Cylon

Introduction:

So I bought the ET100 frame earlier in my journey with quads since it seemed like it was exactly what I wanted (strong and durable) and would allow me to hit virtually everything without having the frame break. This was a great concept since I had been flying the rs90 at the time and suffered from constant repairs to the 3d printed frame. It had been sitting while my experience continued to grow. I don't really feel like I need this type of frame anymore (especially given the weight penalty), but I decided to build it anyway just for kicks.

Components:

  • King Kong ET100 frame
  • 4x EaglePower 1104 7000kv
  • HappyModel F3 OSD FC with 10a ESC
  • LC filter
  • Frsky XM+ receiver
  • Furibee VTX03
  • Eachine speedybee camera

Conclusion:

I had a lot of internal debates going on while building this on whether to use lighter components to stick with 2s, or heavier components to go with 3s. 1103 motors were my initial choice, but felt the heavier frame may benefit from 1104s instead. Either way, I paired it with a 3s 10a stack. I also put on an xm+ with a vtx03 and CCD camera cause I felt I may use it outside and I didn't want range to be an issue. The stack proved to be a bit wider than expected and the canopy had trouble fitting without a fair amount of cajoling. In the end, everything fit together fine and it flies as expected (on the heavier side).

I named it Cylon since it looked a lot to me like the cylons from battle star galactica. It also felt appropriate since this thing weights a good amount and is built tough. I believe the stock version comes in around 75g and mine came in at 80g. However, mine also comes with a lot better components than stock (namely the motors, camera, vtx and receiver). At the time of this writing, I tested it on 3 packs of 2s and 1 pack of 3s batteries. 3s 500mah zippy yielded over 4 mins of flight. Cheap 2s 500s lasted only a bit more than 1 minute while GNB 450 2s yielded around 2 minutes of flight time. It flies with enough power on 2s, but zips around effortlessly on 3s (like bender on 2s). Given the weight, it is not light and nimble like bender/flexo. Turns do require more coordination to counter the weight shifts (to be expected).