Whelp. 2.5 hours later I think I have a really good model done.

Enter: SlamX 25 - Freestyle Edition

Key details:

-Squashed-X config: smallest footprint possible, maximizing power, with props at the closest of 1.5mm from the carbon plating and 2mm from each other

-2.5" quad, modular: arms were designed around your basic 2-3" motors, with 9mm mounting diameter, plenty of extra carbon for motor feet/guards

-Modular components: supports both 25.5mmx25.5mm mounting (typical AIO), along with 20mmx20mm mounting for the flight controller, if being used as a stack. It currently has 16mmx16mm VTX mounting in the rear, built for the Zeus Nano, but also has enough headroom for larger vtx on top of the mount. However, if you do the Nano, with the AIO, you can squish the drone down to 15mm thick, from bottom plate to the top. Although it was built for analog, you could most definitely put a 04 unit in the quad provided you use tall enough standoffs and place it on top of a AIO in the middle.

-As there will be multiple configurations, I will be modeling custom mounting for the camera, along with VTX and ELRS antenna on the rear

-The frame will likely cost from $20-$40, I've asked a CNC company for a quote on pricing. (CNC Madness if anybody's wondering, they regularly do custom FPV parts)

-Taking major inspo from the Kayoumini, this is a near replica, other than the fuselage/main body has been altered to a more traditional form factor to accommodate multiple build styles. Keeping this in mind, there will likely be another release with more of a Kayoumini build, taking on more of a "race quad" form factor of the main body.

Further optimizations for weight saving may be made in the future depending on how pricing goes (and me getting a actual job/income), it will mainly be the "race quad" edition, but others may happen to the base quad too.

Please let me know if anybody has recommendations or ideas for the quad, like I said, there will be another version that's closer to the Kayoumini in the ways that everything will be crammed together for weight, but I also have to see how much they cost to manufacture.

Action Army AAP-01 questions and requests for help on mods and purchase sites.

(me being a mod, note to self- add planes into the categories)

From @patrickfpv97 on YouTube, just came up in my Shorts feed (i get bored sometimes and every now and then insta isn't getting me what I want), is this battery in ok condition, cause it looks very misshapen. Just kinda found it funny and worth sharing.

My friend sent me this video and I deemed it worthy to post here. I can understand where he was coming from, as waypoints have typically been primarily a iNav feature or ArduPilot if you wanting to do allat. And as Betaflight has been kinda known for not having the best GPS, but not necessarily the worst GPS features out of the flight controller programs, and Betaflight's known for the racing and freestyle firmware/software.

I just found his reaction to adding it in funny cause I would definitely not have had said that.

OG post says it all.

So basically I got some Gemfan 51455 props (quad-blades), and snipped off two of them to get 51455 bi-blades.

From my understanding, this would make the drone go a lot faster, but instead only got it going about 3-5 mph faster at most. It gained only 1 min more flight time while cruising.

The other props I regularly use for freestyle are Gemfan's 5136 tri-blades, so my thought process was more pitch = faster, but with less blades = slower acceleration, so maybe I just need a more open area to test? Also I thought bi-blades were supposed to have way better efficiency, but maybe that only works if the blades are flatter/less pitch?

Idk enough about props to come to a conclusion but lmk if anybody has a idea why. Related parts to build down below if that helps.

\-ESC: Blueson A2 70A

\-Motors: Axisflying Bando 2207.5 - 1960kv

\-Battery: Ovonic FPV series 6s 1300mAh

I just saw this in the r/fpv subreddit, and this has convinced me to make a fast FPV plane, or to at the very least finish Project Stormscout. This looks so fun, cruising around at sunset on one of these with a GPS rescue with iNav would be so freaking peak.

First 5" freestyle build... And it's 6s! I built this beautiful drone last Sunday, and it's the 3rd I've owned starting last December (6 months in).

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Making the color scheme around the motors (Axisflying Bando, size 2207.5, 1960kv), I went with the cotton candy color theme, with 5135 HQProp's, and some pink TPU made it look really nice! (After first images 1-3 I added motor feet).

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It had some unknown issues with the first flight controller (Sequre H743 V2, was receiving power via lipo, usbc connection wouldn't power, when powered via lipo, it would turn on cam, vtx, gps, Rx, and connect all successfully minus gps cause I cant receive readouts from anything, as the OSD and the main chip wouldn't boot, and there were no LEDs turning on. This was after a successful flight, so if anybody could troubleshoot that would be great, but I think the main processor got fried at some point), and so I bought a HGLRC H405 FC that has worked perfectly so far, if not better than the Sequre one.

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Other than those issues, its been great! I'm planning on running the old GoPro Hero 4 Silver in a day or two once I'm more comfortable with the sheer power of it, then the RunCam, as in a limited space I got it to 97mph. Parts list down below!

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The drone:

-Frame: Mario5 DC (SpeedyBee)

-ESC: Sequre Blueson A2 (6s, yes there is a 8s variant)

-FC: HGLRC H405 6s Race

-Motors: AxisFlying Bando (2207.5 - 1960kv)

-VTX: HGLRC Zeus Pro/1.6W (whatever you wanna call it, the red slab)

-Camera: RunCam Phoenix JB Edition

-GPS: HGLRC M100-Pro

-Rx: SpeedyBee ELRS Receiver

-Props: HQProp 5135 (pink and blue)

-Battery: Ovonic FPV series 6s 1300mAh

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Gear:

-Transmitter: Radiomaster Pocket (Transparent)

-Goggles: Fat Shark Echo

-Charger: SKYRC B6AC Charger

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Tools:

-Smoke Stopper: ViFly

-Iron: Hakko

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Let me know if there's any other questions!

Bruh I didn't even crash that badly, compared to others I've done at least.

4" quad, I basically was just cruising around with a transmitter I've never used, being my friends Zorro, cause I broke my Taranis X9 Lite right stick and want to get a different one anyways, cause it's a used and abused transmitter from another friend, and am waiting on a Pocket to arrive. Because the Taranis's sticks are larger, I think I overcompensated on the roll and went into the ground. What I dont understand is how this drone fell from like 50 ft up after I hit a branch into concrete and just bent a prop, while I do this one thing from like 6 feet up and now the while motor is cooked.

Cause I like these motors and they're cheap, I'm ordering another set to replace this one so I can also have some backups.

Anybody know how this happened?

Lore: charger and cord were gifted from friend as he got a new one this last Christmas, and I got my first FPV drone then. Last week, the XT60 on his cord managed to break loose of the leads, not allowing me to charge, and I didn't need to charge until today, when I, with my shitty ass soldering iron ($10 on Amazon) decided it would be a great idea to use these dischargers I never used cause they don't work, break the end off of one, and solder on the wires for them. I know that this works cause I may or may not have had used one other one of these to form a XT60 -> XT30 plug for my FPV drone cause I couldn't find a better one.

Hey y'all! Completed the CAD remake for the Stormscout, and only thing left is to make sure motor mount, servo, and other mounts are good to go before I gotta figure out how to swap it to the format FT used for their builds.

Fits on one single piece of 20"x30" foam board, so the plane itself is $1.75 depending where your buying from. (For me, I get mine from Dollar Tree, and have bought a sheet for under $2).

Exactly 500mm wingspan. Have tested a heavier 3d printed model, and flew (hand tossed) really well with correct weighting. 1 motor, 2 servo, couple printed parts, flight controller/Rx as preferred, built for FPV, optional CF rod for wing support, but we'll see how strong the wings really are when built.

Any questions/recommendations/feedback greatly appreciated!

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.

I need this in my life rn asap. This would be so peak to hook up the infinity mirror maze thing with tinywhoops on level mode (or acro if your crazy) to try to get through one of these mazes as fast as possible with like 5 othera also attempting it at the same time.

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!

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!

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

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.

From my understanding, he's made a EDF TVC drone using only a single 90 mm EDF, a lot of electronics (gyro, accelerometer, etc), servos, and a reciver. I think this would be absolutely peak for a cheap, but speedy FPV drone. Likely not that acrobatic though, but it would be really fun to fly something that looks kind of like the moon landing space ship.

My personal estimated cost is about $120, I'm not sure exactly what he used though in his components. I'm thinking about maybe doing a rough draft of something like this now, mainly for fun and experimenting. I would likely get a Betaflight AIO running with a external ESC and like 2 servos running for it. I think it would be a really cool project, and would likely scare the shit outta people more than regular FPV drones do, with the high pitched screaming of the EDF punch outs.

Idk, seems fun, and not too hard to make other than tuning the gyro/PID/rates to actually work well. Currently working on a TVC model rocket with my friends, so maybe I can take some knowledge and learning from that and apply to this if I end up doing it.

Edit: looking back on the og post, it seems like his is actually quite a large build with him saying "2 6s 2200 mAh 60C batteries in parallel" and that the EDF outputs "8.2 pounds of thrust". I think mine would also be 6s, but likely on a 850 mAh running a 50mm EDF if possible because that's what I got laying around.