TwigXL LowProfile - First Build

By luditemu6ici on Aug 22, 2022

10  553  5

Hello there,

I'm new to the hobby (~2months) and after whooping around my house for a bit and loving every minute I decided it's time for me to build my first "real" drone.
I was not ready for a 5 inch yet skill wise and wanted something a bit less dangerous and less noticeable, so I decided to build a 3 inch ripper and chose the TwigXL frame as a base for it.
I stuck the biggest motors I tought are still sensible for this frame (1606) and an F722 mamba stack with a 40amp f40 ESC. I had to drill the frame to fit it as its meant for a diagonal AIO.
For camera and VTX I went with the ultralight options of the caddx ant and the runcam nano tx100 as I don't have a good headset or fly far anyway.
The receiver is the ELRS EP1, another ultralight option with way more range than my video and I must say I'm loving the ELRS experience so far.

All this stuff meant my quad had to have a super tall sitting canopy which I am not a fan of, or I had to think of a custom solution. I chose the fun way.
I got another twig xl frame to make a custom top plate from it by flipping it around and cutting its arms off. This allowed me to mount both my camera and my VTX low.
I loved the look instantly and I think it also helps the balance although I am too inexperienced to really tell. ( I admit it it was mostly for the challenge and the looks for me :D )

I fly with 850amp 4s (~5 min), as per setup and tune after flying stock everything for a bit and a concrete column smash I switched to props out and set up PWM by RPM which made the quad much smoother and more controlled.
Still stock everything else, BetaFlight 4.3 BLHeli 32. The thing is crazy fast and I think has pretty good flingability as its pretty heavy for a 3 inch at 265g with battery. I fly bottom mount as I enjoy the feeling of this quad more like that.

(EDIT: I was not too happy with the penetration and range on my video so I swapped the VTX for a 350mw one and changed both atnennas setup. Now its pretty good. This zip tie setup is rigid enough for them not to wobble, but bends strraight in a crash so it doesnt pressurre or break , at least so far... )

I hope you enjoy my badly soldered creation,

Cheers

Photos

Part List

Frame

TWIG XL 3 (4 builds)
Betafpv.com
$9.99

Flight Controller

Diatone MAMBA F722 MINI MK2/F40 MINI PRO BL32 6S STACK (8 builds)
Newbeedrone.com
$79.99

Motors

4 x MAMBA TOKA 1606 2700KV 3-6S / 3750KV 3-4S Brushless Motor for DIATONE MXC TAYCAN Cinewhoop Whoop RC FPV Racing Drone
Usa.banggood.com
$87.96

Propellers

3 x Gemfan D76 Ducted 76mm 5 Blade Cinewhoop Prop (10 builds)
Pyrodrone.com
$8.07

FPV Camera

CADDXFPV Ant Analog Camera (7 builds)
Caddxfpv.com
See Site

FPV Transmitter

M03 5.8G VTX (5 builds)
Betafpv.com
$19.99

Receiver

Happymodel 2.4G ExpressLRS ELRS EP1 (4 builds)
Drone-fpv-racer.com
See Site

Batteries

Tattu R-Line 850mAh 4S 95C (4 builds)
Rotorama.de
See Site

Radio

RadioMaster Zorro ExpressLRS (ELRS) Protocol Radio Controller (22 builds)
Newbeedrone.com
$119.99

Goggles

VR02 FPV Goggles
Betafpv.com
$49.99
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Discussion

Sign in to comment

Jackie156   Apr 10, 2023  

I also own my first real drone. But when I control it, I made it break. So, I brought it to the master. However, it is not recovering. color tunnel

yohfpv   Sep 17, 2022  

Love the ingenuity. That top plate and cam mount design is incredible. Looks simple yet effective. Well done.

luditemu6ici   Sep 21, 2022 

Thank you! I'm glad you like it, its been holding up pretty well so far.

nickycruze2   Aug 31, 2022  

Amazing information providing by your article, thank you so much for taking the time to share a wonderful article.

luditemu6ici   Aug 31, 2022 

Thank you for the kind words, I'm glad to hear it was interesting for you!

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