iFlight iX3 140mm 3in Build by tfortmuller

Last crawled date: 3 years ago

I set out to build a 3in FPV quadcopter capable of performance similar to that of my 5in builds, but under the FAA's 250 gram "toy" designation. I built this rig on the bottom plate of this frame and and the all up weight, including a 4S 650mAh Lipo is 211 grams.
Here I've included the parts I designed and printed in SainSmart semi-flexible TPU to make this build work for me robustly. I designed a camera mount to press fit with the common, encased vtx/cam AIO FPV solutions. It's got 10 degrees of camera tilt, I superglued the walls of the cam to the part for extra security. There's also a mount for the Furious FrSky Rx that fits on a 20mm x 20mm flight controller stack. Lastly, there's a battery pad to super glue to the bottom of the frame to make sure the surface that interfaces with the battery is flush.
These designs had flexible filament in mind. PLA, ABS, and other rigid materials will probably not yield very good results without changes. For that reason, I have provided the STEP files so you can throw these parts in your favorite CAD software to make the adjustments you need.
UPDATE: I suffered an ESC desync mid-flight and fell 40ft onto concrete which took the lens off of my camera/vtx. I happened to have a Eachine EF-01 camera/vtx module lying around so I designed a new mount for that module's geometry, it's two parts for easier printing and they are superglued together. I've included both sets of models here. Along with this change I upgraded to Tornado T1 1407 3600KV motors, they are slightly heavier but deliver much greater thrust. This set up now clocks in at 213.9g, well under the 250g FAA limit and achieving great performance in flight.