My first build was a Chameleon - great frame, but bad choice for a first timer: way too tight to comfortably route cables if you don't already have clearly in mind what goes where and how short you can make your cables.

I liked the idea of recording HD footage, but not the one of having to remember to charge yet another device (especially since my GoPro has dying batteries). The RunCam Split seemed the most obvious choice, but I would have never fitted in the Chameleon. So I found the Frog!

Coming from a tighter setup, it wasn't too difficult to find space for all the needed components (having chosen the Kakute F4 AIO surely helped a lot, and I opted for "classic" style ESC mounting in order to save space in the central cage for the Split's PCB); the biggest problem I encountered probably was that I cut the ESC power wires too short, and they pressed against the aluminium braces when mounting them. Resoldering them to an angle instead of perpendicularly to the FC/PDB let me gain the needed 1-2mm to relief tension.

The Eachine VTX03 fits surprisingly well in the back, retained by one of those risers (the curved/front one) screwed in the LED's sockets. Note to reviewers: those small horizontal carbon plates with two screw holes are not for the back! Those are risers meant to be used to lift the central cage of another 4mm in case of need! I am a bit worried about the antenna and UFL connector being a somewhat exposed through the top plate, but the placing of the VTX is just too comfy to give it up. I bought some replacement antennas just to be sure.

What I learnt from this build

• Flash your RX before installing it. I always thought that this was unnecessary as long as it binded and worked fine - but I just got proven wrong when my XM+ was not outputting RSSI on channel 16 as I read it should have done; it was apparently running a >2 yrs old firmware and I had to open up the finished quad and desolder the RX's cables. You may want to have an SPort programming cable handy (I thought it was useless to spend money on this, so I assembled an harness for my Taranis QX7 using leftover wire from ESC signal cables and connectors. A pic is attached for your gory curiosity.)

• The RunCam Split's PCB has a longer side. The side with the 3-pin video connector protrudes over the mounting holes margin for another millimeter or two. In my case the orientation was quite forced, due to the pinout of the Kakute: video/power pads are exactly under where the Split's video connector is, and I din't want to route cable all over through the boards (Chameleon docet).

• DO NOT power the RunCam Split via USB & battery at the same time. The current revision lacks a reverse current protection diode and can potentially fry all of your stack. You can either add this diode (Google is your friend) or just remember to not plug in both power sources at the same time. Placing a small piece of tape and/or 3D-printed cap on the Split's microUSB connector may be a pretty good protection against doing so.

Stats

Weight (without battery & props): 324g

Thanks

• Whiffles' awesome build guide surely helped me a lot in choosing this frame and searching for caveats before ordering all the parts.

Bonus shots

I decided that I wanted to try another new thing: painting the frame's edges. I bought some green nail polish (I read that most people use that to colour CF edges, and it in fact works quite well) and patched it around. The result is pretty cool, given that I did not disassemble or mask anything before or while painting.

To match the new green details I've also designed & printed an antenna base to screw on the back part of top plate. It should handle crashes quite well.