Decided to jump back in to whoops for the rainy Portland winter. I built a TP3 with naked vista and flew that a lot last year so was hoping to experiment with a similar setup on a whoop frame. As I was digging around, I came across Dax Neal and the Mobigital7 Owners Facebook group, https://www.facebook.com/groups/338543201686850/ . Dax had just posted some pics of a decased DJI 03 Air Unit on a HappyModel Mobula7 75mm frame and had some amazing video using 1102/10,000kv motors on 1s. I was hooked and decided to give it a go. Dax produced some great build videos and is very engaged in the FB group.
I've decased a many vista units however the new 03 air unit was a bit more challenging and too a little longer. The overall build it pretty straightforward with the execption of connecting the motors. When using the Mobula7 frame, you have to solder your connections by threading your motor leads through the frame. The motors themselves are too big to fit through the plastic holes on the frame so you are not able solder up the motors on the bench and then tranfer the FC and motors to frame. Maybe there's an easier solution however I found it to be a bit challenging to find the right postion for the frame and still have easy access with the iron. With inspiration from Dax, I also 'threaded' the battery leads through two small frame holes after the board and motors were mounted on the frame.
The DJI 03 air unit boards sit on a number of custom designed spacers between a structure of M2.5x25 nylon screws. Dax created a few other printed parts that seperate the board and hold the 'decased' camera. The DJI 03 Air unit has a pretty long camera connecting wire and because it's new, we haven't a reall short wire that would eliminate the wire coal on top. It's fine for now but will be replaced with a shorter cable and clean up the overall asthetic. It will aslo likely pull off another .5 grams.
Overall, a fun but challening build! Love how it flys and already thinking about building another. Dax Neal also has a site called Quadsensei https://www.quadsensei.com/mobigital-7 where he sells the printed parts and some of the components mentioned above. He aslo builds to order so that's a nice option for someone new. I've included a bunch of build pics below but hit me up if you have any questions. Happy to help!
Photos
Part List
Show stores (4)
Nice build! I want to build one too. This might be a stupid question but I'm wondering since the airunit supposedly needs at least 7.4 v input voltage, will it just turn off when your lipo goes below 7.4v ?
Nice build and writeup! I thought this was a naked vista at first but wow an 03 air unit! Very cool. Does it feel really heavy in the air?
Appreciate the note! Thank you. Yep, it's an O3 Air Unit. First 03 decasing for me but went pretty smooth. A few additional notes in my response to MamaJOE above. The naked 03 air unit and camera are roughly 15g of the 46g dry weight of the quad so you definately feel it relative to a Pinch or Ant Lite kind of product. With the right power train on 2S, it flies great and can still do some light freestyle. It's intended purpose is to cruise around in small spaces (like my house) with DJI quality video feed. Check and check!
Nice work!
Decasing the O3 looks much harder than decasing a Vista?
What's your experience with the decased O3 so far? Any problems with overheating or durability?
Thanks! Decasing the O3 unit does take a bit more work. There's a lot more thermal paste and it gets stuck under these little edges after you remove a light 'shell' of sorts that you have to carefully pry up. I try to show the shell in one of the pictures I posted. And it's the first 03 unit I've decased so that accounts for some of the discovery time figuring out how to do it. I've decased many vista units and got faster as I went. Hoping the same here. As for heat issues, I've not no problem. The key is to plug in and take off fairly quickly. No different than the naked vista. I had a friend who got his decased 03 stuck in a tree for 15 minutes before he could get it down. No issues in damaging the board.
Another bonus with the 03 Air unit. It does not require battery power to update firmware. It uses the usb connection so no need to have a fan on the unit like a decased vista.
Guides & Reviews
AirbladeUAV has done it again and this time they've brought long range to the 5" class! Based on the popular Transformer Mini, the new Transformer 5" Ultralight adopts a lot of the same design philosophies with larger props and more payload capacity. It can fly upwards of 20 minutes on a 4 cell Li-Ion battery pack and in ideal conditions it's got a range of over 4 to 5 miles. In this guide I'll walk..
Read more
With the release of the DJI FPV Drone cinematic FPV has become a lot more accessible, but you certainly don't want to crash a $750 drone! The QAV-CINE Freybott is a compact, lightweight cinematic FPV drone that can take a hit and keep going. It's a lot safer to fly indoors and around people. With a naked GoPro or the SMO 4k you can capture some great stabilized footage. In this guide I'll show you..
Read more
Thanks for sharing your build, it looks very interesting! Have you got a video? Is there jello in a sunny day outside? I am planning to build a naked O3 whoop, and I would like to know whether I should build something like you did or just go for a Pavo Pico as it has some sort of vibration dampening to cope with the jello issue.
Hey, sorry for the delayed response. It's a fun build and does a great job of managing jello on a sunny outside day. I've built 8 of these and my favorites so far are on the 75mmPro frame with 45mm props. It has just a bit more power than the one you reviewed on my page but manages wind better. The 75mm above is still the best option inside IMO.
Thanks! Have you damaged any naked O3 units because of a crash? They seem so fragile.