Yet another. Don't tell the missus

[Cheredanine]

Ok so thought rather than post the finished article I would put this one up as I go

Still waiting for ESCs, flight controller, OSD, some standoffs and the vtx antenna

Frame: 5 inch x-frame, anyone know? Guesses welcome
FC: Lumenier lux (will be betaflight to get looooow loop times
RX: frsky x4rsb
ESCs: rotorgeeks 20a blheli
Motors: Xnova 2204 2300kv
Props: HQ 5x4x3, also got some dal 5040bn v2 to try out
Pdb: thug frames v1.2 with pololu 5v 1a step down
Vtx: fx799t
OSD: micro minim (temporary until better option for lux becomes available - I know stuff :)
Camera: hs1177
Vtx antenna: ibcrazy airscrew
Matek combined led and buzzer board, and an alternate one with more LEDs to try out

Running 4s, probably use my tattus

For the new people: assorted cable ties, heat shrinks, cable sheaths, aluminium standoffs, threadlock, servoc cables, jst connectors, neoprene sheet

[nub]

its a PUP

should turn out to be quite a nice build.

[Cheredanine]

its a PUP

should turn out to be quite a nice build.

Lol well that was clearly less of a challenge than I imagined,
Frame: Dronewolf Pup 5inch, good call :)

[nub]

hehe damn nice looking frame though, hope the build goes smoothly.

[Cheredanine]

Ty, me too!

I really like the frame, it seems slightly more robust than an alien or raceblade, took a few hours less than 6 days to get here from Aus. Very reasonably priced and cheap postage too

[Revs]

Nice spec, I like the look of that frame, good price too. Enjoy the build bud

[Cheredanine]

So soldered the xt60 plug to the pdb and soldered the pololu to it also.
Tinned all pads I am going to use.

Minim and some bits arrived, soldered pins to minim, flashed and configured with multiwii (note this requires a USB ftdi adaptor, Arduino and MWOSD and with a Windows 10 PC does not need any messing around with drivers :))

Lux arrives tomorrow, ESCs within 72 hours

(5p included in picture to give an idea of scale and so new people in particular can get a view of the size and therefore weight of things like a micro minim or pololu)

[Nordrone]

As a relative noob to this, I';m really interested in how you built the spec......some of the components I haven';t even heard of (although that shouldn';t be a surprise!).  I guess you';ve figured through the compatibility of FC, OSD etc to get a really compact build......look forward to seeing it all come together!

[Cheredanine]

So had some deliveries :)

Pdb connected to ESCs, ESCs soldered to motors.

Lux solder jumpers applied.

Lux currently does not support USB flash through of blheli so put the quad on top of another one with a naze32 in it, plugged the ESCs off this quad on to the Naze and connected to it (the Naze USB), applied battery to this quad and flashed ESCs with blheli 14.4 :)
(On the lux you can also flash through by connecting a cp2102 adaptor such as an ftdi adaptor to uart 1 but this involves some crimping so went with this approach and it worked beautifully)

Soldered lux pins, connected up the x4rsb and bound
All working in cf

(One excellent feature of the lux is it does what they tried to do with the naze32 rev6 but had to drop with the 6a, the radio is powered by the USB port so you don';t need flight battery to check all that but your ESCs can calibrate normally :)

I have cut the ESC signal wires to length and will crimp them tonight or tomorrow

Nordrone, so to give you a summary of how I went about this one:
I wanted a 5 inch acro, (I realised I had as many 6 and 4 as 5s which feels unnatural), at first I was considering a Lumenier 210 but I already have a 250 so wasn';t totally happy with it, but whilst looking at the alien frame (used by finalglideaus who won the us open and masters of freestyle, the raceblade came out, i did some digging and found the dronewolf, it is similar in style to the other two but well engineered, cheaper although lacks the quick change arms, since I wasn';t interested in the arm thing I went for it.

So I know I want to run betaflight air mode, so looking for an f3 flight controller, sp3 seems to be having resilience issues, tornado looks good but it is never going to do blheli flash through, dodo at the time had issues with resilience too, then the lux started popping up, one excellent thing in its specs is it uses spi connectivity to the gyro, all other boards use i2c which limits the loop times. So giving it a try (it';s blheli pass through issues are software based, they will get solved quickly, the tornado is a physical thing)

Motors - trawled throug thrust and efficiency tests (not that bothered about efficiency of its self but it indicates torque and therefore how well the motors will provide thrust in flight during high g manoeuvres) initially went for rotorgeeks 2205 2700kv but they look dodgy with 5x4x3 props because of that efficiency thing, they simply will not have the torque to provide bench test thrust figures in flight, whilst looking at thrust test I found one for the new X motors, I asked some people I knew and they out perform Cobra 2204 2300s without being over propped so trying them. Amp draw is just over 20 amps at full throttle, likely to go a little higher in flight so looking at 30 amp ESCs or good 20 amps, want blheli and one shot with silabs chips because I want low loop times, I would happily have used littlebees, I may have tried the new DYS but they are more bleeding edge until we have some people flying them, the rg20s on test data slightly outperform the littlebees so went for them (had to wait for the frame and FC so the delivery time from the states wasn';t a problem, otherwise it would have been little bees)

Camera - the frame is designed for hs1177 so no brainier, best Fpv cam I use
Vtx - I had see. The fx799 a while ago and fitted it in a quad, it has a number of features I need or like:
Sma connector
Runs from battery at 4s
Provides 5v for cam
Channel and band control on ouch button and shown on led
It is basically what Lumenier rebrand for their vtx, so I could spend more money and get a Lumenier one or buy the origional

I like having an OSD, MWOSD works well with cleanflight and is the OSD software I use on all my quads, OSDoge is great if you are using a Naze. But if not then minims are the obvious choice for MWOSD software, the micro is the smallest (and I have it in other quads) so a no brainier.

All you have to do is check all the voltages match, then check how many amps you can provide compared to what all the bits draw :)

[Cheredanine]

Ok finished :)
Ditched the LED and buzzer board (after I got it working as it was too big and was blocking the props.

Wait for lumeniers upcoming led board to see if that fits

Lux will not currently flash through blheli until code changes, so used a Naze to put the ESCs on 14.4
Flashed lux with betaflight 2.3.4

Test flown round the house, all good :)

Now need a dry, no wind day when I am not working to play
(1800mah battery was used for testing during build, will use a smaller bat IRL)

Picture next to QAV250 included for scale

[Revs]

Nice one, a very quick tidy build! Very similar spec to my Alien5. I recommend the DroneLabs 1500 4s 50c lipos, I have a couple, they';re great for this size quad.

Don';t suppose you got change to measure the motors..?

[Cheredanine]

Nice one, a very quick tidy build! Very similar spec to my Alien5. I recommend the DroneLabs 1500 4s 50c lipos, I have a couple, they';re great for this size quad.

Don';t suppose you got change to measure the motors..?

Ah sorry mate, I was going to but I haven';t got a spare d ring and I bugger it up every time (or lose it). When I get to an occasion where I take it apart (shouldn';t take long, I manage to hit mud with motors pretty often) I will

Batteries is an interesting one, trying to avoid voltage sag, I have some 1400mah 45-90c from hobbyrc that seem quite good, although they do a higher spec too, wasn';t sure about the drone labs or obno ones make it build it sell

[Revs]

I';ve tried the OptiPower 1300 4s 50c and the DroneLabs 1500 4s 50c. Both really good lipos, staying over 3.3v/cell under full load right up to the end of the discharge. But the DroneLabs higher capacity translates to an extra 30-60s flying time with almost no weight penalty and they';re cheaper. Win win

[Cheredanine]

Just took it to the field (or rather I happened to have it with me as I drove past  :evil )

Revs mate, these Xnova 2204 2300s - holy cr4p!
Absurd power!

Unfortunately my fatsharks started beeping as soon as I plugged them in and the wind was higher than I would have liked, but this thing shifts faster than any of my other quads

Using HQ 5x4x3, rg 20a ESCs 1400mah 4s 45-90c I had test hovered in the house nicely but of course I was being ginger on the throttle, outside I moved the throttle in the way I would with other quads to just lift off to about 10 ft and I am suddenly 30ft up and rising, eased off and dropped the nose and I can only say neeeeeooooommmmmmm!

Only did a couple of laps as conscious of imminent battery failure from beeping fatsharks but I can not rave enough about these motors

[SlipperySquid]

Is there anywhere to get the frame from at the moment?

I want an X that';s not a ridiculous price but good quality?

Thanks.

[Cheredanine]

Bought frame from here:
http://www.dronewolf.com.au/store/
He gets them cut in batches although last I heard he had some spares.
Postage is cheap and quick (a few hours less than 6 days door to door)

[Cheredanine]

ok update,
running betaflight with 125/8Khz loop times, love this quad,
however just ripped out the RG20as and replaced with Kiss 24amp race edition.
Jesus, the motors no longer scream and give power like a lunatic, they now pur, seriously, that is the best description of the change in noise, even more power and even smoother

the battery is a Graphene 1500mah 4s 65C, definatly gives less voltage sag at high load

[Cheredanine]

Put a HD cam on it, nothing special, just bumming around:

https://youtu.be/7vCjlYkuRO8

[wobblybob]

Love the thread title  . The times I race home to beat the Mrs to the P.O red card ,or the left at a neighbours note .But they do same for shoe';s , war paint  and what have you .

[3Dex]

^Agreed.

Thanks for the build thread/information. Im looking to buy another FPV quad soon. Very tempted by this frame or the Immersion Vortex Pro

[Evert72]

Put a HD cam on it, nothing special, just bumming around:

https://youtu.be/7vCjlYkuRO8

Nice flying that thing screams.

Love the thread title  . The times I race home to beat the Mrs to the P.O red card ,or the left at a neighbours note .But they do same for shoe';s , war paint  and what have you .

Can relate to this! Unfortunately my girlfriend sometimes works from home so there is no hiding it when delivery';s are posted!