After five awesome months, it was finally time to retire my first build. My Martian II 'Murica. I can't say enough good things about that frame. Even after the failed reverse powerloop into a light pole that precipitated its retirement, it was a great quad. There were some cracks and delamination in the end, but I never broke so much as an arm, and on some days, you would have thought I was out to murder that poor frame. Clone status aside, the Martian II will continue to be the quad I tell everyone to build as their first.
The spirit of that Martian II now lives on in this Galaxy...sort of. I had planned on using more parts from the Martian but when it came time to assemble the Galaxy, there were a couple of areas that needed to be addressed. First, the motors were physically in great shape, but the bearings were getting a little noisy. I switched in a new set of Boca Bearings and the motors are smoother and quieter now than they were when they were new. I replaced the aging DYS F4 Pro V1 for the DALRC F405 AIO. So far it's great, but a bit of a waste on this build as it's meant for individual ESCs, not a 4-in-1. I really like the layout of it and the video filtering is excellent. This will probably be my new board of choice over the DYS F4 Pro V2. Up next was the camera. While my original Caddx did me well, I was ready for something new. I ended up going with a Foxeer Monster V3. This camera combined with the filtering from the DALRC board makes for some really excellent video. I'm using the Tramp VTX from the Martian along with a new Foxeer Pagoda Pro to broadcast. To finish it up I'm running the original Spektrum receiver and the RacerStar 35A 4-in-1 ESC I installed in the Martian a couple of months ago. I also installed the HellGate Buzzer I got from KwadBox. I hope to never have to use it!
I built this quad to be the new "Send It" rig, and so far it has over a dozen flights on it. To date I've only put it into the ground once and luckily it walked away with only a bent prop, but if the durability turns out to be crap in the long run, I'm only out $20 for the frame and everything gets transplanted into something different. At only 390 grams, this quad is a dream to fly. It's super responsive and depending on how aggressively I'm flying, I can get 5 minutes of flight time out of a 1500mah 4S battery.
Photos
Part List
Show stores (8)
This frame looks very similar in style to the Martian 2. I know your first drone used the Martian 2 frame...how would you compare the 2 of them? Is the Galaxy an upgrade? Nice build btw, thanks for posting.
I think one of the things that drew me to the Galaxy frame was its similarity to the Martian, but I wouldn't call it an upgrade. In some ways, I still think the Martian frames are better because of all the options you have when building one. With a Martian, you can order a base frame, either the II or the SE, and depending on which set of arms you use, you can build a quad that'll run 4, 5, 6, or even 7" props. The arms are also 4mm thick standard, and there are a lot of resources for 3D printed accessories. Sure the price of the base Galaxy is great at $20, but there are no options for arm length, and if you want a set of 4mm thick arms which most freestyle frames come standard with, you have to spend an extra $20 for them. By the time you do that and add shipping, it's almost $50 to your door. As far as durability goes, I stuffed the new Galaxy into the ground while I was out flying this past weekend and while I was walking out into the field to get it, I really thought I was going to be picking up pieces. I hit the ground so hard it ripped a NewBeeDrone battery strap in half and ejected the battery about 25 yards from the quad. The HellGate Buzzer worked! I was shocked that all I had to do to get it back in the air was replace the two props I destroyed and straighten out the VTX antenna. I was definitely impressed with the frame after that. I don't think you'd go worng with either of these frames. Glad you liked the build.
Guides & Reviews
AirbladeUAV has done it again and this time they've brought long range to the 5" class! Based on the popular Transformer Mini, the new Transformer 5" Ultralight adopts a lot of the same design philosophies with larger props and more payload capacity. It can fly upwards of 20 minutes on a 4 cell Li-Ion battery pack and in ideal conditions it's got a range of over 4 to 5 miles. In this guide I'll walk..
Read more
With the release of the DJI FPV Drone cinematic FPV has become a lot more accessible, but you certainly don't want to crash a $750 drone! The QAV-CINE Freybott is a compact, lightweight cinematic FPV drone that can take a hit and keep going. It's a lot safer to fly indoors and around people. With a naked GoPro or the SMO 4k you can capture some great stabilized footage. In this guide I'll show you..
Read more
were did you wire your spec reciver
Sorry, this build is long gone. I couldn't tell you how it was wired.