Video summary

I Built a Solar Powered Drone and it WORKS!

Main summary

Key takeaways

Technology

Solar-powered drone project (what the video covers)

  • Goal: Build a drone that can fly using solar power alone, targeting 100% solar powered with no battery and no charge controller.
  • Two-part build plan:
    1. Get a traditional quad/multi-rotor drone flying on a standard battery.
    2. Independently validate a solar panel power system.
    3. Combine both to test solar-only flight.

Drone hardware + mechanical design

Motors / props

  • Uses T-Motor Anti-Gravity motors (lightweight, high efficiency).
  • Uses large T-Motor NS carbon fiber props, notably an 18-inch size (compared to props from a “world’s fastest drone” setup).

Frame + mounting

  • Frame built from 14 mm carbon fiber tubes, with motors mounted to the arm ends.
  • Motor mounts:
    • CAD designed in Onshape.
    • 3D printed in Fiberon PA6.
    • Clamped onto carbon arms and screwed to the motors.

Assembly concept

  • Arms join via a simple overlap:
    • Arms overlap at the center
    • Held with a 3D printed central piece

Electronics mounting + landing gear

  • ESC and flight controller mounted at the bottom, with protruding bolts used as mounting points.
  • Landing legs are designed as extensions to reduce weight while keeping propellers clear of the ground.

Electronics + control testing (review/analysis style)

Wiring approach

  • Motor wires routed through the arms.
  • Soldered directly to the ESC at the center.
  • Flight controller connected afterward.

Early sanity check

  • On battery power, initial lift-off showed lift around 8 W input.

Efficiency measurement

  • Tested thrust vs. power for the motor/prop combination.
  • Reported up to ~17 g thrust per watt.
  • Compared against a “world record speed drone” at ~0.7 g/W, implying roughly ~24× efficiency (as claimed by the speaker).

Flight stability tuning

  • Early attempts caused uncontrolled oscillation.
  • Mitigations:
    • Used tethers (tied down with lead weights).
    • Retuned control gains with lower gains for stability.
  • Final tuning described as quiet and very stable.

Solar panel system build + validation

Panel hardware

  • Purchased 100 lightweight “barebone” solar panels.
  • Major concern: panels are fragile and brittle, cracking easily.

Bench testing + measurements

  • Bench tests included example readings such as ~0.69 V and ~695 mW/multis (subtitles suggest electrical output/voltage, though exact units appear unclear in the transcript).
  • A 50 W power resistor used as a load to approximate generation in direct sunlight.
  • A thermal camera used to monitor heating behavior (resistor/panel temperatures).

Mechanical support + array layout

  • Solar array support made from:
    • 3 mm carbon fiber tubes
    • 3D printed TPU pieces
  • Built initially as a 3×3 array to verify output before scaling.

Key power results

  • Balcony testing: about ~5 W per panel (better than expected).
  • Speaker calculation: a 27-panel array should be enough for the part-one version (solar-assisted baseline requirements).

Fragility incident + mitigation

  • A pet (“Remy”) stepped on the panels and broke one.
  • Repair included adding 3D printed TPU standoffs that tilt panels about 10° so, during slow forward flight, panels face upward toward the sun.

System scaling to “solar-only” operation

Final solar array test (27 panels)

  • In series, measured ~97 W at ~24 V delivered to resistors (resistors heated heavily).
  • Temperature sustainability was explicitly tested to ensure the panels remain functional under sun heating conditions.
    • The speaker emphasizes that it must sustain this despite reduced efficiency when hot.

Mounted-on-drone behavior

  • Panels appeared to droop on the airframe; reinforcement was planned before proper flight.
  • Test objective at that stage:
    • Determine if panels can directly power the drone without a charge controller
    • Determine how much power can be drawn with realistic mounting conditions

Power draw observed

  • Speaker reports successful power draw:
    • about ~30 W, then increasing in steps (~50 W, ~60 W, etc.)
    • later mentions the system could reach ~100–150 W.

Full flight results (main “success criteria”)

Pre-solar check

  • Fly again on battery only to confirm tuning is still correct.

Solar-only takeoff

  • Test sequence: “No battery, 100% solar panel.”
  • Drone achieved lift and flight even in a light breeze:
    • described as slow but stable
  • Reported indefinite flight as long as the sun is out, with no battery monitoring required (as claimed).

Durability result

  • After the solar-only flight, the drone was still “in one piece” (speaker describes it as amazing).

Future expansion (tutorial/roadmap)

  • Part two planned:
    • Add more solar panels
    • Install GPS
    • Add autonomous flight software
    • Attempt to break the Guinness World Record for longest flying solar drone

Main speaker/source

  • Luke Maximobel — creator/speaker (also referenced via the Onshape sponsor link and as “lukemaximobel” in the video).
  • Sponsor/source: Onshape, used for CAD design.

Original video