The PowerQuad!

This is something I came up with a few days, after they announced Rotor Bones and the Anycopter. I call it the PowerQuad, because it uses four powerpods in the quadcopter formation using the new Anycopter body. The idea came when I saw the Anycopter body, and the swappable series. I thought it would be awesome if you could just stick on some power pods quickly and fly a quadcopter, or anycopter. I looked at the anycopter components, and the swappable components, and sure enough they had one motor in common. http://www.lazertoyz.com/2712-12-24g_p_10.html This motor gave me confidence that this idea was not completely out of the realm of possibility. It only requires one small hole added to the powerpods, one small hole added to each boom, and then making the two adapter pieces for each powerpod. Theses pictures are images I had to try and get out of my student version of CAD, so I apologize if they look low quality. 

Above are the two adapter pieces for the powerpod. They are made of the same 3/16" foam they use for building their planes. The one on the right connects directly to the power pod. The one on the left is kind of just a spacer and strengthener, because the firewall adjusts for it. The dimensions are 2 1/2" x 13", for both. The four rectangular holes on the right plate should line up perfectly with the powerpod pegs. If you don't feel like doing it that way, the four rectangular holes are 4mm x 1" in size. They are 2" apart from outside of one hole to the outside of the other, horizontally. The top of the top holes are 4" from the top. The bottom of the bottom of the holes are 1" from the bottom. There should be about 1/4" between outside of the holes and the edge, but that is not as important as the 2" from outside of the holes to outside of the holes. The square hole in the middle is 1/2" x 1/2" to accommodate the booms. It is 4 1/4" from the top edge to the top of the hole, and 3/4" from the outside edge to the outside of the hole. These layers should be lined up and glued together after checking to make sure everything fits. Each of these plates need to be made for each boom.

The picture above is a side view of the powerpod showing the small hole that needs to be added to each side. The hole is just big enough for a barbeque skewer to be slid through, like if you were it to a plane. The hole is 4 1/2" away from the front of the powerpod (not including the firewall), and 17mm from the bottom of the side plate, which should be the same height as the hole used to attach the wings of the swappables. These holes on each side need to be added to every powerpod you will be using.

This final picture shows the small hole that needs to be added to the boom to connect the powerpods. If you bought the Anycopter it came with a piece that showed where the holes needed to be drilled to attach the boom. Use the hole closest to the edge to determine the distance of this hole. Drill a hole just big enough for a barbeque skewer horizontally all the way through the boom. 

If done correctly, with tight fits, and a little bit of luck you should be able to slide the adapters on, stick a barbeque skewer through the new holes in the powerpod and through the new holes in the boom, and fit the adapters to the powerpod for each boom and take off with a quick and easy swappable PowerQuad. It would be awesome if someone could makes this and do a test video, because I do not currently have the money to buy the components. If you have any questions, comments, concerns I will try to respond as quickly as possible.

NOTE: This design does not get rid of the kk2 board or any other components used in the quadcopter. The PowerQuad just makes it possible to quickly switch from flying a plane to a quadcopter, using the same powerpods for both. The motor I gave as an example is just an example, and it may be better off with a beefier motor because of the added weight of the foam. Also keep in mind that for the quad you need two of the motors to be counter rotating.