Introduction: Cheap Flying Lego Quadcopter

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Ever needed an excuse to start building Lego again? Now is the time! Turns out Lego bricks can be used to build a perfect symmetrical frame for your quadcopter! And... it's super cheap.

I used Lego Technic because it has holes in the bricks. You can mount the motor's with tie wraps through the holes and it's an ideal weight reduction. For the motor's and flight controller I used parts from the famous Hubsan X4.

Interested...? Then dust of those Lego bricks and start building!

Step 1: Tools and Materials

You'll need the following tools/materials:

  • Lego (of course)
  • Soldering iron
  • Elastic band
  • Soldering tin for electric components (optional)
  • Doublesided tape (optional)

I ordered my Hubsan X4 parts from Banggood.com. http://www.banggood.com/buy/Hubsan-x4.html They have the parts even cheaper then ebay. This is what you need:

  • Hubsan flight controler 107l or 107c (107l if your planning on adding fancy led lights, 107c if your planning on adding a camera)
  • 4 7mm hollow cup motors
  • 4 blades (and maybe some spare)
  • 3.7v battery + charger
  • Hubsan remote (if you dont have one)

If you don't have a remote yet, then it's probably cheaper to buy a rtf hubsan x4. You can take it apart and as a bonus you get the original hubsan x4 frame!

Step 2: Soldering the Flight Controler

This requires a little soldering but nothing really hard. If you look at the flight controller, the place where you need to solder the motor's is already labeled.

And as you've probably seen there are clockwise and counterclockwise motor's. It's important to place the same motor's opposite of each otter. So clockwise motor opposite of the other clockwise motor and same for counterclockwise.

The flight controller already has some soldering tin on it, but it's not much. So you can add some extra if you want.

Step 3: Building Your Lego Frame

I will let the pictures do the talking. You don't have to build exactly the same frame I build. With a little imagination you can build some awesome frames! Just don't make the frame to heavy or it will be very hard to fly (if it even has lift off). Please share you awesome frames for inspiration!

Step 4: Mounting the Motor's and Flight Controller

What I mentioned earlier is that Lego Technic is perfect for mounting the props. It has holes in the bricks and all you need to do is mount the motor's with tie wraps trough the holes. I also used double sided tape to keep the motor's in place. Fixate the flight controller on top, battery under the frame and your good to go!

Let me know if you have questions, I'll be happy to answer them. Good luck building your own Legocopter!