As much as I liked my Realacc X210 build I fell in love with the Frog quadcopter frame from Banggood and knew it was time to build another quadcopter.
The Parts
- Frog Lite frame (I wish I had brought the Race version which has a single piece main frame but oh well)
- Racerstar RS30x4 30A 4 in 1 ESC (Great for making a very tidy build!)
- Racerstar 2205 2300KV brushless motors (Used these on previous build and they seem like winners to me)
- Betaflight F4 Flight Controller (Built in OSD and easy configuration inside betaflight is so damn sweet)
- Runcam Swift 2 with 2.3mm lens (This is easily the biggest upgrade over my last quad. No substitute for a good FPV cam!)
- Eachine TX526 VTX (Simple and does the trick)
- Flysky X6B receiver (Same as last build, wish it was a bit smaller for a small frame like the frog)
- Foxeer 5.8GHz FPV antenna (Good reception and extremely strong)
- KINGKONG motor covers (These things kept so much dirt out of my motors on my previous build)
I needed to enlarge the 2.5mm holes on the Flysky X6B receiver to 3mm like in my previous build so I just used a 3mm drill bit and carefully drilled them out. I also had to remove the bottom battery input header as it was in the way and I didn’t need it. The Runcam Swift 2 was slightly too large to fit in between the aluminium side plates so I had to sand about 0.5mm off each side of the camera case.
NOTE: The ESC didn’t come wrapped horribly in heatshrink, I did that. The heatshrink it did come in was covering the mounting holes so I had to remove all of it.
Assembling The Frame
The frame went together very easily and unlike the Realacc X210 frame I didn’t need to do any modifications. However the milled slots to fit the battery straps are very narrow and extremely hard to fit a battery strap through. This wasn’t a deal breaker as you can just run the battery strap through the gap between the two center frame pieces.
ESC and Motors
The ESC was extremely easy to mount, much more so than mounting four individual ESC’s to each of the four arms. Unfortunately the wires from the Racerstar motors couldn’t reach the ESC in the center of the frame. Luckily I had left over motor wire from my previous build so I was able to extend the wires to reach the frame. If you don’t have any spare then I suggest buying additional 20 AWG wire.
Flight Controller
The flight controller was a breeze to wire in. The 4 in 1 ESC comes with a little 6 wire cable that carries GND, 5V and the 4 ESC signals, that plugs right between the ESC and flight controller. I ran a wire from the lipo voltage input to VBAT and then branched it over to the VTX power input so it would power the VTX and camera off the lipo because they can’t run off the regulated 5V (Both cam and VTX need at least 7V).
VTX
The frog frame is quite small and it was tough to fit everything in however I wanted a tidy build so I placed the VTX underneath the top canopy plate. I had to add small spacers between this top canopy plate and the metal side frames to raise the plate high enough so that the VTX didn’t bump into the receiver. Obviously with the VTX mounted out of sight it’s not very easy to change channel however it’s a sacrifice I was willing to make to keep everything tidy.
Finished
Overall I’m very happy with this build; it’s neat and tidy, compact and looks mean. It flies much better than my previous quadcopter, I’m not sure exactly why but I do think the Runcam Swift 2 has something to do with it; my view is so much clearer and wider now that it makes flying so much easier and more immersive.
Upgrades
To keep the build tidy I mounted the VTX in a place I can’t easily get to to change channel, or see the seven segment display. I think soon I will upgrade to a VTX that can be remotely controlled via betaflight so I can change frequency from within my OSD betaflight menu.
The carbon fiber battery bottom plate is quite weak and the very small slots on it make it very hard to pull the battery strap through. I purchased the Realacc battery plate to replace the one that came with the frame.
I’ll keep this thread updated with any upgrades I make.
Nice build! Got the same setup, what pids did you end up?
Hi,
I have a quite similar build with Omnibus F4, cam and vtx. Im having aome problems and would be glad if you could maybe help me. Wiring it up exactly as you have done, except for a led strip, resulted in smoke coming our of the fc. I have not found any soldering fault. Am I missing something? I’m wondering if maybe my fc is damaged from factory. I’ve noticed it is only 2 kOhm between VOSD and GND. Is that the same for you?
I would really appreciate any help.
Thank you!