FR 155 Hornet Drone Buildout and Guide

Detailing and giving quick tips for my FlowRotors 155 Hornet hex drone build.

Parts list:

The first step was getting all the parts nice and organized. In addition to what came with the frame i used a few extra screws and spacers to keep the boards from contacting the cf frame/pod.

I did a quick dry fit of the frame, screws, pod, and boards before continuing on. I didn’t want a sizing/screw issue after soldering the components later.

Step 1 was getting the battery strap through the outer slots in the bottom of the frame (top is shown below). I also screwed in four bolts and used small nuts to use as spacers as well as keeping them secured to the frame body.

Next I added the pdb and placed the kits aluminum spacers. Now is also a good time to tin the pdb for the incoming esc power wires.

Next I connected the esc power wires to the pdb. I also trimmed the wires to make sure the esc’s would land evenly on the frame arms. The green paracord is not necessary but makes the whole build pretty. Each wire is individually sleaved.

Removing the pre-soldered motor wires from the esc was a painful but necessary step, you can also see the paracord sleeve better here.

All 6 esc’s existing wires de-soldered, it ended up saving close to 12g of weight!

Before deciding on the esc <–> motor technique I ended up using I tried just trimming the motor wire extremely short. This worked… kind of. It ended up putting too much stress on the motor wires though and in the end I decided to do the over-under wiring.

Over-under consists of pulling the still long motor wires under the esc and between the power wires then forward.

Next trim and solder the now pulled forward motor wires to the esc. This lets you get the esc closer to the motor without putting major stress on the wires. It also makes it easier to flip the motor wires if direction is reversed.

After the esc’s were soldered to the motors I soldered their signal leads to the underside of the flight controller. I also soldered up the power for the flight controller and the receiver.

I screwed down the flight controller next and plugged in a battery to verify motor direction/correct wiring. I could actually fly horizon mode pretty well like this.

Prior to the next step I taped the very bottom of the camera pod sides. They get dangerously close to the flight controller and I didn’t want to risk something shorting.

You can just make out the clearence in the below picture. Its under a mm and so the tape is a great bit of assurance. I connected up 3 sides of the pod and screwed them to the frame here.

Soldering up the microminimosd came next. I used the 5v power from the pdb and and also hooked up the battery monitor leads, pulling the wires around the side of the frame and up through the bottom of the camera pod.

Next came wiring up the camera. The paracord didn’t quite reach here but I was able to make sure my video in/out was soldered nicely. I also powered my camera through the vtx.

Finally I connected my vtx to the top of the pod. Its power comes from 12v passed through a small lc filter attached to the front of the quad.

My proper camera didn’t arrive in time so I temporarily used a small cmos cam, keeping it in the pod with hot glue. The osd was hot glued to the back of the pod where the vtx connects. The hex is now ready to haul fpv style!