Hi,

Inspired by Oscar's website, I decided to build a quad. I like building things and It was really fun to put everything together. 
I have a 3D printer so I can experiment a bit with different designs and materials. 
Some of the designs I found on thingiverse or printables, and others I designed myself.

The aircraft is almost ready, but I have a few dilemmas.

1/ Cable lengths
I suppose the shorter the cables the better but I decided to keep them a bit longer in case of moving them to another build. 
For example, the VTX cable is long and I wrapped it around the standoff so it is not too loose. Does it have any disadvantages?




2/ Camera holder
The camera plate from the kit seems to be just the right size to mount the camera, but it is of carbon fiber and I am concerned whether it is too stiff and whether it will transmit vibrations to the camera. Maybe it would be better to print it out of TPU.



3/ Drone shoes
There are tons of 3D designs of the arm protectors here and there. Some of them are simply put on, others are screwed on with screws, so that they act as a kind of washer between the screw and the arm. 
I decided on the second solution. It should prevent the motor screws from unscrewing even without loctite, but isn't TPU too soft for this maybe I should use PTEG? 


4/ GPS holder
I didn't find a design that fit my needs, so I decided to create one. 
I tried making separate pieces for the VTX and XT60 antennas, and for the GPS module, but eventually made one piece that holds them all. 
When making 3D prints, I try to limit the supports to a minimum, so I came up with this:



Do you see any disadvantages of this solution?

I know there is yet a lot to do like configure betaflight, take it to the first flight, troubleshoot potential issues and it makes me even more excited
But if you see anything worrying, any comments will be welcome

Thanks,
bozon

I can't answer your questions (I am also concerned about how to soft mount cameras properly) but it looks great! Good job.

I can only help a little...

As far as the cable length, you have the wires twisted (reduces vtx inteference) so the only issue should be a little extra weight.

The camera holder should be ok as long as the quad itself is good and rigid and all bolts are tight. Vibrations can be caused by loose bolts as well as bent props. I have never "isolated" a camera so I can only partially answer this one...

Drone shoes, I really can't help with but you do need the motor screws good and snug.

The GPS is sitting just below of the VTX antenna which could be a problem. I have no quads with a GPS (except for my Mavic 2 Pro) but from what I have read, you need as much space as you can afford between the VTX antenna and the GPS module as the VTX antenna is sending while the GPS is trying to receive...

Nice looking build and the soldering looks good as well...

Excellent first build mate!  To answer your questions:

1) Ideally, they would be the length needed for this build, the location of the components, etc.  There is a risk of them catching in tree branches given they are on the side of the body.

2) It should be fine, a rigid mount for fpv cameras is ideal and recommended.   The soft mounting you see is specially for HD digital cameras that capture onboard HD DVR like the DJI O3 air unit or the Walksnail HD Pro camera.   These cameras have gyro modules that are sensitive to vibrations.   Given walksnail is your setup, you might find going to 48kHz PWM on the esc will smooth out stuff.  Check for jello/vibrations in the footage first though.

3) Motor shoes that screw on are best, they stay in place!  TPU is fine, so it a harder filament like PLA/PETG/ABS etc.  The part is intended to be a consumable, ie: take the damage to lengthen the life of the arm/motor.   In really most crashes at this magnitude end up braking other stuff.  ie: I break arms > shoes.

4) You might experience difficulties getting a lock on your GPS given you're running a digital video system.  I see a little t-rex so I know it is hglrc for the gps :s it a M10 module?  They perform better with digital systems.

Just go through each part of the build systematically.  Get the FC orientated right, work on motors, work on RX, then vtx/OSD.    Always have a desktop fan running on the vtx whilst it is powered on the bench and always always have the props off.  Don't expect motor behavior when on the bench to mimic flight, this catches a lot of people up thinking their setup is wrong because the motors spin up and keep speeding up when on the bench.  Get orientation right with the FC.  Get motor order AND direction right.  Props out is my fav, some like props in.  I prefer out.  Just keep it standard amongst your (to be ) fleet.

(08-Feb-2024, 04:25 AM)husafreak Wrote: [...]
Good job.

Thanks for kind words

(08-Feb-2024, 06:21 AM)brettbrandon Wrote: [...]
The GPS is sitting just below of the VTX antenna which could be a problem. I have no quads with a GPS (except for my Mavic 2 Pro) but from what I have read, you need as much space as you can afford between the VTX antenna and the GPS module as the VTX antenna is sending while the GPS is trying to receive...

Thank you! 
I was a little worried about that GPS position. I will try it as is, and if there is a problem with the GPS, I will move it to the top at the front of the frame, as I'm not going to put any action camera at the moment.

(08-Feb-2024, 08:38 AM)ph2t Wrote: Excellent first build mate!  To answer your questions:

[...]

Thank you very much for such a comprehensive answer!

Maybe I'll shorten the cables a bit, I can always solder new ones if necessary.

My camera is Walksnail HD Pro camera with gyro, does it mean the soft mount is recommended? 

You're right, my GPS module is the tiny HGLRC M100 MINI. I bought it compulsively . 
Initially, I wasn't going to use it, but since I already have it, why not.  If it starts to be annoying I'll use it in some other project .

Many of thing I've already set up:
- RT and TX flashed to newest ELRS version
- FC oriented
- Ports set for RX, GP and VTX
- RX configured and working in BF
- configured ARM, Angle mode and beeper
- ESCs flashed to Bluejay - PWM 48kHz was my choice. Now I can turn Bidirectional DSHot on
- Motors order checked
- Motors direction set to props in - I didn't have any preferences on this just used default setting in BF and haven't thought about this yet, but maybe props out are safer for the camera. I'll read what people say about that

Since my gogles come yesterday (finally) I've started configuring VTX and OSD.

BF is overwhelming at the beginning but every day I understand it more. 
I've been watching JB for the comprehensive guide for BetaFlight for two weeks now (this is better than Netflix) and this helps me a lot.

Thanks for the warning about VTX cooling. Yesterday I got a warning about my goggles overheating and quickly turned off the batteries.
I need to find a desktop fan or build one quickly

Thank you guys for every kind word and advice.  
bozon

Quote:My camera is Walksnail HD Pro camera with gyro, does it mean the soft mount is recommended? 

Not necessarily, I've got a soft mounted HD pro setup and it's currently giving me jello.  I've seen posts where pilots have removed soft mounting and gone with hard plates and it has improved it.   The source of jello could be mount or more intrinsic to the setup, ie: frame resonance at certain throttle positions.  I've had that happen on a 6 inch build with the DJI O3 unit.   Had to fiddle with motor PWM to minimize it.   Still not gone though, and hard mounting may be next.

Quote:ESCs flashed to Bluejay - PWM 48kHz was my choice. Now I can turn Bidirectional DSHot on

Good choice.  Make sure to set motor poles correctly.  If you're running a typically large motor then it is most likely 14 poles.  When motor testing you will see errors reported under each motor channel in the BF configurator app.  If motor pole value is incorrect you will get errors.  Error rate should be 0 at all RPMs.

Quote:Initially, I wasn't going to use it, but since I already have it, why not.

Spoken like a true believer! 

What RX protocol are you using? If it is expresslrs then make sure to run the preset for the rate you're running it at. ie: I use the expresslrs 250Hz preset since that's what my packet rate is set on the radio as.

When it comes to tuning don't worry about it. Just run a uavtech or superfly preset tune, pic a tune that suits your model, they work really well out of the box. Can't recommend these preset tunes enough.

Please post some more pics! I'm ordaining this a build thread!

Very nice and tidy first build, clearly excellent building care and skills. I think others have answered your points, but I add my comments too..

1) I tend to leave my cables a little longer, and you certainly want some slack when you have to disassemble/fix things. But if you have to wrap it around several times, most likely you don't need such long lengths and better just to cut it shorter when building. If everything is working already and cables kept out of the way and cannot get caught/pulled out, then I would leave it for the maiden. For digital VTX the affects should not be big, but it might create noise that affects your GPS.

2) Only if your camera has a built in gyro would you need to consider soft mount, otherwise hard mound should be fine.
(seems you have the pro, if you want to use the camera's gyro then you may very well need to soft mount. you can fly it first and see the results before you change it though. Also if you want to use Gyroflow you can use the BF blackbox log instead, but that will be an extra step to download it)

3) TPU can turn brittle in cold weather and also can compress over time. I would be careful not to have too thick a layer of TPU between screw and CF otherwise you may need to double check every now and then the screws are secure.

4) GPS can be fussy and prone to interference from other electronics on the drone, that location may not be ideal. You might need to try several spots to find what works best for your setup.

And WS VTX get pretty hot quickly, if you are powering it on the bench for testing make sure you have a fan blowing on it.

(09-Feb-2024, 01:05 PM)ph2t Wrote: What RX protocol are you using?  If it is expresslrs then make sure to run the preset for the rate you're running it at.  ie: I use the expresslrs 250Hz preset since that's what my packet rate is set on the radio as.

Do you mean the ELRS smoothing preset? I've run the preset for elrs 150 Hz because that's what I have set on my radio.

(09-Feb-2024, 01:05 PM)ph2t Wrote: hen it comes to tuning don't worry about it.  Just run a uavtech or superfly preset tune, pic a tune that suits your model, they work really well out of the box.  Can't recommend these preset tunes enough.

That's what I wanted to ask. There are lots of presets and I appreciate your recommendations

(10-Feb-2024, 02:57 AM)mstc Wrote: Very nice and tidy first build, clearly excellent building care and skills. I think others have answered your points, but I add my comments too..
[...]

Thank you very much for your kind words and advice.


Since my maiden flight will have to wait for better weather and some spare time I decided to make a few adjustments based on the advice I received here.

Firstly, I didn't have a stationary fan and couldn't find anything in the mall because it's not season yet (there are only fan heaters)
Luckily I found an old PC power supply that had a fan inside and I borrowed it
I didn't want to use it exposed, so I built an enclosure:


Now I think I can continue with the VTX/OSD setup
Speaking of which, I think I may have made one more mistake
I wanted my VTX stand to also hold the power cables. So I did something like this


My stand for mounting the VTX was quite large and covered a part of the bottom surface that could dissipate heat from the VTX.
That's why I trimmed it a little:

 
There's a lot more air here now:


The fan I built to cool the VTX can be used as a soldering fume extractor when turned the other way.
To test it, I shortened the VTX cables a bit:


Finally, I moved the GPS module to the front
and voilà:
 

Now all I have to do is wait for good weather and some free time and go out of town for my maiden flight

So,  the maiden flight (of both the quad and mine) happened last weekend.

Long story short, this thing can fly

I went to the countryside to visit my parents and took advantage of the fact that it wasn't raining.

The weather was so-so, maybe a little bit too windy for the first flight, and I had a few spectators, but it worked. 
I took off from the tarp because it was raining a bit at night and the ground was wet, and after three seconds I slammed into the ground .
On the second attempt, I started, climbed a little higher, and made a few turns (not great but they worked) and after about 4 minutes I landed 2 meters from my tarp .

I spent dozens of hours on a simulator and it certainly helped me a lot, but real flying means real emotions

GPS worked very well, it got the fix quite quickly, in less than a minute.

I'm really excited and looking forward to the next flights, but 5-incher requires a lot of space. 
In the meantime, I'm going to practice in the yard or park with my Moblite 7 WS that I've bought in a set with my goggles.

Thanks, again for good word and advice.

Even a well spec'd 2-3 inch requires a decent chunk of space. My current favourite 2.5" is happy enough in a rough 250x250m box, but to make things interesting you have to fly interesting places. I like quarries. Don't know where you live, but if you can find abandoned quarries they are usually great places to fly often with no one else around. Avoid bandos until you can fly really well, they are kryptonite to quads and you will spend a lot of time rebuilding a 5" if you start freestyling at them. If you really want to fly bandos, build something smaller and learn the lines, then take the big guns to it.

It will be a long time before I dare to fly in a bando  
Quarries sounds like a great idea. There are several within 50 km of my city, although I don't know if they are abandoned, I will have to visit them in the spring.
I'm tempted by a new build, maybe a 2.5-inch one. For now, I'm reading the forum and looking at what people are building, and I'm sure I'll find a lot of inspiration here.

If you want something simple and not massively powerful.


That is my current go to build, but I use analog VTX/cam. Definitely use the 1204 motors if you are using digital to account for the extra weight. it's also pretty cheap to buy the parts, apart from probably the digital stuff.

It's an easy to fly, cheap to fix, 2.5 inch quad that is pretty light and nimble. Range wise on a 3S 450, probably 300-400m ish with ease if you do the cruising type flying, for full acro then probably about the same, but you need to be a bit more proactive with your battery management. I've flow out 250m, but I'm wary if I crash that far out and can't turtle out, then it's a pretty decent walk. It would be ideal for learning on. You can go up to a 550 or 650 Lipo, it will fly with either. On 1202.5 8000 it will also run 2S, but you lose the pep of 3S, it's more of a cruising config, but it will still freestyle that is the one I take to quarries and just do whatever I feel. Things that mainly get broken are the frame and props. You can glue and tape frames, but they are about $9 a piece and I tend to keep 5-6 of them in spares all the time. They also make a 2" version of the frame, which with the same motors and Azure Power 2035 props would make a beast of a quad.

I was thinking about treating the new project as a study on how to choose engines, propellers, how many blades, disadvantages, etc., and you gave me a complete recipe
But I appreciate it and I'll use your list as a starting point.

I like this Twiglet frame and its price
I've found it at a good price in a local store, so I'll probably buy 3 pieces and when I get it, maybe I'll start a new thread

Thanks!

Regarding GPS stuff. If you haven't done it already, it is good to have your GPS (if it is a 5V unit) powered from a pad marked 4.5V on the FC (or any other 5V pad you know gets power when USB is plugged in). This way you can just plug in USB and have your GPS get a fix in advance rather than wait for the first fix with the VTX blasting next to it :-)

I rewired all my quads to the above after I heard the idea in a Bardwell YT video.

About the old GPS placement. I only had GPS problems with old M6 units when placed like this. Now I'm flying M8 (and looking to upgrade to M10) and I don't have a problem (using analog, it might be different with digital). I like the new placement in the front, but what if you want to put a gopro there? I recently saw a cool idea of putting a GPS on top of the battery in a TPU 3d printed holder the battery strap goes through. I think I'll try that once my M10 gps arrives.