Overview

This is a 5" freestyle quadcopter built using Chris Rosser's AOS 5 V2 frame. Most of my experience so far is with micro quads and with a 3" toothpick and a 3.5" freestyle quad. However, I find the 3.5" quad to be too sluggish for my taste when carrying a Runcam 5, so I wanted to make the upgrade to a 5" platform. I have experimented with larger quads, mainly a 6" that ran analog video and 6S motors on a 4S battery that I used with iNav, but this is really my first foray into 5"+ freestyle. Coincidentally, this is the first time I've felt motivated to do a Rotorbuilds writeup, mainly due to wanting to showcase the HDZero 1Watt VTX in this frame.

Configuration

• HDZero Freestyle 1Watt VTX is in the front mount, spaced up off the frame to allow air circulation. All Video equipment is at the front of the quad this way, minimizing interference to other electronics. Antenna is strapped to a front arm.

• FC and ESC are in the rear bay mounted in standard orientation. This necessitated a remote 1000uf capacitor, which is in the middle bay connected to battery leads via 20ga wire. A 1.5uf tantalum capacitor and spike filter were added at the rear directly connected to ESC batt pads for additional filtering. I could have mounted the capacitor off the back, but in the interests of durability I wanted to have it inside the frame and have the battery leads come off the back since the prop clearance is narrow at the sides of the frame. Perhaps it would be better to mount ESC at 180 degree rotation so the battery leads come up through the top plate and capacitor can be directly connected, however this would have meant also rotating the FC for me or making a longer wiring harness since I'm using the factory JST FC to ESC plug.

• GPS unit is Matek m8q with compass and is mounted on top of the action cam mount, with a ViFly GPS mate mounted just below on the back of the mount. The GPS mate as well as all GPS wiring are shielded with a combination of copper tape and copper wire loom which is all connected to the GPS wiring harness ground connection.

Notes

If anyone is interested, the wood side guards were made using osage orange and elm wood laminated together into a blank, drilled out to fit over standoffs and then cut out on the bandsaw. They were finished with Tru Oil and a coat of wax. This should keep junk out of the frame and be easier to clean off than most 3d printed side guards. Osage orange is one of the toughest woods I've ever found and I wouldn't hesitate to put it up against the durability of just about any 3d print. I'm a carpenter by trade and use it for hammer handles which are basically indestructible.