3d Printed Longrange FPV Drone

This is a simple 3d printed frame for a 1s 18650 powered FPV drone. The frame weighs only 10g, overall weight including 18650 Li-Ion battery is around 97g. Flight times are +19min.

This FPV drone is ultra silent and very safe as the propellers don't carry much momentum. It is also very simple to build. There is no soldering involved if you keep the stock connectors.

3d printer

PLA

1x Happymodel CrazybeeX AIO flight controller

4x Happymodel 1202.5 11000kv

4x Gemfan 3018 props

1x Caddx Ant

1x 18650 (e.g Samsung)

6x 4mm M2 screws + 8x 6mm M2 screws

• 3d print the .stl file which can be found on thingiverse
• my settings are 0.2mm resolution, 40% infill and support enabled
• after printing, remove the support at the camera mount

Update: you can also print PLA+ with 20% infill. You will save about 2grams.

• Start with the AIO flight controller.
• Optional: swap the power connector from XT30 to GNB27. This will save about 1gram
• Connect the RC receiver of your choice to the flight controller. You might need to solder, if the attached plug does not fit. I used a Frksy Archer RS which needed to be soldered to the board.
• Insert the Camera connector into the board. You need to swap the connectors to the camera, if you are using the recommended Caddx FPV camera.
• Now insert the flight controller into the frame. Use the included dampers and 4mm M2 screws to mount. Only the front screw attaches from the bottom. The camera connector cable leads through the front hole.
• Attach the FPV camera to the camera mount using 2x 4mm M2 screws. Plug the connector in.
• Mount the motors to the frame. Use 2x 6mm M2 screws per motor. Plug the motors into the flight controller. The back motors need longer motor cables. You are fine if you get a >80mm motor cables motor.
• Use tape to mount the receiver antennas to the frame.
• The overall weight of my build is less than 48 grams!!!

• The preferred choice for this single cell drone is a 18650 Li-Ion battery. You might try 1S Lipo packs, but they have a shorter flight time.
• Make sure the batteries have a fitting connector to your flight controller.
• 18650 are mount on top of the drone with a rubber band
• 1s Lipo is mounted to the bottom using rubber bands

• Before flying, you need to set the flight controllers software (Betaflight) up. There are other tutorials on that so I'll skip that.
• So far I only used stock PIDs and the drone flies very stable. On my first try I fail saved on my Frsky Archer RS receiver so I recommend using Crossfire or other long range capable RC systems.
• On my 2nd flight I got more than 19min of flying which is crazy long considering this drone is powered by a single cell!
• Currently large 1s lipos ( >1500mAh) have too low C-ratings. I can'T recommend using the 3000mAh cell I be tried as it has only a 5C rating. So you will experience a huge voltage drop from the beginning and flight times of only +8min.