DJI mounting best practices

[schnellschnell]

I know that I always find better ways to do things after doing them once. So here I am with a DJI WK-M and a quad to mount it on. Looking at all the possibilities on mounting IMU, RX, PS, GPS, ESCs, LiPos etc and it is a bit daunting. It is a Jakub frame 450 sized, btw.

Many of you have built many of these - so any advice for laying this stuff out?

Things like: Is the IMU best mounted as close to the center as possible, or is it fine wherever, if it is straight and the offset entered properly. ESCs in board or on the arms? Should the Spektrum RX be on the bottom or anywhere the antenna is open? I can go on.


Thanks,

Jason

 

[Tahoe Ed]

Jason,

I would suggest the IMU as close to the CG as possible and hard mounted. I have seen posts attributed to DJI which say to strap it/zip tie it down after it is mounted. The MU, Receiver, PMU are up to you. Make sure you twist the wires to avoid EMI as much as possible. I would not mount the MU above the IMU but that is my personal bias. I like the esc's on the arms. Removes them farther from the IMU and in the airflow of the props. The GPS/Compass should be as far removed from the MU as possible unless you are using shielding. Lipos are where you can fit them and balance the quad. I am flying a 500 now and will be building a F450 soon. Note that I am using a CC BEC Pro to power my camera mount servos.

View attachment 1711

 

[RTRyder]

I know that I always find better ways to do things after doing them once. So here I am with a DJI WK-M and a quad to mount it on. Looking at all the possibilities on mounting IMU, RX, PS, GPS, ESCs, LiPos etc and it is a bit daunting. It is a Jakub frame 450 sized, btw.

Many of you have built many of these - so any advice for laying this stuff out?

Things like: Is the IMU best mounted as close to the center as possible, or is it fine wherever, if it is straight and the offset entered properly. ESCs in board or on the arms? Should the Spektrum RX be on the bottom or anywhere the antenna is open? I can go on.


Thanks,

Jason

The software has provisions to allow the IMU and GPS to be mounted almost anywhere so theoretically it shouldn't matter as long as the correct orientation and distance from the Center of Gravity are entered in the setup. Personally I like to get the IMU as close to the center of the frame as possible, on both the CineStar 6 and my small MK frame based quad I have the IMU directly above center and the GPS in line to the rear, many others have the IMU offset to one side and the GPS in many places including pretty much directly overhead of the IMU and it's working for them. On both of mine I have the RX next to the IMU with no problem, just make sure the antenna has good exposure to the TX signal. On both I'm using Spektrum/Jr RXs and have satellite receivers installed and as far away from all other electronics as possible just to make sure the incoming signal doesn't get lost in any RFI around the WKM components.

Bottom line, as long as the orientation and measurements from the CG are setup correctly in the Assistant software it doesn't matter much where you place things, just make sure to keep things like video TX for FPV as far away from the WKM bits as possible to avoid any potential interference.

Ken