August 2, 2017: Believe it or not, this was actually built as a test for the next speed project (XLR-1), namely a test of the arm construction and strength. However, having always wanting to build something for “normal” flying, I put a lot of thought into it and this will be my everyday flyer. The base frame is complete, but I need to order some motors…
Too many active projects, so as usual, this is a work in progress.
Contents:
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Production Frame?
I have always kept this in mind on my builds, but none were practical enough. However, I decided to make a “normal” frame to fly and I ended up with a 5″ racing frame. Two versions were made. The first has 8mm tube arms. The second has 6mm tube arms. Although the 6mm arms can support me standing on the center of the frame (ends of arms being supported by 4 cans), I won’t know its true strength until I do some flying and crashing.
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A Few Details
The few details I have:
- 8mm tube frame is 38g
- 6mm tube frame is 31g
- 6mm/8mm nested tube frame is 48g
- 210mm size frame
- Very strong (can support at least 165 lbs.)
- Lowest drag coefficient of any racing frame
- Thrust to weight ratio of 15:1
Electronics I’ll be using:
- Piko Blx F3 flight controller
- Cobra Champion 2207 2450kv VEK edition
- RunCam Split
- Eachine VTX03
- Lemon rx
- Micro minimosd
- DYS 4 in 1 30A ESC
There is a downside though. As of now, there is no way of replacing a broken arm. I do not think the 8mm tube frame will ever break but I am not so sure about the 6mm. I hope to find out this week…
If by chance the 8mm arm does break, it could easily be strengthened with a 6mm tube inserted into it. This 6/8mm tube combo has proven to survive a nuclear holocaust.
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Maiden Flight Videos
The first video was with DAL 5040 props, the second with Racekraft 5051’s. I had a crash on the 2nd video which knocked the camera out of alignment.
Oh No!
I say that a lot. I was probably going at least 60 mph when I rammed through the top of a pine tree. Actually, the quad pretty much stopped and fell while the battery flew about 150 ft. The terminal branches on a pine tree aren’t as little as the terminal branches on a deciduous tree. A branch jabbed itself into the Runcam board and apparently broke it since all I am getting is a flashing red light.
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Changes
This frame is an absolute blast, but I have to make at least a couple changes:
- Protect the electronics better
- Go to 8mm arms. The 6mm arms didn’t break, but they got twisted. They are not the woven type of carbon fiber so they are weak in torsional stiffness. Once they get twisted, it pretty much loses all torsional strength.
August 27, 2017: More changes
- Go to 8mm/6mm arms.
I managed to break an 8mm arm. It took an extremely hard hit, but I want to be sure this is bullet proof since an arm cannot be easily changed. Everything else held up great.
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More Videos
Quad Star Drones 
Very cool! How are you joining the arms? Is it a sandwich plate like on “race” quads?
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Prepare for my rambling: It’s kind of odd – one solid arm, then a short larger diameter arm with a cross hole for the continuous arm. Then the larger diameter arm had smaller ones coming out each end. Sounds like a horror movie. I was never happy with it, so I never got into detail. I have something WAY better going now – so much better that I’d say it will be a game changer (part of the XLR-1 project). I’m getting things set in motion for selling frames, but I only just started and I’m still narrowing down a product line among other things. I’m almost at the patent pending status – not to be selfish, but just in case it does happen to be a money maker, I don’t want to see someone else profitting off all the blood, sweat, and tears I have put into this development. Either way, once everything is set, I’ll be posting all the details.
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Interesting – when will that be public? I am not asking because I want to design my own frame to sell, it’s for a project that is largely unrelated.
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I wish I had a time frame – It’s very new territory for me so the timeline is very unclear. To play it safe, I would say sometime around Christmas/New Years. It should be worth the wait!
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