I heard back from Oskars Raudiņs, he said:

“Hah.. Looked on this post, and JB stream….. So, the frame actualy is stiffer and lighter than any frame that is cut from sheet.
There is huge history behind this, hard to write all of this here
So i am designer of frame and new process how to mold drone racing frames much stiffer and lighter than any sheet carbon frames.

So first of all, there is no forged carbon!!! It is made from unidirectional strands. There is no cut carbon strand so in that whay we have the maximum streinght. All the unidirectional carbon strands is place in directions that it is needen for racing frames. I have made many simulations. It is much stiffer than regular frame, have less noise on IMU.

The molding process is made like that the strands is squizwd toghether really hard so there is no option of delamination. Another point why it is so stiff.

So where is the problem then you may ask.
The problem is that i was making them by my hands and i could make 4x frames a day.
I am still actualy making them now and i have even better technology now.
i have stardust V2

So i couldnt make a lot of frames, so in FAI world championships in china my team mates flew Stardust. and got 3rd and 4th in FAI World with stardust. And there was trappy seeing this frame first time. Then we started talking and he offered help to mass produce these. I gave the tecnology, after year they started to mass produce, like 150 a day.

By the begining, there was issues how the chinese was making them, we solve this. But after first batch, chinese thought that they can change the process and just throw in leftofers in random directions. Then the frames started to brake, then i reverse engeneer the frame and saw whats inside it actualy.

This is one of the situations where maybe make them by myself was better. Becouse the raputation of this frame is gone now.
Just dont trust chenees.. If you dont look at they fingers, they gona make the shit cheeper.

If you want, we can meet on call and i can tell you more about history and development of this frame. It is actualy pro level solid frame. Just not made by china. Only made by me (Nule)

So if you want to buy tbs version, its solid for2$

the bottom
part is not so great, not as stiff as it should, but it will hold for some time

it depends witch batch you have, becouse the problems where fixed after few batch

If you want the reall deel, i can make you some! ?”


So, JB had no idea what he was talking about.

Edit- I’ve asked him for contact information that I can share here for any of those who are interested in a v2 version of the Stardust handmade by him.

Anyone interested in the Stardust v2 can reach out to Oskars via Facebook to buy directly from him (or to ask him further questions about it):
https://m.facebook.com/oskars.raudins?__...-SUwh-7M-w

He stated that the v2 will be released in the coming weeks.
It will also be listed at:
https://shop.brickracing.com/

The photo below is a pic of the Stardust v2 frame.
He stated:

“i can tell that it is predator nano mount and there is runcam racer 2 inside thats why there is gap in mount
othervise this frame/drone has flown and testet more than 2x years
stack is not connected with arms“

I'm going to use a 20x20 aio like in the bone drone. I'll also be using DJI FPV drone motors/props with a 6S HV pack...I was going to do something else with all these parts but seeing as they have been sitting on the shelf for months, I'm going to take advantage of this excitement spike and put something into the air.

@Lemony: thanks for the additional info...very interesting!

Hopefully, we all got a later TBS batch.

Edit- my frames are scheduled to be delivered Friday.

If I lived state side i would ordered a bunch of them, but the shipping would totally suck to the UK. Not to mention I don't fly 5".

I'm sure we will get a video of your experiments in 5" fence avoidance flying, Lemony.

(16-Mar-2023, 05:06 PM)Pathfinder075 Wrote: If I lived state side i would ordered a bunch of them, but the shipping would totally suck to the UK. Not to mention I don't fly 5".

I'm sure we will get a video of your experiments in 5" fence avoidance flying, Lemony.

there is the 3inch version, available from brickracing, made by nule. i use it with 3,5inch blades, they does fit too.
https://shop.brickracing.com/Frames/Raci...order=DESC

the price is very different, but its still best value for money compared to common frames.

apologies for suggesting you a tbs product.

i picked a spare 1.95 frame by my buddies box and builded it. second flight first crash, one arm less.... its a scam, dont use that frame. i loosed one f40 and did tease my expensive electronics... maybe there is damage or zotal failure either.

all i told about that frame is wrong, if it comes from tbs. the first one i got by tbs, had the original 4screw motorlayout, while that 3screw layout frame is carbage. it has nothing to do with the original by nule.

it was market as blowout not as faulty product, its a scam - it has nothing to do with the original.

i wont by anything else than unify nano pro32 from tbs and switch if i find a good altarnative. it sounds strange, but tbs has no reputation anymore..

whats going on with the fpv world, tbs does produce scam frames and name the reputable designer and manufacturer of the original.

TBS seem to have gone silent in recent months. They used to do regular TBS Couch live streams with updates every few weeks but there has been hardly any communication with their customers in the past 6 months. I do wonder if they are now struggling to sell their own products with all the digital systems and ExpresssLRS on the scene. There haven't even been any firmware updates or apparent innovation from them for quite some time either, and even some of their long standing sponsored pilots seem to have moved onto using other competitor's products.

It would probably be worth asking TBS a direct question as to whether this is a genuine frame or a substandard clone. You already know the answer but it would be interesting to see if they own up to that fact, or not.

I guess I just haven’t crashed mine hard enough? Seems durable to me, and is much stiffer than any other frame I’ve used so far.

That said, I don’t typically do 5”, so I don’t have a whole lot to compare it to.

Scam? It was "1.95" in some currency or other. I say you got what you paid for.

It's all down to how you fly it. If you do risky freestyle or racing, then having a frame with replaceable arms is a definite requirement. A 5" frame that is a one piece will never work in situations where you might crash a lot or hard. If you like to cruise, maybe do some easy freestyle, then it's probably fine.

But then saying that if you consider people buy those overpriced AOS frames amongst others and you could have what 15-20 $2 frames for the price of one of those frames. If you tailored the build in such a way that any crash that managed to rip an arm off was not catastrophic to anything else, then they might make a good solution.

Or do what I did and buy 3 of these frames for a $6 and if/when I break an arm I just move it all to a new frame. Problem solved. This is my intro into racing franes and I am still excited to try it, and I don't feel scammed. They blowout products that aren't selling....

As for the lack of innovation, firmware, and communications.... I can't think of a tougher business to be in. Everything is so trendy and the companies supplying it all are so fly-by-night boom and bust. Some companies produce quality products. TBS has some very high quality products. Their customer service has been pretty good to me.... I wouldn't want to be in their shoes and see the entire field change every 2 years, not to mention legal changes.... It's gotta suck to try to run a profitable fpv hardware company.

(09-Jun-2023, 04:06 PM)Luap Wrote: Scam? It was "1.95" in some currency or other. I say you got what you paid for.

i paid for a blowout, a frame sold for 75 regular. i wouldnt have build it if i knew its a faulty product. i even doesnt pay anything, i took it for free from my buddy.
it is a scam for sure.
we have a local hobbyshop selling some cheap partial faulty stuff, "a rtf toy heli with bad internal battery" as example. it would be ok if tbs marked it as faulty product... but it was labeled as high quality handmoulded carbon frame - but its even more faulty than low quality.


it doesnt help if you have more frames if you loose a motor in the first crash.
it is a racing frame not thought to be a cruiser at all, its designed to take impacts.

its just a missconstruction its not worse one penny. nules original is way better value for money even on the high price.

as i have original handmoulded frames by nule, i can somehow judge a littlebit, knowing the abilities of regualar carbon frames and nules handmoulded quality, even both qualities of the tbs version - i can say the ones with 3screw motorlayout my buddy got are faulty.

@eyebotxander
save your parts and time and flight pleasure, dont use any...

Yeah, I have a feeling TBS’s blowout frames are actually reject frames and not just proper frames significantly discounted.

If I recall correctly, all 3 of the 4” PowerPick frames I picked up for a couple bucks on blowout a while back had serious issues with cracking and chips where the press nuts were pushed in.

Still, for the price, I’m cool with it.

Although, they really should state on the blowout page that they’re defects or rejects.