I am really liking this little thing.

This is the Diatone collab with T-Motor.  Not sure if it is the exact same thing as the Diatone R249 HD since the Mamba motors could just be rebranded T-Motors from what I've read.

Quick background I normally fly a couple of Armattan Gecko 3 inch pocket rockets on 4S.  But as small as they are they still raise eyebrows at some local parks since So Cal sucks for drones.  I got into tiny whoops to get my quad fix but needed something more acro and outdoors.  I had some fun with the Cinebee 75HD on some PIDs steroids ... until I came across this guy.  This thing reminds me of the Gecko 150mm on 4S but it is a 95mm on 3S and literally fits in my pocket LOL.

Made a few quick changes though which doesn't really save a whole heck of a lot of weight but was good for my OCD.  First up, WTF with the retarded top plate?  I can get over the ghetto hacked placement of the vtx (no I can't) but how the heck am I supposed to insert the SD card now that the top plate is flush up against the SD retainer?  Lawls!



At least they included a replacement (and proper plastic injection molded not janky 3d printed) top plate with spacers providing space for the SD card retainer ...



... we'll just have to table that ghetto vtx placement for now.  I'm thinking a WhitenoiseFPV mount with a TBS nano and R-XSR on it.  But for now, next up, micro JST connectors to connect the Runcam Mini Split PCB to the FC??  Really bruh?



This is proper ...



And while you're at it, since there's an open UART 6 anyway, might as well rig up the Runcam Split Mini so you can manually turn the recording on and off.  Nevermind saving SD card space, you avoid risking incriminating selfies if you crash it somewhere no bueno lol.

Now the hole.  Why put a hole at the tail that would appear to be perfect for a lollipop style antenna and not make it useable for said antenna??  I started off with a 5/64 drill bit working my way up to 5/32 to get the hole just big enough to fit a UFL connector through.  I designed this adapter specifically for this and you can download it from Thingiverse yourself ...



Money shot incoming ...



The micro stubby has just enough length to get to the vtx ...



And for all that trouble we drop a whopping ...



#WINNING!!!!

I also added some dampening specifically some M2 x 0.5mm TPU washers I placed at the base of the back two standoffs as as well as under the front screws of the canopy.  I was hoping to squeeze a couple where the Runcam screwed into the canopy but it was just too tight.  Each motor has 1106 TPU soft mounts which I shrunk down to 0.5mm.  The entire stack is also held up by M2 x 5mm TPU spacers .  Still, with all this vibration absorption, you'll still see some flashes of vibration on punch outs in the video.

All in without lipo it's clocking in at 96g and 135g with a Tattu 3S 450mah xt30 long lipo.

I am really liking this pocket rocket ...

Great build there! Sub 100mm is a real challenge, not just the build but the tuning as well. Awesome to you to pull it off!

Are you running BF 4.x? I found on the small quads that 3.5.7 dealt with the insane power to weight better. On 4.x I was getting one 3" build just taking off to the moon when I armed it.

cheers,

ph2t.

Nice build

Thanks! It's on 3.5 but still trying to fine tune it a bit also going to try some different props. I am really loving these Tmotors though I forgot what smooth motors they make.

Awesome bro ...

Oh man I am continuing to have a blast with this little guy. I am pretty much flying it exclusively at this point Made a few more tweaks ...

There was a tiny little cap on there thought maybe a bigger 330uf cap might help with cleaner power ...



I went a little nuts with the vibration absorption putting some under each motor and under the canopy mounting points. This time I am using Ninjaflex TPU with 85A hardness as opposed to SaintSmart with I think 95A. It is noticeably softer but trickier to print. Also replaced all the standoffs touching the FC with TPU spacers made of the same stuff ...





For me, these PIDs and filter settings are working great with my setup (using Tattu 3S 450mah 75c and Gemfan 1940 Hulkies). I may tweak them a bit (Maybe more I? Not sure if the quad is drifting or I just suck).



My motors are warm to the touch but not hot. Less warm than the lipo. I may tweak these filters a bit then if I can't find it in the D's ...



Keep in mind my goal here is a discrete pocket rocket I can fly at the local park without getting the shame look but still be able to fly hard acro with HD video. I'm not so focused on the jello but I did take the time to pause in the following video when the Beastie Boys go "aaaahhhh" for a jello check at around 1:52. So whether this stuff really made some improvements, to me I'm having fun lol and I'll let the video let you decide ...

(Last but not least, I learned to rubiks cube. )

Great work there ronin! Those soft mounts look sweet, need to get me a set.

Drone vs left over 4th of July kite string gahhh!!

Ok guys, I may have found the culprit to this jello problem. And it's not cool.

TL;DR these as well as many other HD micros ship with an older version of the Runcam Split Mini 2 with a noticeably different camera housing and lens (M8 size I believe). These were notorious for having jello because of loose components in the housing or lens. They tried to do a stealth switch but too many RTF/BNF drones already had them on and I'm guessing the vendors couldn't be bothered to replace them. A quick email to Runcam support and they will send you a replacement housing and lens for the newer M12 version - no questions asked. I literally had my email replied to in less than 30 minutes asking for my mailing address no addl charges.

I had always been wondering why my Gecko 3 which I built myself and therefore have the newer Runcam Split Mini 2's in them never had such a bad problem with jello. I wrote it off to the size of these micros. Not so much.

Credit goes to this guy ...

Did some upgrades.    

M12 Runcam Lens

First, I got rid of that trash M8 lens with the M12 variant.  It does not fit the canopy hole lol.  But of course it doesn't otherwise that would be too easy wtf dremel time lol.  You do not have to shave much.  Here is the original canopy hole ...



And here is how much I shaved ...



Perfectly fitting this guy ...




You can get more downard tilt on the camera but you'd need to shave a bit more off.

LED Bling

I wanted to fulfill some drone racing fantasies so I picked up a bunch of Tiny's LEDs Lil Lites.  Each of these pulls 60mA which should be fine off of regulated 5v.  But I wanted to put on 4 LOL.  So I decided to tap VCC. 

The other hook was I wanted to be able to turn them on and off.  That's where the fine peeps of IntoFPV went into full on Bardwell mode.  Huge thanks to voodoo614 and SnowLeopardFPV for their help.  Not to mention to the creator of the video voodoo found which showed an awesome workaround for doing this.  TLDR, they work lol.

Here's what my harness looked like which I ended up shortening later.  I didn't want the FC stuck to the bottom plate for when I needed to tinker hence the pico connector ...



These dudes are tiny lol ...



I know, full on drone racer right?





I have not done side-by-side comparisons of the M8 vs M12 lens HD footage but I can tell there is a huge difference just looking at the new footage.  I still have some pid and mechanical vibrations I need to work on but it was much worse before.

Quick vid but I did an awful job focusing the camera I was too excited and wanted to get out and fly lol.

Squirrel!!! lol

Old school meets new school lol ...

My backup TM-2419 arrived from Banggood lol.  

But instead of getting the Runcam version that I had ordered, I got the "MK2" version with the Caddx Turtle V2.  They also made changes to the frame.  Rather than being 95mm it is now 100mm.  I suspect this is to better accommodate 2 inch props which the rear pair were cutting it very close to the stack in the original 95mm version which I have ...






They also made the camera hole much bigger I suspect to accommodate M12 lenses.  They had been selling these with the Runcam Mini Split 2 with M8 lenses and those were so jello prone they scrambled to replace them apparently ...



They also went crazy with the vibration dampening.  I think it might be overkill and could even cause more low oscillation problems while addressing marginal high oscillation vibrations from such tiny motors.  I went with more conservative dampening on my original version.  They missed dampening the most obvious thing ... motors lol wtf ...



I know it's oddball but I'm going to strip this "MK2" apart and make it exactly like my MK1 including the original 95mm frame (got a backup frame) and Runcam Split Mini 2 with M12 lens.  What I wanted was an exact backup so I can switch between the two without noticing much difference.  And they don't sell MK2 frame kits yet.

I was mistaken. They do now sell all the "MK2" goods on their website ...

https://diatone-innovations.myshopify.co...es-package

Had an awful day "ronin-izing" the new TM249 today. Was super sloppy with my wiring and ended up effing a couple up possibly frying the vtx and maybe the mini split pcb. SUPER annoyed lol. Replacement parts arriving Monday.

I also put in an order for the MK2 stuff using cheap slow shipping from China. When that arrives a while from now, I'll upgrade both to the 100mm version and rock proper 2" props. But for now I can't even look at this thing lol. I had to go rip into the other one at the park to get the angst out lol. Fun!

I transplanted one of them to the MK2 frame and put on some Gemfan 2040s. Oh wow. THIS is how I think this thing was meant to be flown. I'm actually getting 3+ min flight time when I was barely getting 2+ with the 1950s. This is without the 240mah sucking LEDs ... which I might put back on after this super fun sunset session lol.