DJI FPV-GEPRC mark4 HD

By Som3BodeFPV on Aug 22, 2020

14  600  12

Hi, after one year of flying an entry analog setup( EV800D, FS-i6x), I sold my analog gear, and decided to go full DJI.

I chose the mark4 frame because it was big enough to carry the air unit, and it had a really good mount that came with it. I printed new antenna holders, motor covers, cable covers, and a camera lens cover in green TPU. I also printed grey skids from PLA. I think the colors match very nicely with the battery straps that came with the frame and with the DALprop fold's. Prints were designed by @Jayembee67, that he designed for his stunning build https://rotorbuilds.com/build/20335.

I chose to go with foldable props because of smaller package size, more durability since they fold away at impact (haven't tested it myself... yet), and the looks.
At first I wanted to get some cheap motors but I loveeeeee how xing's look and thought that purple will match my green accent well.

For the stack I chose a Mamba f405 mk2 with a 50A 4in1 ESC. I fly 4S, but wanted to be sure that nothing blows up one me mid flight. It was also cheap compared to other "DJI dedicated" stacks. I actually recommend looking for a FC with a 9-12V 2A BEC instead of paying extra for a special one if you want to fly DJI.

I guided the motor wires from inside of the frame to the ESC. Looks cleaner. I decided to put the capacitor behind the camera, I soldered it to ESC with some old motor wires. I tied the xt60 wires to a standoff, so that it tugs on the frame instead of the ESC pads in case of a crash. With the FC on top it is a really tight fit. Putting the air unit antennas in place was also a huge pain. After test fitting everything and doing a hover test. I took everything apart and coated the ESC and FC in Silicone Conformal Coating. I know, that waterproofing the air unit is possible, but it requires liquid electrical tape that i don't have. Maybe i'll coat it later. I don't intend to fly in rain, however I like flying in snow and often land in damp grass.

Since It is my third build ever, I'm really happy with how it turned out and super excited to fly it.
My IG: https://www.instagram.com/som3bodefpv/

Photos

Discussion

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si_th   Nov 19, 2020  

hi, I'm looking to start a similar build, also with the GEPRC MARK4 HD5 frame, the dji air unit and the Mamba F405 dji 50A 4in1 ESC stack

I've seen a build on rotorbuilds with another 4in1 ESC mounted with the power cable towards the front
this seems like a. nice solution since there is not really a lot. of space between the stack and the air unit to fit the power cables and the capacitor...
does anyone know if the cable that is provided to connect the FC to the ESC is long enough to mount the ESC 180 degrees turned but the FC the right way?
so the cable would run from the front edge of the FC to the back facing edge. of the ESC

Som3BodeFPV   Nov 19, 2020 

This stack comes with 2 cables, one is longer but neither of them are long enough to mount the FC and ESC in opposite directions. I would just rotate the FC as well so that it faces backwards and then change the rotation in betaflight by 180 degrees.
Here is a tutorial from JB on how to achieve that:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeuSq71pYF0&ab_channel=JoshuaBardwell

si_th   Nov 20, 2020 

thx for the quick response,
you are right, seems a lot easier to mount the entire stack backwards
I did not know that it's just one toggle in betaflight

MFJ   Aug 31, 2020  

Looks awesome!

Jayembee67   Aug 23, 2020  

This came out really well - very clean, nice work! And the colour scheme does look great. I'm interested in how the foldable props work out - I have yet to try any myself. But I'm sure it will fly splendidly; if it's anything like my Mark4, it will be a great flying machine!

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Jayembee67   Aug 23, 2020 

Gosh. Blush But anyhow... It's nice work, a great frame, I recognised my prints before I read the description, and I very much appreciate the attribution, thank you! And what's more, a little striking photography certainly doesn't go amiss! No, this is great. :-)

And floppy props - interesting! Alrighty, to be honest this is utterly counter-intuitive; adding extra mass, flexibility, and points of failure can only be a bad thing, right? But apparently not. But there's plenty of physics that is counter-intuitive, so what do I know?! Time to add something new to the shopping cart.

So what do you think to the HD flying experience, especially with the 50Mbps video, after a year of analogue? Kind of amazing, right? :-D

Som3BodeFPV   Aug 24, 2020 

Digital is insane. Compared to my cheap analog setup, I can now go way further out, fly between trees and bushes without clipping any branches. It's like flying in a sim. I was a bit worried about latency, it seems like it's the only downside that people talk about. Honestly, I haven't noticed any of that. If it weren't for the OSD, I wouldn't know it's there. I'm not a racer, so it's not a problem. I still have to learn the limits of this system to fully appreciate it but so far I'm really impressed.

I suggest that you also take a look at Gemfan floppy proppy ( they are literally named floppy proppy ). They seem to be as good as DALprop folds if not better.

Jayembee67   Aug 24, 2020 

It's funny, occasionally I will slip on the FatSharks to fly a whoop or RC car or something, and I think "Oh, you know, it's not that bad, I have just been giving this a bad rap" but then I'll go back to the DJI goggles and think "Oh, no, it was that bad after all...". Yes, I can absolutely fly in places I would never have dared before because I can see, well, everything really. And yes, latency? Feh. I'm doing wobbly circles around trees in a park, and if there is any latency, my aged CNS certainly doesn't have the ability to register it any more. That matters not to me, but the gorgeous image, well... ;-)

Oh, and will do. The DAL order went in yesterday, I get some of those too. This is so strange, I absolutely expected novelty props like this to be just that; novelty props. But apparently not. Unexpected. I shall find out myself very soon!

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