I decided to build another 3.5 inch, already the third quad in this category. This is a category that can safely fit under 250g even with a naked camera. So a preparation for the near future. And flight characteristics do not have to be compromised. For example, I have a tuned quad that I built on a Smart 35 frame and it flies damn well. Weight without battery is 134g.

Recursion Labs has done a lot of good work that I'm excited about. I decided to build the Scythe, without the battery in the HD version it should fit in 95g, which is a third less than 134g, and that's really a lot. So you can use a lighter battery and the overall power/weight ratio will be even higher, at the same time it will be more agile and nimble. Build requires a slightly more extreme approach, naked vista, no frills, and the lightest possible solution to everything.

1404/3850kv motors with HQprop T3.5x2x3 propellers and 4s battery are a proven great combination that safely manages propwash for drones with a total weight of up to 230g, in other words, no propwash. With much lighter Scythe it is with a huge margin, this will be razor sharp. JHEMCU AIO v1.1 with MPU6000 is one of the few suitable for such a tiny frame.

I'm at the beginning, I'm missing a lot of components, more to come ... but I've already put the propellers in, to give you an idea ...

I’m looking forward to watching the build progress.

What mah battery are you planning for?

looks nice, awaiting your posts :-)

(08-Oct-2022, 07:21 PM)Lemonyleprosy Wrote: I’m looking forward to watching the build progress.

What mah battery are you planning for?

Several possible, but according to the assumptions, the Gaoneng 4s660mAh HV, which weighs 63g, is probably the best for this quad. I already have 6 of them and I use them in the Cinelog 25 for shooting indoor or closer to people. But we'll see when it's done.

I am just undressing the Caddx Vista making it naked, and cleaning the blue shit with isopropyl, but it still takes some time and patience.

So this is what naked Vista looks like... The level of integration is absolutely amazing and this technology is already 2 years old. If you look at the level of integration of common FC, ESC or VTX from other manufacturers, Vista's production technology is at an absolutely incomparable level. I personally hate DJI as a company, but I have to take my hat off when it comes to HW production. I've sold all my analog quads or converted them to Vistas or AirUnits, once you get used to it there's no going back.

The Naked Vista is 10g lighter than the regular Vista, which is 10% of the weight of the quad without the battery. In addition, the regular one does not fit into the frame, so there is no other way.

Probably the most annoying thing about Scythe is the naked Vista installation. It has to fit in there, it has to be cooled well and it has to be safe. Some do this by printing stand-offs. But you need to know exactly how tall they should be. For the test, I made the stand-off from the insulation of the old power cable, which had a blue color. In the end, I leave it like that, it's fine. The first stand-offs are between the top plate and the Vista PCB, where P1 is the chip that heats up the most. Stand-offs needs to be 2mm tall to make enough clearance. The top plate is full of ventilation holes to provide enough cooling by moving the quad forward. The second stand-offs should be 4.5 to 5 mm high, not less! M2x12 screws are needed to make the whole thing work. The same screw size is used for the AIO on the bottom plate. I used M2 plastic nuts to tighten. Even before it can be put together, you need to insulate the conductive parts of the interconnecting flat cable with 3M tape, which can be seen in the first photo. The entire procedure serves primarily to verify that everything fits into the frame with sufficient clearance. Finally, the whole thing has to be disassembled and conformal coating applied.

Hi MomBrut,

So, how much does that frame weigh by itself ??

Do you have a list of components by weight??

I am curious how you get the weight down to 95 grams using 1404 motors
that weigh about 35-40 grams. If the motors are GEPRC GR1404 3850 KV,
they weigh 9.8 grams each plus props. That is over 39 grams which only
leaves about 56 grams for everything else. If the frame weighs about 30 grams, 
that only leaves 26 grams for everything else including props, camera(s), 
antennas, etc. Very interesting     

The frame is really light, together with 4x aluminum 20 mm stand-offs and 8x M2x7 screws, the whole thing weighs less than 22g. The Nebula Nano Pro (3.5g) together with the cable and naked vista weighs less than 15g. More to come ... I'm currently figuring out how to attach the EP2 Rx (1.2g including wiring) to my liking, there isn't much room.

Stand-offs and other missing hardware arrived today. OK, so we're alive. All my BF 4.3 settings are uploaded, I have already armed. It sounds very good, you know when you hear a new quad for the first time, it tells a lot. The sound corresponds to a really stiff frame. I am not completely satisfied with the location of the receiver, for now it will be enough, I will probably redo it for the final, currently it is only held on 1 mm thick automotive double-sided tape. The polarization of the tower antenna could be even better. I don't like the fact that the power cables aren't attached, there's nowhere to attach it so it doesn't look ugly.

I'm still missing the camera, it will arrive tomorrow, but there probably won't be time tomorrow. And above all, I don't have a VTX antenna holder, it needs to be drawn and printed first. More to come ...

Hi MomoBrut,

Wow, that is a really light frame. I tried to find Recusion Labs, but I didn't get anywhere.
Have you got a link ??

Very Clean, Good Looking Build.     Good Job.  

https://www.cncdrones.com/scythe.html

Thanks.   

The camera arrived, it's really small, the image should be almost the same quality as the standard Nebula Pro. I have only used micro cameras so far, original DJI, Nebula Pro and Polar.

Today was a long day. The camera is installed. In the end, I managed to print the antenna holder and installed a slightly shorter antenna, so it doesn't stick out so much, I hope it won't vibrate.

OK guys, I'm done. Today was another long day. Tomorrow will be a blast, today I can hardly stand on my feet. So without the battery we weigh 95 g, which turned out exactly as expected. With the Gaoneng GNB 4s660 HV battery we weigh 155g. It came out great.