Crazy 3 inch, 146gr, naked vista, TITANIUM screws, BIG motors and 4-5min flight time!

By Square One on May 22, 2021

10  658  0

I wanted a sub 250gr AUW, but I had a lot of demands; big motors, digital vtx, beefy frame, and to be able to fly with 850mah batteries to get a minimum of 4 minutes flight time.
You can check out my video about it here;

I did a lot of modding to get it so light, I'll try and sum them up here:
Frame
-cut down the tpu camera holder to save weight
-I've put them on backwards and melted an extra hole to mount the camera as close to the post as possible, and behind the post, so now it sit's further in the frame and is protected by the carbon, I saved about 3gr here.Alt Tag
Alt Tag

FC board
-I used the betafpv 2-6S AIO 35A board, mounted on a 3D printed 20x20 to toothpick style adapter ( found on https://tmacfpv.com/fpv-pilots-den/)
-I rotated it 90° clockwise so I had the lipo leads coming out sideways, and easy acces to the usb connector.

Don't forget to correct your fc rotation in Betaflight and remap your motors!

Motors
These are the T-Motor F1507 3800KV motors. They are the lightest motors I found in there size 15XX. They came in at 14.9 to 15gr with the full length motor wire. Check out a mini review here;

Caddx Vista Nebula Pro

  • Took of the casing, so it's naked. It's pretty easy to do this, remove the screws and you can take it apart. You wil feel a little resistance this is the thermal paste between the casing and the PCB.
  • DO be carefull, there are two boards connected with a ribbon cable, be carefull not to damage the ribbon cable!
  • I used nylon spacers to keep the boards apart and nail polished the boards to waterproof it, be carefull not to get any in the ribbon cable connectors! Alt Tag
  • The ribbon cable is secured with antenna glue so it doesn't come loose.

Titanium bolts
When I finished my build I ended up with a 250.05gr AUW, which was on the on the limit. I wanted to loose some more weight so I had the option to chose other props or a better antenna.
I ended up replacing all of my bolts with titanium ones, yes this is not cheap (€55) , but for me in this build it was worth it.
Alt Tag
Alt Tag

My final weight with the lightest props I have ( HQ 3x3x3) : 145.6grAlt Tag

Photos

Part List

Frame

Eachine LAL3 145mm 3 Inch Carbon Fiber Frame Kit for RC Drone FPV Racing 20x20mm
Banggood.com
$22.99

Flight Controller

F722 35A AIO Brushless Flight Controller (11 builds)
Betafpv.com
$84.99

Motors

4 x T-Motor F1507 1507 2700KV 3-6S / 3800KV 3-4S Brushless Motor for Cinewhoop RC Drone FPV Racing
Banggood.com
$84.36

Propellers

2 Pairs T-Motor T3140 3140 3.1x4 3.1 Inch 3-Blade Propeller M5 Hole for RC Drone FPV Racing
Banggood.com
$3.45

FPV Transmitter

CADDXFPV Nebula Pro Vista Kit (10 builds)
Caddxfpv.com
See Site

Antenna

TRUERC OCP-U.FL Short/Long 5.8GHz 1.6dBi Gain FPV Antenna LHCP/RHCP With U.fl Connector For TBS Unify IRC Tramp Vtx
Banggood.com
$12.77

Receiver

TBS Crossfire Nano Rx - FPV LONG RANGE DRONE RECEIVER (1498 builds)
Team-blacksheep.com
$24.95

Batteries

Tattu R-Line V1.0 14.8V 850mAh 95C 4S1P Lipo Battery XT30 Plug for RC Racing Drone
Banggood.com
$23.99

Radio

RadioMaster TX16S Hall Sensor Gimbals 2.4G 16CH Multi-protocol RF System OpenTX Mode2 Transmitter for RC Drone (96 builds)
Banggood.com
$185.99

Goggles

DJI FPV Goggles HD Digital 5.8Ghz 1440*810 720p/120fps Low Latency with DVR Compatible With Caddx Vista for FPV Racing Drone RC (145 builds)
Banggood.com
$534.29

Goggles

Skyzone SKY03O Oled / SKY03S 5,8 GHz 48CH diversiteit FPV-bril Ondersteuning OSD DVR HDMI met Head Tracker Fan LED voor RC Racin
Nl.banggood.com
$380.97

Hardware

  MOB: +31.654.284.284
Titaniumraceparts.nl
See Site

Battery Charger

HOTA D6 + AC 300W DC 2X325W 2X15A Dual Channel Smart batterijopladerontlader
Nl.banggood.com
$129.99

Tools

Wowstick 1F+ 64 In 1 Electric Screwdriver Cordless Lithium-ion Charge LED Power Screwdriver (9 builds)
Banggood.com
$35.99

Backpack

Realacc Rugzakhoes met waterdichte zender Beam-poort Tas Gereedschapskaart voor RC Drone FPV Racing
Nl.banggood.com
$69.29
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