New RealFPV Spanky 6" frame JAB1a Build log

[JAB1a]

Hi All,

Here is my build of the new Spanky 6" frame, Chris Hatcher is the designer of the amazing Spanky range of frames and I have had excellent results using the Spanky 5" for quite a few months due to the excellent design and super strong G10 construction.

The video below shows my Spanky 5 during a session of FPV racing ...

FPV Racing Mini Quadcopters Advanced Course

I wanted to try the new Spanky 6" frame due to it allowing the use of 6" props (going to use 6x3) and also able to house a GoPro at the front in its own little cut out section. The frame can be purchased from this site in the USA...

http://www.realfpv.com/Spanky6FPV.aspx

First impressions...




The frame looks very well made, clean tool cuts and not a rough edge to be found, all bolt holes line up and plenty of hardware to put it all together, there are even some spare parts included like spare bobbins and hex posts in case of damage.



Above: the underneath is a clean and smooth as the Spanky 5, all bolts are the exact length to not stick out past the nut so there is less to scrap or snag on the ground while flying close proximity.

The look is very different on the Spanky 6 compared to the 5, the top two plate are a lot longer and now incorporate a place to hold a GoPro and has cut outs for a velco strap to hold the camera in. Here is the 6 next to my 5...




The arms of the 6 are spaced out a lot more than the 5, being further apart long the frame as well as further apart across the frame which should make it very stable. The picture below shows the Spanky 5 arms above the 6';s...



The bottom plate of the Spanky 6 is a bit thicker than the Spanky 5 as well which is good as the arms are that bit longer that the extra strength is needed. The Spanky 5 arm is on the left and the Spanky 6 arm is on the right, you can see the 6 is at least .2mm thicker...



To compare the size against other frames here is my line-up...


(from the left, Emax 250Pro CF, Spanky 6, Spanky 5)


(from the left, Spanky 6, Emax 250Pro CF, Spanky 5)

For this build I will be upgrading the normal motors and ESC';s that I use for the much more powerful and advanced KISS ESC';s and AirBot Micro Titan 2204 2300Kv motors...



I have tested these new items on the Emax250Pro frame and they give an incredible power to weight ratio that I have never experienced before. As I had used the parts in another frame to test I had done most of the ground work setting individual parts up like adding the mesh to the motor wires, the reason I did this is to give the wires a lot of protection, during many of my forced visits to the ground (crashes) I have realised that the motor wires are very exposed and do get caught on things if not properly tucked away and also are prone to a stray prop blade hitting them if a motor is detached (very rare).

Here are most of the parts that will be used in this build...



there is:

4x Airbot Micro Titan 2300Kv motors
http://shop.myairbot.com/index.php/airbot-t2204-motor-2300kv.html

4x KISS ESC';s
http://flyduino.net/KISS-ESC-2-4S-12A

Naze 32 Full using BaseFlight firmware (personal firmware preference)
http://makeitbuildit.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&path=31&product_id=78

Fatshark vTx fitted with Gav';s excellent V3 Skew Planar antenna
http://www.multi-rotor.co.uk/index.php?topic=3871.0

FrSky X8R receiver

A metal case CCD camera from FirstpersonView.co.uk

2x mini step down transformers (1x 5v, 1x 12v)

The two step down transformers are to supply a constant 5v and 12v to the different components on the frame, this will allow me to swap between 3s (11.1v) and 4s (14.8v) without the need to change leads or swap items in the field.
So the build begins...



The motors fit perfectly on the arms and has a 2mm rim around the outside still to protect the bell from a direct hit. The mounting holes for the motors also allow the wires to route neatly straight down the arms instead of being annoying and being off centre like most frame I have tested other than a Spanky.
The bobbins give plenty of room for the ESC';s and distro board to be fitted between the bottom and middle plates...



This frame also has a new added feature which is ';Bobbin Stays';, they are small ali parts that attach to the bottom plate but go though a hole in the middle plate which hold the top section of the frame in the event of a hard crash, the Spanky 5 does not have this and has been known to rip bobbins apart, you can see the silver stays here just in front of the bobbin...



These do not touch the middle plate otherwise they would transfer vibrations from the dirty section to the clean, they are only there to stop the bobbins from over extending during a crash by holding the top section in place via the lip on top of the stays.

Middle plate fitted and all is going well, you can see I have one of the step down units sat on the middle plate (5v one on the left of pic), I end up moving this between the bottom and middle plate sat between the ESC';s to make the middle plate less cluttered and use the V shaped cut outs in the plate to feed the wire into the Rx...



Naze32 Full fitted and wired to the ESC';s and I have now moved the step down unit between the plates at the back (right of pic)...



Here is where I am seating the Rx, I think this space is to hold the Lipo but I am going to put the Rx here instead as its away from the FC and Vtx...



the four wires at the back are (from right to left), 5v In, 5v out to FC and then the two PWM cables.
I fitted the Rx to test the directions of the motors were right and Murphy';s law all four motors were spinning in the wrong direction. Luckily I did not shrink wrap the ESCs as I was worried they did not have heat sink fitted and thought if I just slid heat shrink over the ESC';s then I would know if they got too hot as the wrap would change shape, also the wrap acts like a mini wind tunnel making sure the ESC';s get a good air flow. Glad I did that as it allowed me to slide the heat shrink back and get access to the PCB';s. The KISS ESC';s has this excellent feature were you can just bridge a small jumper to reverse your motors instead of having to swap and resold two wires on each motor...



As you can see I just had enough room to get my fingers and soldering iron in to join those two pads together. After doing this on all four ESC';s, all four motors are now turning the right direction, that feature saved me a lot of hassel and time.

Next will be doing the finishing touches to add the Rx permanently ready for a LOS test fly and then its time to fit the FPV and give it its first proper maiden...

Please let me know what you think about this build and the new frame, it would be nice to hear your comments or suggestions

More to come soon...

[kilby]

Looking good so far, can';t wait to see it in the air

[Hands0n]

Loving the improvements on the 6 to the 5.  The bobbin stays are great and going to save a lot of grief   That  looking a very tidy build there. Can';t wait to see what you do with all that new power and capability.

[JAB1a]

Thank you both for your comments, I will try and keep this updated with the progress as it goes.

It is now ready for its LOS test outside, it flew perfect in the living room so fingers crossed.

I am testing the quad using 5" props as I don';t have that many 6x3 props yet and don';t want to churn through them before I get out flying FPV.

[xxpitt]

Have you put go pro on yet and tested for jello?

[JAB1a]

Have you put go pro on yet and tested for jello?

Not yet, just put the Lipo on top and got the CG sorted and did a quick LOS test flying in the living room, I did a bit of up and down and some Yaw to test how it handles and it seemed locked in... but that';s under perfect conditions.

Still planning how to isolate the GoPro, of course its sitting on the Clean plates but no doubt it will still get some jello if the props are not balanced. But then Chris Hatcher is a very intelligent guy so maybe it will be rock solid video. I will keep you posted

[Ground Engineer]

Jab how long did it take for your Spanky 6" to be posted from USA. I';ve just ordered one and I';m hoping it will get here before 8th Jan.

[JAB1a]

Jab how long did it take for your Spanky 6" to be posted from USA. I';ve just ordered one and I';m hoping it will get here before 8th Jan.

Hi GE, I got mine direct from Chris Hatcher in Florida, the delivery was about 2weeks but it might be a bit quicker if ordering direct from RealFPV.

Its an excellent frame and its the first mini frame that I have come across that';s CG is exactly where it says it is after all the kit has been fitted. Im just waiting to do my maiden FPV flights on it now, I can';t wait! Good luck with your my friend

[JAB1a]

A bit more progress...

Here we have the frame ready and setup for its first LOS test fly. For the test I mounted the Lipo on top of the frame and did not fit the GoPro, this kept the CG right on the FC in the middle.


The test LOS flight went perfect, the frame is super stable and has a locked in feel on stock PIDs. I found once I added the GoPro the C of G went from the middle to very far forward on the frame.

The designer shows that the lipo needs to be held at the back of the frame, I didn';t think this would keep the CG centeral but after fitting the GoPro and putting the lipo inside the frame at the back the CG was again spot on the centre of the FC again, wow great design.

As you can see in the photo above I have placed the RC Rx on the back of the frame where the LiPo needs to be seated so I need to move things around...



I managed to move the 5v step down module and the Rx to the front of the frame, as I did not plan this from the start it looks a bit cramped, If I used a smaller Rx other than the X8R then this would look a lot neater. I have also rotated the Naze32 board to allow its USB to connect out the side of the frame and also get all the ESC wires not facing forward so that I have room for the Rx to fit with plugs. To do this in CLI I typed...

SET board_align_yaw = 90

This tells the FC that it has been rotated by 90 degrees, if I turned the FC the other way I would use...

SET board_align_yaw = 270

Now its time to fit all the FPV gear and go out for its first full tests, Im very excited about the next steps as its been quite a while since I flew with the GoPro and I look forward to the footage.

[JAB1a]

Xmas and new year out the way the weather is still terrible here so no video';s to show yet.



Here is the Spanky 6 as it sits today, over time I will tweak and change the layout to be more... refined. The stand out ';feature'; is the FPV camera mount, I tried to have the camera unprotected mounted on the top plate but I found once the GoPro had been fitted I lost too much view of the ground so I needed a fix.



Pictured above is my old custom made Mk2 MiniJAB quad which I housed a Sony PZ0420 camera between GF sheet and nylon posts. Reusing this I lowered its height and fitted it with foam and a cut out for the camera, I have about a 5 degree tilt up.

I did some LOS test flights at home and found that there was no jello or vibrations getting to the GoPro at all which I was impressed with but as I fly a lot of time in strong winds then I thought I would give the camera a bit more dampening just incase...



You can see I have some rubber underneath the camera and on each side to hold it perfectly still.



Plenty of room left inside the frame for other components and the USB connector on the Naze32 is in perfect reach.



Just behind the FPV camera on top you can see I have added the FrSKY GPS V2 sensor to log the speed and details of my flights. I have tilted this as well so that the antenna still gets a good LOS of the sky above when the quad is in heavy throttle changes (frame banked forwards).



All built and ready for its maiden FPV test flights, its going to be a rough ride to start with and its very windy here in Devon.

I managed to get out on 2 separate days for a quick flight, the power available is incredible and the frame is very stable. I need to do some PID tuning as there is still some oscillations...

Best viewed full screen @1080p 60FPS
RealFPV Spanky 6 Maiden flights on Stock PIDs 60FPS

[kilby]

Are you going to be switching to Cleanflight to give Oneshot mode a bash?

[flybywire]

That';s working out very well James, nice one.   

[JAB1a]

Are you going to be switching to Cleanflight to give Oneshot mode a bash?

I just might be doing that now that Teslahead has tested it 

[kilby]

I just might be doing that now that Teslahead has tested it 

Letting Chris be the crash test dummy seems to be a valid plan

Have noticed that some of the videos of oneshot are starting to provide some actually visible evidence for those other than the pilot that oneshot has benefits.

Thats much better than before when you had to rely on what you where told by the pilot