Side Chick

By GameSofter on Jul 30, 2019

3  168  0

My wife suggested the name, no idea why...

Overview
This is no longer a toothpick, it is way to heavy (estimated weight is 60g dry, 115g all up) and not super duper efficient. I'll know how best to categorize it after some more flights but my initial impressions are that because of the weight, it's almost as tossable as my 5 inch kwads. It should be incredible for proximity freestyle. But it's in a weird in between category. Not a toothpick, but also not a babyhawk or diatone whatevertheycallit. The best trick to show that off is when you punch out going forward and then 180 to look back at the ground behind you. That trick with a toothpick is cool, but you lack the mass to keep your momentum going. With this guy I can hang for just about as long as I can doing that trick with a 5 inch. But it's still relatively quiet (thanks to the amazing props) and compared to the big 2.5-3 inch quads (Babyhawk R 3inch is 80ish grams dry) it's pretty light. It would definitely hurt if it ran into you, but not as bad as the bigger guys.

The Frame
Is the airblade dragonfly without prop guards. I will have to fly and see how it holds up to abuse with the build being so heavy. I'm sure if a brick wall were to attack it, I'd see the end of an arm but hopefully I'll never have to find out.
The camera placement is perfect if you have a nano camera (on a side note the runcam nano racer is incredible, kabab has complained about the color gain but the whole point of the camera is that you can adjust the settings. Turn down color gain and sharpening and you've got a really good camera, better than the nano2 and miles better than the EOS2.) you are provided a tpu backet for placing a nano camera, and I did just that on a different build with this frame. But with fitting the micro camera I had to use some different tpu parts. After a bit of squeezing I got it to fit. It's out quite a bit so if I hit a poll straight on I'm sure I'll break the lens but there is enough space to flip the brackets and mount the camera on the inside of the frame. I just didn't want props in view.
The biggest downside to this frame is the two hole motor mounting. I don't think two of the holes being missing adds much strength, it seems like an odd design decision, but for 97.3% of motors out there it's not a problem and might make the frame stronger in that area. BUT THE NEW LIL FLOATERS SORT OF DO NOT FIT THIS FRAME. They have a two hole mounting pattern that fits two arms fine, but you'd then have to have the motor wire sticking out of the side of the arms for the other two. Only a problem with Lil floaters as far as I know.

The FC, ESC, and VTX
The build was simple enough with the iflight micro stack. I blew up the ESC on a previous toothpick build. But the amazing people at pyrodrone sent me a replacement after the manufacturer said it was my fault (story for another time). Performance seems just fine, I think I like the betafpv/geprc 12a whoop boards better as they have current sensors and if I was to build a micro long range drone I would like to know how much battery I've used, but I will only complain if I have more problems with the ESC. The VTX is fine, but the 5v for the camera is quite noisy. Not a deal breaker. But I might eventually switch this guy out for a 20x20 as the frame can fit it and I always love more power!!!

The Camera
Is a caddx ratel. I really, really like how this camera looks after you tweak some settings. It really is like a low res gopro. And after you turn down noise reduction the night time performance in B&W becomes usable. Yay, no more smearing!
My settings
NTSC
Color Gain: 5
Noise Reduction: 1
Night mode: Auto
I could shave some latency off if I switched to PAL. Check out this video, it explains everything quite nicely:

The Motors
Are the EMAX RS 1106 2 4500kv. Seem to be the perfect fit for this build so far. I went with such a low kv because I was looking for efficiency, more flights will prove if I picked right or wrong, but I'm not lacking power with this guy so I'm happy.

The Props
Are emax avan rush 2.5. Quiet, smooth, powerful. Quite durable.

Battery recommendations
Are the rdq 525 or g&b 550 flat style. You might get away with a 450 with these low kv motors but 300 is a no go, there is just too much sag.

If there are any questions don't hesitate to ask. Ill be tweaking pids and maybe filters next and putting prop screws in place after spinning out of the sky because a prop joined the birds. Good news is the frame was fine and I have more props, bad news is there's now more plastic in the ground.

Photos

Part List

Frame

AirBlade Dragonfly Frame Kit
Airbladeuav.com
$26.99

Flight Controller

SucceX Micro F4 Flight Tower System 16x16mm (16 builds)
Pyrodrone.com
$48.99

Motors

4 x EMAX RS1106 MICRO BRUSHLESS MOTOR (1 PC.) - 7500KV (2 builds)
Pyrodrone.com
$43.96

Propellers

EMAX AVAN Rush 2.5x1.9x3 Propeller
Getfpv.com
$1.59

FPV Camera

CaddxFPV Ratel 2 Starlight Low Latency Micro Size Freestyle FPV Camera (79 builds)
Pyrodrone.com
$30.99

Antenna

VAS 5.8GHz Minion Antenna (RHCP) U.Fl
Pyrodrone.com
$14.95

Receiver

FRSKY R9 MINI 900MHZ LONG RANGE RECEIVER (12 builds)
Pyrodrone.com
$19.99

Batteries

Gaoneng GNB 11.1V 550mAh 80/160C 3S Lipo Battery JST/XT30 (8 builds)
Pyrodrone.com
$9.99

Radio

FrSky Taranis QX7 ACCESS 2.4GHz RC Transmitter - Choose Your Color (263 builds)
Racedayquads.com
$129.99

Goggles

FatShark Attitude V3 Headset (8 builds)
Shop.makerfire.com
$289.99

Video Receiver

AKK Diversity RX (4 builds)
Akktek.com
$29.99

Radio Module

FrSky R9M Transmitter Module (69 builds)
Racedayquads.com
$34.99
Show stores (6)

Discussion

Sign in to comment

Guides & Reviews

Jun 21, 2021

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
Mar 04, 2021

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