‘Bout 2Fiddy

By BrOverBee on Apr 15, 2021

11  1,174  6

I've been looking for a frame/build that would help with the up and coming 250g limit in the US, but not sacrifice anything that I love about freestyle, AND be DJI HD compatible. When I saw Tommy tease the 2Fiddy my interest was piqued, and so once pre-orders came online I snatched two frames. My dry weight comes to 180g, and if the weight for the new 6S 380mAh GNB packs are correct, I should have an AUW of 242.5g. This gives me 7.5g of leeway assuming some tolerance on battery weight. Overall, this is a really well thought out and balanced build that should be a pleasure to fly and easy enough to maintain. Well done Tommy!

Build
Whenever the goal is small and light, you can bet that the build will be a challenge. I was expecting the frame to be a bit fiddly to get together, but I'm happy to report that its pretty straight forward, albeit cramped. When i started the build, there were no how-to's, so I made my best inferences based on the stock photos and Tommy's videos. Because of this, there really is no way to get a double stack setup into this frame IF you use the stock photos as gospel. After thinking about it a little more, and considering the extra "long" standoffs provided, you should be able to flip the arms and press-nut plate to the underside and get ample clearance for a two-board stack. Be aware, however, that the camera cage restricts you from building in the full height of the frame interior IF you use a 20x20 double stack or a 30x30 double stack. Tommy included extras of all of the hardware, and every piece was carefully thought out, though some of the hardware choices could have been better (see Issues below). All in all, its a moderate build difficulty, and I wouldn't recommend it for new builders.

Components
I used Tommy's recommended motors for 6S, and I chose a Caddx Vista as well. For the electronics stack, I chose the TBS Podracer AIO because it seems to have the right ratings for voltate and amperage, because it's a single-stack board that is light, and because it has built-in considerations for Crossfire. Speaking of Crossfire, I'm using a standard Nano RX with a Minimortal T, mounted to the underside of an arm. It took a little bit of trial and error for me to figure out, but you CAN make a Vista work with this flight controller.

Caddx Vista & Podracer AIO
At first blush, it doesn't look like this FC supports DJI, as there aren't enough UARTS. However, if you go to the product page for the TBS Podracer AIO, you'll see a section there about adding GPS to the board. Do the steps shown on that page, but with the following changes:

  1. On the Ports tab of BF, deselect GPS from the "Sensor Input" tab and turn on the slider on the "Configuration/MSP" tab
  2. Wire the RX/TX from the DJI unit the same way the images for the GPS are shown. Derive your power for the DJI unit however you see fit - I chose the 5V rails on the board

Issues
I'm writing this list knowing that I bought a preorder of a first-run batch of a new product. I expect it not to be 100% perfect the way batch 10 will be sometime in the future. If you read this in the future, you won't have some of these issues. Having said all of that, there were some issues:

  • While I greatly appreciate the attention to detail on included hardware, the finished product was a little bit lacking on the M3 screws used for the frame. Most of the internal hex wrench feature were poorly toleranced and my driver either didn't fit far enough down to grab a good purchase or there was an actual defect and the driver couldn't grab at all. I have lots of M3 screws, but I would have liked to have seen a little bit better quality. For those of you who don't believe in loctite, you need to start!
  • The frame corners had some jagged bits of carbon in a few places. Not widespread, but enough to make me give it a check and hit it with some filing as needed. For a few more dollars it would have been nice to get chamfered edges, though I understand too why this was not done. Perhaps my frame was just the last of a run before the cutting tool was changed, who knows.
  • Not all of the parts needed to complete the build were ready at launch, but particularly the batteries. Not a major issue, as these were available for order within 2 weeks of the receipt of my frames, and considering the stocking issues that the pandemic has caused it's good that they were available so quickly. Still, I bought a few larger 6S packs in the event I wouldn't be able to get the specified packs in any reasonable time.
  • No build guides from The Ummagawd Company were available at the time of release. Even as I write this, there is no build guide available, though Tommy mentioned one would be coming in his recent "2Fiddy is Here" video. I suspect that my inference on frame arm order and standoffs will be correct, but that would have been good to have on launch day.

Photos

Discussion

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Cooly69   Sep 06, 2021  

hey hey nice build!

Do you know the weight of the podracer aio board?

Did you use the onboard mounting for rx and vtx? if so how is it? not creating any vibrations for the fc?

Thanks :)

BrOverBee   Sep 06, 2021 

sorry bud, I didn't record the individual weight of the board.

Cooly69   Sep 06, 2021 

No worries. Contacted TBS they said it's 22-23g :)

Madcatmike3d   May 22, 2021  
1

Nice build! You say you are running your vista off of the 5v rail?? Is that actually powering up?

TrexHeliPilot   May 07, 2021  

Good looking build. Miss your youtube builds. Glad to see you still FPV-ing.

ThemFlames   May 06, 2021  

Cool build and cool pictures.

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