Flying Iris with Mission Planner is loads of fun! Setting up different way-points while using the transmitter could be a better experience if the tablet was mounted right on top. Load up some filament and break out your tool set cause we’re making mounts!
3D Printing a tablet mounting bracket for the IRIS transmitter
With some help from our trusty calipers, we gathered measurements and drew up sketches. The easiest and most efficient mechanism is a simple mounting plate that clips onto the tablet. We can swap out the two screws in the back of the transmitter with a longer pair for adding structural support to counter the weight of the tablet. The tablet’s bumper is held in place by the inset edges on the sides of the bracket.
I modeled the part in 123D Design using primitives and merged them to create a manifold object. The mount is optimized to fit the Nexus 7 tablet. If you having something different, we’ve uploaded the original solids so you can modify the design to fit your tablet.
A dozen test prints later and we’ve come up with this very handy transmitter mount for a tablet. You can get the design files for free on our Thingiverse page.
We printed both the tablet bumper and the mounting plate on a Makerbot Replicator 2 using Makerware. The tolerances may differ if your printing on a Printrbot or other 3D Printer. We encourage you to test it out and let us know what slicing settings you may find successful.
Installation is super quick. Use the extension on our Screwdriver Set to swap out two Phillips screws in the back for a longer 1″ set, fasten them into place, attach our bumper and you’re ready to fly!
The Nexus 7 tablet has a form factor that fits nicely with the IRIS transmitter but any other google tablet running Mission Planner will be suffice. We’ve uploaded the Nexus 7 bumper as a separate thing because we think you might like it.
We hope our 3D Printed mount helps you in your future planned IRIS missions. If you print out a set, please send us a photo – we’ll feature it! Have any suggestions or know of any other cool 3D Printed drone widgets? Let us know in the comments below!
Welcome to drone day on the Adafruit blog. Every Monday we deliver the latest news, products and more from the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), quadcopter and drone communities. Drones can be used for video & photography (dronies), civil applications, policing, farming, firefighting, military and non-military security work, such as surveillance of pipelines. Previous posts can be found via the #drone tag and our drone / UAV categories.