Syncpick (DJI)

By fichek on Mar 17, 2021

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A DJI digital toothpick I built for my friend SyncFPV a few months ago.

Check out his YouTube / Instagram / TikTok / RotorBuilds. Or see this build in action here.

Uses an older HGLRC 20x20 AIO FC that is no longer available (they have a new one but it's not as good), I recommend JHEMCU 20x20 AIO that comes in 20A and 35A variants (20 is plenty). 20x20 is much nicer to use than whoop/toothpick boards, as Vista's outer "whoop mount" holes are only M1.6 so you need to force M2 screws in and risk cracking the PCB.

Canopy was custom designed to very tightly fit the naked DJI camera using this case printed in PLA which brings total weight of DJI camera to roughly 0.1g more than that of Caddx Nebula Nano(!) while retaining the good image, low latency and 4:3 aspect ratio (these days I'd use Nebula Pro, still working on a canopy for that.) It will also fit the Caddx ND filters and hold them in with additional friction from the side bumpers around the lens. When I first mounted the camera in the canopy I instantly thought that the black screw in its centre looked a lot like the little dot in the centre of Sync FPV's logo so I got to work creating slightly embossed logo pattern on the canopy sides that I was gonna paint black to match the screw, but after many different approaches with various kinds of paint I ended up printing the logo parts out of 3 layers of black (well, "galaxy black") PLA and glueing it in with superglue (the gel kind) and I think it turned out awesome! I'll be releasing more variations of that canopy for different camera angles and antennas, as well as for Nebula Pro (I personally use TrueRC Singularity on mine because that alone saves almost a full gram!) and eventually 1"x1" diagonal mounted ones instead of 20x20 mm beacause there's lots of people wanting to just move their existing toothpicks to DJI.

Broken arm Arm bumpers are kinda overkill as I've had some pretty serious crashes with this frame and never had more than a scuff (it's made by Armattan Productions so it's some very premium carbon fibre) but they look cute and match the style + are less than 0.2g a piece.
Update: he managed to break it

Thanks Sync for the cool pics. See this build in action here.

Photos

Part List

Frame	Toothgrinder 120 (16x16/20x20mm stack version) Armattanproductions.com	$17.99
Flight Controller	GHF420 AIO Toothpick Flight Controller (20A / 35A, 2-6S) (2 builds) Unmannedtechshop.co.uk	See Site
Motors	4 x 1204 5000KV Brushless Motors (14 builds) Betafpv.com	$39.96
Propellers	HQ Prop Durable T3x2.5x3 (2CW, 2CCW) - Unmanned Tech Shop Unmannedtechshop.co.uk	See Site
FPV Transmitter	Caddx Vista Digital HD System For DJI HD FPV - Unmanned Tech Shop (4 builds) Unmannedtechshop.co.uk	See Site
Receiver	TBS Crossfire Nano RX - Unmanned Tech UK FPV Shop (5 builds) Unmannedtechshop.co.uk	See Site
Batteries	TheFPV 450mAh 3S 11.4V HV 80C Micro Battery XT30 Unmannedtechshop.co.uk	See Site
3D Printed	Naked DJI Fpv Camera by rynbrnz Thingiverse.com	See Site
Misc Parts	TBS FPVCycle Minimortal T Antenna (5 builds) Getfpv.com	$3.99

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Discussion

DeZauZeR Sep 03, 2021

Can u please share this canopy ? I would like to try this build. It's great that you manage to use DJI camera i want that !

MPHP Apr 23, 2021

Has the canopy stood up to crashes? I an thinking of making a naked Vista build but I am torn on the type of mounting.

fichek May 03, 2021

Yes, he managed to break one lens total. I use an even lighter canopy on my own build and have yet to break anything.

Jodie Froster Mar 19, 2021

Well this is cool, beautiful, and terrifying.
Prints look great, soldering looks great, overall assembly looks great.
I wish we, as a community, had bought more of those Zeus boards. SUCH a cool design, truly ahead of it's time... Maybe we would still be able to buy them now.. sigh
That naked vista as a structural component makes me cringe REAL huard. Not my drone, so to be fair it's awesome from a weight savings perspective. I would know, if I was flying it, that there was a 0% chance of it surviving regular use. It would just be a matter of time, before it got consumed. I know they are all that way, to a degree, but I feel like I can make one that has a chance of surviving till I'm done with the hobby... but not that one. No chance. It's just a different energy, and there is an excitement there.. It's more imperative that I pay attention to the moments I have with something like that. It also feels frivolous to PLAN to destroy something so beautiful. The performance you get out of those kinds of engineering decisions are exhilirating. That particular swirl of emotions is heady, and intense.
Maybe one day we'll have an AiO board that INCLUDES a DJI vTx. I wonder what motors we will be running, and what kind of current those boards will be rated for. Maybe we'll all be on 12s by then.
I love that you did this for someone, I can only imagine how satisfying that must have been while you were building/designing :)

fichek Mar 20, 2021

I agree completely about the old aio Zeus, so ahead of its time :)

Vista isn't structural in any way, there are 4 steel 25mm m2 screws holding everything in place. I've been flying it like that since ~February last year, decased since ~April and haven't damaged a single Vista across 4 builds. Got the lightest one down to 52 grams and still no major damage to anything, just some props and a couple arms. When you lose weight, you also lose kinetic energy so it's harder to break stuff, especially in this category where few grams can be 10% of your total weight.

fichek Mar 20, 2021

Also, Sync FPV pushes his pretty hard, he even broke the thickest frame I ever made, one I have yet to break myself, and his Vista is still fine :)

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