and still fit a standard Iwaver shell

1st I started by working out the cell layout I wanted to use, and sketching the design, The layout seemed good so I went out and bought a set of 5 AAA tabbed batteries, laid them out in the configuration I hacd chosen and started designing around that … then I realised my first mistake …. my design is about 1 AAA battery to wide for the shell (the batteries dont stick out past the wheels but the shell won t fit over them … bugger. okey not a prob back to the drawing board, move on of the cells behind the rest, sketch it out, not enough room for the Hplate to move properly the motor will hit the chassis if I do that + I dont think I can get clips in the right place for the shell to fit … bugger MkII. ok obvoiusly you can t fitt all five cells flat against the lower deck, so I solder and glue a battery pack from the 5 cells that will fit with some of the cells raised up (raising the COG) the glue sets and as I m thinking about how to continue I notice that the servo case has a flatter part at the end … If only the servo was upside down I d have a chance … some quick maths later, it s close enough for me to try … bugger now I need to rip the battery pack apart and re do it as a flat pack.

Okey pack done, now to cut the 1.6mm aluminum (scrap donated by a customer of mine – thanks anderew 🙂 – left the dremel (well copy there-of) at work bugger again!

Whell that s where the project is at the mo more updates as I get into it. I m planing to put a bit of camber and castor into the steering set up having learnt what they are + do yesterday, hey I did say it was an overambitios project, if all goes well I might post the blueprints based on a working model if people are interested.

til later

[merc-blue]

kitsune. a custom chassis is a big job i got a few suggestions…
1. do it in plates eg. a bottom plate thena top plate
2. make the rear so it can just join ont a H plate
3. keep the fround asembly petty much the same (save pissing around with servos)

[kitsune]

Thanks for the advice
I think you’re right about the plates approach, I need to work out how to fit the shell on, but that ccan wait untill I get the hing to the point where I can drive it.
Also as you advise I’m planning to use the H plate to attach the rear – not gonna mess with that at the mo.
unfortunately I’m gonna have to flip the servo box or whatever you want to acll it over otherwise there won’t be room for the batteries.

[kitsune]

Update: prototype lower deck is almost ready, I’ve had to add a mini-lower deck on top of the main lower deck at the front to lift the servo so there’s enough room for the batteries and so that the front suspension will have room to move, while doing this I’ve worked out a way to give the chassis adjustable castor. I still need to drill hooles and thred them for the H-plate and glue the batteries in place,

Still need to make these parts …
Front upper deck, which will need to be adjustable for the castor to work properly.

Upper rear deck to mount the reciever on.

Mounting points for the shell

(and wire it all up + test)

so some progress made and quite a bit to still do.

[betty.k]

a grand scheme!:p can’t wait for pics and more updates!:8ball:

[betty.k]

a grand scheme!:p can’t wait for pics and more updates!:8ball:

[kitsune]

Still no pics, but the front upper deck is done and so are the mounting points for the h-plate. I need to redo the holes for the kingpins as I used the same spaceing as the servo arm – pity that I didn’t look at the blocks that the wheels are attached to, to kingpins need to be closer together, (I was wondering if I had miscalculated the width of the design until i realised what I’d done)

But at the mo the basic chassis prototype is done, I’ve learnt a few things and the next version will incorporate what I’ve learnt.

Once I’ve got some pics I’ll post them.

[kitsune]

Still no pics, but the front upper deck is done and so are the mounting points for the h-plate. I need to redo the holes for the kingpins as I used the same spaceing as the servo arm – pity that I didn’t look at the blocks that the wheels are attached to, to kingpins need to be closer together, (I was wondering if I had miscalculated the width of the design until i realised what I’d done)

But at the mo the basic chassis prototype is done, I’ve learnt a few things and the next version will incorporate what I’ve learnt.

Once I’ve got some pics I’ll post them.

[peteWah]

Do you want to get to work on a servo gear saver for when you build your new chassis, This would be a good addition…

[peteWah]

Do you want to get to work on a servo gear saver for when you build your new chassis, This would be a good addition…

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