17 inch Tarot build for the lolz

[tidal charm]

TL;DR: cheap, powerful, feature-rich and fun

Got a cheap used Tarot Ironman 650 drone with lots of accessories. Switched it from Ardupilot to iNav, FrSky to ELRS and from 4S KISS to 6S Bluejay. Parts:

• Ironman 650 Frame
• 4014 T Motor Antigravity 330KV
• 17" props
• JHEMCU 55A 6S ESC
• Omnibus F4
• 1.6W JHEMCU VTX
• 3DR GPS + Compass (M8N + 5883)
• Radiomaster RP1 ELRS
• 6S 10Ah batteries (or basically anything heavy and large xD)

Perks:

• Retractable landing gear
• Video Switcher for back facing camera (second camera needs to arrive)
• Servo for cameras for some camera tilting or possibly headtracking
• insane flight time (haven't measured but it should be around 30 mins according to memory)
• Arduino Micro that serves as a CRSF to PWM bridge for additional servos (landing gear, video switch, camera tilt)

Overall costs are hard to calculate since the deal I got included two other drones and a lot of other random stuff. Depending on the calculation (deducting stuff that I sold or not, and how much the other drones cost) I'd say the costs are in the range of 200-300€ including some batteries. Might be able to get the costs down to 150€ if I literally sell everything I don't need like spare GPSs, 1.3GHz telemetry, ...

Fiest flights were very successful, though there's a lot of toilet bowling effect even though the compass is well calibrated. Have to look into that. Haven't flown FPV yet, just LOS because I just added the camera today (which is also the reason why the FC is very open right now, usually there's a top plate with the GPS above). But overall performance is very stable. Punches are very clean even though I just use the 7"+ preset from iNav and haven't tweaked anything.

I originally wanted to go 8S on this build since HGLRC had a sale on their 8S 50A ESCs (25$ each) but when it came to shipping them, HGL said they calculated incorrectly and didn't actually have any in stock (and they don't produce them anymore so seems like it's not gonna be 8S anytime soon :/ )

Oh wow, very long monologue, just one more thing: the pictured (first overall) flight was on 4S in heavy winds of around 30 kmph. With 6S it's even more stable in the air and the PID is even better

[edgy lantern]

Funny, I've been thinking about doing an 8S 7" and am planning to use the Foxeer Reaper 8S stack

[tidal charm]

8S is very powerful for sure. Could actually make sense on a 7"

I just realized that "17 inch" and "for the lolz" in one sentence must sound very funny when you don't know that it was actually very cheap 😂

[edgy lantern]

I bet it sounds mean af though

[sick orchid]

way cheaper than I would expect a quad like that

wait

[tidal charm]

Used

[sick orchid]

..

dam

[tidal charm]

But like new

[sick orchid]

you got an amazing deal on that

[tidal charm]

Ik, f*ing good

3 drones for 450€, this one by far the best though

I'll try listing what I got for the 450€ before I changed parts:

• this tarot frame with lots of replacement parts and the motors, a Pixhawk 1M, frsky rx, kiss 18A ESCs and a 433 MHz telemetry
• a F450 or 550 frame (hex) with smaller motors and also frsky, + DJI NAZA M V2 and simonk ESCs
• a similar drone to the second, I think also with a NAZA
• taranis x9d
• random kiss ESCs 6S 30A (V1)
• Hobbywing ESCs 6S 30A (pwm only)

Many lipos:

• 6S 10Ah
• 4S 12Ah
• 4S 10Ah
• 4S 5800
• 4S 5000

• a random spektrum receiver dsmx

• some spare GPS modules (M8N)

• a charger for up to 6S 200W 10A output current

• an unknown Gimbal from the gopro 3 times

• various wires, some Arduino stuff and 2 toolboxes for organizing the stuff

@sick orchid I think that's it

Sold the 6S KISS and Hobbywing ESCs and the taranis, the spektrum receiver and one frsky receiver for a total of 170ish € already. That makes 280€ for the set of 3 drones incl. the lipos