Falcon 130 3.5"

By lazd on Feb 17, 2016

10  3,500  14

The Falcon 130 with 3.5" props is probably the tightest 130mm build in the history of multirotors and weighs in at 248g with a 850mAh 4S. The 3.5" props actually go over the tower and clear the screws by about 2mm.

Because the arms are so short, I opted to mount the ESCs on the side of the tower with two heatshrinked sandwiches. This results in a wider mid-section, but makes the wiring as short as possible and the ESC mounting clean.

There are no voltage regulators on this build. The Dodo's 0.5A 5V regulator is enough to power the VTX, camera, and X4R, and the LC filter on the Dodo make for clean and clear video.

I opted for a bare VTX module as a normal module cannot fit inside of the tower. The antenna is direct soldered and held in place with hot glue, so it's not going to be incredibly durable. That said, I think it'll do tree dancing just fine. The camera is tilted at about 40°, so she's set up for speed.

Falcon 130 is available now at Multirotor Superstore, FPV Aces, and Drone Eclipse!

Visit falconmultirotors.com for details, photos, build guides, and more!

Maiden

Photos

Part List

Frame

Falcon 130 (13 builds)
Fpvheadquarters.com
$29.99

Flight Controller

30 AMP Simonk 30A Brushless ESC firmware w / 5V 3A UBEC Quad Multirotor APM2 1G7 4894462326060 (68 builds)
Ebay.com
$3.62

ESCs

4 x 20A LittleBee ESC (24 builds)
Readytoflyquads.com
$44.00

Motors

4 x RCX H1407 (V2) 3200KV Micro Outrunner Brushless Motor (It's Time to Upgrade Your 1306 Motor) (2 builds)
Myrcmart.com
$47.96

Propellers

Gemfan 4 Pairs 3545 CW/CCW Bullnose Props (2 builds)
Surveilzone.com
$3.60

FPV Camera

600TVL 1/4 1.8mm CMOS FPV 170 Degree Wide Angle Lens Camera PAL/NTSC 3.7-5V for RC Drone FPV Racing (94 builds)
Banggood.com
$7.37

FPV Transmitter

FX758-2 5.8G 200mW 32CH FPV Wireless Audio Video AV Transmitter Module (12 builds)
Banggood.com
$6.71

Antenna

FPV 5.8GHz Micro CL TX Antenna Lightweight (6 builds)
Banggood.com
$3.45

Receiver

FrSky X4R-SB Receiver (19 builds)
Fpvheadquarters.com
$26.99

Radio

FrSky Taranis QX7S 2.4GHz RC Transmitter - Carbon or Blue (50 builds)
Racedayquads.com
$184.99

Goggles

Fat Shark Dominator HD3 Core FPV Goggles (87 builds)
Getfpv.com
$399.99

HD Camera

GoPro HERO6 Black (9 builds)
Getfpv.com
$399.99

HD Camera

GoPro HERO5 Session (302 builds)
Getfpv.com
$199.99

Video Receiver

ImmersionRC rapidFIRE w/ Analog PLUS Goggle Receiver Module (179 builds)
Getfpv.com
$159.99

Battery Charger

ISDT SC-608 150W 8A MINI Smart LCD Battery Balance Charger AU Warehouse (14 builds)
Banggood.com
$54.27

Soldering Iron

Weller WESD51 Digital Soldering Station
Amazon.com
See Site
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Discussion

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PintSizeFlies   Jul 13, 2016  

Did you plasti dip the Antenna? Doesn't distort the signal? Does it work well to keep from bending and breaks?

lazd   Jul 13, 2016 
1

Yes, I hot glue the inside and plastidip the entire antenna. I don't believe it affects signal at all, as the handmade antennas I make perform just as good as anything else I've used. Plastidip is only for looks, but the hot glue does help keep the lobes in the right place during crashes. What really adds durability are the hooks and triangle guide I use when I solder the lobes together. See this album for a few pictures of the hooks and triangle guide, and this album for a build without the triangle guide and some hot glue/plastidip action.

PintSizeFlies   Jul 13, 2016 

Saweet dude thanks.

Whiffles   Jul 13, 2016 

Nice work. Do you make all your antennas?

Whiffles   Feb 18, 2016  

Nice work getting that put together! Did you stack 2 ESCs on both sides? BTW, you're missing your motor quantity and frame.

Show 6 more comments
lukim   Feb 29, 2016 
1

Love this build. I really need one of those.
No need for a full size VTx, these little units perform just as good. If they only came pre-dipswitched ;-)

lukim   Jul 03, 2016 

I just managed to build one the traditional way using little bee pros on the arms, diatone v8.3 power hub and cyclone stacked, modified xsr in between on RCX1407 3800KV. It was really hard to do but after all I got about 2mm clearance between the DAL T3545BN and the top locknuts. Wow..its so stable, it feels very similar to a 5" class quad. Awesome!
Will upload build later.

Whiffles   Jul 03, 2016 

Nice. How about a post? Would love to see it.

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