OctoWhoop

By dangonay on Jul 30, 2019

14  1,342  12

I like to try new things and thought making a really tiny octocopter would be fun. Since I couldn't find a frame I had to get one built.

I used Autodesk Fusion360 to design my frame (my first attempt at drawing a custom frame) and had Armattan Productions cut it for me.

This is just an initial prototype so I can test things out. It lacks a camera mount as I'm primarily concerned with mounting the flight controller, ESCs, motors and batteries. I have an XT30 connector and several pigtails made up so i can try different battery combinations (2 x 1S in parallel, 2 x 1S in series, 2 x 2S in parallel or just straight 2S) as well as fight controller and ESC locations.

Once I have a configuration that works well I'm going to get Armattan to make a second generation frame as my final design.

I'll update this page with the final version (which should be in a month or two given the time it takes to get custom parts made). I'll then make the frame available on Armattan's store is anyone wants to try their own.

Update: Aug 26, 2019 After fooling around with this for some time I have decided to move on to my next project. The main problem I'm having is that I can't get all the components into the build while keeping it as compact (elegant) as I wanted. Whoops usually have a flight controller/ESC in a single unit but I had to use a separate controller and a pair of 4-in-1 ESC's. This meant my "stack" ended up being far too tall for my liking (and that doesn't include adding in the receiver and camera/VTX).

That said, I had a lot of fun building this and learned a fair bit (including how to use Fusion360 to design my frame pieces properly so they can be cut by Armattan) along with wiring and setting up/tuning an octocopter in Betaflight.

I'm now moving on to my second octocopter....

Photos

Part List

Flight Controller

Matek Flight Controller F722-Mini
Rotorgeeks.com
$60.74

ESCs

Spedix 12A 20x20 4-in-1 BLHeli_S ESC
Rotorvillage.ca
$26.99

Motors

4 x Spedix 1103-11000kv Micro Motor (2 builds)
Rotorvillage.ca
$35.96

Propellers

Gemfan 1636-4 (1.5mm HUB) 40mm Quad-Blade Prop (4CW+4CCW)
Rotorvillage.ca
$6.49

Receiver

FrSky XM+ w/ACCST 1.X (1149 builds)
Rotorgeeks.com
$18.47
Show stores (2)

Discussion

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Impavidus   Aug 07, 2019  
1

I'm having trouble understanding how you are getting 8 motor signals from that flight controller. I'm in the middle of making a 3" version and was going to go with SP Racing's H7 FC because it has obvious signal pads for all 8 motors. Are you remapping pads?

Impavidus   Aug 07, 2019 
1

oops, i see the pads now. lol. thank you though because i thought that SP's FCs were my only options.

dangonay   Aug 07, 2019 
1

Funny because I thought Matek was my only choice until you mentioned SP.

Impavidus   Aug 07, 2019  
1

From the time you sent the files to armattan and getting the frame, how long did it take?

dangonay   Aug 07, 2019 
1

It was about 3 weeks. It was also very cheap (only $9.80 for the main frame piece). However, shipping can be expensive depending where you are. My shipping was 3x the price of the frame. :( I think they get a batch of pieces to cut and do them at once, hence the delay.

BirdbrainRC   Aug 01, 2019  
1

Ha! That's a coincidence, been designing a 2.5" octo myself, just ordered motors and escs last night, and also going to use a Matek f722 mini :)

dangonay   Aug 01, 2019 
2

LOL. I've been drawing up a 3" for 1407 motors and also a 5". Haven't decided if I'm going to build them.

Who am I kidding? Of course I'm going to build them. This hobby is addictive. And a money sink.

HK-AERIAL VTOL   Jul 31, 2019  

I love it because it's awesome. I hate that I now lust after yet another rig and I have a backlog of builds amassing. More importantly... how's it fly? Q: on those F722 Minis are the pads really just that divet in the side of the board? What is with that extra ring that goes around/under it? I was gonna use it on my current build, but I couldn't figure out what was going on there (I just used the F411 Mini instead. Very straight forward).

dangonay   Aug 01, 2019 
1

That's right - just the divets in the side. I'm not sure why the "ring" board is there. Maybe if your frame has no 20x20 mount? Haven't been too aggressive with flying yet, but it seems good so far. Yaw is very fast. The sound is awesome, but the dog hates it. I can do tight diagonal flips since there's no yaw from ramping up a single corner motor like on a quad.

HK-AERIAL VTOL   Aug 01, 2019 

Wow... that is killer. Well I gotta get through a micro tonight, get my 7" ARX-R finished and then I got one more to tackle, but hey... when I am ready can i get that drawing off you (the new one you were planning to add the camera mount to)?

Rice_Bowl   Aug 01, 2019  
1

dudee!!! that looks so amazing!!! very unique!!

Jodie Froster   Jul 30, 2019  
1

Wooooooooooooooooooooooah

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