Le Pigeon 4K

By Straw Hat Sam on Nov 09, 2020

45  6,913  8

Le Pigeon is a de-cased BMPCC4K cinequad.

See the raw unstabilized flight footage here:

This frame is meant for a 7" setup and I have tried BH 2806.5 1700kV on 5S, FPVCycle 30mm big green on 6S, and BH 2810 1500kV on 6S so far. I highly recommend the 2810 motors. I do not recommend the small 2806.5 motors because I started to develop mid throttle oscillations that got worse with a heavier lens. You can get away with Bob's big green motors ONLY if you plan to fly lenses lighter than 160g. That would be a good lightweight setup. But the 2810s are the best because although they add 40g extra weight, they are SMOOOOOOOTH at all throttle ranges and have much more authority over the quad (even with the same props) and can wrangle heavier lenses like the Samyang 12mm (245g) no problem and keep a smooth flight.

A note about ESCs, if using the 2810 motors, I found that 48kHz is better than 24kHz as it doesn't make this weird whooshing noise at low throttle and everything runs smoother and cooler. A trick for your ESC settings is to set ramp up power to 25%. This greatly reduces current spikes (as much as 50%) and causes no noticeable performance loss.

Do not cheap out on your voltage regulator! It is imperative that you purchase the recommended Pololu brand 12V 4.5A BEC or something better, because it needs to power both the DJI Air unit and the BMPCC4K board reliably.

Tuning Le Pigeon is tricky because although it's a rigid frame and you can get away with removing gyro low pass filters, you need to add a notch filter if you are using a lens heavier than 150g because of feedback resonance from the lens acting like a tuning fork. A tuning video will be made and published here when that is ready.

Photos

Part List

Flight Controller

RADIX 2 Flight Controller - brainfpv (11 builds)
Brainfpv.com
$99.00

Flight Controller

Lumenier LUX F7 Ultimate Flight Controller (Dual Gyros) (33 builds)
Getfpv.com
$79.99

Flight Controller

Hobbywing XRotor Micro 3-6S 30x30 Stack/Combo (F4 FC / 32Bit 60A 4in1 ESC) (13 builds)
Racedayquads.com
$79.99

Flight Controller

MATEK Systems F722-HD F7 Flight Controller OSD 3~8S MPU6000 32M Blackbox 5V/8V BEC comptiable DJI FPV Air Unit 30.5x30.5mm for R (9 builds)
Banggood.com
$59.99

Flight Controller

CLRACING F7 V2.2 30x30 FLIGHT CONTROLLER (11 builds)
Pyrodrone.com
$56.99

Flight Controller

T-Motor F7 Flight Controller (6 builds)
Fpvcrate.com
$49.99

Flight Controller

Matek F722-STD F7 30x30 Flight Controller w/ 32K Gyro, BFOSD, Barometer (36 builds)
Racedayquads.com
$39.99

Flight Controller

XRotor Flight Controller F4 G3 w/OSD for FPV Racing - HOBBYWING North America (3 builds)
Hobbywingdirect.com
$34.99

ESCs

Hobbywing XRotor Micro 32bit 60A 4-6S 30x30 4in1 ESC w/ BEC (83 builds)
Racedayquads.com
$84.99

Motors

BrotherHobby Avenger 2810 1500Kv Motor (4 builds)
Racedayquads.com
$28.99

Motors

FPVCycle 28mm 1300Kv - 7"-8" Motor (8 builds)
Fpvcycle.com
$28.99

Propellers

2 x 2 Pairs DALPROP CYCLONE T7056C 7inch Crystal 3-blade Propeller for RC FPV Racing Drone (17 builds)
Banggood.com
$8.32

Propellers

HQProp DP 7X4X3 Propeller (Set of 4 - Light Grey) (55 builds)
Getfpv.com
See Site

FPV Camera

Caddx DJI Digital HD FPV Air Unit Kit (293 builds)
Getfpv.com
See Site

Antenna

2 x TrueRC Singularity Long 5.8GHz SMA Antenna - Choose Version (19 builds)
Racedayquads.com
$39.98

Receiver

TBS Crossfire Diversity Nano Rx - FPV LONG RANGE DRONE RECEIVER (97 builds)
Team-blacksheep.com
$49.95

Batteries

RDQ Series 22.2V 6S 1800mAh 100C LiPo Battery - XT60 (7 builds)
Racedayquads.com
$44.99

Misc Parts

Pololu - 12V, 4.5A Step-Down Voltage Regulator D36V50F12 (2 builds)
Pololu.com
$27.95

Misc Parts

Pololu - 12V, 2.4A Step-Down Voltage Regulator D36V28F12 (2 builds)
Pololu.com
$22.95

Misc Parts

2 x RDQ 250mm Kevlar Stitched Battery Strap w/ Metal BuckleDefault Title (8 builds)
Racedayquads.com
$5.98

Misc Parts

2 x RDQ 90° MMCX to SMA Pigtail - Choose Color (11 builds)
Racedayquads.com
$3.98

Misc Parts

2 x TBS Crossfire Immortal T Antenna V2 - Extended (14 builds)
Getfpv.com
See Site

Accessories

SLR Magic 8mm f/4 Lens
Bhphotovideo.com
See Site

Accessories

Venus Optics Laowa 7.5mm f/2 MFT Lens for Micro Four Thirds (Ultra-Light Version, Black)
Bhphotovideo.com
See Site

Accessories

Venus Optics Laowa 9mm f/2.8 Zero-D Lens for Micro Four Thirds
Bhphotovideo.com
See Site

Accessories

Samyang 12mm f/2.0 NCS CS Lens for Micro Four Thirds Mount (Black)
Bhphotovideo.com
See Site

Accessories

Atomos Shinobi 5.2" 4K HDMI Monitor
Bhphotovideo.com
See Site

Accessories

Pearstone HDA-501UTB Ultra-Thin High-Speed HDMI Cable with Ethernet (Black, 1.5')
Bhphotovideo.com
See Site

Accessories

NiSi 52mm HUC PRO Nano IRND 1.8 Filter (6-Stop)
Bhphotovideo.com
See Site

Accessories

SanDisk 32GB Extreme PRO SDHC UHS-I Memory Card
Bhphotovideo.com
See Site

Accessories

Samsung 1TB T5 Portable Solid-State Drive (Black)
Bhphotovideo.com
See Site

Misc Supplies

Silicon Power 128GB Cinema PRO CFX 310 CFast 2.0 Memory Card
Bhphotovideo.com
See Site
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Discussion

Sign in to comment

wxlliam   Jul 10, 2022  
1

what is the top speed like? or say 80%-90%throttle

Straw Hat Sam   Jul 10, 2022 

Top speed with my most recent setup is 85-95mph depending on props. I used it film Mark Rober's T-shirt Cannon: https://youtu.be/QiKZYt9070U?t=522 and it was barely fast enough. BTW this is the ancient old version of Le Pigeon. The new one is here: https://rotorbuilds.com/build/28511#c48354

Lee_S   May 22, 2021  

Very cool

SatK   Mar 19, 2021  

really interesting project, also could i ask how thicc the arms are?

Straw Hat Sam   Mar 19, 2021 
1

8mm yo!

SatK   Mar 20, 2021 

thanks

Straw Hat Sam   Nov 17, 2020  
ilya_fpv   Nov 17, 2020 

I've had good luck with CLracing F7 controllers. Talon F7 HD DJI seems like a solid option. Nurk uses Lumenier LUX F7 on his OctoX8 so it's probably a good option as well.
I would go with F7 fc since it handles rpm filters easy and don't need to be overclocked.

noscript   Nov 12, 2020  

That's what I call a naked BMPCC haha.
Very cool build with many custom parts!

DrMacca   Nov 10, 2020  
2

Holy cow, that's incredible!!

Fantastic write up as well- really fascinating stuff. Thanks for sharing! 👍👍👍

Straw Hat Sam   Nov 10, 2020  

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