Also, the leds on the race wire are not lighting up.
I know leds are polarized, but I just assumed they were set up with multiple leds and diodes so that one set will light up regardless of the current direction, but maybe they’re not.

They didn’t come with directions. I do see what looks like bridgeable solder pads below r, g, b- maybe I’m supposed to bridge those depending on the color I want?

Yes, with racewire LEDs that have bridgeable colour selection pads you need to bridge at least one of the sets of pads. With no pads bridged that will be the colour black which translates to the LEDS being OFF.

I don't recognise those particular LEDs, but most colour selectable LEDs allow you to bridge more than one set of pads if you want a combination colour:-

• R = Red
  
• G = Green
  
• B = Blue
  
• R+G = Yellow
  
• G+B = Cyan
  
• R+B = Magenta
  
• R+G+B = White
  

Awesome, thank you.
They are TinyLEDs sidefire.

I put a few more batteries through it tonight.

I have decided that:

-2 minute flights are not acceptable
-The flying shopvac sound is annoying as hell
-I can feel how 200g of unnecessary weight affects its flying characteristics 
-These prop guards are not for me

Prop guards are gonna get cleaned up and posted up for sale/trade.

Here it is without prop guards (and no props- after I bridge the bits on the race wire to pick my led colors, it’ll have 5” props:

Remember WHEN you remove those ducts DO NOT use those motor screws…you run the chance of them being to long and making contact with the motor windings..

Hi Lemonyleprosy,

Thanks for testing and sharing your thoughts.

Yeah, I am thinking that prop guards are pretty much a waste of effort on a large quad
due to the very heavy weight. For an outside craft, the prop guards have no real value.

Even a 2.5 inch that is flown outside does not need prop guards; just don't fly close to people.

On the other hand, I like the prop guards for an indoor craft, but these are generally 
small and mostly whoops so the guards are pretty light and they do help protect the
valuable objects that could get damaged.

Prop guards were never going to work well on a 5" freestyle quad. Hopefully you will find that the flight tome increases with them removed. Of course you may have some tired LiPos if you're unsure of their history but removing the guards should at least get you back some of that lost flight time.

I’ve been slowly removing prop guards from all of my builds except for my whoops.

I’ve got enough piloting skills now to be able to avoid myself and other people, not that I fly around others.

…and I’m finding that most props can actually take a hit better than prop guards can, and they’re certainly cheaper to replace.

I’m hoping that my flight time will be more acceptable now that I’ve removed 200g of weight. If not, I’ll have to shave some weight off elsewhere and order a new LiPo, maybe 1300mah? I dunno, I’ve got to compare weights.

Rob- thanks for the reminder. I pulled out one of my screw collections and found ones that just barely stick out of the top of the motor base.

I have the same set of Gemfan Nepal N1 props on my SourceOne for over an year now. And I have crashed on them several times. They are not pretty but can take a beating.

Unless flying around soft targets, no real benefit to prop guards.

Prop guards have been removed, HQ 5x4.3x3 props have been installed.

With my questionable history 4s 1550mah 197g hard case batteries, flight time has more than tripled to over 6 minutes.

It’s a whole different beast, and feels light and nimble on the sticks.

It is also significantly quieter.

As I’ve said before, I fly in the evenings, and its current camera is crap so I can’t properly put it through its paces, but I have a new to me Caddx Ratel Mini on the way- once it arrives I should be able to actually see while I’m flying. I’ll need to print an adapter for it.

I’m wondering how my flight time would be with a fresh 1100mah or 1300mah 4s battery that is 50g to 85g lighter…

4s 1550mah is a good size for a 5” freestyle quad. Thats what I fly.

A smaller capacity lipo will have more voltage sag when flying high throttle.

200g of prop guards was not just the weight reduction but also had an affect on air flow and how the quad cuts through the air.

50-80g lighter lipo will make the quad light n nimble but flight times will reduce if you lose upto 1/3 of the battery capacity as well.

+1

Stick with the 1550mAh LiPos. More that 6 minutes is a decent amount of flight time. I usually get around 4-5 minutes of flight time on my 4S 1550mAh LiPos, and a bit more if I take it easy.

Now you can see why no-one ever puts prop guards on a 5" freestyle quad.

Thanks for the advice, I’ll stick to 1550mah.

If nothing else, the prop guards were a fun (although expensive) experiment. I definitely wouldn’t recommend them.

This guy got a new eyeball (Caddx mini Ratel), so now I can see at night. 

I’ve been slowly lowering my camera angle on all of my quads so that I can focus on smoother and more fluid movements in acro mode rather than all out speed. It’s taking some adjusting. Adding some expo to my throttle might help with that, but for some reason I’m resistant to doing that.

It also got some “skidders”. Basically, landing gear with a steel bearing at the base. I dunno, it came in my last FPVLUX bag. Figure it’s better than sliding in on my bolts when I come in for a landing.

Those skidders look interesting. Who makes them?