A racing drone from a 3D printer :)

You have practically not used the possibilities of 3D printing, the same could be done on a milling machine.

Mrxnnx wrote:

the whole thing weighs over 600g

Well it's too bad you're flying around the house, because you shouldn't be. The legal limit is currently probably 600g for flying close to buildings.

The propeller won't cut your finger (you bought a regular one, not that you printed it or bought some wooden or other heavy one). I myself have recently got a drone and it will cut leaves from a tree with propellers, but not even thin twigs anymore, because propellers are flexible.
On the other hand, I think it will tear the skin off your finger, so you still have to be careful.

You could save £50 on your camera by buying the FS-i6 model (without the X) + FS-iA6B receiver. This is a 6-channel set, but by uploading alternative software (which is trivial) you can easily extend the number of channels to 10-14.
Apparatus: https://www.banggood.com/FlySky-FS-i6-2_4G-6C...-iA6B-Receiver-p-983537.html?cur_warehouse=CN
Software: https://github.com/qba667/FlySkyI6

After the first mole you will see for yourself that printing a frame is a bad idea.... Now frames are very cheap for 100p you can buy a Tbs source one/two for example. I used to print a TOBY X frame for zmr250 arms and on 2207 motors it lasted 2-3 packs and that without meeting the ground. For a micro it still somehow works but certainly not for a 5". Here is an example of a micro on 8025 motors

As far as I can see you have the fc rigid which is not the best solution, maybe this frame is soft enough not to feel it.
I would also work on mounting the antennas from the RX as you may be surprised by the failsafe.
Here for comparison a similar specification in a normal frame.

The frame has passed more than one mole, I was worried it wouldn't last much but I've only replaced one component for a month

Flying is not equal to flying, if you don't have a camera and fly rather in stabilised mode then I'm not surprised.

D8vit wrote:

Flying is not equal to flying, if you don't have a camera and fly rather in stabilized mode then I'm not surprised.

Sure thing, at the moment I'm learning to fly, I'll only start acro once I've grasped the basics and bought the FPV equipment, then I'll be milling a carbon fibre frame too

Recalculate the costs well with regard to milling, you will pay more for a good carbon than for a complete frame with accessories.

It is not worth creating a frame from scratch for amateur use. The cost of a used frame for 250 starts at £35, a new one you can buy for £90

The cost of the carbon fibre plate alone is much higher + milling = misses the point

3D printing for racing also misses the point, a slight mole and nothing to collect

Hello, I actually have one question about this drone:
Will you replace the frame with a "carbon" one somehow in time, or only after the accident ????
if "plastic" would be suitable for a frame our oblique friends would surely make one and not from expensive carbon.... the example of the ZMR250 (my favourite frame) has arms in 6mm carbon and the rest is 2mm. Think about the overloads that occur when playing and then add to that material fatigue the result - problems.

i myself had a situation where one ESC collapsed. from a height of about 30m it flipped beautifully on its back and spinning in all directions with the sound of the propellers breaking off, it momentarily knocked a METR from a brand new BMW. Good advice... don't fly a missile like that in a park where people are walking - it's fun to chase birds (or a buddy's drone) in a field....

PS. Print out the propellers for yourself too

Printed propellers are not as flexible and are very difficult to balance. The price of such propellers in the shop is max. 20 PLN.

As for the zmr250 frame there is max 4mm carbon fibre on the arms - at the moment I am assembling 3 of my racing ones so I have it in front of my eyes

Printed propellers unfortunately I would have to replace at every small crash, the carbon frame will definitely fly a matter of time I am aware of the plastic and the overloads, but the PLA frame is up to play with and at the moment it is fine. If you gentlemen have never had to deal with 3D printed parts in recent times I must say that the field has developed a lot, obviously carbon is in a different league

Mrxnnx wrote:

at this point I'm learning to fly, I'll only start acro once I've grasped the basics

Waste of time, fire up your PC simulator and train to fly acro from the start.

Definitely true what lechoo writes. I recommend liftoff - paid but pretty good physics, there are some free ones too. Don't make the same mistake as me and start flying in a different mode than acro, because you will spend a lot of time learning bad habits. And remember that FPV flying and LOS flying are completely separate skills and having one does not automatically acquire the other. Keep this in mind when learning to fly something like this The printed frame does not appeal to me, heavy and not very durable. Mine weighs 590g with battery, FPV system and gopro on board. This FC is a bit of a relic by today's standards, but it's enough for a start. If it dies, I suggest you get something based on the F4 proc. e.g. Matek F405. if the PDB has no current measurement, you will also have to replace it sooner or later. Once you have stopped crashing a bit every now and then I would recommend investing in slightly better propellers. For your engines I think the Dalprop Cyclone 5040 will be very optimal 5045 are a bit too aggressive for the 2205. Making your own frame does not make any economic sense these days. Chinese offers a very wide range of very good and cheap carbon frames. Even the cheapest models based on a basic design costing less than £50 are capable of holding up really well. I only broke mine when crashing at full speed into a frozen field ;D and it was still usable ;P it is, however, cracked in several places. For a really nice frame you have to pay about 150zl which is still not an exorbitant amount and I doubt you could make something reasonable for that money yourself. Rigid FC is a big problem in a rigid frame because it collects all the vibrations and you have to filter them programmatically and if you fly a bit in acro you will see that it is best to disable all those filters and set the pid loops to 8kHz (but such things only on F4 or higher) and to be able to do that and not to let the engines go up in smoke you need to reduce the vibration sources to minimum. For the time being, you don't have any problems with this, as your printed frame should absorb vibration quite well on its own - it could even be considered an advantage. If you will be sourcing more batteries then definitely take tattu - some of mine I've had for the third season and I can safely say that they hold up very well the condition is not to discharge under any circumstances below 3.3V per cell. just 1 drop below this limit and the battery will very quickly start to increase in series resistance. I got two of them this way myself.

Can I count on a video from the GoPro? PS. You accidentally revealed your address.

jmalko wrote:

Can I count on a video from the GoPro? PS. You have accidentally revealed your address.

I'll post the GoPro video when I can get something cool to record I'm learning to fly and at the moment it's pretty unimpressive. Thanks for the info on the address, I will remove those pictures if possible

You can easily 3D print, only, not with cheap PLA, but with some industrial filament. If you have a decent full-metal setup, you can, for example, from:
- ABS-ST from https://www.corotechnology.com/polish/compositum-filament-series/compositum-abs-st/
or even better, e.g.
- doped nylon PA + 15CF, which has an impact strength similar to steel: https://sklep.rosa3d.pl/produkt/filament-pa-15cf-175mm/

The possibilities are immense, and it is also possible, for example, to print components from graphene doped filaments (recently difficult to find), which can provide excellent shielding of electronics and the receiving path from interference from motors. It is possible to nicely optimise the design of the drone without EMC compromises....

Yes you can ...but it will still be heavier, less durable and more expensive than an average carbon frame from a Chinese manufacturer I have never had any EMC problems in a drone and I think that if someone has, it is not the frame that is to blame but careless assembly of electronics or buying outdated guts that have design errors on the boards - such as Spracing F3 V1. For the price of a spool of filament you pointed out you can buy two simple frames on aliexpres or one specific one + some guts for FPV All in all, I have been observing this hobby for some time and I have the impression that in Poland is still dominated by quite archaic constructions based on engines 2205 two-blade propellers, flight controllers F3 or even F1 and 8-bit regulators and the "leading" frame design is heavily outdated and not very optimal ZMR250.

Well, on the same principle, why make a DIY drone when you can buy a ready-made one "from the Chinese" for half the price...? The same way you make sumo robots. You make it to be what you dream it to be.... While carbon is cool, it has a lot of drawbacks. It dampens waves brilliantly, it's nasty to machine, shapes are limited, and Chinese cheap frames have uniformity problems (it's easy to catch a model with some technological imperfections and the whole thing will be super-stiff, only the arm will fall off because someone misplaced the mat...)

Everyone does as they like, it's just that for today you can already use technologies that were an abstraction just two years ago. E.g. filaments, with which you can print at home, and then you can.... powder coated at 180 degrees Celsius....

Some things don't make any sense at all to make a frame for a racer or a flight controller from scratch. You could just as well say that it is not DIY at all, because the guy didn't make the motors, ESCs or write the software himself, and of course he printed not his own frame design . The choice of hardware for FPV drones is so huge today that it is quite a challenge to find something suitable. The arm will fall off the printed frame if you hit the ground/tree/other drone at 150km/h Wave attenuation is a fact that has no practical significance in a racing drone, which is flown over short distances, while for long-range FPV flights you do not build a multi-rotor, but an airframe. Of course, for example in the states there are people who do ranges of 20km with a 250 class FPV quad and you know what, they use carbon rather than 3D printed frames. Nasty machining ... do I know, a matter of a good milling cutter and machining preferably wet. Milling one frame for my own use is not a problem, although in mass production conditions it can be a problem if the tools get dull quickly, but the Chinese somehow manage this, the frames I had in my hands were very well cut and fitted. If you buy an off-the-shelf frame, you don't have this problem at all. Folding frames, in my opinion, do not have many advantages. On the one hand, if a frame breaks, you can replace one arm instead of the whole baseplate, but on the other hand, the likelihood of it breaking seems to be greater because the structure is weakened at the point where it takes the most stress in a crash. On top of that, the weight of the whole is greater and even the best manufacturers have problems with tolerances here - pair Armattan Rooster and the problem of not very stiff arms. I'm a fan of the solid bottom plate, I fly Chinese Chameleon clones myself and can't say a bad word about the quality. A friend has the original and yes carbon as aluminium is no different. The shapes are limited ... only by your imagination as a designer. As far as the dependence of the strength and stiffness of a carbon plate on the cutting direction is concerned, I have serious doubts as to the validity of this theory, if only because the fibres in the weave are arranged at a 90-degree angle and subsequent layers of fabric in the laminate should also be laid at different angles in order to minimise anisotropy of parameters. However, I have little experience in this field and I will not be surprised if a cheap carbon fibre differs from an expensive one. I have yet to find a frame that is "soft" in any axis, although I have seen videos on the internet that try to prove it. All in all, instead of continuing to argue here about the superiority of carbon over other materials in this application, I think I would rather go flying

KJ wrote:

All in all, instead of continuing to argue here about the superiority of carbon over other materials in this application, I think I'd rather go flying

.. and this is the best option! Too nice weather to waste time on the Elka. The subject author will manage somehow! Greetings!

halif wrote:

KJ wrote:

All in all, instead of continuing to argue here about the superiority of carbon over other materials in this application, I think I'd rather go flying

.. and this is the best option! Too nice weather to waste time on Elka. The author of the topic will manage somehow! Greetings!

Exactly Gentlemen, you need to take advantage of the weather and not sit here

I made a tricopter. the frame is carbon but the arms are wooden slats covered with heat shrink wrap. you have to hit it pretty hard to make it break. Lightweight at the same time