Carbon Fiber FPV Quadcopter image

Carbon Fiber FPV Quadcopter

Project Overview

I designed and manufactured a 6" FPV-capable quadcopter, machining a custom carbon fiber frame and hand-soldering the electronics for a durable, flight-ready build.

Skills Used

Rapid Prototyping Design for Manufacture Soldering Component Compatibility Research Fusion 360 CAD Fusion 360 CAM FDM 3D Printing CNC Machining

The Problem:

Building a durable, flight-capable FPV quadcopter from scratch requires balancing a lightweight but rigid frame, reliable electronics, all while keeping the frame small enough to fit my available manufacturing equipment.

Design:

I designed the quadcopter frame in Fusion 360 to support 6” rotors, splitting the design across two stacked floors so each piece would fit within the working bed size of the available CNC machine. After first testing a FDM printed PETG prototype (with some additional ribs). The frame was milled from 5mm carbon fiber sheet for strength and rigidity, with a 3D-printed (PETG) mount added for the FPV camera.

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Manufacturing & Assembly:

After machining the carbon fiber frame components, I hand-soldered all of the onboard electronics to assemble a complete, functional build.

quad-handheld.jpg quad-assembled.jpg

Results:

The completed quadcopter flew successfully, with the carbon fiber frame proving strong and remaining fully intact through flight testing.