The Cinewhoop craze continues with the latest from frame master Andy at Shendrones, the Nutmeg. http://www.shendrones.com/nutmeg

I was over at Andy's a couple weeks ago picking up something and he hands me a 3D printed NylonX Nutmeg frame. He let me fly his while I was there and it was surprising how well it flew. On the walk to my office I was plotting the build in my head.

His suggestion for this is an HGLRC XJB F438 or F440 or some similar 20x20 stack. There is tons of room under there for 3 boards with generous spacers between them because of the duct height, so you really could use anything as long as it's 20x20.

I went for the Aikon 35 amp 20x20 because it's Aikon and I had one.. as for the FC I chose HelioSpring Mini V2 mainly because, I had it and custom cut props.. Helio's IMU-F with Starbuck unleashed does a great job at smoothing out minor thrust variables from imperfectly hand cut and sanded props. This was my first time using Andy's prop cutter.. It worked great, but I had a grinder bit that was too short. It did the job, however I cut about 10 before I had 4 that I was satisfied with.

One of my things is putting LEDs on every drone I build. Nutmeg was no exception, even though it's a cinema drone, I wanted mine to be a Disco Party Cinema drone. However the smaller the canvas, the bigger the challenge.

I ended up taking 20 LEDs in 2 separate strips, folded them each in a U shape with some electrical tape between and around the center of the frame. One in the front and one in the back, but wired together. This solidly connected the LEDs to the frame, with no concern of vibrations. The tape blocks any shorts on the carbon, and orients them vertically shining through the ducts, which act as diffusion. I set up an on/off switch on my radio as well, so turning them off for a shot, is a snap.

The Whitenoise Unify Nano and Crossfire RX mounting board is a very elegent solution. This time I wiggled the new Unify Nano 32 in there, so the Nut has a bit more VTX power at 400mw max. Topped the VTX off with an RHCP Micro Axii.

I chose 5s motors on this because of the size of available batteries. 850mah 4s are the smallest 4s packs I have. However the RotorX 5s 460mah packs are tiny, light and I have a ton of those too. So it made sense on Nutmeg, and I went for it.

I didn't like mounting the battery diagonally, (sorry Andy!) plus the 460mah packs are so thin when oriented vertically, they fit between the ducts, and dont block anything. So I whipped up a battery pad thing to hold a strap, which is attached by the FC screws. Later I also designed and printed a battery protector, which doubles as a kickstand, and glows in the dark. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3479105

When I was setting up the RX modes, motors and OSD I noticed the core temp was increasing when the quad was at rest. I thought it might be an airflow issue, but the LED's were just overloading the 5V BEC on the Helio even though it was all working, albeit slightly inconsistently. (Some lights would flash weird colors, or occasionally the strip wouldn't come on at all.) So I added a 5v external buck converter to power the LEDs, and wired it directly to battery voltage which solved the core temp issue, and LED's are now 100% consistent. The overall weight added by the LED's, wires, tape and voltage reg is approximately 15 grams.... I also added a buzzer.. The horror! it'll probably never fly.

On my maiden voyage I couldn't wipe the smile off my face, but did noticed major vibes on a hard maneuvers, which ended up being the NylonX frame flexing, which caused the motors to push the props into the ducts (bad). But as long as I kept flying smooth and easy, it was awesome. I flew about a dozen packs while tuning a bit, and on the last one, nicked a tight gap, spun out and everything exploded onto concrete into about a half dozen pieces.

A week or so later carbon had arrived and Andy messaged me to come over. I rebuilt eveything that day, printed a TPU top, which took overnight.

The next day I flew it again and all frame flexing and vibration issues were gone, and she riiiiiiips! This little thing is sooo much fun to fly it's astonishing. Squirt flys great too, but I am more confident with Nutmeg because I know it's really small. Then again. I love flying TinyWhoops. So maybe the closer we get to Whoop size, the better at flying I'll be.

Enjoy the Nutmeg!