James JAB Posted December 9, 2014 Share Posted December 9, 2014 Hi All, Here is my build of the new Spanky 6" frame, Chris Hatcher is the designer of the amazing Spanky range of frames and I have had excellent results using the Spanky 5" for quite a few months due to the excellent design and super strong G10 construction. The video below shows my Spanky 5 during a session of FPV racing ... I wanted to try the new Spanky 6" frame due to it allowing the use of 6" props (going to use 6x3) and also able to house a GoPro at the front in its own little cut out section. The frame can be purchased from this site in the USA... **LINK** First impressions... The frame looks very well made, clean tool cuts and not a rough edge to be found, all bolt holes line up and plenty of hardware to put it all together, there are even some spare parts included like spare bobbins and hex posts in case of damage. Above: the underneath is a clean and smooth as the Spanky 5, all bolts are the exact length to not stick out past the nut so there is less to scrap or snag on the ground while flying close proximity. The look is very different on the Spanky 6 compared to the 5, the top two plate are a lot longer and now incorporate a place to hold a GoPro and has cut outs for a velco strap to hold the camera in. Here is the 6 next to my 5... The arms of the 6 are spaced out a lot more than the 5, being further apart long the frame as well as further apart across the frame which should make it very stable. The picture below shows the Spanky 5 arms above the 6's... The bottom plate of the Spanky 6 is a bit thicker than the Spanky 5 as well which is good as the arms are that bit longer that the extra strength is needed. The Spanky 5 arm is on the left and the Spanky 6 arm is on the right, you can see the 6 is at least .2mm thicker... Edited By James JAB on 09/12/2014 21:57:53 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James JAB Posted December 9, 2014 Author Share Posted December 9, 2014 To compare the size against other frames here is my line-up... (from the left, Emax 250Pro CF, Spanky 6, Spanky 5) (from the left, Spanky 6, Emax 250Pro CF, Spanky 5) For this build I will be upgrading the normal motors and ESC's that I use for the much more powerful and advanced KISS ESC's and AirBot Micro Titan 2204 2300Kv motors... I have tested these new items on the Emax250Pro frame and they give an incredible power to weight ratio that I have never experienced before. As I had used the parts in another frame to test I had done most of the ground work setting individual parts up like adding the mesh to the motor wires, the reason I did this is to give the wires a lot of protection, during many of my forced visits to the ground (crashes) I have realised that the motor wires are very exposed and do get caught on things if not properly tucked away and also are prone to a stray prop blade hitting them if a motor is detached (very rare). Here are most of the parts that will be used in this build... there is: 4x Airbot Micro Titan 2300Kv motors **LINK** 4x KISS ESC's **LINK** Naze 32 Full using BaseFlight firmware (personal firmware preference) **LINK** Fatshark vTx fitted with Gav's excellent V3 Skew Planar antenna **LINK** FrSky X8R receiver A metal case CCD camera from FirstpersonView.co.uk 2x DC mini step down modules (1x 5v, 1x 12v) The two step down modules are to supply a constant 5v and 12v to the different components on the frame, this will allow me to swap between 3s (11.1v) and 4s (14.8v) without the need to change leads or swap items in the field. So the build begins... The motors fit perfectly on the arms and has a 2mm rim around the outside still to protect the bell from a direct hit. The mounting holes for the motors also allow the wires to route neatly straight down the arms instead of being annoying and being off centre like most frame I have tested other than a Spanky. The bobbins give plenty of room for the ESC's and distro board to be fitted between the bottom and middle plates... This frame also has a new added feature which is 'Bobbin Stays', they are small ali parts that attach to the bottom plate but go though a hole in the middle plate which hold the top section of the frame in the event of a hard crash, the Spanky 5 does not have this and has been known to rip bobbins apart, you can see the silver stays here just in front of the bobbin... These do not touch the middle plate otherwise they would transfer vibrations from the dirty section to the clean, they are only there to stop the bobbins from over extending during a crash by holding the top section in place via the lip on top of the stays. Middle plate fitted and all is going well, you can see I have one of the step down units sat on the middle plate (5v one on the left of pic), I end up moving this between the bottom and middle plate sat between the ESC's to make the middle plate less cluttered and use the V shaped cut outs in the plate to feed the wire into the Rx... Naze32 Full fitted and wired to the ESC's and I have now moved the step down unit between the plates at the back (right of pic)... Here is where I am seating the Rx, I think this space is to hold the Lipo but I am going to put the Rx here instead as its away from the FC and Vtx... the four wires at the back are (from right to left), 5v In, 5v out to FC and then the two PWM cables. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James JAB Posted December 9, 2014 Author Share Posted December 9, 2014 I fitted the Rx to test the directions of the motors were right and Murphy's law all four motors were spinning in the wrong direction. Luckily I did not shrink wrap the ESCs as I was worried they did not have heat sink fitted and thought if I just slid heat shrink over the ESC's then I would know if they got too hot as the wrap would change shape, also the wrap acts like a mini wind tunnel making sure the ESC's get a good air flow. Glad I did that as it allowed me to slide the heat shrink back and get access to the PCB's. The KISS ESC's has this excellent feature were you can just bridge a small jumper to reverse your motors instead of having to swap and resold two wires on each motor... As you can see I just had enough room to get my fingers and soldering iron in to join those two pads together. After doing this on all four ESC's, all four motors are now turning the right direction, that feature saved me a lot of hassle and time. Next will be doing the finishing touches to add the Rx permanently ready for a LOS test fly and then its time to fit the FPV and give it its first proper maiden... Please let me know what you think about this build and the new frame, it would be nice to hear your comments or suggestions More to come soon... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James JAB Posted December 17, 2014 Author Share Posted December 17, 2014 A bit more progress... Here we have the frame ready and setup for its first LOS test fly. For the test I mounted the Lipo on top of the frame and did not fit the GoPro, this kept the CG right on the FC in the middle. The test LOS flight went perfect, the frame is super stable and has a locked in feel on stock PIDs. I found once I added the GoPro the C of G went from the middle to very far forward on the frame. The designer shows that the lipo needs to be held at the back of the frame, I didn't think this would keep the CG centeral but after fitting the GoPro and putting the lipo inside the frame at the back the CG was again spot on the centre of the FC again, wow great design. As you can see in the photo above I have placed the RC Rx on the back of the frame where the LiPo needs to be seated so I need to move things around... I managed to move the 5v step down module and the Rx to the front of the frame, as I did not plan this from the start it looks a bit cramped, If I used a smaller Rx other than the X8R then this would look a lot neater. I have also rotated the Naze32 board to allow its USB to connect out the side of the frame and also get all the ESC wires not facing forward so that I have room for the Rx to fit with plugs. To do this in CLI I typed... SET board_align_yaw = 90 This tells the FC that it has been rotated by 90 degrees, if I turned the FC the other way I would use... SET board_align_yaw = 270 Now its time to fit all the FPV gear and go out for its first full tests, Im very excited about the next steps as its been quite a while since I flew with the GoPro and I look forward to the footage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Skilbeck Posted December 17, 2014 Share Posted December 17, 2014 James, just want to say thanks, this is a most informative thread. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James JAB Posted December 17, 2014 Author Share Posted December 17, 2014 Thank you for your nice comment Frank Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KingKade Posted December 18, 2014 Share Posted December 18, 2014 I will be following with interest!,,,,, Kk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.