The Flyfox 120 frame is a light weight, compact and minimalist micro quadcopter frame for 3″ and 2.5″ props. In this review we will take a look at the quality, and build it to see if it’s any good.
Buy this frame from here: https://goo.gl/3zP6s9
Update (05/05/2018): I’ve been informed that this frame is a clone of this design on Thingiverse which I wasn’t aware of previously. Therefore this frame has been removed from my recommended product list.
FlyFox 120 Frame Unboxing
The Flyfox 120mm micro quad frame comes with 4 standoffs, a unibody bottom plate with arms, a 3D printed TPU canopy for the FPV camera, as well as some M3 screws.
The quality of the parts are pretty solid.
The arms are 3mm thick carbon fibre and appear to have decent quality. The bottom plate weighs 9.8g.
Diagonal motor to motor distance is 120mm.
The TPU camera mount (top plate) weighs 6.8g.
The whole frame assembled only weighs 23.1g.
A Closer Look at the Frame
The FC mounting holes on the bottom plate are 20x20mm. The standoffs are 25mm long, so there is plenty of room for a 4in1 ESC as well as a VTX in there.
To my surprise, despite being a 120mm frame it actually fits 3″ propellers!! This is probably one of the smallest and lightest 3″ micro quad frame I have come across so far.
However my plan is to use 2.5″ propellers on this quad :) Maybe I will also try some 2.8″ props too in the future.
I got to say, I really like the minimal and light weight design. The frame feels sturdy enough and have no unnecessary dead weight. This is exactly what I was looking for in a high performance “park flyer”.
Building the Flyfox 120 Micro Quad
Here is my parts list:
- RCINPower G1108 6800KV Motors (Buy: Amazon | Banggood)
- Gemfan Flash 2540×3 Propellers (Buy: Banggood | Amazon)
- Diatone Fury F4M FC (Buy: Banggood)
- Diatone F20HV 4in1 ESC (Buy: Banggood)
- Frsky R-XSR RX
- TBS Unify Pro V3 VTX (Buy: Amazon | GetFPV)
- Foxeer Micro Monster Pro Camera
- 3S 75C 650mAh LiPo Battery (Buy: Amazon | GetFPV
I basically just took the guts from my Diatone R90 and installed them in this frame. The original parts were a massive overkill anyway for a 2″ quad, and they should handle 2.5″, or even 3″ totally fine.
RCINPower G1108 6800KV Motors
I have been hearing so many good things about the RCINPower 1108 6800KV motors on 3S, and I am really looking forward to testing them.
The motor mounting holes are 10x10mm. The shaft is held in place by a E-Clip.
They do two KV versions, 4000KV and 6800KV.
LiPo Decision: 3S vs. 4S for Micro Quad
Between 3S and 4S LiPo, I chose 3S for this build.
The GT90 is a 2″ micro quad, and I was flying 4S with it, but it just didn’t feel much faster than being powered by 3S.
The conclusion I had was, for tiny motors like these, the additional weight of 4S batteries kind of counteracts the extra power. I’ve found 3S to be the sweet spot and just seems to be more efficient on anything smaller than 3″.
Terrible Camera Canopy
I only realized how bad the TPU canopy design really is when I was building it. Not only you can’t adjust the camera angle, there is NO WAY you can fit the camera in there from underneath.
In the end, I had to remove the material on top with a pair of scissors, and slid the camera in from the top.
It’s an easy fix, and seems to work well. The camera is still well protected and the it isn’t moving at all when flying. If there is any movement you can simply put a zip tie around the camera lens to hold it more tightly.
Another downside of this frame is you can’t access the USB port on the FC which is blocked by the standoffs. Hopefully you have Smart Port telemetry setup like I do, so you can configure the quad through LUA script. Or simply use Betaflight OSD.
Overall, it wasn’t too bad and I still quite enjoy building and flying it.
I will probably design and print my own canopy in the future, and make room for an onboard DVR as well. That should be a good challenge :)
Seriously, this build has to be one of the best 2.5″ Micro Quad I have flown.
8 comments
Could you share your PID and filter settings? Getting a lot of vibrations on pitch up and throttle up.
I have built a very similar one using same FC, ESC & motors. However as soon as I lift off, the copter goes full throttle….
Did you have to do any specific tuning in BF? Checked that all the motors work fine in the motors tab and made sure copter orientation is correct.
Check motors in motor tab see if they spin normally? Test your channels in the receiver tab and make sure they work as normal?
Check FC orientation?
All of those checked like 20 times. Didnt work. did full-chip erase and reflashed BF, afterwards it worked.
Do your motors also get considerably hot? I hovered for like 1 minute and they got ~70 degree celsius
it’s probably an indication of noisy build. Try soft mounting your FC.
As Oscar noted in the article, this frame kit is indeed a bad and illicit copy from my Tanky/Toothrip ecosystem, which is released under the Creative Commons – Attribution – Non-Commercial license.
To find the original designs you can go here:
thingiverse.com/thing:1783281
And if you want to purchase the CF parts in armattan quality here:
armattanproductions.com/pages/shop_product_grid/985
For discussions the rcgroups thread is here:
rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?2798066-T4bee-Tanky-Toothrip-Ecosystem-2-4/page16
While this clone is only a snapshot of one potential configuration, the original design is actually a whole ecosystem with a whole bunch of possible combinations and modular configurations. I.e. there is a number of different frames, pods, canopies etc. to fit everyone’s needs.
I’d also like to note that, the canopy delivered with flyfox appears to have been printed to the wrong specifications. As one can see from the pictures of builds on rcgroups or also on instagram (instagram.com/t4bee/) micro-swift type cameras do fit the canopy without the need to do any cutting. Yes it’s a snug fit but that’s for the purpose of maximising protection while keeping everything as small and sleek as possible.
Lastly, the toothrip frames are pushing the limits of what is possible with super-thin arms etc. which is why I strongly recommend to add crossbars between the arms. It greatly increased rigidity and also introduces planned breaking points for hard crashes.
If you like the results Oscar posted, please consider printing / getting a original cut yourself or to buy from armattan productions rather than supporting banggood cloning.
Great article and build, I really love these little guys.
I’ve been out of touch with FPV for a short time and I was a little surprised to see the motors at $19.99usd. Is that a pretty standard price for motors like that these days?
I know a lot of guys will have parts laying around or they can pull from other builds, but someone starting fresh and buying everything new, this little baby would cost about $225usd. Is it that I’ve been away too long and prices are a lot higher now?
I know I am way off topic and I understand if you decide not to post, but I was a little blown away by the cost of it all. I’m not saying it’s not worth it, but some of the components are pretty expensive, or is it just me? Sorry, Oscar, this was a great story and build. Hope I didn’t ruin it and come off to negative.
Amazon is normally more expensive when it comes to RC parts, try Banggood or other online vendors :)
And yes, quality parts are expensive unfortunately. I wouldn’t recommend them if they are simply over priced :D