Maelstrom

By timbod7 on Jul 18, 2018

3 287 4

My second 5" build, and I wanted to try a freestyle frame with top mounted battery. Thought this FS215 looked reasonable after a good review from DroneMesh. I think it's a clone of the iFlight R1 X5, though I didn't know this when I ordered it.

It went together pretty smoothly, though I forgot that stack space would be taken up by the battery strap, and so had to move the VTX out of the stack and put it in the tail. It got a bit squashed back there.

I wanted to get moderately accurate numbers out of the current sensor, so I cable tied the quad to my workbench, and wired up a calibrated shunt to measure the current (see photo). This still didn't works as well as I had hoped, as my current measurements were noticeably and repeatably non-linear. But at least the maH used measurement is now approximately right.

One issue discovered on the first flights is that the micro camera is a little too far back in the frame, and captures the top corners of the standoffs. I see that runcam has just announced a mount adapter that looks like it might fix this.

Photos

Part List

Frame	FS215 215mm FPV Racing Frame RC Drone Freestyle Frame Kit Carbon Fiber 4mm Arm Banggood.com	$33.99
Flight Controller	BF3.2 Omnibus F4 V2.1 Flight Controller STM32 F405 MCU Integrated OSD Built-in 5V BEC Current Meter (17 builds) Banggood.com	$25.49
ESCs	Anniversary Special Edition Racerstar REV35 35A BLheli_S 3-6S 4 In 1 ESC Built-in Current Sensor for RC Drone (112 builds) Banggood.com	$34.05
Motors	4 x EMAX LS2206 Lite Spec 2206 1700KV 2300KV 2550KV 2700KV CW Thread FPV Racing Brushless Motor for RC Drone (10 builds) Banggood.com	$71.96
Propellers	CA$4.17 2 Pairs Dalprop Cyclone T5046C 5046 5x4.6 CW CCW Propeller for RC Drone RC Parts from Toys Hobbies and Robot on ban (391 builds) Banggood.com	$3.05
FPV Camera	Runcam Micro Eagle Tiny 800TVL CMOS 16:9 4:3 Switchable FPV Camera /w OSD MICROEAGLE-RD (323 builds) Phaserfpv.com.au	See Site
FPV Transmitter	Matek Video Transmitter VTX-HV (9 builds) Phaserfpv.com.au	See Site
Receiver	FRSKY XM+ Plus 16CH Receiver (1149 builds) Phaserfpv.com.au	See Site

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Discussion

timbod7 Sep 01, 2018

Well I was happy with this frame, until I broke an arm. That's not the frame's fault, but I now have to decide whether to buy a whole new frame for spares, or move to something else.

Don't think I'll choose another frame without available spare parts...

Currently Jul 25, 2018

How are thoes motors? I'm about to order them when RDQ gets them in stock.

timbod7 Jul 26, 2018

Smooth, and plenty of power. I'm really happy with them, though I'm comparing them with the venerable RS2205 red bottoms of my last build, and not other current generation motors.

thumbtwiddler Jul 21, 2018

the one time i order a martian they come out with this.

goddamnit

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