CarbonTube flies over 1hour

By XMFPV on Feb 03, 2024

27  0  12

This design's goal is to achieve 1 hour fly time, and after all I've reached 70min+ flytime with this build.
It is build from scratch with 3mm carbon tubes, that make the frame under 18g and rigid enough to freestyle. The second important part is the battery. I made a 5000mah 2s battery with 2 cellphone battery cell to get highest power density, because cellphone batteries have much higher discharging voltage and about 20% lighter than 21700 cells.
At last I flied this quad manually for 70 min because I don't want to add more weight install GPS.

Photos

Discussion

Sign in to comment

Bob27   Oct 15, 2024  

Sweet build! I built one running DJI mini 2 motors years ago and was able to squeak out 55 minutes running two Samsung 35E cells with the camera and vtx removed. I have wanted to try the mini 3 motors, but haven't yet. I may try remaking my frame and using the same mini 2 motors with the mini 3 props. Have any tips?

Geofrancis   Mar 09, 2024  
XMFPV   Mar 14, 2024 

in 1 hour challenge hovering current is under 4 amp which is less than 1C, for high current situation, I use RC lipos

Geofrancis   Mar 14, 2024 
1

yes what cells were you using for hovering ?

XMFPV   Mar 17, 2024 

just some random cellphone batteries which can be charged to 4.45V with higher discharging voltage to get more efficiency.

Sugalime3D FPV   Mar 14, 2024  

With a barometer, angle mode and altitude hold, the dynamic load on the battery would be less. But maybe your flight was exactly like that?

Sugalime3D FPV   Mar 14, 2024  

Wow ! Would that be the unofficial world record in flytime for a 6 inch FPV with X4 copter ?

timothyferriss   Mar 07, 2024  
wind_rapport   Feb 09, 2024  

wow efficiency has levels huh - very impressive

Rotorenpilot   Feb 08, 2024  

WoW, awesome rig. I like the tubular designs a lot and I'm working on some variations of the EyeFly collection at the moment. I was wondering if you had the 3D print files somewhere? I'd love to tinker with this concept.

Rice_Bowl   Feb 06, 2024  

I miss tubular frame designs. I used to think they had some potential especially when 3D printing was getting more common. Looks great my guy!

XMFPV   Feb 06, 2024 

Thanks, and I suppose tubular designs will get lots of advantages in long range FPV. There will be more tubular frames come out this year

Rice_Bowl   Feb 07, 2024 

actually yeah, their disadvantages lessen when you scale them up. Surprisingly common too for X class drones

Felias - eyefly   Feb 06, 2024  

So awesome to see more tubular designs! Great information about the pre-stressed tubes, i was not aware of that. I also do design tube-based frames for different purposes (eyeflydesigns.com). Are you on Discord by any chance? Would love to chat and share experiences.

XMFPV   Feb 06, 2024 
1

I'm a fan of your designs. Your frames with no CNC inspired me to build this quad. I just joined eyefly discord channel.

Martin Flite   Feb 03, 2024  

Great flight time!
Did you notice any disadvantages compared to a carbon plate frame? Vibration is a concern.

XMFPV   Feb 04, 2024 
1

I bent these 4 carbon tubes across FC. Pre-stressed tubes can reduce the resonance of the frame. For a extreme light weight design tubes can be more rigid than carbon plate frame. So I start another project to build carbon tube 8 inch LR frame.

Guides & Reviews

Jun 21, 2021

AirbladeUAV has done it again and this time they've brought long range to the 5" class! Based on the popular Transformer Mini, the new Transformer 5" Ultralight adopts a lot of the same design philosophies with larger props and more payload capacity. It can fly upwards of 20 minutes on a 4 cell Li-Ion battery pack and in ideal conditions it's got a range of over 4 to 5 miles. In this guide I'll walk..

Read more
Mar 04, 2021

With the release of the DJI FPV Drone cinematic FPV has become a lot more accessible, but you certainly don't want to crash a $750 drone! The QAV-CINE Freybott is a compact, lightweight cinematic FPV drone that can take a hit and keep going. It's a lot safer to fly indoors and around people. With a naked GoPro or the SMO 4k you can capture some great stabilized footage. In this guide I'll show you..

Read more