This is my attempt at making a micro quad with enough room for a 4-board 20x20 stack: 4-in-1 ESCs, FC, Runcam Split 3 DVR board, and the VTX. This is my second custom orange frame, and you can see a comparison of sizes between the 2 in the photos below.
The frame was custom made on my own Bantam Othermill Pro, using a diamond-coated bit and cutting under oil. It's loosely inspired by the HGLRC Hornet, which also uses just 2 side pieces and 2 spacers, and captive nuts to hold the roll cage in place. I sandblasted it and painted it - not exactly too satisfied with the paint job but I'm not a perfectionist. The frame ended up being kinda heavy, and looks kind of fat, hence the name "Orange Hog". It definitely holds up to falls (at least on grass) as you can see in this video, in which the props fly off not once but twice!
After that I put on the 3-blade props in the pics.
I used the Kakute F7 Mini mainly because I wanted to try out barometer-based flight modes in iNav or arducopter, but iNav was just not working right for me, I couldn't get the PID tuning right and was having terrible oscillations, so I switched to BetaFlight and voila, it worked great.
I used 1106s because I was worried about the weight of the stack and beefy frame, and this is definitely not a delicate flower of a build, at 128g dry. But it's handling pretty well so far, though I haven't tested extensively.
One of the purposes of this build was to use the Runcam Split 3 micro. The camera works great, as you can see in the video above - which is unstabilized but has lens distortion correction.
First and foremost, my failure to get iNav working right with no crazy oscillations, so I gave up for now and just used BetaFlight. Weight is a challenge with this frame. On the other hand it's a tank, but is probably overkill. I plan to experiment with 2mm CFRP in the future.
Flight Controller |
HolyBro Kakute F7 Mini, Tekko32 F3 45A Mini 20x20 Stack/Combo
(5 builds)
Racedayquads.com
|
$77.00 |
Motors |
HGLRC FLAME 1106 6000KV 2-3S Brushless Motor for RC Drone FPV
(2 builds)
Hglrc.com
|
$44.59 |
FPV Camera |
RunCam Split 3 Micro FPV Camera FOV 165 Degree DC 5-20V M12 Lens 1080P HD Recording WDR NTSC PAL Switchable for FPV Racing Drone
Amazon.com
|
$89.99 |
FPV Transmitter |
HGLRC Forward VTX Mini FPV Transmitter 20x20mm PIT/25/100/200/350mW Switchable Built-in Microphone for RC Drone
(4 builds)
Banggood.com
|
$32.99 |
Receiver |
FrSky XM+ 2.4GHz Micro ReceiverDefault Title
(1149 builds)
Racedayquads.com
|
$15.99 |
Power Distribution |
Qunqi 5pack MP1584EN Ultra Small DC-DC 3A Power Step-Down Adjustable Module Buck Converter 24V to 12v 9V 5V 3V for Arduino
Amazon.com
|
$8.59 |
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 moreWith 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
Sand blasted it? Was it just too durable, and you needed to weaken it some?
Exactly - I mean, carbon fiber is just too strong, it's not exactly fair to the other materials...seriously though, the sand is very fine, and the blasting really just roughed up the surface so the paint would stick better - it probbly went in maybe a small fraction of a milimeter.