Birdbrain RC Morningstar-B

By BirdbrainRC on Aug 09, 2020

22  505  3

So, my box frame concepts turned out to be a failure - the frames just didn't stand up to my heavy handed flying, and I managed to kill one of the Fortresses and the Exocet within 5 minutes in the woods. That left me with a pile of broken carbon, but also 3 full 6S capable electronics setups. The weekend after, I was flying one of my original Morningstar builds and swapped the old Gemfan 5152 biblades for some 51466 Hurricanes - what a night and day difference, it flew spectacularly. And so I decided to put together a 6S one using the bits out of the first Fortress.

As all my recent builds have used micro rather than fullsize FPV cameras, I decided to update the pod to accomodate those - whilst I was at it, I made a few updates to improve on the (2 and a half year old!) design. The pod thickness was reduced slightly, the fin was redesigned to accomdate stubby antennas, and I added a NACA duct to each side to provide cooling for the electronics, along with rear vents. The baseplate remained the same 12mm of hefty HMWPE sheet, except my new pillar drill let me countersink the bottom holes to stop motor wires getting shredded on them.

I'd forgotten how much room there is in these! Made the build a piece of cake; the rear of the pod is limited to 23mm stack height, but the front can easily take 30mm of components. I put the Matek VTX up front, and it turned out that there was plenty of room to the side of the pod for the MMCX right angle connector.

With flying, it was a surprise - I'd somehow found the box build a little underwhelming, like it was underpowered. This build, however and despite running the same components, was anything but - practically teleporting from gate to gate. It does have a weird low frequency oscillation off certain manoevers which needs some attention, but that didn't stop it from being seriously quick around the track. Think once I get that tuned out it'll be a strong contender for my 2021 race rig!

Update: tried stock BF 4.2 PIDs and lo and behold it flies great!

Photos

Part List

Flight Controller

Hobbywing Xrotor F4 G3 Flight Controller OSD & 60A 3-6S Blheli_32 DSHOT1200 Brushless ESC Stack for 130-300mm RC Drone (10 builds)
Banggood.com
$115.86

Motors

4 x iFlight XING 2208 2-6S 1700KV Unibell Motor
Hobbyrc.co.uk
See Site

Propellers

Gemfan 51466x3 Hurricane Durable (4pcs) MCK (71 builds)
Pyrodrone.com
$3.29

FPV Camera

Foxeer Predator V4 Micro Camera (1.7mm) (Red)
Hobbyrc.co.uk
See Site

FPV Transmitter

Matek 40CH VTX HV Video Transmitter (11 builds)
Hobbyrc.co.uk
See Site

Antenna

Menace Thrasher 5.8Ghz Antenna (SMA) (RHCP) (2 builds)
Hobbyrc.co.uk
See Site

Receiver

FrSky XM+ Micro SBUS Receiver (International firmware) (1149 builds)
Dronejunkie.co.uk
See Site

Batteries

Rhino 1000mAh 6S 50C Lipo Battery Pack w/XT60 (8 builds)
Hobbyking.com
$14.72

Radio

Jumper T-Lite 16CH Hall Sensor Gimbals CC2500/JP4IN1 Multi-protocol RF System OpenTX Mode2 Transmitter Support Jumper 915 R900/C (23 builds)
Banggood.com
$69.99

Radio

FrSky Taranis Q X7S Radio w/ Upgraded M7 Hall Sensor Gimbals (Carbon Fiber) (25 builds)
Getfpv.com
$187.99

Radio

FrSky TARANIS X-Lite (Black) (65 builds)
Hobbyrc.co.uk
See Site

Goggles

ORQA FPV.One OLED FPV Goggles (12 builds)
Getfpv.com
$549.00

Goggles

FatShark Dominator HD 2 Hydro-Dipped Urban Cam Grey and White FPV Goggle
Hobbyking.com
See Site

HD Camera

Hawkeye Firefly 6S 4K WiFi Sport HD DV Camera - $75.31 |GearBest.com
Gearbest.com
$75.31

HD Camera

HawKeye Firefly Q6 4K 120 Degree Angle Action Camera - $59.14 |GearBest.com (2 builds)
Gearbest.com
$59.14

HD Camera

GoPro HERO6 Black - Waterproof Digital Action Camera for Travel with Touch Screen 4K HD Video 12MP Photos (5 builds)
Amazon.co.uk
See Site

HD Camera

GoPro HERO5 Session (302 builds)
Getfpv.com
$199.99

HD Camera

RunCam 5 Orange 12MP 4:3 145°FOV 56g Ultra-light 4K HD FPV Camera for RC Drone (20 builds)
Banggood.com
$102.49

HD Camera

GoPro Protective Lens (GoPro Official Accessory)
Amazon.co.uk
See Site

Video Receiver

Furious True-D V3.5 Diversity Receiver System Firmware 3.8A (FatShark Attitude Version)SKU: FPV-RX-TRUD3.8A (27 builds)
Furiousfpv.com
$68.00

Video Receiver

ImmersionRC RapidFIRE w/ Analog PLUS Goggle FPV Receiver Diversity Module (179 builds)
Banggood.com
$149.00

Radio Module

TBS CROSSFIRE NANO TX (9 builds)
Pyrodrone.com
$69.95

Radio Module

Frsky R9M Lite - Radio Transmitter Module (Black) (11 builds)
Getfpv.com
$47.99

Radio Module

FrSky R9M 2019 900MHz RC Transmitter Module w/ Super 8 Antenna (ACCST/ACCESS)Default Title (17 builds)
Racedayquads.com
$45.99

Backpack

MultiStar Premium Multirotor Travel Backpack
Hobbyking.com
$47.03

Backpack

TORVOL QUAD PITSTOP BACKPACK PRO (5 builds)
Risingsunfpv.com.au
$359.99

Accessories

TrueRC True-MOX 868MHz Antenna
Hobbyrc.co.uk
See Site
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Discussion

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dafunk   Aug 14, 2020  

gorgeous build... piece of art... and it flies well

recon   Aug 11, 2020  

Beautiful build! That canopy is a work of art.

What material are you using for your backdrop? It looks really slick.

BirdbrainRC   Aug 11, 2020 
1

Thanks very much! I use one of these for all my studio shots, it's got a white and a black backdrop which are plastic (I think polypropylene) sheets https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B079BGT9C8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

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