Chameleon Ti 5"

By wrong17 on Mar 18, 2019

4  289  0

I had high hopes for this frame because I thought I would be lighter and had more space for the electronics. I even sold my original Chameleon frame to so I can build this one. The good thing about this frame is the lifetime warranty and all the avalible 3D printed parts you can pimp it out with. If a manufacture and offer a lifetime warranty on a frame, you know it going to be a tank and take a beating.

My original build plans did not go as planned. The VTX/RX mount was too far forward and the VTX antenna was not long enough to reach. I wanted to use a Realacc UXII Stubby antenna because it was a lot lighter than a TBS SMA connector with a SMA antenna. To solve my problem, I moved the VTX/RX stack back by offsetting the mount; however, the cool looking NOS bottle wrapped 1000uf Cap was too big. When the VTX/RX stack was over the cap, it would push it higher than the top plate. So, now I had to swap out the Panasonic cap to a lower profile version that came with my HGLRC 428 stack. Both caps claim to be 1000uf and low ESR so I assume it will be fine.

The first test flight with stock Butterflight tune was not that impressive. In fact, it flew poorly in comparison to the Rooster and the flight times were horrible. I thought it might have been the props is was using. So I deceied to test a few other props to see if it made a difference. Here is a list of props I tested:

  • HQ 5x4.3
  • Azure Power 5150
  • Avan Flow 5X4.3
  • Gemfan Flash 5152
  • HQ S3 5x3.1
  • Gemfan Windancer 5x4.3
  • DAL 5050C
  • DAL 5046C

The flight time and characteristic of each prop was slightly different, but the overall result was similar. I was only cruising around, and I would get about 3.5 minutes of flight. I had a friend that had the similar experience with his Chameleon Ti too. We came to a conclusion that maybe it is the Gemfan Flash 5552 props that makes it fly better and more efficiently on a 6" frame. Then I tried using 5” props on my Rooster (6" frame) to see what happens. The Rooster flew great and had similar flight times as with the 5.5” props. So that totally threw out my theory on the props begin the cause of my problems. Another theory we also considered is that the Rooster has narrower arms, so it can push more air through. The Chameleon arms are 5mm wider than the Rooster. And finially the last theory is that the Chameleon Ti will fly better if we had a 6" frame with the Gemfan Flash 5552 props. Keep in mind both the Chameleon was running stock PID's and Filters. In the end, I removed all the electronics and moving everything to another Rooster frame.

Photos

Part List

Frame

Armattan Chameleon TI 5" Freestyle Frame (54 builds)
Racedayquads.com
$99.99

Flight Controller

HELIORC SPRING AIO Flight Controller
Racedayquads.com
$39.55

ESCs

4 x Airbot Wraith32 V2 BLHeli32 35A ESC (6 builds)
Getfpv.com
$51.96

Motors

Hypetrain Blaster 2207 2450KV Motors by Rotor Riot w/ Fly Hard Replacement Program (16 builds)
Racedayquads.com
$26.95

Propellers

HQ Prop 5.1x4.6x3 POPO Compatible Tri-Blade 5" Prop 4 Pack - Choose Your Color (8 builds)
Racedayquads.com
$3.39

FPV Camera

Foxeer Monster Mini Pro - Blue
Getfpv.com
$35.99

FPV Transmitter

TBS Unify Pro 5G8 V3 (SMA) (197 builds)
Getfpv.com
See Site

Antenna

Realacc UXII Stubby RHCP U.FL / IPEX IPX 5.8GHz 1.6dBi Super Mini Antenne für TX RX Fatshark Schutzbrillen R (24 builds)
Banggood.com
$5.99

Receiver

Team BlackSheep TBS Crossfire Nano RX - Heli-Nation (1488 builds)
Heli-nation.com
$24.99

Batteries

RDQ Series 14.8V 4S 1500mAh 100C LiPo Battery - XT60 (59 builds)
Racedayquads.com
$23.99

Radio

Team BlackSheep TBS TANGO 2 V3 PRO RC RADIO (103 builds)
Heli-nation.com
$199.99

Goggles

DJI Goggles 2 (7 builds)
Racedayquads.com
$648.99

HD Camera

GoPro Bones - HERO10 Black (FPV Lightweight Drone Camera) (3 builds)
Gopro.com
See Site

Battery Charger

HOTA F6+ 1000W 60A 1-6S Quad Channel AC/DC Smart Charger - Grey
Racedayquads.com
$185.99

Battery Charger

HOTA D6 PRO Dual Charger 1-6S AC200W/DC650W 15A w/ Wireless Cellphone Charging - Black (14 builds)
Pyrodrone.com
$117.98

Soldering Iron

TS100 Portable Programmable Smart Soldering Iron (264 builds)
Racedayquads.com
$58.99

Backpack

Lowepro QuadGuard BP X3 - Drone Backpack for 4 FPV Quad Racing Drones and 15" Laptop w/Exterior Mounts (Black)
Amazon.com
$286.00

Accessories

iFlight Crystal HD Patch and Stubby 5.8GHz RP-SMA Antenna Set for DJI - LHCP - Carbon
Racedayquads.com
$56.99
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