I decided to work a little bit on my older concept of the pyramid tubular frame, this time reworking the joints, optimizing weight by using smaller support tubes and creating snap-on aerodynamic canopy which houses Camera/VTX/RX.
I'm very pleased with this 9/10inch frame, some stats:
- 86g bare frame weight, 104g complete weight including canopy with snap-on fittings
- 581g weight of the complete drone without battery, using GEPRC EM2812 motors and Gemfan 9x4.5x3 propellers
- Happymodel diversity 868mhz elrs RX
- Speedybee F405 AIO (40A per channel ESC, while the motor/prop combo has current draw of ~36 at max throttle)
- Skyzone 2.5W VTX
- Runcam 2 Pro camera
- TrueRC vtx antenna
Here is the video of first short test flight, with small 1050mah 6s battery (180g, so around 760g complete weight) -
I'm using UAVTech 10" preset (clean build, so minimal filtering), which is meant for 1400-1700g AUW with 3115 motors and is clearly not optimal for the drone with half the weight -> you can see that it's little bit wobbly, especially when just hovering or moving slowly, better when going fast - but it was also super windy and the drone has very low disc loading with the small battery, so that's a factor as well.
The same preset worked very well when the frame was used with bigger 3115 motors and much heavier 800-900g battery.
My plan is to use 3000-4000mah lipo (400-500g) for the final weight of bit over 1kg, I will than adjust the preset to better fit the lighter weight.
Efficiency is phenomenal, 3minutes of flying took ~410mah from the battery and that was in chilly conditions 2-3C above zero.
I expect to achieve 20min flight time with 3300mah 6s lipo with normal flying (mostly cruising, couple of punch-outs), but let's see.
Another thing which surprised my a little bit is how silent it is -> I was testing 5inch drone on the same place previous day (the small green one in the photos) and it was much, much louder, this one hovers at 13-14% throttle and I could barely hear it 20-30m away in windy conditions.
Photos
Part List
Flight Controller |
SpeedyBee F405 AIO 40A Bluejay 25.5x25.5 3-6S Flight Controller
Speedybee.com
|
$55.99 |
Motors |
4 x GEPRC EM2812 900KV Motor - GEPRC
Geprc.com
|
$99.96 |
Propellers |
9045-3 Glass fiber nylon
Gemfanhobby.com
|
See Site |
Guides & Reviews
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
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
I really like your design. What are these tubes diameters? I want to build one so much.
For this 9/10inch design, main arm tubes are 10/8mm (OD/ID) and support tubes are 6/4mm (OD/ID).
There is a github page where design is open-sourced, along with very detailed build instructions although so far only for regular 5" and 7" versions -> https://github.com/janherich/Spacedrone/tree/main
I experimented with many other configurations, including this H-truck -> https://i.imgur.com/X4nPlTO.jpg
They worked fine, but in the end pyramid with triangulated base was the lightest, stiffest and most aerodynamic option.