Hello all,

So I was in the market for a hard Case for my Mavic 2 and all my other bits - but - Nothing fitted the bill so custom case it was to be.......

Then I found what this was going to cost      

Time to make one of my own  



This is what I wanted to get in......

So I got one of these from a company called 'The Case Farm' here in the UK, it's what they call a Dave 540-D complete with wheels and a pull out handle.......

And I got one of these to cut the foam layers......

And so it begins     Follow me on my journey for a DIY custom case.

I made a rough plan, it was to be a 2 layered affair with all the charging kit in the bottom and all the stuff i'll need in the field on top. The upper 'pull out' block was to be made from multiple layers of Styrofoam glued together with custom cuts as I go through the layers working downwards.

Here is my original rough plan of how my stuff was going to be layed out in the upper block......

I started with the bottom layer which will hold the following:

Custom Mavic 2 battery charger
Inspire 1 battery charger
Spare set of propellers
Chrystalsky battery charger
Mains power cables
Cables etc

After cutting the foam layer to fit the inside of the box......

A detailed plan was scribed out on Graph paper for all the parts, the following pic shows just the main charger marked out and cut out of the paper and pinned into position on the Styrofoam layer. All the Layers are 20mm thick by the way.....

This pic shows the proof of concept trial fit of the charger in the first of a 2 layer sandwich of foam which once glued will equal 40mm

  

SUCCESS ! ! !      I then went on to mark out all the other holes, made adjustments to my paper stencil for any changes needed between the 2 layers of foam, cut it all out, glued the 2 layers together and the following pic shows the lower layer complete with all the bit's and pieces in place.



Lots of room if I need to add anything at a later date but it's all flush and ready for a great block to sit on it.

Although I had a great pile of black/dark grey Styrofoam, I decided it wasn't the prettiest thing in the world, so,  I decided to put a thinner layer of my favourite colour on the top of the upper block. This decision was made shortly after I finished cutting the topmost layer for the upper block.....



To the left is the topmost black layer ready, now I have received my blue foam topper, I have pinned it ready for cutting. Once Cut I will glue these two layers before I begin moving down the layers, obviously as each layer is cut I will trial fit all my stuff, some holes will have to keep going while others will stop part way in.

  

This blue foam is certainly gorgeous but there is a problem, it is a different material from the black Styrofoam, the black stuff is very stiff whereas the blue is a lot more spongy. Using the hot wire cutter ended with some not so clean lines, and, it is not cutting through it as fast as the black. I have 4 different temp wires for this hot wire cutter so as soon as I can I will try out different temperature wires on some scrap bit's of Blue to see if I can get more cleaner cut's before doing the final cuts on my pinned up sheet.

Ok, this is where I am as of now, I will post updates and pics as I go highlighting any issues I have along the way.

Regards
Paul   

Hello and good day Paul. Thank you for sharing these information with us. You are very innovative. Great work and thank you for your support.

Very ambitious and well made but ... that is a massive case for a small drone ...

Very thorough and well thought out - good work!

Cool! Thanks for sharing!

SCAMBO-1 Posted at 2-17 08:24
SUCCESS ! ! !      I then went on to mark out all the other holes, made adjustments to my paper stencil for any changes needed between the 2 layers of foam, cut it all out, glued the 2 layers together and the following pic shows the lower layer complete with all the bit's and pieces in place.

[view_image]

I like how you went with leaving the plugs attached to the charger...  I have a pre-cut pelican case and have to unplug and bundle/store the battery cords for my 3batt charger each time... smart job man.

Very detailed work, great job!

*DM*

It is a big case for sure but not really toooooo big, I needed the depth to get those prop guards in, this is more for traveling around and having everything in one place thing. Currently I have chargers in one cupboard, spare props in a drawer, prop guards in a wardrobe etc, basically bits all over the place and it gets on my pip. I will still be keeping and using the bag I got with the Fly More Kit for popping out for a fly but if I go on Holiday/Vacation anywhere everything goes in the box and it goes in the car like luggage.

Bjs_express,
    With that charger the 3 Mavic 2 battery cables are permanently attached so I didn't have a choice, only the power cable comes out. Mind you, I can hook up the 3 batteries and controller and they are all fully charged from practically dead within the hour, way better than waiting for the batt's to charge one by one with the Mavic' 2's stock charging kit.

Paul   

Nicely done!

Hello again,

My blue topper is cut, a hotter wire made the cut a little smoother although once glued to the uppermost black layer ill still have to clean up some of the edges.



The Pic shows all my stuff in their place as a trial fit.

Sorry about the graph paper still being in place but the blue layer is there I promise. Next will be cutting finger holes to help grab the bits out before gluing the 2 layers together. Two of the cut outs are already at the correct depth so a piece of graph paper will be taped over the holes and one hole needs to be narrowed for the next cut.

So far we are at 30mm thick   LOLOL

Regards
Paul

Hello all,
    So here we are at 3 black layers + blue topper



The mavic 2, it's controller, Crystalsky, crystalsky's sun shade, memory card holder and Crystalsky battery will all have their final cut on the next black layer. I'll then have to cut fillers to go in the bottom of the holes to bring said items flush with the top of the blue layer.

Right at the back behind the crystalsky's bracket/holder is a small square hole, there is a memory card reader in this hole but went 1cm below the surface. I cut out a square block to fit the hole tightly and cut it to 1cm thick and pressed it into the bottom of the lowest layer you can see in the pic and now the reader is flush with the top surface of the blue layer. This will just glue in place when the layers get glued.

I'm still yet to glue the blue layer & top black layer together, once done i'll be cutting out the finger/thumb holes so I can get the stuff out of their holes and ill be able to then clean up the lines in the blue foam with a nice sharp scalpel, also, two handles which will be used to lift out the whole upper block will be planned in at this point. Gluing of the lower layers can then begin as I produce them.

70mm of my upper block cut and rising.

Regards
Paul

Good grief, you win the award for patience.....very good work.

WRHershey,

That's what the Mrs said too   LOLOL

But then, professionally made for me was going to cost £600 - My project total cost for everything is £233.94

That's nearly £400 of patience   

Regards
Paul

Wow!  Your endeavor impresses the focus of very important themes:
1)  keep drone stuff centralized
2)  ready to rock and roll

Only twist was use of the furnished carry sack for casual flight.

I use no containment. Requires much details to remember where is what. I retain each constituent piece inside manufacturer's furnished packaging what be it. It's compact exactly as factory packs each. The only left out piece is the drone all unfolded set into small shallow box and locked to it by leashing the leg stirrups to box floor. I want to do same with the rc, all unfolded, attached cabled android but I can't afford the dedicated phpne

SCAMBO-1 Posted at 2-24 10:28
WRHershey,

That's what the Mrs said too   LOLOL

£600 for a Mavic Pro case? Wow - that's more than a pelican case for an Inspire...

Its been a while ----- Here is my latest progress.......







All layers are cut including all the finger holes. The prop guards need inserts front and back to hold the guards in their correct position. Unfortunately the guards stick out the bottom of the upper block by 5mm so I will make a small cut out in the bottom layer to accommodate them.   GRRrrrrrrrr

Anyway, not a deal breaker on the guards issue. I have ordered a 'Fruity Chutes' recovery system for my Mavic 2 which will fit in the lower layer so I will start gluing the upper layers together except for the lowest one or two, I know the dimensions of the chute tube but not the bracket system yet so I may have to cut a hole out of the lowest layer or two to get it to fit, this will be impossible if I glue the last two. More patience required  LOLOL.

I'm happy so far and my upper pull out block is more or less flush with the lip of the box which is great. Hope you noticed in the pics the two handles which will have threaded rods passed through all the layers and a nice washer and bolt on the underside, it's a little tight with my fingers grabbing the handles but then the inclusion of the handles was an afterthought and I had to make the best of the situation.

Anyway, so far so good, Just waiting for my Chute so I can get the upper block finalised. Then, I'll start on the inside of the lid which will hold my landing pad and a couple of A4 folders and of course a nice piece of egg box foam to keep everything firmly in place.

Regards
Paul      

SCAMBO-1 Posted at 3-18 05:06
Its been a while ----- Here is my latest progress.......

[view_image]

Fabulous job, well done indeed. Can you lock it!

M2Wair,

Yep.....Total of 8 padlock holes, one either side of the 4 locking levers, you can see the holes in the top pic just above.

If you wanted to be that obsessed ! ! !

LOLOL  

Paul

Latest Update......

My Parachute kit has arrived and I have cut the holes for the stuff in the bottom layer as follows......



40mm Launcher tube, Assembly which wraps around the Mavic 2 and a white tube used to push the piston back down after deployment is all in.

There was one problem though which I kind of knew was going to happen and that was the assembly which goes around the drone being too big, and it was as seen in the next pic......



To get this strange shaped contraption to sit more stable I cut a couple of fillers which are glued at the bottom on the left and right side which made that all good.

STICKY UP SOLUTION:



On top is the lowest layer of the upper block, I have cut an oversized hole in this layer which compensates for the stick up part. Once this layer is glued to the one above I will cut a piece of nice soft foam and glue it in the hole, that way, when the upper block goes in the foam will apply a gentle pressure to the contraption to keep it snuggly in place.



EDIT: As I speak, all the upper block layers are now gluing together so tomorrow morning it should all be one nice lump   LOLOL

Onwards and upwards !

Next....Blade guards nicely positioned in place

Regards
Paul

Latest Update......

The base layer has had some more work done as my charger for the parachute system has arrived, now it all has somewhere to live



The upper block is now fully glued together and the custom inserts to hold the blade guards in place are now completed. I glued 3 layers of the black
stuff together, cut them so they fitted the width of the holes, once shaped the way I wanted I got them in position and used 4 cocktail sticks pushed
in from the outside on each one as getting glue in didn't work very well. These guards are so light that the cocktail sticks hold them in place very
nicely.





Started on the lid insert which will hold my landing pad and a couple of A4 folders.......



This has been made from 2 x 10mm layers of black stuff glued together, you can see from the pic it has a hole on one layer to accommodate the
A4 folders and to the right a 210mm circular hole through both layers for the landing pad.



Here is the lid insert in place, just need to get it glued now, then, a piece of egg box type foam will glue to it with cuts made to the foam so I can
pull it back to reveal the stuff behind.

The end is nigh !

Regards
Paul

The End is here (more or less) !

So Here we are at the end all but a couple of slight jobs........



Made room for a LiPo battery checker (top right) so I can check to see how much juice is in the parachute systems battery. The only thing
left to do is a small hole so I can pop in a small roll of sellotape, this will be for helping with the repacking of the chute when its been deployed.



Once the upper layers were glued together I had a 5mm gap all the way around, this meant the upper block would wiggle around once inside
the box. In the pic you will see 'Wedges' on all the corners which stopped this problem, these are all at the bottom of the block. At the top, the
5mm gap looks a little unsightly although the block is tightly in place, I will be getting some black rubber draft excluder next time I am in my
local hardware store to fix this. This will be in a P profile and the O part of the P should quite happily fill the void here.



With the parachute kit came a little collapsible 'Cheap' plastic jig to help when the need arises to repack the chute, as you can see I did a little
cutting under the drone and managed to find a home for the bits there. It's presence does not interfere with the drones seating and all is well.



Got this little reminder to remove the camera cover before powering up, I have forgotten a few times now and one day this will end in tears
for sure   LOLOLOL  I have a very small M3 size ring on it's way which will help me connect it to the cover.



Deliberate mistake number 35896   LOLOL   Foams glued in place with the cut's done for access to the files and landing pad. See if you can
guess who forgot to mark up the foam 'ON THE BACK' before gluing in the styrofoam insert into the lid  ? ? ? ? ?   Your right.......MEEeeeee !
Anyway, we live & learn, hopefully I can find something which will not dissolve the foam but will get most of the marker off.



So here are the 'Spongy Doors' open to give me access to the contents, cuts were not exactly perfect but Hey !, it does the job and the foam
is keeping everything nice and snuggly buggly in place. On first opening the lid the raised parts of the foam has small 'flats' on them which
puff up after a few mins and proved to me that the exerted pressure of the foam is not too much on the kit.

One more thing left........I dragged my box out for a fly Yesterday, all perfectly when when I arrived at the field except that the Camera cover
had popped open, not a killer but to solve this I will glue in a couple of blocks of foam into the bottom of the mavic 2's hole on the left and right
so a little pressure is applied to the bubble, hopefully this will sort that out, mind you, it was one hell of a lumpy bumpy track to the field.

One more little present coming which is a nice flashy vinyl sticky which is my birds Call Sign to stick on the lid (and another later when the UK
makes us register our drones and we get issued with the G-**** designation)   LOLOL

OK People, so there we are, I shall bother you no more, it's been a long road but I got there, not a perfect result but i'm not a CNC machine,
would I do it again...........YES ! with the benefit of hindsight I feel sure I would do it better next time, Is it just too big ?    NO but I will still use
my Fly more case for quick trips.......Is my MRS happy.....HELL YES !  No more drone shyte all over the place.

WIN WIN for everyone concerned   

May I take this opportunity to thank you all for following me on this journey and also for all your kind words and may I wish you all
many safe flights and endless happiness.

Many Regards
Paul  

END TRANS.......     
   

That is freaking overkill for almost $300 although 10/10 for worksmanship. You should do custom rifle/gun cases.
Mine cost me $60 and holds 3 drones with accessories

3BEPb,

Well done you, Very impressive, that's practically an airport in there.

Make sure it's not a NFZ before you fly though   

Regards
Paul

Very very good work

Very impressive work! Sorry if it's been mentioned can I ask what foam you're using. I'm looking at different types of foam right now and it's a bit overwhelming lol.

Hey there Creed,

I used the following product at 20mm thickness and I requested the seller for sheets at A2 size as A3 was slightly too small, they were more than happy to do it for 'little' extra cost:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/THIN- ... 2060353.m2749.l2649

I will say it is quite hard/stiff which made it a cinch to cut through, I was a little concerned that it may mark or scratch the contents but over time I see that was not the case at all. I did also notice that a professional case most of the time uses much softer foam but what that product is I have no clue.

The following:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Plast ... 3tIVyEioL8WyWA4X-hw

....Is what I used for the top blue layer, way spongier but harder to cut and available in many colours.

You could always ask these people to send you a little sample of the foams you have looked at, that way, if you take the plunge at least you'll know what your getting.

Good Luck
Paul

Awesome project and job well done, just goes to show that with a little patience and some creativity what can be achieved, loved reading through this.

I have just been looking at closed cell foam. I can see that plastazote LD33 has been suggested which is what I can get. Looking around though there is another type called LD45 which is popular. Does anyone know if this would suit me better?

Good Job and very impressive plan and carried out as such.