iFlight CinePick frame was on offer so I grabbed one as I haven't built a deadcat in a while and wanted to get some HD footage and no-props without flying a 40-degree tilt to keep the props out of view.

The frame is really solid and wasted on the BNF which uses only 1106 motors on a 3" prop. I moved to the well-known Xing 1404 after buying the BetaFPV 1404 and discovering that this frame is a 9mm motor spacing instead of 12mm spacing! That was annoying but I persevered. I removed the motor plugs from a 20A BetaFPV whoop board and managed to get the 1404 motors attached decently on the reverse of the board.

Stock canopy is absolute rubbish. Stock canopy is the reason why reviewers complained of jello in HD footage, the canopy is designed to look angular and cool without putting any material where it is needed - the area from the frame attachment up to the camera mounting holes at the front. Most of the is hollow on the stock canopy.

Using my terrible 3D-modelling skills I learned enough Blender to remodel the canopy from a iFlight 120RS into something that has two rear standoffs and much thicker walls at the front to support the camera. Unfortunately I still suck at 3D modelling and my attempts to cut holes for screws simply left holes in the two faces but didn't connect the holes with a tunnel, so the holes printed as if they weren't there. Nevermind, life's too short to learn Blender when we could be flying so I fixed a couple of the larger holes by fitting empty cylinders into them, winced at the ugliness of my mesh and cut the rest of the holes with a bradawl. I also added a space in the top of the canopy to slide the receiver into and help keep the build tidy.

Flies really nice, only gripe is the Caddx Baby Turtle's FPV feed which could be better. I have the Runcam Split 3 whoop edition and it's noticeably easier to see. Only change I would make is to replace Caddx Baby Turtle with the new RunCam Split 4.

Props are the LDARC 3045, they come in packs of 10 and help reduce jello compared to Gemfan windancer and Emax Avan Minis. I also run BetaFlight 4.2 and used the "The following tuning suggestions may help minimise minor random wobbles in HD footage:" in https://github.com/betaflight/betaflight/wiki/4.2-Tuning-Notes Read the wiki, it works ;-)

Running the "Actual" rates with this and it really helps smooth out turns. Still able to flip and roll but orbits look much nicer.

UPDATE

Added the Runcam Split 4 to get higher-resolution footage with clearer FPV camera view and swapped the eachine VTX for a Rush Tiny Tank with fancy customisable LEDs. Video signal is noticeably cleaner.

Recommendation - use steel 25mm hex bolts for stacks on builds like this instead of plastic standoffs. The weight difference is 1-2g and the strength increase is huge.