Working with many educators and teams from across the country, naturally best practices and techniques begin to emerge. This is why the newsletter and the U.S. Drone Soccer Association Portal exists: to highlight good things teams are doing and share with the wider community. Here are three techniques that will further prevent damage to drones during gameplay and keep your students in the air.
1. Zip-tie the receiver to the underside of the arm. You will see in the example, take your receiver and wrap it under the first arm to absorb some of the slack. Then using one of the zip-ties used to assemble the exoskeleton, attach the receiver to the underside of the frame. Make sure to secure enough so the receiver doesn't move but be careful not to overtighten or break the small box antenna found on the newer chips.
The position of attachment has several benefits. The first and most obvious, is to prevent the receiver from flying into a propeller and getting cut. The second is maintaining a good position for line of sight with the radio for reception. And third, you will notice with the capacitor on the right and receiver on the left, you always know where the aft of the drone is even with power off. When you set the drone down and begin to fly its easy to pick up on the orientation with as the controls are normal sensing, moving forward on the right stick means the drone will fly away from you.
2. Continuing from the previous tip, we recommend to zip-tie the capacitor and power lead to the underside of the other frame arm. There are currently 2 sizes of capacitor in circulation due to manufacturing differences but I recommend this in all cases. By securing the capacitor you are preventing stress on the soldering point from the capacitor moving during drone impacts or high G maneuvers. You are also preventing the larger capacitors from swinging down and hitting the LED board. Especially if it does not have a diffuser ring protecting the LEDs.
3. To preserve battery connectors we recommend securing the white battery balance lead and positioning the battery to help reduce the slack in the power cable.
To secure the balance lead we recommend either securing the battery strap but if the strap is not tight enough may result in the battery slipping out during flight. The other option is to use a rubber band to hold the lead close to the battery.
4. When attaching the battery ensure the labeling is visible and the power cable is away from the plug. This eats up slack and keeps the connection below the frame arm. Thus further preventing the cable from rising up and getting cut from the propeller.
Although none of these techniques will guarantee protection, they have a great track record amongst other teams to keep drones in the air during gameplay. If you have any follow up questions pleas give us a call or send us an email via the contact us page.