I might have jumped the gun with this frame and overlooked a lot of stuff with the Carnage frame. The front standoff spacing is super narrow....18mm. The caddx vista camera is 20mm and the nebula pro is 19mm. From the looks of the pictures, it is designed ONLY of the Nebula Pro. Because the base of the Vista camera is too big to fit in the 3D printed camera mount. But, I end up using a different camera mount and I know you can fit a Caddx camera too.

Initially I was planning to use this quad as a dual-purpose setup. Freestyle flying when using 3.5” props and a cinewhoop with prop guards and 3” props. But I overlooked another major detail. This quad is NOT a deadcat layout, so the FPV camera sits behind the motors. This is a problem when I am using prop guards because I will reduce my field of view. This is a similar problem I had when I built the TomoQuads Chopstick CS3 ( https://rotorbuilds.com/build/27271 ) and the only way around this problem is 3D print a mount that moved the camera forward. However, this will NOT work for this frame if I ever plan to use 3.5” props because it sits too close together. The space left is about the same size of the micro size camera ( about 19mm). I mocked up a mount that moved the camera 26mm past the front standoff but the 3.5" will contact the mount and the only option left is only use 3" props. So, why bother moving everything from the existing 3” cinewhoop setup I have now to another 3” frame.

I still want to build out this quad and see how it flies. But I will use my secondary stash of parts to build this quad instead. That means I will use electronics that are older or not suited for this frame without modifications. First up is the iFlight 30x30 AIO board. Since the Carnage frame do not have 30x30 holes, I had to drill some new ones.

With the 3D printed parts that my friend created for this frame (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4933209) it made the build come together very smoothly. I especially like the rear xt30 mount that included antenna can cap holder.

Tragedy Stuck

I guess I should have seen it coming because I noticed the front right motors cogging when I was doing the motor direction test in betaflight. When I did the hover test, the quad just flipped over on my first attempt to lift off. I double checked to make sure it was not the props. And I tried it again, but this time the front right motor was barely spinning when I armed the quad. The motor was hot, and you can smell the wonder burnt electronics odder. So, the question is…. Was the motor bad, or the ESC? I soldered a 1404 motor to the ESC, and it spun up fine. Maybe I had a bad motor, or my RPM filtering settings in Betaflight were off and smoked the motor?

I am kind of bummed about this setback because now I do not have a set of motors that match the red theme. The only spare set of 1404 motors I have are the XING2 that is green and black. I guess I could buy another 1207 motor and hope it was really a bad motor.

Updated - Oct 20, 2021 (New Motors and FC)

I am going to switch the motors to a GEPRC 1404 3850KV motors, because I just found a good deal on a used set. The condition of the used motors is okay. Some of the bearings sounds dry, but after added a little bit of oil it seems to be better. I ordered some new bearing just incase I need to replace them.

After installing the motors, I ran across another problem. The Caddx Vista is notr powering up through the wiring harness that plug directly into the aio board. I test the positive and negative wires with voltmeter, and it only shows 2 volts. So, now I wired the power wires directly to the battery and now it works. But the OSD is not working. Seems like everything in that plug just went dead.

I guess, I will need to switch to a different AIO board. This time around I will use an iFlight 20a AIO whoop board. One of the best things about the Carnage frame is that it has cut outs on the frame that allows you to use AIO boards that have bottom facing USB ports. Plus I think a 20 amp AIO should be more than enough for this build.

I have tried 3 different 3.5" props and so far the Gemfan Hurricane 3520 feels the beeter than the HQ T3.5x2x3 and EMAX Scimitar 3.5x2.8x3. It has been a few weeks since I tried the different props, so I forgot when I did not like the EMAX props. As for the HQ props, I was getting a lot more propwash.

Test Flight (GNB 720mah 4s)