My DIY Ground (Base) Station project build for the DJI Mavic Pro and Inspire

that’s all well and good for FPV Richard, but, we would need a shit load more stuff for a Mavic Ground Station.
Good build all said and done.

Postie brought a few more bits for me today.

A three meter Anker USB-C cable, this will form part of the main harness that runs from the case to the remote controllers. Cheaper brands are available but as this is the one thing keeping me in touch with the CrystalSky, I didn’t want to skimp!

Five meters of 20mm braided sleeve. This stuff expands to about three times it’s size, I love it. I’ll be using this to wrap the three harness cables that will be running from the case to the controllers. It’ll keep it really tidy looking. I’ll also use a bit of this to sleeve the cables that run from the bottom of the case up in to the lid.

The all important aircraft switch :grimacing:

I bought one with a red power LED in the tip too (12v).

What I hadn’t factored though, was the height of this mofo.

30mm from the mounting point to the top. I shall need to factor this in to the height I set the lower case plinth at to make sure the lid still shuts :roll_eyes:

And a bunch of right-angled bracket things :man_shrugging:

I’ll glue these to the inside of the lid, and the inside of the bottom of the case, in order to allow me to screw the final panels in to place.

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I’m planning on using regular hot glue for most of these brackets, should be alright?

I’ve got some Araldite epoxy resin, might be overkill though?

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I’ve used these these for years, I don’t think there are many better types.

The AV team at work use this, and it has on occasion fallen into by work bag, fantastic stuff also

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I’d go with the epoxy for those brackets Rich.

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I did the first bit of real work on the ground station today, drilling the holes out for the antennas.

They needed to be set back quite far in the lid, as they need to sit behind the panel that will be inserted in the lid, and not foul it.

Thinking of building something similar?

Don’t make the same school boy error I made this evening…

These cases are a lot thicker than I thought.

Yup, the antenna fitting doesn’t go all the way through :man_facepalming:

Mother :face_with_symbols_over_mouth:

I then spent about 20 minutes with a wood countersink bit (I know, right?) trying to bore out a wider hole on the inside without breaking through to the outside.

Success, in the end.

I’m using QMA connectors throughout, a quick-release version of the traditional SMA connector, they literally just plug on and clip off. Zero hassle.

That’s it, I’m past the point of no return now :grimacing:

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Had one of those fail on me the other day. Really hacked off, I was!

Then I remembered it was 6 years old and my main phone charging cable at the bed-side, so didn’t send an email to them complaining. :wink:

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You early adopter you

Well - it wasn’t a USB-C, just standard micro-USB … but I’ve been using their power-banks for about 9 years and cables since they started selling them.

Just had a five year old one die on me after shit loads of use, emailed them thanking them for another great product and got a nice discount code for a replacement, great company and better products.

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Did a full test fit tonight.

Case lid cutouts for:

  • Cable exit on the bottom left
  • Recess for CrystalSky battery (to allow the screen to mount flush)
  • USB-C cable exit bottom center

The first thing I instantly found was that the USB-C connector is about an inch long, so the hole I cut for it’s exit is actually no use, it needs to be much further down (where I’ve written ‘here’).

This is why you should always make cardboard templates :blush:

Also pictured is the braided sleeve in to which all the wires will fit, so it will look tidier when done.

You can see here just how far out the CS battery protrudes.

Lower panel test fit next.

Cut out for the Titan digital display, aircraft switch fitted on the left, cut out for the charger port on the right.

The guts of the Titan Atlas will be mounted under the lower half.

The main harness will exit on the right, out to the controllers.

That’s it, I think I’m ready to commit to wood tomorrow!

I’ve got a sheet of 6mm MDF in the shed which should be ideal.

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I will take note of this.

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I have found working with Plastic Foam Board easier than any sort of timber.
I have a load of Old Soffit Boards in my Workshop.
Easy to cut, drill and generally shape, it’s about 8 mm thick, strong, light, easy to fix in place with a few Plastic Domed screws.
If you go to your Local Plastic Fixing specialist I would be sure they could help you out.
I have also made up Multi Colour L.E.D. Lights also out of Large Sized Plastic Electrical Trunking super glued together with the above foam board.

Would you not be better to put the USB connector on the side of the lid, then the depth of it would not be a problem.
Those cases are very easy to work with in my experience ( I have built over 50 PC units into them over the last 5 years)
Bought a stock lot of 50 cases from CPC Very Cheap they cost me £24 each, and I had them delivered and stored in a mates unit.
Now down to the last 3.

Got some more work done on the ground station kit today.

First things first, getting those L-shaped brackets glued in place in both the lid, and in the base of the case too. @callum will be pleased to know I that I used Araldite in the end.

Masking tape holding them in place while I took the wife shopping this morning the epoxy resin sets.

Tape removed, all looking good.

You wouldn’t believe how many times I measured and re-measured the depth of these things.

Back from the shops :roll_eyes:

Time to crack on.

First step was to create the wooden panel that will sit in the lid, again using the cardboard template for reference and taking highly accurate measurements this time :+1:t2:

Drilling the corners out for the jigsaw blade to go through.

This is the recess I mentioned for the CrystalSky battery, as it protrudes quite some distance from the back of the display, and I want the CS sitting relatively flush in the lid here.

Glueing some wooden blocks on the back to hold the recessed pieces in place.

And now gluing the recess pieces in place.

This is so when it’s mounted in the case-lid, the whole thing will look solid, rather than just having a gaping hole in the middle :wink:

Like so:

This grommet is where the USB-C cable, and the twin antenna cables will exit the lid and head towards the bottom part of the case.

And a smaller grommet in the lower center where the USB-C cable exits the case and connects to the bottom of the CrystalSky.

So that’s the lid framing complete :clap:t2:

Time to start work on the bottom part next.

Here, we extend just beyond the center point, probably 60% or so. This is to allow enough room underneath to mount both the amplifiers, the battery, switches, wiring, etc.

By the way, these bloody rounded corners on the sides of case (and lid!) are a pain in the arse to work with :confused:

Not to mention the rounded bottom on the case too, this vertical panel took waaaayyyy longer than it needed to :face_with_symbols_over_mouth:

Glueing the two pieces of the lower box-section together, with some small blocks of ply for additional strength on the join.

Taking shape now :+1:t2:

Drilling the holes in the lower panel for the cable-exit (to the lid section), the main power switch and the charger connector.

And a larger hole on the vertical panel. This is where the main harness will exit, that goes off to the controllers.

This is a mockup of how the braided sleeve thing works.

It’s empty here, hence looking flat, but you’ll get the idea.

So there’s not much more to do in terms of woodwork now. I need to cut out a hole for the voltage meter, then sand the whole lot down, and that’ll probably be it for the panelling now :+1:t2:

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You used grommets, I’m impressed.

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Where’s Wallace? :wink:

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Feels like a lot of dead space below the board on the left side of the base. No room for a snack drawer?

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That dead space will soon become occupied with the Titan Atlas internals.

But yes, there will probably be room for a small sandwich or something in there too? :fries:

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Lets just hope it works when you plug it all in.

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