Armattan Chameleon

By rapnit on May 20, 2017

12  4,196  15

Armattan Chameleon Frame

All I need to say is Lifetime Warranty. From the Armattan site:
"In the unfortunate instance that you meet the ground at a high rate of speed (and damage does occur), Armattan is offering a full bumper-to-bumper warranty for the Chameleon frame. Included in the list price is a warranty that covers all of the pieces (both Carbon Fiber AND Aluminum) for that added peace of mind."

The feature of having the battery mounted on top the frame was the main reason why I purchased this frame. The top-plate mount gets the battery closer to the CG for this frame. This is explained more here in a frame build video. The Turnigy Graphene batteries have a fiberglass plate on the top and bottom of the cells but I know with how I land some times and I do crash so a bottom mounted battery is not the place for me.

The battery top plate has a slot in the back of it. The slot seems to fit having the SMA connector for my TBS Unify Pro The problem was the counter sunk holes were on the wrong side of the top plate for the slot to be on the right side. The frame kit is to come with 8x M3 nylon nuts to hold the flight controller on but I received 6. Not sure if these are a quality control issues.

ESC

The Aikon 4 in 1 speed controller has integrated 5V and 12V regulators. Having the regulators helped me keep my wires fairly clean in my runs to my fvp gear instead of using the flight controllers regulators. I read many people having issues with soldering on the 4 in 1 speed controls due to having 4oz copper thickness on the board. I tinned the board and wires first for all the connections I was going to make to and soldering was a breeze. I chose to add cable sleeving for my battery connector and motor wires. I have learned from my crashes the wires then to get into the props. Keep the wires just long enough and protect them with either cable sleeves or heat shrink.

Flight Controller

Details on the board are found here on the Betaflight site. I found this review helpful. Since I am not running power through the BetaflightF3 I am not getting the current readings. I chose try to keep the wires clean vs running power into the flight controller and then out to the esc. I do not miss having it since I watch my voltage to manage my flight time. Wiring the esc is pretty straight forward if you have done it before. There are a few wiring diagrams out there. Here is the forums thread to the board. Do not forget to jumper 3v or 5v for your receiver.

The buzzer I ended up mounting to the frame with double sided tape pointing down at the ground. Make sure you install a buzzer so you can still listen for it. Some of my examples: an unfortunate crash in some weeds or while in fvp goggles you do not remember exactly where you were.

To setup the led this video is a good aid to get you going.

Motors

I struggled to pick some motors for this quad There are many options and I finally landed on these after reading the motor test data. The key thing here was efficiency. I also do not mind that they matches the frames anodized aluminum. A surprise for me when ordering the frame and motors together made them much cheaper.

One thing to note was the motor wires were about 1 cm to short to mount them with the Aikon 4 in 1.

FPV Gear

When putting together the aluminum camera frame make sure to build the frame around the camera. The camera will not fit if you do not. I really like the frame feature to be able to adjust the fpv camera without tools. How the camera is mounted as well has some very good vibration dampening. As I mentioned earlier the SMA connector from the TBS Unify Pro did not fit in the slot. I ended up using a Dremel tool to grind off one of the tabs on the connector so the top plate would fit. I really like how compact the TBS TRIUMPH-STUB are.

First Impressions

I have built many foamies and another quad (ZMR250). This build took me about a day to get all the parts assembled and figure out all the wiring in how to fit it all together. I was hoping to find some other quads with some wiring ideas that I could copy but was unable to find much.

This thing is a very nimble machine. In comparison to my ZMR the CG is so much better, the chameleon flips and rolls instantaneously. I have been flying with both 3s and 4S Turnigy Graphene 1300mAh 65C batteries on it. The 4s is defiantly the way to go. I tried to fit my Turnigy Graphene 1500mAh batteries on it from my ZMR 250. It works but if I add a flight cam the battery hangs off the backend of the quad. One thing I noticed was my flight times match my ZMR with 1500mAh batteries vs 1300mAh. I get roughly 5 mins out of a pack so it seems that the motors are pretty efficient.
alt Armattan Chameleon

Photos

Part List

Frame

Chameleon (163 builds)
Armattanquads.com
$90.00

Flight Controller

BetaflightF3 Flight Controller (134 builds)
Fpvmodel.com
$29.66

ESCs

Aikon SEFM 30A 4-in-1 (19 builds)
Getfpv.com
$68.99

Motors

4 x Armattan OOmph 2206/2300 KV Motor *Discontinued (23 builds)
Armattanquads.com
$60.00

Propellers

DALPROP T5045C Cyclone 5 (2 CW 2 CCW)
Pirofliprc.com
$2.99

FPV Camera

Rotor Riot Special Edition RunCam Swift (144 builds)
Store.rotorriot.com
$39.99

FPV Transmitter

TBS Unify Pro 5G8 HV (RP-SMA) (83 builds)
Team-blacksheep.com
$49.95

Antenna

TBS Triumph-Stub SMA (RHCP 2pcs) (143 builds)
Team-blacksheep.com
$39.95

Receiver

Spektrum - DSMX Quad Race Receiver with Diversity (SPM4648) (108 builds)
Readymaderc.com
$24.99

Batteries

Turnigy Graphene 1300mAh 4S 65C Lipo Pack w/XT60 (112 builds)
Hobbyking.com
$20.99
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Discussion

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Domsgotkwads   Jul 07, 2019  

beautiful build, could you give me some advice on how you got your swift 2 to fit? im having trouble mounting mine

Domsgotkwads   Jul 07, 2019 

runcam swift* im using the swift 2

rapnit   Jul 07, 2019 

I switched my camera to a Eagle but this mounts the same as the Swift. Here are some pictures not sure if these would help but worth a shot.

Domsgotkwads   Jul 07, 2019 

that does help a little bit thank you. is it a tight fit? im just worried about squishing the camera too hard lol.

rbrtio   Jul 04, 2017  

Nice build! I am looking at a similar build and I was wondering if you had to extend the motor wires to reach the ESC? They are covered so I can't tell by looking at the pics.

rbrtio   Jul 04, 2017 

Nevermind, I see that you had to stretch them by ~ 1cm..

enrbgill   Jun 26, 2017  

Lovely sleek build! I know there's a thread about ESCs below but how do you find the reliability of 4in1s? I'm worried that if I blow 1 ESC the whole board will be useless.
Also, the way you've connected the flight controller do you still get current and voltage sensing when the power isn't being pulled through the FC PDB?

rapnit   Jun 27, 2017 

So far I have been really happy with the 4 in 1. The risk of a channel blowing is worth it to me for getting the escs as close to the center of gravity as possible. Being this is a 30 x 4 esc I am not worried about blowing a channel with the motors and props I am running. There are some other 4 in 1 escs that are 4 separate escs that mount in the same space as this one example.

I posted below an update video that I followed to get the current sensor working. I updated the quad last weekend and things seem to be working well.

enrbgill   Jul 01, 2017 

Awesome, thanks for that!
and I see the video now, perfect <3

Napalm   May 21, 2017  

So happy to see your build. I had the same idea to build the chameleon with 4in1 esc-s (hard to find any other build) I just ordered all the parts in the last few days except the esc. I have to choose between the aikon 4in1, the spedix 4in1 or the dys 4in1. What do you mean is the aikon the best? What size of cable mesh you used? Would you have any other suggestions?

rapnit   May 21, 2017 
1

I am using DSHOT600 and the throttle response is very crisp. From my personal experience I only have used littlebees and this Aikon in quads so I cannot say it is the bet or not. I use mostly castle creations escs in my other rc vehicles. The ESC reviews I looked at when I was looking to buy were AIKON SEFM 30A and dronehitech
I purchased 1/8 and 1/4 diameter. I ended up using the 1/4 for both the power wires and motor wires from amazon.
I am very happy with this build. I cannot think of any other items besides blue loctite everything.

Napalm   May 21, 2017 

Thank you! Its almost impossible to find reviews between this 4in1 esc's so i will search a lot in the next days to find out what would be the best for me.

rapnit   Jun 24, 2017 

Here is a good update to show the wiring for this

Fechner   May 23, 2017  

Nice build! How did you end up securing your motor wires and antenna? Also, how do you like your Unify Pro?

rapnit   May 23, 2017 

The Braided Sleeving bent the way I have it is fairly stiff and keeps the wires in place without securing them. The length of the wires is not long enough to get into the props either. For the Antenna wires I have them shrink wrapped to zip ties coming off the backend of the quad.
As for the Unify Pro it has been performing well. I still need to setup SmartAudio so it is easier to configure. Is it worth the price I thought this was a good review on it.

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