Building the Thrust Test Bench - Part 1

The good news is I finally got some notification from Hobby King that my main order of parts for my Quadcopter has finally made it through the HongKong post office.  The tracking number finally shows up on the USPS website (the order is coming Air Parcel Post and will be delivered in the US by the US Post Office). Still now delivery date information.  I am guessing a couple of weeks...

While I am waiting for all the goodies to arrive I thought I would put together a simple structure to allow me to test my motors, ESC and Props when they finally arrive.  I wanted to test them for two reasons.  I wanted to be sure they weren't defective and even more importantly, I wanted to be sure that I ordered the correct items.  My Quad should end up weighing about 1,000 grams and I need about 2,000 grams of thrust for successful flight.  So, I need to be able to measure the thrust put out by my motor/prop combination.  That is why I needed to build the Test Bench...  Well, also it is because I am a geek and need to test stuff.

So, being cheap, I decided to use what I had laying around in the garage for the contruction.  I used scrap lumber and hardware.  I had previously purchased a nice scale for Ebay sales so I have that available.

The video below gives a quick description of the completed Thrust Test Bench structure.  Later I need to add a teminal strip, a wattmeter, throttle control and battery.  But for right now I wanted to show you how I built the structure.

This isn't a "Step-by-Step" how to video because I think you can figure out how I build it from the info in the video.  Not too exciting watching me cut lumber and screw in screws.

I still need to put a small spacer where the horizontal piece meets the scale. That will level the motor structure to the scale.  I will also need to place some weight on the base to keep the test bench from sliding on the table when in use.

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