I've been following the discussion of Dave_C's nanolongrange build covered here, and decided to give it a shot
https://intofpv.com/t-dave-c-s-nano-long-range

The frame on thingiverse suggested printing in PLA, but I thought I'd try a different (CF-reinforced) filament. The frame in Nylon weighs 13.1g, but is probably too flexible. The CF-reinforced Nylon frame weighs 12.4g and is much stiffer. The CF-reinforced PETG is a little heavier at 16.2g, but much stiffer still. All printed at 20% infill. I'm not sure what the PLA frame weighs. Anyone know?
           

Per eCalc, the Flywoo ROBO 1202.5 11500Kv motors should be a good fit for 3" props on 1S at this weight. AUW should be right around 100g. 

I was trying to find a FC with at least two full UARTs, and decided to give the cheap (<$30) DarwinFPV 1S-3S AIO a try. I'll benchtest it first to make sure it can operate down to 3V or so with the Li-ion. Trying to decide whether it's worth another 2g to make the 18650 holder removable so I can run a 1S LiPo as well 

Obviously this will be an analog setup, and I'm going with the Caddx Ant camera and TBS Unifi Pro32 Nano 5G8 VTX. I'll use a lightweight iFlight VTX antenna. RC Link will be the Crossfire Nano with microdipole. Power for the VTX/cam will come from a Pololu 5V step-up regulator running through an iFlight LC filter. Power will come from a single Sony VTC6 cell in a Keystone 18650 holder with gold plated contacts mounted to the top plate of the frame. 

Here is the build sheet:
   

And eCalc prediction:
   

I accidentally ordered the Caddx Ant Lite instead of the Ant, and am waiting on the Keystone 18650 battery holder to arrive. Hopefully I'll have this completed by the weekend, and the weather will cooperate for a maiden! Will update as I get things assembled and tested.

Oh, I forgot to mention the GPS. I think iFly4Rotors and I agreed that a LR build needs to have GPS, so I've been working on coming up with an extremely lightweight GPS to use on builds like this. I think I can get it below 2g. The DarwinFPV AIO has two full UARTs and a softserial pad (as well as an LED_Strip pad), so hopefully I'll have enough options to get everything to work.

I'm trying to decide whether to wire the VTX to the RX directly or to the FC. If I go to the FC, I just need one TX pad for SmartAudio, correct? This should leave me a UART for the RX and a UART for the GPS. Interestingly, the board also has SDA/SCL pads if I wanted to add a compass or barometer via I2C...

I'll probably build it sans GPS at first to make sure it flies decently, then add the LR stuff and see how far I can push it 

Nice, will be interesting to see how you progress. Good luck!

i dont know the frame weight, normaly he write it on thingiverse but this time not.

in previous videos about other 3dp frames, the micro oblivion, he mentioned pla because of the price and how easy it is to print, he choose pla to get alot peoples able to print it for low money not for a another reason.

i tried the micro oblivion, the broken one is my avatar xD
my impression is pla is usless, i guess your tries should be an improvement. weight? i have no idea, but if you mesure the weight of 2cm pla rare filament and compare it to 2cm petg? wont this give the answer

Good thought!

Going by density, PLA is 1.24g/cm3, Nylon is about 1.01g/cm3. CF-Nylon is about 1.00g/cm3, and CF-PETG is 1.23g/cm3. So I guess the PLA frame would weigh about the same as the CF-PETG frame, although compared to the CF-Nylon frame the CF-PETG frame is a little heavier than you would calculate from the density.

CF-Nylon frame = 12.4g / 1.00 g/cm3 = 12.4 cm3 frame material volume
12.4 cm3 * 1.23 g/cm3 CF-PETG = 15.3 g vs the measured weight of 16.2. Maybe difference in wall thickness?

Anyway, it's encouraging the frame should be ~25% lighter (CF-Nylon) or the same weight and much stiffer (CF-PETG) than PLA depending on which print I use. Maybe I'll build both

nylon sounds very nice to me, i heard it needs humidity and time to get full durable after printing?

whats about a sort of polycarbonate filament? pctpe :-)

we need expert daveeefordays :-)

Sounds great!!
Pics when you build it!

(02-Mar-2021, 10:08 PM)V-22 Wrote: Oh, I forgot to mention the GPS. I think iFly4Rotors and I agreed that a LR build needs to have GPS, so I've been working on coming up with an extremely lightweight GPS to use on builds like this. I think I can get it below 2g. The DarwinFPV AIO has two full UARTs and a softserial pad (as well as an LED_Strip pad), so hopefully I'll have enough options to get everything to work.

I have seen this FC and an curious how it will work out. 

I'm trying to decide whether to wire the VTX to the RX directly or to the FC. If I go to the FC, I just need one TX pad for SmartAudio, correct? This should leave me a UART for the RX and a UART for the GPS. Interestingly, the board also has SDA/SCL pads if I wanted to add a compass or barometer via I2C...

Yes, you just need one TX pad for SmartAudio. I would put the VTX SmartAudio on the SoftSerial and the GPS on a hard UART (TX/RX set).

I'll probably build it sans GPS at first to make sure it flies decently, then add the LR stuff and see how far I can push it 

If you don't add the GPS up front, you might consider soldering a connector for it, then you could just plug it in later.

Hi V-22,

I am glad that you are taking this one on. I was curious, but don't have the time right now to pursue another project; at least until I get the ones that I have started finished. My current focus is in getting the Quest250-LR completed. 

When you fire up that FC, take a print screen of the Betaflight "PORTS" tab and post it here. Thanks.

Thanks for pursuing this concept build. 

(03-Mar-2021, 03:39 AM)iFly4rotors Wrote: When you fire up that FC, take a print screen of the Betaflight "PORTS" tab and post it here. Thanks.

Here is the Ports tab after I enabled SoftSerial on S5:
   

And the wiring diagram:

It has kind of a weird assortment of pins broken out. I see: 2 1 UARTs (RX1/TX1 and RX2/TX2) [Edit: Just realized there is no TX1 pad, just RX1 as SBUS or Inverted SBUS   ], Motor S5 and LED_Strip can be remapped to SoftSerial, 2 ADCs Rssi and CRT, Buzzer-, SDA/SCL, SBUS, Inverted SBUS, VTX, CAM, 2x 5V, 1x 4v5, 1x 3.3v, 3x GND. It also has the option of using headers for the motors (included) or soldering them directly. And the cap comes pre-soldered! Could be a decent board for $30 if it proves reliable.

Hi V-22,

I am using R9 gear and wiring the R9MM receiver as SBUS, put the GPS on UART2 (Tx2-Rx2), and the SmartAudio on SoftSerial...and there you have it...all good.

From what I can tell, the TBS Crossfire requires an extra UART beyond what SBUS (or even IBUS) requires...and there in lies the problem. The receiver is taking out the UART that should be used for the GPS. Unless it is possible to SoftSerial 2 sets of pads, the UARTS come up short.

Hey V-22, interesting work here mate. Will follow with interest. Please don't take too much time away from your 10km 3" LR project either

it looks like that board has the esc separate and stacked. i'm wonder if the other uart pads are on the bottom.

I have an iflight gps i'll use on mine.

i'm going to stick a gps on top of my camera mount on a babytooth and send it. if it work, perfect, if not i'll work on separation.

here's my build thoughts
-babytooth 2mm frame - 7.5 grams
-flywoo or fpvcycle motors
-fpvcycle 1s board or darwin or something else, not sure
-iflight gps
-tramp nano
-ghost atto w/ express lrs
-1s li-ion

(03-Mar-2021, 12:06 PM)iFly4rotors Wrote: Hi V-22,

I am using R9 gear and wiring the R9MM receiver as SBUS, put the GPS on UART2 (Tx2-Rx2), and the SmartAudio on SoftSerial...and there you have it...all good.  

From what I can tell, the TBS Crossfire requires an extra UART beyond what SBUS (or even IBUS) requires...and there in lies the problem. The receiver is taking out the UART that should be used for the GPS. Unless it is possible to SoftSerial 2 sets of pads, the UARTS come up short.

Yeah, exactly! I am a little peeved because the board was advertised as having 2 UARTs and SoftSerial, but that doesn't seem to be the case. I had an XM+ receiver on an older quad that I sold, am in no rush to try to figure out FrSky again. If I have no other options, maybe I'll look into ExpressLRS. Is there an SBUS compatible ExpressLRS receiver? I'm pretty sure I have an X9M Lite module for my X-Lite, can I flash ExpressLRS on that?

(03-Mar-2021, 12:08 PM)ph2t Wrote: Hey V-22, interesting work here mate.  Will follow with interest.  Please don't take too much time away from your 10km 3" LR project either

No worries, things are moving along in parallel! I also have a Phantom HD 2.5" build that's a little further along, but got busy with work for a few weeks and didn't want to risk messing something up when I was sleep deprived We went from deep winter to signs of spring here in the past week, so I'm motivated to get things flyable ASAP!

(03-Mar-2021, 04:42 PM)V-22 Wrote: Yeah, exactly! I am a little peeved because the board was advertised as having 2 UARTs and SoftSerial, but that doesn't seem to be the case. I had an XM+ receiver on an older quad that I sold, am in no rush to try to figure out FrSky again. If I have no other options, maybe I'll look into ExpressLRS. Is there an SBUS compatible ExpressLRS receiver? I'm pretty sure I have an X9M Lite module for my X-Lite, can I flash ExpressLRS on that?

Well scratch that. Looks like ExpressLRS uses the CRSF protocol and the RX needs a full UART as well.

I wonder if I can trace a pin back to the MCU on the Darwin board for TX1?

(03-Mar-2021, 04:38 PM)p-i-engineer Wrote: it looks like that board has the esc separate and stacked. i'm wonder if the other uart pads are on the bottom.

I have an iflight gps i'll use on mine.

i'm going to stick a gps on top of my camera mount on a babytooth and send it. if it work, perfect, if not i'll work on separation.

here's my build thoughts
-babytooth 2mm frame - 7.5 grams
-flywoo or fpvcycle motors
-fpvcycle 1s board or darwin or something else, not sure
-iflight gps
-tramp nano
-ghost atto w/ express lrs
-1s li-ion

Sounds like a good plan! I think the Babytooth frame will be a great substitute.

I'm also waiting for the FPVCycle 1S boards to come back in stock. Maybe I'll build up my other frame with the 13mm FPVCycle motors for comparison.

Regarding the Darwin board, I don't think there are any other UARTs on the bottom: