You are a true gift to the FPV community. Thank you so much for all of your work! Looks like an amazing frame! I can see you are truly exited about it. Love your work man.
I built one last weekend and I'll tell you it's an incredible frame. It's almost unbelievable how stiff it is and that there is absolutely no vibration or jello in the video. The black box analysis shows an even better result (if that's possible) than where Chris shows the frequency plot on the debug graph. Mine is absolutely black, not even showing motor resonance traces. Just unbelievable and its performance regarding propwash or the lack thereof is equally stellar. Last night I bought a larger 3,000mah 6S Lipo to try some mid-range flying. So far I've just flown it on a 1350mah Lipo for about 5 minutes at a time. What an achievement!
Not just arms, control arms! What a sick design brother. Yeah the rulebook never went away. If you're making a flying machine Ultralight should always be a prime directive. That concept is older than drones. I released a 5" Ultralight racer, the ULX, with SpeedSourceFPV last year. It builds to half the weight and cost of traditional racers, with no performance disadvantage whatsoever and unprecedented stiffness and durability (lemme know if you'd like to test one). Many of the principles you've employed here are things I've been stumping on for some time now. But your elegant design and eloquent explanation are definitely going to make more believers than I have. Its so well done. I never expected anything less. Kudos and please keep amazing us with your science and innovation.
I fly in the desert so when I crash, it’s on rocks. The AOS7 frame is indestructible (two crashes, only broken props). I really like this new design and may give it a try.
A great design. I designed a 6" box racer with similar hollowed vert arm and out box features a few years ago. However My reasoning was that since material could be removed in the center of the out box vertical sections, that the depth of the fins could be increased for more authority. The trick is to use sheet material such as vinyl or a better adhered film to close the surface back up for less turbulent flow.
My AOS7 is by far my favorite frame. I designed it for high speed chase with a GoPro and it performs superbly. I'll bet a fresh UL would be even better, but I'm concerned about how the arm tabs wear over time. Has anybody tested the UL after a couple rounds of assembly/disassembly and a bunch of flight time? Thanks for what you do!
I have some questions about the (LR) performance of this frame. First it’s almost 20 grams heavier than the frame I currently use for LR. The second reason I question the efficiency is it’s aerodynamic cross section for forward flight, as it appears to be significantly larger than my current frame. The different arm configuration probably makes no difference, given than most of the arms are under the airflow of the props anyway. But the larger cross section of the body is going to make a significant difference in forward flight. However much I appreciate your work regarding frame resonance, I doubt that that would weigh up (literally and figuratively, pun intended) to the performance drawback of increased weight and aerodynamic drag of the body in forward flight. So I guess my question is if you’ve done any real analysis of the aerodynamics and/or cross section in forward flight?
Curious, what's your current 7" frame? I actually came here to find out the weight of this but it's not listed in the product page. Edit: haha, I forgot he said 170g in the video..🥴
Ok I'm sold. And this will be my first ever build too. In for a penny... Maybe wait for the 03 adaptations however so I guess I'll slap the rest of the shopping list together in the meantime
Depends on your needs. If you need O3 ND filters and EIS then maybe worth waiting. If you plan to run a GoPro then the current version already supports all the features of O3 you will ever use.
Would love to see toilet tank battery strap slots in designs moving forward. A reference for balancing at the center of thrust (little nubs) would be useful too. Anyways, kickass as always. All 3 of my quads are your frames.
Nice to see something new in 7" space. I guess this would also scale well to 10" and beat the new Rekon 10 in pretty much every category: weight, stiffness, durability.
@@QSpeedRacer You are right. I just found UL7 weight listed on cncdrones at 175 grams. Reckon 7 is listed as 152.7g in some sources. So it is a little heavier but the diff is not that big when you take AUW into account.
awsome, what a beauty,, can't wait for the long range data. Also possibilities to add bottom motors and load quick release rail for a heavy load . Looks a bit like car frame. Nice
I bought the AOS7 Evo frame and I’m struggling to have it perfectly flat. It’s a bit twisted when placed on a flat surface. I made sure all fit nicely, then tightened the screw to the maximum, but still, it don’t lay perfectly flat. You, Chris Rosser, are one sweet-talking scammer 😄
Sorry to hear you're concerned about this issue. Although I'm not directly involved in the manufacturing of the frames I can share my experience: carbon fiber plate (especially thinner pieces) with high fiber content (which is the high quality plate) is rarely if ever perfectly flat. Even with a balanced layup you get some slight pre-stress which causes a saddle shape. This doesn't affect flight performance, but I can understand why you might be concerned about a quality issue. If you're having issues in flight please let me know by email and/or reach out to the manufacturer.
@@ChrisRosser Yeah, Im super tempted to swap my long range INAV build into this frame, as it looks like it has plenty of room compared to the, not so cool 7" Source One frame, that all the gear is currently in. I actually JUST ordered 2 of your frames a few days ago. The Cine25(been looking for a decent 2.5" to replace my 95x, for at least 6 months) and I just had to try your new 5" too(will be swapping out of my beat up Moongoat). This is the first 7" that has excited me since I built Bob's 7" CineGlide with his 30mm motors, which is the best flying 7"(I've flown) to date. That thing flys amazing...TONS of power too. I also have very high hopes for this one, possibly being what I was always looking for in a long range 7" INAV platform...and I've built 8 of them so far. Half of them having some strange flight dynamics issue. Awesome design man!
This is a really great design, I must have this! Where can I buy this frame (cncdrones says "not for sale"? I am in the EU btw., but also importing would not be a problem. Thanks and keep up the great work!
Please improve the rigidity of the 5v2and 5.5 v2 They break arms and x plates constantly This is a recurring problem. Also not enough thread engaged in the arm to stand-off bolts.
Yeah I have the same weak arm issue on my aos 5.5 V2. The carbon arms also slowly start delaminating. Give them a Twist once in a while and see if that is the issue. There is a loss in stiffness. The new aos 5 O3 frame apparently has thicker arms now. They are compatible. Four arms are unfortunatly over half the price of a new frame. They really should have given 2mm longer screws for the arm mount of the frame. I ordered some longer ones. They didnt hold well and I also striped my standoff threads they screw into. My Apex frames are very solid and never have any of these issues.
Hi Chris, thanks for the feedback. I can confirm that I was made aware of both these concerns some time ago and they have both been addressed in the latest versions of both frames with slightly thicker arms and longer screws.
I'm a bit bummed with the O3 labeled frame I have, the LR5. It's gyro data is unusable, based on previous feedback you told us it's an O3 issue that should be resolved by DJI. Now I have to order extra parts to get rid of the vibration in the gyro? I wouldn't mind if your parts would be easily available in the EU but I have to order from cncdrones resulting in a 30 euro fee on top of everything else. I think I can buy a whole new frame for this TPU O3 upgrade.
You and me both! So I got an O3 2 weeks before launch and I flew it hard mounted with no issues (you can see some stabilised footage in my O3 review). Then AFTER LAUNCH I hear that some O3 cameras need to be soft mounted for stabilisation to work and some O3 cameras have loose lens assemblies so they have horrible vibrations all the time. It would have been nice if DJI had given any guidance at all on the requirements for frame design before launching the system. But they didn't so we are where we are. I'm doing my best to fix this for us with a soft mounting solution for the FPV camera but this really isn't my problem to solve. If DJI needs their camera to be soft mounted they should bloody well provide a suitable soft mount or make it very clear exactly what is required of the frame designer. They did neither. The good news is that hard mounting a good O3 camera works fine with EIS off so people can enjoy the improved image quality on AOS frames today and I can keep working on coming up with a good fix for this mess. 🤣
@@ChrisRosser Is it consensus in the community that it is caused by loose lens assemblies? I'm wondering what my chances are of fixing it by opening up the camera and fixing the assembly. I just got another O3 in I'll swap it out and see if I'm lucky with this one. In the meantime I'll design a TPU mount myself to fit on the current frame.
@@aviatoFPV If you have vibration issues with the footage in the goggles then that's a loose lens assembly. The gyro data might be improved by a TPU mount but there are certainly differences between O3 cameras. I've always had mine hard mounted and not had any vibration issues with EIS.
@@ChrisRosser Luckily I only have the issues in gyro data. I'm seeing a vid from madstech about this issue popping up, what timing. Thanks for the answers! Love your frame, if your products would be more easy to buy in EU I would have more of them already!
Chris, I plan on building a maximum duration observation platform. Your arm design should help facilitate that result. What do you estimate the maximum duration flight time would be with optimal motors, propellers and battery? What motor propellers and Battery would you use as the first estimate. Thank you.
Please make a build video. and how to install the O3 camera and Air Unit. As everyone knows you can't hard mount the O3 Camera. I have two frames to build.
I've been thinking. The weakest part could be the motor mounts specifically the top plate not having enough material & I'm having seconds thoughts about flying this thing & definitely don't want to use big motors. I admit i have not tested the durability of this frame, but i just think we should have a lift, Brittleness, & durability test to be safe. Wasn't there an only other reason why drone arms had to have thick motor mounts? Don't get me wrong, I own 95% AOS 7 frames, because they're the best, but i just think people would feel more comfortable with beefier motor mounts. Would be awesome to see a big motor thrust test 2808s 3008s or something. Well cheerios🤓 Update▪︎▪︎▪︎ Insanely good frame & definitely buying more. 🤯🤯 So I said fck it & flew it anyway & holy sht if you already have the AOS 7 frame you should really try this one. It turns your gopro into a professional looking Camera. No joke, I can see details of structures, mountains, landscapes from miles away. As far as durability, I feel safer with more material on the motor mounts. So, I've ordered 4 more top motor mount plates. If you were me would you adhere the plates with epoxy, dampening liquid, or just dry?
Interesting design - I could see the vertical arms adding drag in forward flight - would love to see an A/B comparison with a similar 7" with traditional arms to see if that's offset by the reduced cross-section in the propeller wash
When we think about arm aerodynamics we have to remember that the prop has a huge impact on airflow direction. When the quad is flying forwards the air is not hitting the arm from the front. The air is being pushed down onto the arm by the prop. The prop thrust column has a much bigger impact on airflow direction over the arm than any movemement of the quad in steady flight.
For those in the UK, I ordered from CNC drones in Canada, although delivery was about £10, it arrived after 5 days. I am a little disappointed that the AOS 3.5 V2 didn't have an easy upgrade to carry O3 camera, now I've just had 2 o3 frames delivered there will be an damped O3 camera mount which will require a new top and bottom plate. That being said, progress is progress and I shouldn't be upset that Chris has made adaptations in response to the community. Ill just have to break the frames I have by flying harder and crashing more.
The 3.5 V2 can be upgraded with the O3 camera cage with no other parts swapped. The damped O3 camera mount is of benefit if you plan to use EIS/ND filters (otherwise it offers no benefit over O3). I really appreciate your support and should be making upgrade kits available in the EU through iFlight Europe. If you have any other questions about upgrades etc. please feel free to reach out to me using the form on aos-rc.com and I can guide you to the best solution 👍
@@ChrisRosser Thanks for your reply. It is very helpful as I bought 3 extra camera cage O3 on the off chance that it would fit. The combination of the PID settings video you made and the frames have given me the best flying quads I have ever had. I am moving my fleet over from Apex so thanks for your work!
Definitely not my kind of frame because my 7inch build is more of a sturdy heavy build but it looks like a really good light frame. btw just got a Aos 5 v2 and super excited to try it out!
Should put a damper/strut brace between the struts and it will remove high frequency motor vibration feeding to FC and protect against crash even more, the little locator tabs at the motor mounts being a large weakness in a crash as are of a small area,suffer forces in shear and of a torsional nature.
Super smart design.👍 I wonder if they'd be any difference in flight characteristics if the arms didn't have cut outs, owing to them behaving like a defacto lifting surface due to an approximate 45degree angle of attack..🤔
Possibly, but I'd say it might only be efficient or beneficial at more than 45.. probably closer to 70 or 80. I have wanted to see a quad designed with this in mind, seems interesting
Aerodynamically active surfaces are an absolute no no for camera drones as they make the drone more susceptible to turbulence which leads to shaky footage. If you've flown a fixed wing FPV you'll know what I mean! 😁
BUILD LOG VIDEO: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-xugayl5hhFE.html in case anyone wants a full follow along tutorial, there wasnt one for me, hence why i made one. Hope you dont mind me posting it here Chris. Thanks again for a great, light, and floaty frame!
Hi Chris. CncDrones uses T300 Carbon Fibre whereas most quality frames from major brands like iFlight and Foxeer is constructed from Toray T700 which has a tensile strength of almost 40% more than the T300 used by CncDrones. Would it be possible to make all your frames available somewhere that uses higher quality carbon fibre?
You can buy AOS frames from iFlight if you like better carbon. i bought some AOS frames from iFlight, they all have the same type of material as frames like Nazgul or Chimera.
@@dabfpv Not all AOS frames or the latest 03 version AOS frames are available from iFlight. Don't quite understand the thinking behind designing arms that are more crash resistant, but then using low quality carbon fibre with an almost 40% reduced tensile strength.
Very particular and interesting building structure ! I have an AOS 7 classic first version, is UL7 wider? I mean are motors on the sides ( 1&2 vs 3&4 ) far then in AOS7 , or the distance is the same ?
Hi, please do this review with HDZero components. I am a newbie researching my first drone build. I have only purchased a Taranis X9D and fairly certain that I will go for the HDZero goggles. Where can I find more about gyro tuning and filters? Fantastic channel...
I made similar construction years ago and i think it is only fully printable frame (Ladder 7 on thingiverse) that is stiff and durable enough. But you made it better with the cnc milled carbon parts. :) I changed the process to forged carbon onepiece frame (The Fragile One on Thingiverse ), which is not good for mass production but cheap and perfect for low volume production just for me. :D
Love the new concept frame design. This aspect of FPV has been starving for innovation with most frames just being a carbon copy of each other with small variations. It is worth mentioning than the vertical arm design has been done before with the Karearea Talon but the cutouts and double struts are quite novel. Well done Chris. 😍
The talon was an injection moulded frame right? Vertical arms have certainly been done before but I think this is the first mass manufactured design for 7" frames.
What about electrical noises transferring to the hardmounted connectors? Whenever I had SMA connectors mounted directly on carbon (I only tried it with analog this way, so don't know how digital behaves then), I had TERRIBLE video noise as soon as I armed the quad, making it basically impossible to fly. Do you have any solution to that? Or was I just unlucky/had a setup with a bit more noise?
I have a 5inch, carrying a DJI AirUnit-01. the two SMA antennas are glued to the SMA to MMCX extensions, with the 2mm of carbon top plate sandwiched between the SMA connectors. DJI? Silicone? I don't know enough about radio to say. But so far so good, no issues.
I love to see you making progress with your channel, cutting and of course the engineering point of view while making fpv better. But please set your iso to a fixed value when you mount your gopro to your drone. Keep it up
ISO is locked at 100 for all that footage. Shutter is variable. It's a challenging lighting condition with a bright sky but I liked the silhouette effect (maybe not to everyone's taste though).
Dear Chris, I have a big question for you regarding the AOS UL7 frame! I have the utmost respect for you as an engineer and an excellent practitioner of a scientific approach to FPV. But still, explain to me the difference between AOS7 and AOS UL7? Judging by the name, the AOS UL7 should be lighter than the regular AOS7. But this is not so. Both frames are approximately the same in weight. What is the advantage of AOS UL7?
@@ChrisRosser super! Let us know when the updated top plate will be available. I have an AOS7 frame and all the gear for it just waiting to go together…
Hi Chris. I'm running Tmotor Avengers 2806.5 1700KV(It's what I already have, so I don't have to buy a new sets of motors.) on the AOS UL7 frame. Do I need to set Throttle Limit or Motor Output Limit to have a smooth and somewhat efficient flight?
Sadly I missed this drone frame roll out and bought the AOS 7. I like it but it is heavy. Sadly my motror bolts on the bottom of the arms are worn because I cannot find anywhere on Thingverse or Brain3D any 3d printed gaurds. Sad that you did not provide links or parts like like other vendors for such a well designd frame. Can You Please help with guards for this frame???
@Chris Rosser Very impressive frame design, I love it! Could you tell me how to turn on the green marker in betaflight blackbox log viewer? I saw that this feature is marked in the git as "enhancement", but has not yet been implemented..
Could you make a version that is x8 compatible ? Either by making sure the clearance for bottom motors is enough to allow for arming or Maybe a 3D print landing gear
I like that low noise that you've achieved, but no quad is vibration free. My biggest concern is that the press fit slot joints for holding the arms to the body are going to fragment and wear quickly.
What’s your take on coaxial props? Is there any performance or efficacy benefit? How should I treat that configuration for prop pitch, motor sizing, and disk loading calculations?
Hey Chris! Hello everyone! I have a short question! You provided on your website a stl for an ELRS antenna mount. How ist this to use? I have no clue! Or do have someone a tip for me?
My first thought when he showed the bottom motor plate. Just need to change the design of that to allow a second motor to mount on it and then can still get to the motors pretty easily with just 3 screws to take off
I can't justify another 7 inch but AOS UL7x8 is really tempting, light weight long range with motor (and esc) redundacy, now that's something in the "I need it it in my life" category Kris, please make this an option. or have them extra sell motor plates. or I'll just scan the plate, make a trace and order cnc cut, piracy is always an option ;)
@chris Rosser New frame looks great, Im enjoying my 3.5 O3 at the moment. I have a question regarding the 3.5 though…the camera plates are very loose fit when properly tightened and assembled…it is causing a horrible jello/wobble in the video feed to the goggles (osd elements stay solid) Is it possible I got a bad cut on my frame? Do any other examples of your frames have this play (easily a mm or so back and forth) in the camera plates? Im hesitant to use glue due to the inconvenience and not really in the mood to design a tpu part to hug the plates and secure them to the frame. Look forward to hearing back.
Hi, sorry to hear you've had this issue. If you think it's a manufacturing defect the best thing to do is to reach out to your manufacturer and they should take care of this for you. With the standoffs and camera in place you shouldn't have any movemement in the camera cage. If you are using an O3 camera you may also want to check for a loose lens assembly.
Cool design chris! I was wondering if you plan on making a 6" version of this with perhaps support for these motors with 12x12 mounting Rcinpower GTS V3 2105 Plus 1850KV for example
@@RobertLeeuwerink if you want a light 6" frame too, then get the five33 switchback with 6" arms. Otherwise there are no light 6" frames out there that are durable and stiff enough. Those 2105.5 are my ultralight 6" pick too. Forgot the five33 frame has 16x16 motor mount. Then maybe the amax 2305.5 light motor version.
@@chrisbee5481 the reason I'm asking was mostly because I was a big fan of the rekon 6 but recently the QA hasn't been good and they changed so of the specs
just ordered this frame and super excited to get it in the air here in the coming month or 2... can you recommend a couple things? ill be using an 03 air unit.. so what length ufl to sma cables should i get, and same question about antenna length on the top mount. Thanks!!
Hi, I am planning to build my first drone with this frame. Where can I buy this frame in the UK? Also, is it possible to build it in such a way that it would perform like an FPV drone but also like a cine whoop (for photography)? Sorry for the newbies questions - please help? Regards
I’m interested to see the new soft mount for the 03. I had an issue with shaky video from the 03 on my AOS 5 but it went away when I glued the lens barrel. DJI Support was trying to blame vibration from the frame. I sent them my black box logs but they said they can’t look at 3rd party data.
Hi Cris I would like to ask you a question, even if I set the preset for the AOS UL7 and raised some parameters such as the master multiplier that you recommended, I end up with a drone that runs much better than before but my engines are always hot, not they are hot but they are just hot and this worries me a bit, what should I do to remove this problem? I also hear a whistling in the motors that cannot be removed but is this normal on such large drones? Let me start by saying that I have never had a 7 ".l, it mounts brotherhobby avenger v3 2812 1115kv engines, hqprop 7x4x3 propellers, holibro kakute h7v1 stack, O3 video system and Tbs crossfire diversity radio system, it mounts a 5300mah lipo 6s and has a gopro mini 11 as an action cam. Thank you for your help your help
i just ordered the aos3.5 to replace my crux35 frame, mainly i wanted the replacable individual arms and im hoping being 4mm instead of 3mm it will be a bit stronger, and far easier to replace when i do break an arm. plus im hoping to benifit from the quieter frame as i was having a lot of issues trying to get a smooth tune out of the crux35 frame without getting hot motors. im just wondering if i can use dry lube like graphite powder on the joints instead of dampening grease as you suggest as the graphite will remain much much cleaner.. hopefully later this year i will be able to afford to build a 5 and a 7 inch and ill 100% be using this frame for my 7 inch and the coloured carbon from cncdrones is sweet i cant wait to build my clown quad with all different colour arms and plates as i brought all different colour spares for my aos3.5 LOL!
Lost my falcon, then got the aos7, I absolutely love it. Is this a replacement of that? Does the regular 7 still have better tuning availabilities? Also Im wondering if the 5UL is able to carry a GoPro mini.
