I just got an interesting frame in the mail, the iFlight ix5s. It has the same design as the old iFlight ix5, but this version is made out of two 0.5mm carbon fiber sheets sandwiched with a porous material in the middle to save weight. The frame is pretty stiff but I don’t know how tough it is yet. It feels durable, but we’ll just have to wait and see after some crashes.
And now to the important factor and the reason why I ordered it, the weight. 56grams!!! That is quite light for a 5inch quad and I have not seen anything like that before with that form factor. Each part is a sandwich structure made of two 0.5mm thick carbon fiber sheets with a 1mm/3mm lightweight hard foam-like core. This is what makes the frame so lightweight.
The box contains:
The quad is announced to be a true X design, but it is actually a deadcat type. The front motors are wider than the rear motors and front to back is also different from the width.
A nice detail is the countersunk screw holes for the FC to protect the battery from the screw heads.
The build:
I had some part lying around which had been swapped out on other quads and figured I could build something with them.
The parts used:
Beerotor AIO F3 FC w/OSD
Beerotor AIO PDB
Racerstar 20A v1 ESCs
Sunnysky X2204S-16 II
Frsky XM+
Runcam swift 1 in swift 2 case
Eachine VTX03 with linear antenna
The soft mount is inspired by FPV Kababs design. I redesigned them so I could use screws to fasten the FC instead of small push buttons.
Here is a link to the soft mount if anyone is interested in printing them:
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2285415
I was hoping to get this build even lighter and mounted a Runcam Micro Swift and changed props.
I had to make some mounts for the micro swift as it is much narrower than the good old swift. I draw something similar as my soft mounts for the FC and mounted the camera. I’m not sure how good it will work, as it is a little bit wobbly and it could be that I will experience some vibrations. We’ll see.
I'm really glad I got myself a 3D printer! It is just so easy to get out of problems by just designing and printing parts of something doesn't fit!
I changed props and FPV camera and managed to get the weight down to 227grams.
The quad flies great and I really like how agile it is with that low weight. The motors doesn’t use much power either (60amps at full throttle) and I can get away with putting 1000mah batteries which makes it even lighter!
Unfortunately there is a downside to this frame… The frame did brake the first day…
It was during a racing session and I’m not sure when and how it happened. I crashed a bunch of times and I noticed after a while that the screws were loose and I also noticed a crack in the bottom plate. Two of the aluminium screws also had suffered some deformation and I guess they are not made of the strongest aluminium. The heads are also very easy to strip.
It is still flyable and I have been flying it several batteries after and I can’t notice that one arm is weaker than the others. But I doubt it will survive the summer...
And now to the important factor and the reason why I ordered it, the weight. 56grams!!! That is quite light for a 5inch quad and I have not seen anything like that before with that form factor. Each part is a sandwich structure made of two 0.5mm thick carbon fiber sheets with a 1mm/3mm lightweight hard foam-like core. This is what makes the frame so lightweight.
The box contains:
- 4mm carbon sandwiched bottom plate
- 2mm Carbon sandwiched top plate
- Universal camera mounting plates
- 4 aluminium standoffs, 8 long and 4 short aluminium screws
- Bag with nylon standoffs and some various hardware
- Foam landing pads
- FC protection plate/misc mounting plate
- Battery strap
- Battery protection plate and battery strap was ordered separately
The quad is announced to be a true X design, but it is actually a deadcat type. The front motors are wider than the rear motors and front to back is also different from the width.
A nice detail is the countersunk screw holes for the FC to protect the battery from the screw heads.
The build:
I had some part lying around which had been swapped out on other quads and figured I could build something with them.
The parts used:
Beerotor AIO F3 FC w/OSD
Beerotor AIO PDB
Racerstar 20A v1 ESCs
Sunnysky X2204S-16 II
Frsky XM+
Runcam swift 1 in swift 2 case
Eachine VTX03 with linear antenna
The soft mount is inspired by FPV Kababs design. I redesigned them so I could use screws to fasten the FC instead of small push buttons.
Here is a link to the soft mount if anyone is interested in printing them:
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2285415
I was hoping to get this build even lighter and mounted a Runcam Micro Swift and changed props.
I had to make some mounts for the micro swift as it is much narrower than the good old swift. I draw something similar as my soft mounts for the FC and mounted the camera. I’m not sure how good it will work, as it is a little bit wobbly and it could be that I will experience some vibrations. We’ll see.
I'm really glad I got myself a 3D printer! It is just so easy to get out of problems by just designing and printing parts of something doesn't fit!
I changed props and FPV camera and managed to get the weight down to 227grams.
The quad flies great and I really like how agile it is with that low weight. The motors doesn’t use much power either (60amps at full throttle) and I can get away with putting 1000mah batteries which makes it even lighter!
Unfortunately there is a downside to this frame… The frame did brake the first day…
It was during a racing session and I’m not sure when and how it happened. I crashed a bunch of times and I noticed after a while that the screws were loose and I also noticed a crack in the bottom plate. Two of the aluminium screws also had suffered some deformation and I guess they are not made of the strongest aluminium. The heads are also very easy to strip.
It is still flyable and I have been flying it several batteries after and I can’t notice that one arm is weaker than the others. But I doubt it will survive the summer...