Hi there!

In the last months i have been heavily working on my Tubular frame series. It's a frame thats very durable, very light... and the best thing: You can build it at home with super low costs (probably around 4$ to 10$). I already made a 6" and 7" version, currently working on a 5" freestyle-version as well.
As it's possible to build this frame very light, i built a special 5" version to work with the DJI motors.

This is the frame:

   

It's really simple in the end: a few 3d-printed parts (printed with the right material), and some cut carbon tubes... glued together with the right glue in the right spots. And some 3d-printed parts for mounting the electronics.

This is the rest of the build:

- Mavic Mini 1 motors (from Aliexpress for 25$ back then)
- Happymodel X1 AIO board (from Aliexpress for 64$)
- GoPro GPS + Polulu step-down
- Caddx Vista "naked" with Nebula Pro Nano cam and iFlight Sigma antenna
- 3s Li-Ion


For the GPS i had a few lying around from my GoPro "naked" conversions. These are very sensitive and also very light (just have a weird form factor). As they need 3.3V i added a small Polulu step-down converter that piggybacks nicely on top of the GPS. Works perfectly in Betaflight so far.

   

   

For mouting the battery i just used some simple tape - a bit difficult to see in the pictures. I'll use either a rubber band or a small strap to secure it additionally.

   



And here is the final build:

   

   

   

   

   



As you can see i missed my target of 250g by 1,5g. However the Li-Ion i used is not really weight-optimized. I might tinker with it to loose the last bit of fat. Or using less cable - we'll see.

I didn't want to make too many compromises... the frame should be able to take a beating, have the camera and core electronics safely mounted and also have really good signal reception. Hence the "large" antenna" for the Caddx, as well as mouting the GPS in the back - the cables added probably 2-3g as well. The motors are positioned in a way that they should well survive a heavier crash.

Haven't had a maiden flight yet, but a quick hover test in the apartment worked well. Super anxious to see what flight  times i'll be getting. At one point in time i'll probably make a video about it as well.

Cheers :-)