I've been flying box-frames with vertical arms for a while now, starting with the Karearea Talon 2 years ago and following up with my own design (VertiX sold by fpvframe.ch). I love the feeling that you get in cornering, which I could not replicate with standard frames. The downside of box-frames is their high maintenance requirements. Any part swap takes forever and small intricate carbon pieces have a tendency to break. Not to mention the weight which was quite high in order to stay resilient to crashes.
Meet the Five33 Switchback, a frame that promises the sweet compromise of a sturdy, light standard frame base with the addition of Side Force Generators (SFGs) to provide that cornering grip that people flying vertical arms frames love. I immediately knew I had to try it!
The frame only supports Nano sized cameras because of it's narrow body and standoffs spacing. It's however in theory made for both 20x20mm stacks and 30.5x30.5mm stacks. I did not try to build one in 30.5mm yet, but will in the future since I still have a bunch of FCs and ESCs for that size lying around.
I did not fly it a lot yet, but I love the cornering and can definitely feel that it's light! I shaved off more than 60g compared to my setup from last year.
A small thing to note is that these motors do not perfectly fit the SFG mounts so I had to file the carbon "T" joints slightly to not interfere with the motor base.
Enjoy a few pictures from the build below:
Photos
Part List
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I have the Talon Gigawatt version of that esc and Im having trouble dealing with the heatsink and spacing. The pics show different gummies so Im guessing you addressed it. How did you space your stack on the final build?
Hey there! Yes I also had issues with spacing so I added some short plastic tubes (unthreaded standoffs) I had laying around in my small parts box. To be honest I don't remember where I got them from, probably an older stack. If you find some tube with inner diameter 3mm you could probably cut 4 pieces to the same length and use that. Maybe antenna tubes or something similar.
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Awesome build man! Did you print the 3dparts yourself in black or they offer them in that color?!
Cheers!
Hey thanks! I printed them myself because I wanted the fixed angle cam mount and a custom mount for the crossfire antenna. Then I figured I'd print all of them in a matching color
Thanks for the reply! Yeah, I'm building one too and I'm having trouble figuring out how to mount the imortal T. Thinking of maybe using the normal L antena and mounting it as they do in the Five333 images of the Switchback. Are you based in europe? Would you be interested in printing and selling one of those prints? Yours look really good!
Hey! No unfortunately I have not time for printing services. I only slightly modified the original immortal T holder available on the official thingiverse account of five33 so I think you could have that one printed.
Would you be able to give out the STL files?
Sure, here it is. You can mirror it to print the other side https://www.dropbox.com/s/ge8h8hyi648cklr/crsf_custom.stl?dl=0 All other parts are from https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3950022
@beeb please can you upload stl of T-antenna holder?
https://www.dropbox.com/s/l2anztbmmc8bajw/crsf_beeb_both.stl?dl=0