New BatBone V-Tail BuildLog

[khostr]

Hello fellow FliteTesters.

In the spoiler is a quick introduction about me:

Spoiler!

I am a 15 year old student currently doing the IB system in the Netherlands. I am quite new to the world of RC. I have been an active fan of FT for about 5 months and am now ready to proceed with my first self build multirotor. I have little experience but i recently bought myself a Latrax Alias. I have become quite skilled after about 1 hour of flying a day. indoor and outdoor. I have secretly fallen in love with the bat bone and especially the v-tail design.

So I have the plans on building myself a batbone v-tail (the upside down v-tail like in the batbone video at the factory). I have not yet ordered anyparts yet because i would like to abuse your knowledge about multirotors to make sure i have a nice beginner platform that will do well later on when i eventually get into FPV. (Shipping is quite expensive so i want to do it right the first time :])

This is what I am aiming for:

Spoiler!

The maximum budget I have is about $250-$300 (without or with shipping. The cheaper the better!!!)

For the control board I am planning on getting the KK2.1 board

The part I would like your help with most are the motors. I plan on getting these turnigy D2836/8 1100KV

Is this a good choice or would you recommend other motors. Please keep in mid that I would potentially want to mount fpv gear onto it so they must be able to lift that too

As for the ESC I plan on getting the AFRO 30amps one (taking afro as i am too lazy and scarred to flash them myself)

For the props I had 9x4.5 SF for the front and 8X4.5 for the rear.

As i don't have a transmitter yet the Turnigy 9x looks like a good option. It's rather cheap and looks promising.

A 3s turnigy nano-tech 3300mAh looks like the battery for the job. I would like flight times of about 20-25 minutes if possible.

I also have receiver leads and the power breakout cable on the list but they are not as important.


As for the frame, my school has a laser cutter and i have found some CAD designs of the batbone and already cut them out from plywood [Pictures

Spoiler!

but as i can't find the plans for the motor mounts i think i will buy the batbone frame from FT too. This really depends if everything fits inside the budget.

I can't wait to start building this sucker and take it for its maiden so please let the advice come rollin' in!!


- Khostr

 

[Mustang7302]

The motors you've chosen are a bit heavy, at 70 grams each, compared to other options. Keep everything as light as possible. Going with the NTM 1200KV Short Shaft motors saves 60 grams for a quad, and gives a little more RPM for the rear 8" props. The NTM motor is a little more expensive, plus its required accessory kit, but also has a much better prop mounting solution than using collets like on the Turnigy D motor. If you're content with collets to mount the props, look at the Turnigy D2822/14 1450KV motors with 8" props all around. The D2822 is very light weight at 38 grams each, saving 130 grams versus the D2836/8 1100KV motors.

For the weight and power range of a Bat Bone size quad, due to materials, you're not going to get more than 12 to 15 minutes of flight time. Using a bigger battery means more weight, which means more current from the motors to lift, which means you deplete battery capacity faster. There is a point of diminishing returns and you're better off staying well on the efficient side. A 2200 3S will give you 10-11 minutes of flight time and the amount of inertia from its mass is more manageable (crashes).

The Afro ESCs are nice, but 30A is over kill. With the two motors I recommended above, 20A ESCs are more than sufficient.