I wasn't going to do this build for a couple more months, but then I went and bought all the parts over the last 3 months.  So I have them now.  Black Friday and Christmas got me most of them.

Parts List Wrote:3" BetaFPV Twig XL Frame
AtomRC Exceed F411 FC
4x 20A Chaos ESC
4x Emax RS1108 6000kv Motors
HQ 2.5x2x3V2S  (Biggest Props I have, so will use these until I get some bigger props)
Matek Micro PDB 80A
FrSky Vantac ELRS RX
HM OVX303 VTX 
Caddx Ant Nano
XT30 Battery Wire with 100uf Cap
BetaFPV Dipole Antenna for the Vantac
BetaFPV Canopy (which might be too small for this build)

I will start looking at it this weekend. 

First problems I see are the PDB won't fit on top of the frame (30x20mm size and the FC is 20x20) and the ESC's are slightly wider than the frame arms.

A RacerX Twig frame even if Beta bought them out, and I've been thinking about the XL for a while. Be really interesting to see how yours turns out & how well you like it. Those motors seem like they'd have a ton of power, that is a tall motor. If you're just using a dipole, I've used a bunch of the little ORT Vee linear, they're super light, cheap & I notice a definite improvement over the little rubber sticks.

I can’t find much info on that fc, but it appears to just take vcc from the esc. So as long as your battery is within its tolerances, you should be okay to skip the PDB and direct wire everything and just run the vcc wire from the fc harness to your main positive (bat in or wherever you branch power off to the esc’s).

I’ve been wanting to try an individual esc build, so I’ll be keeping an eye on this thread to see how it goes.

(22-Mar-2023, 09:32 PM)Lemonyleprosy Wrote: I’ve been wanting to try an individual esc build, so I’ll be keeping an eye on this thread to see how it goes.

I've been looking at a few of my ancient builds and wondering if I should replace the individual ESCs with an AIO. With the lighter weight, more concentrated center of mass, smaller footprint/blocking less airflow, a lot less wiring, is there any advantage left to using individual ESCs on micros? I guess if you blow one, it is makes it easy to swap in a replacement.

And Frsky makes ELRS receivers?!? Hmm... do they have their own ELFRS firmware too in 6 different flavors?

I can’t speak for Parhfinder’s reasons for doing it, but I want to eventually give it a try just because I can. There’s definitely a weight penalty, but it is more cost effective to replace a single esc vs a 4in1.

I had no idea that FrSky made ELRS rx’s, but I wouldn’t put it past them to have their own custom firmware for them.

Pathfinder, you’ll hafta let us know if that FrSky ELRS rx gives you any issues or has any weird quirks.

Also, please let me know what you think of those motors. I’m a fan of tall stators.

Edit- also, as long as it still gives you clearance for your props, there’s lots of 30x30 to 20x20 adapters. I don’t remember if you have a 3d printer, but there’s designs on thingiverse. There’s also plenty of retail options.

The reason for the build are to see how individual esc's work (i'm new to this and you guys who have already done this will know the pros and cons, I don't). Also i like modular, and a 4in1 isn't modular, but 4x esc is. Mostly it's an experiment. These ESC cost me about $10 each. Also doing them on a semi powerful build offsets the weight penalty. The other things is I can take the 1108's off this build and replace with say 1404 and suddenly the 20g for the ESC is even more nullified. But i looked through loads of stuff, researched a lot, searched for flight footage on these motors and then bought some. It looks like it flies well on 2S and rips hard on 3s.

Saying that I have an issue with where to put the PDB. Right now my only idea is to mount it on the underside of the frame, then build up the sides around it with foam, so it essentially sits under the battery. i can't get it on top of the frame as far as i can see, due to the 20x20 FC (the PDB is 30x20).

Could I run the FC from the BEC on the PDB instead of using VBat? So the PDB BEC can provide either 5V or 12V. I would probably use 12V, as I see this build being more 3S than 2S, although I guess the PDB has buck boost circuit on it (but it would be lossy using it). Could I wire the 12V BEC output to VBat on the FC? Is there any point in doing this or should I just wire straight form VBat

VTX antenna will most likely be the RushFPV Cherry, in an IPEX config. I don't think it will work with the canopy I have. I think I need the X-Knight canopy.

Yeah that Vantac is random, but it cost me such a small amount of money (roughly $4 less than the HM EP1), I wasn't going to complain about the hyprocrisy of using an ELRS board made by one of the main competitors of said technology. I mainly bought it because it would use a dipole like the one on my Meteor85 which gets pretty good LQ out to roughly half a mile (and probably way further).

FTR, I don't think this level of motor is where individual ESC shine. But I want to try it. Yes it will be a massive ballache, considering it took me 2.5hrs to solder 3 wires, last weekend. Once I work out the PDB placement I will start the build. Mainly as long as it flies I will be happy and if it flies really fast I will be happier.

@Lemony, unfortunately no 3d printer so far. I hope to have (or built) one by Christmas.

I will apologise for almost taking the piss a late. I have been avoiding builds due to being crap at soldering (although that barely describes my soldering level). i have several available to me at this point. I know Lemony is waiting for my 1002 NanoFly16 build to spawn.

I was looking earlier at all the motors (and well the vast number of parts) sat in my parts box and thinking I should be more forthright like all of you and churn out many builds. So I will build.

I’ve had a few, so if I’ve missed some important information, I do apologize.

You’ve said twice now that the PDB is 30x20. I assumed that was a typo and it was 30x30.
If it’s not, well hell, that lines up pretty well with a emax Tinyhawk 2 freestyle frame… anyhow.

That fc has built in bec’s. I can’t find much info on it. AtomRC gives some specs, but it doesn’t say what its max and minimum voltage is. If you post a clear picture of its voltage regulators, we can try to figure that out.

Short of that- given that it’s bec’s are 5v and 3.3v, we can probably assume that it can safely take 2s voltage, probably 2s to 4s. You’re planning on a 2s build- you should be safe running 2s voltage straight to vcc on the fc. If it was a 1s only board, they’d usually state that. A safe way to test this would be to slowly ramp up your voltage, but, most folks don’t have that capability.

I did manage to find this random link that states it’s 3s to 6s:
https://rcsearch.info/-c26628

You’re gonna hafta give it some power and see if it will run on 2s. I’d be willing to bet that it will, cause 2s voltage is higher than its highest voltage output, but, y’know, your mileage may vary.

Anyhow, my drunk ass is comfortable saying that you can feed 3s voltage to the vcc wire on the fc. You can probably feed it 2s, but you’ll have to test it.

So, you can ignore your PDB and run your battery straight to your fc, as well as run your battery positive straight to your esc’s, or, you could run your fc off of the 12v bec on your PDB if you’re running 3s.

Anyhow. Nothing wrong with building or not. I love the build- others love flying far more. Do whatever the hell brings you the most joy in life.

It would take quite a while to get to you, but I’m happy to print and send you some random adapters- 25x25 to 30x30, 20x20 to 30x30, 20x30 to whatever, etc.

There’s probably some folks in the UK that can print and get them to you sooner than I could, for less postage. If not, let me know.

If you need any adapters printing, just send me a link to some on Thingiverse or Printables.com that you think might be suitable and I will print them for you. I can of course knock some designs up from scratch but there seems little point re-inventing the wheel if there are some suitable ones already out there.

Oh boy, I feel like such an old timer now. I remember when 4-in-1 ESCs came onto the market, it was such a big thing for quads, but of course the early ones were not very reliable. With the individual ESCs I guess you will also get better cooling especially if you are continuoslly drawing high amps.
Still have some old PDBs that will probably not make it into any builds, that holy board was from colorful Timecop, ordered that from Japan along with my first F1 flight controller running Baseflight (I guess this reference is for other old timers).



If you don't need the extra BEC and don't mind ugly, you could always just run a small web of silicone wires instead. And in the dark ages before 3D printers, I often would just cut out an old gift card to fit the frame mounting holes and double side tape the odd sized PDB on the bottom and odd sized FC on top... but you probably don't want to do that today.

My first thoughts were to using a wiring loom to power it, but then I found the PDB, which may or may not be an official Matek product (after some research). As long as it works i don't care. On this build, it's unlikely I will be pushing it hard enough to get to the 80A limit.

Lemony, it is this one. http://www.mateksys.com/?portfolio=mpdb5v12v and yes it is 30x20. My problem per se with the Twig 3" is space. A 30x30 won't fit without hanging over the sides, but those were the smallest i could find, then I found this one and yes, 30x20 isn't brilliant, but it's not totally bad either. I am thinking of mounting it to the bottom, then using foam pieces that are a few mm higher than it (after the wires have been soldered), capping it with a piece of plastic and using it as the battery mounting area. this would also allow me to glue the XT30 to the bottom of the frame and have the battery wires as short as possible. The other possibility is to do something with that rear cross bar and maybe go with some 3d printed or even just cut a piece of credit card, as mstc suggested, but the downside would be one set of esc wires would be a bit longer than the others. i think the bottom mount, with the battery almost acting a s a shield to it, might be better and one of the pluses of that approach is it will receive good airflow over the chips/pcb as the quad flies, which might keep it cool. Am thinking of using velcro to mount it to the frame, which would allow easy(ish) replacement if it ever died.

I will probably power the board from VBAT, for easiest. This build will never run over 3S. The other up side is the PDB has a BEC, so if the FC BEC ever dies, I can piggyback using the PDB. In fact, i am kinda tempted to do that from outset. use the 5V output on the PDB and run two wires to the +5V/GND, which would hopefully take some load of the FC BEC, kind of load balance that side of things.

From looking last night, I think AtomRC is a sub-company of Skyzone. I might shoot them an email and see if they have any better specs on it, specifically in reference to voltages, etc. My main reason for using it, was simple, F411 £20, F405 £25. A cheap FC, for an experimental build. If it bursts into flames, it's £20, versus buying a Mamba or the HM Pancake that i would like to use on future builds and cost £40 or more.

3D printing wise, the only thing I kind of want in terms of 3D printing is canopies. Most other things can be achieved with duct tape and cable ties. But canopies seem to be almost dark arts level. Mainstream wise it seem to boil down to BetaFPV, HM, iFlight or NewBeeDrone, with BetaFPV and HM being the major players in the area. So the X-Knight canopy does seem to be big enough to fit the Twig, so for now I will probably just order one. But further down the line I would love to be able to design and print my own.

(23-Mar-2023, 12:55 PM)mstc Wrote: With the individual ESCs I guess you will also get better cooling especially if you are continuously drawing high amps.

That was one consideration when I planned this. i plan to probably velcro the to the frame and tape the wires, but leave the top of each ESC exposed (instead of electrical taping over it. Hopefully that will maximise cooling potential. it is already covered in heat shrink, so fluids shouldn't be an issue.

(23-Mar-2023, 12:55 PM)mstc Wrote: Still have some old PDBs that will probably not make it into any builds

Funnily enough some of those PDB's (or clones of them) are still available today. But all were 30x30. No use when your only takes a max of 25x25.

So i sent AtomRC a message asking for the input voltage range and BEC output ampage. That info will give me the answers to some of the above questions. I think 2-3S will be fine for powering it, and I will probably throw on a second cap at the FC, maybe a 15V 330uf to combat any noise issues. Also after watching a video on it, probably a small cap on each ESC.

So going to resurrect this thread. i finally decided to start this build, but not exactly the way I listed it in the first post. One major change and one minor change. Instead of the single ESC's and PDB (going to keep for a different build), I am going to use a DarwinFPV 30A Stack that I picked up a couple of months back. Same one they use on the CineApe25. Also going with a bigger VTX. This build will be a 2-3S beast. The motors are 2S on paper, but it seems like everyone runs them on 3S.

I will be starting this build, this week. No idea what to expect from it. Never built a 3" before.