Very long toothpick 🤺

By sergetania on Apr 30, 2019

17  1,418  8

My quest to build a better toothpick... Turned out to be one of the longest builds with a lot of failures! Quite a bit of suffering! And I am too old for such tiny parts! Show me some love, guys! :-)

In general, toothpicks are fun! Toothpicks are also pain in the butt! Thank you, KababFPV! :-)

I simply wanted one with the same range as my other drones. Normal range. I want to fly my drones around my house. For toothpicks, that would be very long range. Hence the very long toothpick build!

I also wanted to keep this on 1S. I am not afraid to fly a 50g 1S drone around people. Not actually around people but in places where a drone could bother people. Anything bigger is dangerous and threatening. I can fly a 1S drone into myself without fear. That's a good test. What's a point of having a 2-3S toothpick? If I can't fly it around people I may as well fly my 3" drones instead. That's my opinion, of course.

The original plan was to build on a Lil Duece frame but it just doesn't have holes to mount different things. In that regard, nothing beats FlexRC stuff! ;-)

It was not a question of what receiver to use. Anything I build these days has an R9 in it. The question was what to do with long antennas. I have printed integrated antenna tubes attached around the motors. The first version might have been too wide and had too much air resistance counteracting the prop thrust. It didn't fly well. I had to slim it down.

I planned to use an AKK Nano vtx to match the radio range but couldn't make the Smart Audio work (softserial on the led pad, in case you need it). I have switched to the tiny TBS Unify Pro32 Nano and I am glad I did because that thing is amazing! 400 mW and fits a tiny whoop build! SA 2.1 seems to work with the latest BF 4.0 without any issues.

I started with 10,000kV motors and it could only just hover above the ground on 1S... Another failure! Ordered 13500kV and IT FLIES!

The reason I have used a 16x16mm stack is that I have had my share of broken whoop-style FCs. I also wanted to check out the Teenyf4 stack which replaced often-troubled Super_S F4.

Also, I have gained a lot of respect for people who can design canopies! Both the canopy and the antenna tubes are printed in PolyMax PLA.

45g dry weight... not bad! Range test flight at 100mW power for both tx and vtx. I am getting 3:30+ min flight times on average
Range test flight 1
Range test flight 2
Overall, not an acro but a nice smooth cruiser! Very happy with the range and video quality (looks much better than from DVR)!

Photos

Discussion

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Jeremy Chotto   May 02, 2019  
1

why 1s my friend? maybe those crazy high kv hyperlight motors would have worked good.

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Jeremy Chotto   May 03, 2019 
1

ya u could have had mine I just sent them back. heli nation has them. they would go perfect with this.

sergetania   May 03, 2019 

Oh, missed it! I will check with the Heli-Nation, thanks for the tip!

sergetania   May 03, 2019 

Got a set! Thanks, brother!

Rice_Bowl   May 01, 2019  
1

dude that looks awesome!!! i understand the frustration and joy of making a unique build that youve taken time to think about and work on. Im working on several things too. An example is a frame based on the toothpick but is half 3d printed and half carbon rods. Its around 5.5g in a 120mm size which is not bad considering 3" props could fit it at that size (wouldnt recommend it tho cause esc on those AIO are just 5a). Anyways i really love the supports you added cause those really make a difference when you "intentionally" crash hard hahaha.

sergetania   May 01, 2019 

Thanks! Yeah, we often do it for the pain! 😊
Supports? I think you are talking the antenna tubes, right? They are to house the long R9 antennas! Careful, 3" props will burn 5A ESC.

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