This project has been a great, but frustrating learning experience.  I started off with the hopes of designing and printing my own 3D printed frame for a 5″ FPV quadcopter.  I originally designed it to be a 4S setup so I could use the motors I received in my last and final FPVCrate. FPVCrate is a drone part subscription service. First problem, one of the motors turned out to be bad, and I fried two separate 4in1 ESC’s.  Talk about mad!

After resolving the motor issue, I ended up switching to 6S power and discarding the 4S motors.  I went with some very cheap EMAX motors I found on closeout.  Had to wait for the slow boat from China, but the 9 motors eventually arrived.  With motors in hand I pulled all the electronics off the 4S and installed the new motors, upgrading to 6S.

The maiden flight was interesting.  It flew for about 13 seconds but something wasn’t right.  When I picked up the quad the ESC and motors were so hot they were literally melting the 3D printed frame.  I eventually concluded that the frame was not stable enough, causing micro-vibrations.  Those vibrations caused the flight controller to try to over-compensate and nearly fried the motors.

Rooster

At that point I figured a 3D printed racing drone frame was not the way to go. So I looked around and found a cheap clone Rooster frame on Amazon for $28. It was very highly rated and for good reason. It is solid.

I had two more hurdles to jump though.  During the rooster build process I found that I had one more bad motor and a defective ESC.  After replacing both the motor and ESC, the bird finally flew.

I took the quad out to a park and was thrilled to find that it really ripped was very agile.  But there was one problem left to solve, no on screen display (OSD).  At that point I realized I’d wired the camera directly to the video transmitter.

Oops.  So I had to rip the whole thing apart to rewire that part.  Another park flight is coming, but now I’m fairly sure the quad is done.

Parts

• Rooster Clone Frame
• Emax 1700kv/2206 Lite Spec Motors
• ESc: Mamba F40 MK2 4in1 40a
• Flight Controller: CLRacing F4S V1.5
• Receiver: Team Black Sheep (TBS) Crossfire Nano
• Video Transmitter: TBS Unify Pro 32
• Camera: Foxeer Falcor (pulled from another build)
• 1000uf Capacitor
• LED light strip
• VTX antenna: Lumenier AXII2

I should do a video of the week award.  If I had such an award, this video would win it hands down!  Check out the FPV video by Rotor Riot of the demolition of a power plant.  Whatever this setup was, I need to build one!

Shot in my backyard at Snowbird ski resort!