DJI Watermelon
By Rotorenpilot on Oct 13, 2023
My first build was a bootleg Mark5 and I really enjoyed flying it until I dinged motor 4. So this is an "improved version" of that first build with the almost same color pattern, the same motors (because I really like them), but with a DJI air unit instead of the Rush tank, which is a really good analog transmitter... but still.. it's analog.
At the time I built my first one, I already noticed all the space in the frame, so of course it's a good digital video candidate.
As far as naming these quads is concerned....my kids just started calling the last couple after fruit, so I thought..why not?
Early in the process I realized that the space taken away by the air unit really changes your options of where to put the ESC leads, the capacitor...and everything else. One thing about this frame is that the front end is pretty roomy, so I turned the ESC by 180 degrees and let the power leads come out the front.
Sticking with the ELRS receiver (ceramic antenna version), which eliminates the thinking about where to put a receiver antenna...and also...why not?
Big shout out to Jayembee67 for all the input. The way I wrapped the power leads and the 3D bumpers are all inspired and created with the help of Jayembee67.
One thing that was a bit strange with this FC and ESC was the motors tab in BF did not work correctly with version 4.4.2 so I ended up downgrading to version 4.4.0 which worked fine.
Another problem I encountered is the OSD. With betaflight 4.4.2 and the default BLHeli_S, I had some minimal OSD functionally. Stuff like average cell voltage and overall capacity left. Now after downgrading to 4.4.0 there's no betaflight OSD data at all.
So after a quick google I came across this cool GitHub repo called something like WTF fpv OS... that's supposed to give you all the goodies...so I'm considering to root my gear...but I'm still a little hesitant.
Found a fix for the OSD. For now I'm flying this build with the minimal BF in DJI supported metrics --> battery per cell and overall, RSSI and amperage drawn. Fine for now.
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Nice paint ;)