Pathfinder - Cinematic Gopro Hero carrier (Cinewhoop)

By TIBDREN FPV on Jan 05, 2020

15  925  4

After a lot of design iterations, 3D printed and carbon prototypes I proudly present my very own take of a "Cinewhoop".

The Pathfinder is designed to carry a Gopro Hero (7) for extra super juicy and smooth video, made of carbon fiber, TPU (and PLA). The bottom and top plate are meant to be cut out of 2mm carbon fiber plates (1.5mm will work as well), the ducts consists of a TPU housing with TPU inserts.

As of today it still is a work in progress and will very likely see a few (slight) changes to eventually loose a few grams.

At this moment I do NOT sell the frame or a RTF Version, this is meant to be an open source project and anyone can build its own, however I'm open for Inquiries for selling units, otherwise it is not allowed to sell parts of this design.

I choose to go with TPU ducts to make it less dangerous flying around soft targets, PLA works as well, looks better because its stiffer but also is easier to break,
now obviously this is not meant to be a flip flop freestyle drone but rather a smooth, slow flying cinematic whoop. If you have access to a CNC machine I totally would go and use soft foam instead of TPU or PLA. (If you're good with handling a foam cutter I'd imagine that would work well for foam as well..)

Features

  • 3 sets of 20x20 mounting holes
  • 1x 30.5x30.5mm mounting pattern in the middle (plus the 2x 20x20)
  • ability to mount 1x a 30x30 stack along with the DJI Air Unit
  • Micro Cameras ONLY! (Yes the DJI Cam is a very tight fit and might require to use a spacer for the front of the top plate)

As per request, there is now 3 different sizes for the ducts included:

  • standard, 20mm ducts
  • duct_30 + foam_30 for 30mm tall ducts
  • duct_40 + foam_40 for 40mm tall ducts

Gopro Hero 7 mounts are available in 5/15 and 30° angle, with T-Antenna style mounts, FPV camera mounts from here and VTX antenna mount from here.

Print Settings
I found these settings to work very well, giving more than enough strength and still be somewhat lightweight.

  • TPU with 1-5% Infill (ish)
  • Print the parts upside down, no support required.

Hardware
I personally recommend using the Mamba 1408 2800KV (6S) motors with the Mamba F722 Mini Flight Controller/ESC stack because it turned out to be reliable and offers enough features. For motors, anything above 1408, like 15xX is probably a good idea. Just keep in mind, as with any drone, especially whoops, the lighter the better. As for the FPV camera I'd either recommend using either the Runcam Nano 3 or the Runcam MicroEagle .
3" ducted props, best to use cut down 4/5 inch props dremel tool or get the really good and perfectly fitting HQ Cinewhoop Props

The finished frame with my Hardware recommendation, without Gopro (and mount) an no battery is about 300-340g, depending on materials and print settings used.

Files are available over at Thingiverse.

My own setup gets around 4 minutes of flight time and is at around 550g AUW including a Hero 7 Black and a 650mAh 6S pack, here is a short video of it in action:

Photos

Part List

Flight Controller

MAMBA F722 MINI Betaflight Flight Controller OSD 5V/2A & 306 30A 2-6S Blheli_32 Dshot1200 FPV Racing Brushless ESC for RC Drone (13 builds)
Banggood.com
$85.49

Motors

4 x Mamba 1408 2800KV 4-6S Brushless Motor for RC Drone FPV Racing (3 builds)
Banggood.com
$63.56

Propellers

2Pairs HQ Prop Duct 3 Tri-Blade 3" Cinewhoop Propeller For FPV Racing (5 builds)
Banggood.com
$3.49

FPV Camera

RunCam Nano 3 1/3'' 800TVL 1.1g Ultra Light FOV 160° Wide Angle NTSC CMOS FPV Camera for FPV RC Drone (2 builds)
Banggood.com
$17.99

FPV Transmitter

TBS Unify Pro32 HV 5.8GHz Video Transmitter (MMCX) (120 builds)
Getfpv.com
See Site

Antenna

Lumenier AXII 2 5.8GHz Long Range SMA Antenna - RHCP or LHCP (53 builds)
Racedayquads.com
$19.99

Receiver

TBS Crossfire Nano Rx (1488 builds)
Getfpv.com
See Site

Batteries

Tattu R-Line V1.0 22.2V 650mAh 95C 6S Lipo Battery XT30 Plug for FPV RC Drone
Banggood.com
$24.99

Radio

FrSky Taranis X9 Lite 2.4GHz 24CH ACCESS ACCST D16 Mode2 Classic Form Factor Portable Transmitter for RC Drone (9 builds)
Banggood.com
$95.99

Goggles

DJI Digital FPV System Air Unit 5.8GHz 8CH Transmitter HD 1080P Camera 1440X810 Goggle Combo With Remote Controller Mode 2 Super (2 builds)
Banggood.com
$819.00

Goggles

Skyzone SKY03O Oled /SKY03S 5.8GHz 48CH Diversity FPV Goggles Support OSD DVR HDMI With Head Tracker Fan LED For RC Racing Drone (47 builds)
Banggood.com
$399.90

HD Camera

GoPro Hero7 Black — Waterproof Action Camera with Touch Screen 4K Ultra HD Video 12MP Photos 720p Live Streaming Stabilization (26 builds)
Amazon.com
$298.00

Video Receiver

DJI FPV Air Unit Digital 5.8Ghz 1080p/60fps 28ms/4km HD Recording FPV Transmitter Camera Combo for FPV Racing Drone RC Airplane (287 builds)
Banggood.com
$180.79

Battery Charger

ISDT Q6 Pro BattGo 300W 14A Pocket Lipo Battery Balance Charger (3 builds)
Banggood.com
$59.99

Soldering Iron

MINI TS100 Digital OLED Programmable Interface DC5525 Soldering Iron Station Built-in STM32 Chip (264 builds)
Banggood.com
$53.99
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Discussion

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JC250   Nov 04, 2020  

What kinda flight time do you get out of this thing? I'm new to cinewhoops so excuse the question if its really stupid: is it possible to make a "longe range" cinewhoop cruiser? Want to kill two buirds with one stone. Thanks!

cuadqopter   Jan 13, 2020  

Looks great! What is the dry weight? Also, did you go with the F7 FC + ESC to accomodate a 6S battery? I'm thinking F4 + ESC with 4S could work as well, right?

TIBDREN FPV   Jan 14, 2020 

Thank you! I wanted to go 6S because I like it on 5", the Mamba stack is imo a very good product and worth the price, 15xx motors would give it propably a bit more efficiency tho. On my own rig dry weight is about 310g (300-340g) without a battery and with battery and hero 7 black it's about 550g and I get about 4min flight times on a 650 6S pack.

Rice_Bowl   Jan 06, 2020  
1

Isnt pathfinder that machine on mars? Howd it get back here hahaha

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