I wanted to show you guys one of my favourite quads, the Diatone Grasshopper 160! My goal was to build a small and light 4" quad to run 4S batteries, had room for a HS1177 camera and sub 250gram (unfortunately, sub 250gram was a bit hard with 4s batteries. I can't find any small 4S with a weight of about 50g and not expensive shipping to Norway).
I started out with the Diatone ET160, but that frame is very fragile with 2mm standoffs and really thin top plate so it was ruined in the first crash with a tree. (the bottom plate even got delaminated where the cutout is for those of you that are familiar with that frame).
I then bought the Grasshopper 160, but since that frame comes with low M3 plastic standoffs, I had to swap them out for 35mm alu standoffs. As you can see from the picture below, I used the plastic standoffs to reinforce the middle of the top plate.
It isn't an actual build thread, but a teardown/Rebuild as I was changing the FC and PDB. This thing is really small and light, but running this thing on 4S makes it able to show some muscles when standing up against it's bigger brother, the 5" quad. It isn't as powerful, but its light weight makes it turns on a dime and it is really agile. I have tested the quad with different props, DAL TJ4045, DAL T4045 V2, KINGKONG 4040BN (cut down from 5040) and even DAL T3045, but the prop I'm always coming back to is the two blade KINGKONG 4045. IMO this is the prop that gives the most thrust with these small 1306 3100kV motors.
Part List:
- Diatone Grashopper 160 with 35mm alu standoffs
- Beerotor F3 FC/OSD with latest Betaflight (most of the time)
- Beerotor PDB v2 with current sensor
- Runcam HS1177
- Eachine ET200R VTX
- Aomway cloverleaf antenna
- Littlebee 20A pro with BLHeli 14.6 Multishot
- DYS 1306 3100kV
- 4045 Kingkong props
- depinned and decased Flysky FS-IA6B receiver
- 4S 1000mAh Dinogy 65C battery
I took heatshrink on each of the arms to protect the ESCs from shorting out on the carbon, and used electrical tape to fasten them.
The depinned and decased Flysky FS-IA6B receiver is stacked between the bottom plate and the PDB.
The FC is stacked on top of the PDB. The Beerotor F3 with OSD and the Beerotor V2 PDB with current sensor is a quite nice package for small builds, but it lacks the abillity to run 4K looptime even though it's a F3. The fastest I have had it to run was 2.67K.
The antennas are taped directly to the rear arms. I have no idea how much it will reduce the signal, but so far I haven't had any problems. This isn't a quad I fly very far away with anyway.
The PDB is connected to the FC with a "special" cable which has 5V, current signal, battery voltage signal and 0V. I have used this PDB with Xracer and SPracing FCs, and the purple cable next to the red can be connected to the current pad on those FCs to have current reading, so it is not a proprietary PDB.
A beeper is also mounted in the back of the quad.
Weight without battery, 198g
Weight with battery, 308g
So there you go. A fast, small 4" quad with 4S, and about 5min flight time when trashing around in the park! This is a perfect travel companion!
I will try post a video soon
For those of you who are interested, this is how I connected the SPRacing F3 to the beerotor PDB connector to get the 5V and current signal
The VTX is taped on top of the FC and everything is taped for wet grass protection.
I started out with the Diatone ET160, but that frame is very fragile with 2mm standoffs and really thin top plate so it was ruined in the first crash with a tree. (the bottom plate even got delaminated where the cutout is for those of you that are familiar with that frame).
I then bought the Grasshopper 160, but since that frame comes with low M3 plastic standoffs, I had to swap them out for 35mm alu standoffs. As you can see from the picture below, I used the plastic standoffs to reinforce the middle of the top plate.
It isn't an actual build thread, but a teardown/Rebuild as I was changing the FC and PDB. This thing is really small and light, but running this thing on 4S makes it able to show some muscles when standing up against it's bigger brother, the 5" quad. It isn't as powerful, but its light weight makes it turns on a dime and it is really agile. I have tested the quad with different props, DAL TJ4045, DAL T4045 V2, KINGKONG 4040BN (cut down from 5040) and even DAL T3045, but the prop I'm always coming back to is the two blade KINGKONG 4045. IMO this is the prop that gives the most thrust with these small 1306 3100kV motors.
Part List:
- Diatone Grashopper 160 with 35mm alu standoffs
- Beerotor F3 FC/OSD with latest Betaflight (most of the time)
- Beerotor PDB v2 with current sensor
- Runcam HS1177
- Eachine ET200R VTX
- Aomway cloverleaf antenna
- Littlebee 20A pro with BLHeli 14.6 Multishot
- DYS 1306 3100kV
- 4045 Kingkong props
- depinned and decased Flysky FS-IA6B receiver
- 4S 1000mAh Dinogy 65C battery
I took heatshrink on each of the arms to protect the ESCs from shorting out on the carbon, and used electrical tape to fasten them.
The depinned and decased Flysky FS-IA6B receiver is stacked between the bottom plate and the PDB.
The FC is stacked on top of the PDB. The Beerotor F3 with OSD and the Beerotor V2 PDB with current sensor is a quite nice package for small builds, but it lacks the abillity to run 4K looptime even though it's a F3. The fastest I have had it to run was 2.67K.
The antennas are taped directly to the rear arms. I have no idea how much it will reduce the signal, but so far I haven't had any problems. This isn't a quad I fly very far away with anyway.
The PDB is connected to the FC with a "special" cable which has 5V, current signal, battery voltage signal and 0V. I have used this PDB with Xracer and SPracing FCs, and the purple cable next to the red can be connected to the current pad on those FCs to have current reading, so it is not a proprietary PDB.
A beeper is also mounted in the back of the quad.
Weight without battery, 198g
Weight with battery, 308g
So there you go. A fast, small 4" quad with 4S, and about 5min flight time when trashing around in the park! This is a perfect travel companion!
I will try post a video soon
For those of you who are interested, this is how I connected the SPRacing F3 to the beerotor PDB connector to get the 5V and current signal
The VTX is taped on top of the FC and everything is taped for wet grass protection.