Finally, I have started to build my second all aluminium frame from FlightWorks of Sweden!

For those of you who didn't see my post in the Product News section a while back, the Rebel 220 is the second frame from FlightWorks. It's a stunner!



The Rebel 220 is significantly slimmed down from their first frame - the SwiftBlade 250. The first frame came in at 166g whereas the Rebel 220 is just 115g. The entire frame is made from cast 7075-T6 aerospace aluminium. There are a lot of parts!



The 3D printed FPV camera protector is included with the frame kit.

My final parts list is as follows:

Motors: RCX SE2205 v2 2600kv
ESC: DYS F20A 4-in-1
Props: KingKong 5045 bullnose
Flight Controller: Betaflight F3
FPV Cam: Foxeer Arrow V3
VTX: TBS Unify Pro HV
Receiver: FrSky XM+

The receiver, FPV camera and VTX should be here early next week, but as I'm off to Greece for a week on Thursday, I doubt I'll have time to finish the build until I get back.

So far, I've got the motors, ESC and flight controller mounted and installed as far as I can. Some red-bottomed 2205 goodness is mounted on each arm.



Only two bolts, so I've screwed them down nice and tight and threadlocked them.



I've wrapped the motor leads in cable sleeving and got the power sorted out so that it flows through the BFF3 flight controller's current sensor before it goes to the ESC.





With any build this tight, there will always be issues. The first one was getting to the USB connector!



It's a shame that it ended up above the poorly placed signal connector on the ESC. Turning it to the other side would have put the power input wires to the flight controller at the front of the quad, which is far from ideal. I managed to trim down the moulded housing on a USB cable though and can now connect to the flight controller.

A more difficult problem is how to get to the microSD card that is on the other side of the board from the USB socket. I'm just about to start marking out where I need to file a slot into the side plate to get at it.

Then, my last actions until the rest of the parts arrive will be securing the motor leads to the arms and taking a few more pictures!

Access to the microSD card has been secured!



If it wasn't for the little ridge on the end of the card, there would be no way to get the card out, but all it takes is a toothpick to get things moving or to push the card back in the socket.



I've also strapped down the motor cables and loosely put some props on to check clearances. I'm glad to say that a 1300mA/h 3S or 4S will fit very nicely on the upper plate.

Really great lookin! The swiftblade is going to get a little sister (brother?)

(24-Jun-2017, 03:02 PM)Carl.Vegas Wrote: Really great lookin! The swiftblade is going to get a little sister (brother?)

Little brother I reckon. Neither of these are particularly girly.

Yeah, that's why I questioned... But I know that ships and cars are often "she" as in "she can do 0-60 in 4 seconds :o so I wasn't sure

please crash it and see if it bends haha

(25-Jun-2017, 04:07 PM)Oscar Wrote: please crash it and see if it bends haha

If the maiden goes anything like how it went with my rebuilt Atom 122 today, a crash from 30 metres up is a given!

(25-Jun-2017, 10:54 PM)unseen Wrote: If the maiden goes anything like how it went with my rebuilt Atom 122 today, a crash from 30 metres up is a given!

My money is on minimal damage if any. These things look pretty tough and the design seems pretty rigid.

(26-Jun-2017, 10:39 AM)Carl.Vegas Wrote: My money is on minimal damage if any. These things look pretty tough and the design seems pretty rigid.

That's what I'd bet too.

If anything was to get damaged in a crash, I'd say if would probably be the motors as the radius of the arm where they are mounted is the same as the motors themselves.

(26-Jun-2017, 10:43 AM)unseen Wrote: That's what I'd bet too.

If anything was to get damaged in a crash, I'd say if would probably be the motors as the radius of the arm where they are mounted is the same as the motors themselves.

Yeah, you can see the structure of the arms is not something they just said "hey this looks neat" and put together. Those curves are placed strategically for strength I have to assume.

(26-Jun-2017, 10:50 AM)Carl.Vegas Wrote: Yeah, you can see the structure of the arms is not something they just said "hey this looks neat" and put together. Those curves are placed strategically for strength I have to assume.

Well, the designer does hold a master's degree in mechanical engineering, so you'd hope that he knows what he's doing.

(26-Jun-2017, 05:37 PM)unseen Wrote: Well, the designer does hold a master's degree in mechanical engineering, so you'd hope that he knows what he's doing.

Yeah, that might help a little!

The rest of the parts that I needed arrived early today, so the build continues!

I just fitted the tiny little XM+ receiver:



Just working now on how to get the Unify Pro HV video transmitter to fit and then it's time to solder up all the wires from the camera and VTX. I'll be attempting to use both Smart Audio and the audio from the microphone in the Foxeer Arrow V3 camera at the same time, which should be interesting and really cool if it does work.

Hopefully, I'll be able to finish the build and get everything configured this evening. If I can, and the maiden flight goes OK tomorrow, I'll take the Rebel with me on holiday.

More to come!

This is where I was in the early evening on Wednesday:



I also added a small piece of Veroboard to contain the following circuit:



Some time in the early hours, I had got everything assembled and had configured the flight controller, bound the receiver, tested and corrected motor rotation direction and got everything ready for a maiden flight. That was close enough for me to take the Rebel to Greece with me. At the moment, I'm in Athens and there really isn't anywhere that I could have a maiden flight safely, so the Rebel will remain packed until we arrive at the villa we are staying at for the next week. We have gardens and a beach there, so I'll have plenty of undisturbed room for the maiden flight and some good photos of the finished quad.

I did put it on the scales after fitting everything including propellers and got a dry weight of just 325g, which is without doubt on the lighter side for a 5" quad. I think this might be a fast mover!

It really is a sexy looking frame, sorry SwiftBlade I don't mean to be scheming on your little brother!