Thingiverse
Rotor-Racing I-Laps sensor bar by QuackingPlums
by Thingiverse
Last crawled date: 4 years, 2 months ago
UPDATE July 4, 2017: Added STLs for 40mm pipe
Rotor-Racing has been using the I-Laps infra-red (IR) timing system ever since we began running drone races. The system uses 3 or more IR sensors mounted on or near the start/finish gate to detect the unique ID that is transmitted from an IR transponder mounted on each drone.
This sensor bar uses cheap, readily available PVC tubing to create a sensor array that compensates for drones that cross the line at a high bank angle. The minimum recommended number of sensors is 3, but we run 5 for standard BFPVRA/FAI gates (3 in the vertical section, 1 each in the 45 degree sections).
The main bar is constructed from ~3m of tubing, with a 135deg elbow for the bend at the top and a 135deg tee for the kick at the bottom. We use a standard weighted flag stand to hold ours up but a ground spike works equally well. The design includes spacers for padding out the flag stand pin to fit the vertical tubing.
The aperture template provides a means to line up and mark out the sensor recess before cutting it out. This ensures the smallest hole possible that allows the sensor to be inserted, whilst maximising rigidity of the pole and resilience against drone collisions.
The wedges are hot-clued to the back of the sensor bar and provide a flat surface on which to mount the sensors (we use velcro for this), keeping them well protected inside the tube without compromising their field of view.
The whole model is parametrically designed in OpenSCAD so I can produce parts for any size tubing just by tweaking a few numbers. I've uploaded STLs for 32mm and 36mm tubing, but if you need other sizes then leave a comment with inner/outer dimensions and I'll create another variation.
Rotor-Racing has been using the I-Laps infra-red (IR) timing system ever since we began running drone races. The system uses 3 or more IR sensors mounted on or near the start/finish gate to detect the unique ID that is transmitted from an IR transponder mounted on each drone.
This sensor bar uses cheap, readily available PVC tubing to create a sensor array that compensates for drones that cross the line at a high bank angle. The minimum recommended number of sensors is 3, but we run 5 for standard BFPVRA/FAI gates (3 in the vertical section, 1 each in the 45 degree sections).
The main bar is constructed from ~3m of tubing, with a 135deg elbow for the bend at the top and a 135deg tee for the kick at the bottom. We use a standard weighted flag stand to hold ours up but a ground spike works equally well. The design includes spacers for padding out the flag stand pin to fit the vertical tubing.
The aperture template provides a means to line up and mark out the sensor recess before cutting it out. This ensures the smallest hole possible that allows the sensor to be inserted, whilst maximising rigidity of the pole and resilience against drone collisions.
The wedges are hot-clued to the back of the sensor bar and provide a flat surface on which to mount the sensors (we use velcro for this), keeping them well protected inside the tube without compromising their field of view.
The whole model is parametrically designed in OpenSCAD so I can produce parts for any size tubing just by tweaking a few numbers. I've uploaded STLs for 32mm and 36mm tubing, but if you need other sizes then leave a comment with inner/outer dimensions and I'll create another variation.