3d printed FPV drone actioncam mount
I recently bought a “Runcam 5 Orange” actioncamera in a small cube-shaped form-factor for recording HD footage from my FPV drone. To mount the camera on the top of the drone and at the correct angle, a mount is needed.
There are a number of designs on Thingiverse, but I couldn’t find one that satisfied all my criteria:
- fits the camera dimensions
- fits the pre-drilled hole pattern on my quad
- protects the camera from impacts from front and top
I did print one of the partial pre-made solutions, which comes in the shape of a wedge that fits my camera and quad but does not offer any protection:
But then I decided to design my own solution. To save time, I found a premade model of the camera I bought on GrabCAD. Luckily, the original Fusion 360 design files are included, so I could use e.g. the chamfered edges directly as features to base my design on.
I designed a rigid case to encapsulate and protect the camera, with some thin foam added on some positions on the inside for impact dampening. The case hinges to the baseplate that is screwed onto the top of the drone on the back, and two “springs” connect the two in the front. This way the angle of the camera can be changed by simply replacing the springs with ones of different length. The final springs will be printed in TPU to be able to absorb the majority of the impact energy in a frontal collision.
After modelling everything, I exported the individual pieces into Ultimaker Cura, where I sliced them at a layer height of 0.2mm for our Wasp Delta 20x40 printer with a 0.4mm nozzle. I printed the case with supports and raft enabled, but disabled both for the other parts since they are all very flat and without major overhangs.
The parts came out pretty well and everything fit ok. The first baseplate I printed was a bit too weak though and broke quickly at the first minor drop. The holes for the bolts also had a little too much play, so on the next iteration I made them undersize and used a hand drill to open them up just enough for the right fit.
An added benefit of the hinged design is that by removing one of the screws, the whole assembly can be folded over to make the drone more flat for transport when the props and VTX antenna are also removed:
