Frame Recommendations? (<450mm)

I had a 650 quad but it’s too big for me.
I am planning to go down a size to something smaller than 450mm.
Anything between 300 ~ 450 mm would be great.

My requirements are the following.

  1. Easy to get spare parts.
  2. Able to attach GoPro gimbal of any sort.
  3. Durable

I know Emlid uses Q450 for their main picture.
I was wondering if you guys have any other options to suggest to me.

Thanks!

You could accomplish your lift and durability requirements with anything in a 250mm or above. The most common being 250,330,450 which allows for easy parts replacement.
If it were me, I would go with the 450. The fact that you are using a navio+ suggests you aren’t that interested in acrobatics or racing so you’ll need the room to load it with things like GPS/sensors etc. etc.

The main picture is a Diatone FPV250, the original “X” frame, without any chassis. Navio is a tight squeeze on those frames, but they are still my personal favourite (FPV250LH).

I think @Kevin_Goff is right and a bigger (but not as big as your previous monster) frame would suit you better. Also as you probably know already as you scale-up the motors/prop sizes the relative weight of the battery/electronics goes down so you get longer flight times. Just not so big that it’s like flying a baloon, you need some excitement :sunglasses:

There is one very popular build on this forum which I like as an example of a DIY, just self-cut pieces of carbon fibre plate and some tubes: http://community.emlid.com/t/my-next-build

If you want to a mass manufactured kit then the Diatone stuff is so cheap you can buy a few extra as spares. They also sell the small screws, correct length stand-offs and gimbal balls (with lock/safety bolts) if you buy direct (from China) via banggood.com.

Personally as I have a 3D printer, my next build will be hybrid between 3D printing joints and mounts along with larger carbon or glass-fibre cut sheets. There are many 3D printed quadcopters on www.thingiverse.com for inspiration.

Try above 330, 250 will give a very short flight time, less than 10 minutes , with camera and accessories less than 8 with regular HW (price and quality).

And is difficult to fly (to see back and front) without FPV… is “fashion” but after more than 4 frames build…I really don’t like this size.

I have One 330 size with more than 20 minuts (flight time) , but is more expansive…

Kevin is correct.

Robert, is there any specific 330 frame you would recommend?

Hi JorgePI,
In my tests the best performance is the follow for 330 size, in this setup I’m not using Navio+ because is a acrobatic quad, but if you want you can use with Navio+.


Motor – T-motors Mt2206 1200kv
ESCs – 20a with simonk , my ones are from Rctimer, not high end, but work.
Battery – 2200 3s for long flight time, and 1800 4s for more aggressive flights (I using this one)
Frame – my own design, very light, but there is a lot of options, I like very much this design for acrobatic quads or Warthox frames (video), really simple, light and strong.
Propellers are Genfam, 8pol, in this case because is an acrobatic quadcopter, and is good the colors.

But again for camera with more quality…etc…etc…maybe 450 is better…

My video with an acrobatic quad with this setup:

And other 330 similar setup but with other frame design with APM 2.6 and Mobius Camera (more our case) and FPV, very good setup too, but 2206 are much better.

I copy the motors setup from this video.
https://vimeo.com/60031094

1 Like

Hi guys,

so based upon you guys’ suggestion, I went with Q450 from HK.
The merit of Q450 being

  1. Easy to replaceable parts
  2. Easy to get
  3. Big enough for gimbal mount

I’m using
Multistar Elite 2216 920KV Multirotor Motor Set (2xCW 2xCCW)
Multirotor Carbon Fiber DJI Self Tightening 9.4x4.3 (CW/CCW) (2pcs)
Q450 V3 Glass Fiber Quadcopter Frame 450mm - Integrated PCB Version
Turnigy Multistar 20A V2 ESC With BLHeli and 4A LBEC 2-6S
ZIPPY Flightmax 4000mAh 4S1P 20C

I did a very short flight test yesterday, and I hope to test it out sometime soon.
I will post more videos later.

Cheers.

3 Likes

Clip that zip tie that is holding your ESC leads in place, it’s going to compound vibrations and send them right where you don’t want them.

I have a FlipSport Frame. This one is very robust and big enough to carry the RPi.
I like the fact, that nothing breaks if the copter crashes.