u/Breakerbuilds

My 4" now 3.5" drone now has 6 blades per motor. Total of 24 blades. My friend had the idea that since tmount use just your typical M2 screws, I could just get longer ones and put them on. Later today imma try it out with my terrible 3s batteries, I'm hoping to order some 4s in the near future, but then again I'm likely getting a 5" build in about a month and will be needing some extra $$$ to repair and do some minor stuff upgrades on it, so we'll see.

I also wanna get a radiomaster pocket so that may come before anything else, but if it comes down to it I'll likely order some batteries off of Amazon first.

Hey y'all, it's back. I tried to do a 3d printed micro FPV wing about 4 months back, with the constraints of it being under 250g and 500mm wingspan, but that didn't turn out too well, as it was really hard to get strong, structurally sound prints, while still being within weight goal, mainly for the fuselage as honestly the wings were great. (Just for the record, I did get it to fly well from a hand toss with the correct weighting)

Now, I'm back (after about 4 different FT foam board planes) and am reattempting the project, without the 3d printing constraint, and not taking the weight aspect too seriously now that I've bought my registration tag and still keeping it under 20" wingspan (bit over 500mm) while CADing and modeling my own plans similar to the ones FT produces and makes public on the SPONZ Index. I'm starting by re-CADing the whole thing with roughly the same dimensions, but an doing it to be more angular so you can cut sharp edges and have a overall cleaner build.

Here's my current progress:

Currently have the overall wings and fuselage modeled, may have to make the fuselage thicker then the original design though because there's only an inch of vertical space inside compared to the model where there was 1.5" of space.

There will still be 3d printed parts due to structural support via a carbon fiber rod, and hoping for the wings to not fold in half, along with the motor mount, and other electronics, which I will be attaching to the finalized plans for the plane so people can alter the mounting holes/dimensions. If enough people request it I can also attempt to model laser cutting files for the parts, but I wouldn't expect them to work as well as the printed ones (Don't go into it thinking the models will be cleanly designed, my CAD process is atrocious)

I'm actively working on integrating the building process that FT uses, like the slotted parts so the pieces line up nicely while assembling, and is overall a lot easier to build.

Contrasting to the previous model, I've now spent a lot more time in the FPV hobby of drones, and now have gained knowledge on how electronics like flight controllers work, so one of the things I'll also be working on is a way to integrate a flight controller, GPS, and your basic analog system (no digital cause I don't got the money) into the plane in a attempt to get iNav to work (I *really* wanna try out RTH, along with auto launch, although this may be a stretch for a bit cause I only know Betaflight).

If I can do it right, I should also be able to fit it on the basic 20"x30" foam board that I think is the standard from what I can tell that most people use, although I'm not making any promises on that.

Electronics:

FPV Drone-style flight controller, with at least 2 extra UARTS not including receiver, cam, and VTX (I'd go 2s-4s)

2x 4.3g servos (will likely make models for others)

Motor of your choice (I'd stay on the smaller side because it's mounted on the rear, and it's a swept back wing, so having weight farther forward is better)

2s-4s brushless ESC

FPV camera (analog, digital if your good with doing some custom modeling)

Analog VTX

ELRS or desired receiver (swap to ELRS tho if you haven't lol)

2s-4s battery, make sure compatible with FC, ESC, and motor, something like a 650mAh-850mAh would likely be optimal

Specs will be updated in the future after construction and testing have been done.

Any feedback is welcome!

~300mm x300mm x1100mm

12mm veneered MDF

RGB LED with 55mm spacing

Mirror foil

~70€

Hey, so I'm a relatively new pilot to the FPV community with only about 5 months of flying, but my birthday is coming up in a month and am wondering about some things with the BoxPro+ goggles (as present/from money). I fly only analog at the moment, but am open to the HDZero HD system. I tried out my friend's BoxPro goggles earlier today with my analog 3.5", and so far like them a lot more than my current (Fat Shark Echo) goggles.

My main question is this: how 'worth it' has the googles been for anybody that's owned them? Like I'm wondering if I should go with these or get only analog goggles for cheaper that work similar/same way as the HDZ ones but without being compatible with HDZ camera units.

Another one was how does HDZ units compare to analog in terms of penetration and overall image quality? I can't seem to get a direct answer on that, like I know analog is cheaper and overall better for freestyle (I think), but I've heard mixed things about actual penetration or signal range and distance. I fly freestyle, and my main limiter is not getting the range I want (also with a 400mW vtx but idk.

Please grant me your knowledge on this topic, it would really help.

Thanks!

Edit: Thank you to everyone that has given good, detailed feedback! Overall I've seen mostly positives, with the only negative being that there are better goggles, but for more than double the price so I'll likely be getting these ones!

I was trying to swap to tri-blades, but it's kinda impossible to find 4" t-mount props, so now we have this, honestly, it flies great. I'm posting videos later today (if I remember). last night I also modeled and printed a GoPro mount for it, it's gonna be really heavy, but I think it can carry it if it's only for like cruising or something like that.

Lmk what you guys think!

(Btw the batteries really far back in the later images so the GoPro can fit and tilt back a bit for camera angle)

Well, my creation and solution to the breaking the frames is done, and I think ts is peak. Needs a slight adjustment on the left/right beams on the model cause currently their slightly too tight due to the battery but here it is.

Basically; frame was cracked in 3 spots, all on the outer ducts, I decided I didn't wanna spend like $10 a frame, and I removed said errors and re-did the reinforcing the outer ducts did by printing out 4 cross beam pieces that come in at .25g each. Yes, the frame will likely be about a gram heavier overall, but also I printed out a so called "race canopy" I found (in PETG), and bent it into shape.

2nd pic is all the removed material

Makerworld model to support beams

Makerworld link to canopy model

Basically dead battery, didn't know what to do with it, went back into the woods behind my house to see if it would explode

Lokey just bent it in half attempting to put it in a battery holder

For anybody who doesn't know me, I like to create a lot of different random projects. Right now, I'm designing a lot of different Air65 frames for fun and testing.

Currently (designed today) I modeled a Y4 style frame for it, and I think this will be the first one I actually build. I've modeled about 5 different frames for the Air65, only one has been actually flown before, and it flew ok.

I think the main reason why it hasn't worked yet is because I'm still using the basic settup on a 550mAh, and I just got some 300mAhs for it. I'm also considering just completely DIYing my whoop/micro drone with the DarwinFPV 15A AIO for some more power for roughly the same price.

This one should work, Ill just have to configure betaflight for toss launches and the Y4 configuration, along with some pid running, cause I imagine it will be worse vibrations with the rear props on top of each other.

Edit: currently has 31mm props cause that's what I have on hand, but is compatible with up to 40mm. Also, looking back on it, the rear props could be reconfigured at least so that the bottom one isn't below the top one cause the motor allows the prop to clear the battery. This might help with overall thrust and lift.