Frame Design

I got the desire to design my own frame.  I could have easily stuck with available frames out there especially cheap ones from Banggood.com.  I started doing research and learned that a company Armattan Productions will  take your design, cut it for you and send it.  They will even let you sell your design on their website.  And I've also seen videos on YouTube where all these FPV "Stars" design their own frames only to have it cloned a month later.  I'm going to be honest, frame design is no that expensive or difficult.

The first thing I did was download QCAD, which is a free program.  It is really simple to learn and use.  So without further ado here is my first frame:

The frame is designed to use a 20mm x 20mm stack (you can also use a 16x16 stack) which includes 4-in-1 ESC, F4 flight controller and a video transmitter.  It was also designed to use a micro fpv camera and tiny receiver.

The frame was designed to mount motors with a 12mm diameter mounting pattern such as the Emax RS1306.

As I was building it I realized that the ESC did not allow sufficient room for the camera to be mounted in the frame.  After doing some search I realized that there were multiply 3" frame designs that had the camera sticking out leaving it for the most part unprotected.  I decided to design a 3d printed camera and receiver mount for the top plate, this would have a bottom mount battery anyways. Here is the mount:

I wasn't too worried about the camera getting damaged by being mounted on the top because the quadcopter is so light that a crash will probably not do much if any damage.

The rest of the build went well.  I'll list all the parts below if your interested.

Here is a link to the first flight, turn your volume down: https://youtu.be/frVrTGhWT00

Here is a link to get your own: https://armattanproductions.com/pages/kit_detail/1652

Rotorbuild page: https://rotorbuilds.com/build/10667

I've flown about 6 batteries on this quad as of today and I must say it handles really well.  It also floats in the air for a few seconds when you let off throttle.  The stock Pids of betaflight 3.2.4 fly really smooth, I don't really see any additional tuning that would need to be done, maybe some small tweaks here and there as I fly it more.

Parts:
Growler Mini Bottom Plate: Link available later
Growler Mini Top Plate: Link available later
Emax RS1306 3300kv motors
HGLRC XJB F428-TX20 Omnibus F4 Flight Controller 28A 2-4S Blheli_S ESC 25/100/250mW Switchable VTX
FrSky R-XSR receiver
HGLRC XJB Elf Micro Camera
3d printed Camera and Receiver Holder: Link available later
some cheap props from Amazon