How To Choose Mini Quad Frame - The Basics and Evolution - Oscar Liang PDF

2018. 02. 02.
How to choose Mini Quad Frame - The Basics and Evolution - Oscar Liang
HOW TO CHOOSE MINI QUAD FRAME –

THE BASICS AND EVOLUTION
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2018. 02. 02. How to choose Mini Quad Frame - The Basics and Evolution - Oscar Liang
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This tutorial explains the basics and overview of mini quad frame, and
how it affects flight performance. There are many considerations to bear
in mind when choosing an ideal FPV racing drone frame.
Index of Content
What is a mini quad frame
Material
Construction
Frame size
Frame shape
Unibody design
Freestyle or Racing?
Other considerations
Evolution of Frames
What is a mini quad frame?

Mini Quad frame is a structure that contains the components of a mini
quad, or quadcopter. Many considerations go into choosing a good
frame.
Skitzo Dark Matter Frame – Reviewed on our blog
The Ideal Frame

It should be strong against crashes
The design and material of a frame determines how crash-resilient it is.

Miniquads are designed for FPV racing and fast flying, crash is inevitable.
For typical hobbyists with limited budget, this is especially important
IMO. It doesn’t matter how well your quad flies or how cool it looks, if
you were going to break an arm or top plate every session it’s definitely
going to ruin the fun.
It should be as light weight as possible
Quadcopter frames have significant impact on your quad’s flight

performance: weight distribution, rigidity, weight, aerodynamics and so
on.
Aesthetic and easy to build
A mini quad frame is more than just some sheets of carbon fibre. The
frame design determines how easy it is to install components in it. Frame
designers also incorporate different material and shape into the frame to
make them look cooler.
Sparrow Knight R220 – Reviewed on our blog
As an interesting fact, we usually call our quads by the name of the

frame (like, “let me show you the Blackout I just built!”). Maybe not as
deciding as other factors, but the name does matter too :D
There are a lot of factors to think about frames, we will try to cover as
much as we can in this article.
Material For Mini Quad Frames

A mini quad frame can be made from any material you can possibly think
of: Wood, 3D printed plastic, injection molded plastic, fibre glass,
aluminium, or even PVC pipes. However carbon fibre remains to be the
most popular material for mini quad frames thanks to its relatively low
cost and excellent physical property:
Light weight – a lighter racing drone means faster speed, better

agility, longer flight time, and smaller impact in a crash
Strength – carbon fiber is known to be relatively tough and durable
Rigidity – CF has high stiffness to weight ratio. Frame rigidity is a
great thing to stability and flight performance
However there are some downsides to using carbon fiber for frames:
Carbon fiber is electrically conductive. If you have live wires

touching the frame it could cause short circuit and burn out your
components
It also blocks radio frequency signals (such as 2.4Ghz and
5.8Ghz), so make sure your antennas are not hidden inside the
frame
In the rest of this article, we will focus on carbon fibre mini quad
frames.
Construction of a Mini Quad Frame
A mini quad frame can be simply divided into 2 parts, the body, and the
arms.
The body houses and protects your electronics components including

flight controller, PDB, FPV camera, VTX etc. Typically it consists of a
bottom plate, top plate and some standoffs in between to hold them
together.
The arms are where to install your motors, and very often your ESC’s as
well. The arms are designed for durability and they are usually made
from 3mm to 4 mm carbon fiber sheets.
Frame Size
The Size of a frame, sometimes known as wheelbase, is the diagonal
motor to motor distance in millimeters.
The frame size have influence on the following factors:
Max propeller size

Moment of inertia of the craft
Air resistance
Total weight
A more powerful copter Frame sizes determine how large the propellers
it can support, and a more powerful copter requires a larger frame while
a less powerful copter uses a smaller frame.
Mini quad frames can be classified by the maximum propeller size that it
supports. For example we can call a “210 frame” a “5 inch frame”, if it
can support up to 5″ propellers.
Because motors are mounted on the very end of the arms, the further
away they are from the centre, the larger moment of inertia (tendency to
resist angular acceleration). With all other things being equal, the smaller
the frame, the more nimble the craft becomes.
Furthermore, the bigger the frame, the more air resistance when flying
forward. The frame weight also goes up due to the increase in material.
To make things easier, here is a simplified table with mini quad frame
sizes and maximum propeller size they can use:
Frame Size Prop Size
280mm+ 7″
220-250mm 6″
180-220mm 5″
150-180mm 4″
120-150mm 3″
90-120mm 2″
Please be aware this table only aims to give you an idea, and not always
the case due to differences in the frame design.
Pro Tip: Regardless what the size of the frame is in “mm”, always
check what prop sizes it supports. For example an 5″ frame might
be larger or smaller than 210mm. Sometimes a 250mm frame
might only accept 5″ but not 6″ props. It all depends on the actual
design.
Although you can run smaller propellers on a frame, always try to avoid
doing it for optimal performance. The quad perform the best when using
the smallest possible frame that matches that prop size. For example
don’t use 4″ props on a 5″ frame, just get a 4″ frame for that. :)
Frame Shape and Arm Layout

The frame shape, or arm layout is determined by how the arms are
connected to the body. It does not only affect how the frame look but
also has impacts on how the mini quad flies. The different frame styles
are developed to suit different needs:
H
X
hybrid X
Stretch X
Square (Box)
It might look like the motor layouts are very similar and are all
rectangular, but each of these frame type performs differently in some
way. Whether or not the different arm layouts bring in any benefits has
always been a controversial subject. But based on my own personal
experience they do feel differently in the air.
H Frames
Early mini quads started with H style frames. They have seemingly
unlimited space for components, making these frames very easy to build.
The arms connect at the front and rear of the body on a “H” frame. It
creates a long and roomy body that can house your electronics
comfortably.
HD camera and battery can both sit on the top plate, and the weight of
the quad is more spread-out. For this reason, it might feel less agile than
the newer X frames due to higher moment of inertia on the pitch axis.
However some people prefer this behavior for smoother freestyle flying.
X Frames
On an X frame all the arms meet at the centre forming an “X” shape, with
equal width and length (motor layout is a square). The body is shortened
as much as possible, and components are meant to be stacked up in the
middle to achieve a more centralized mass. This results in less moment
of inertia and ultimately more snappy flight characteristics compared to H
frames, more ideal for FPV racing.
X style frames normally are lighter in weight because of the reduction in

material. But due to the smaller body, it could be a little bit more
challenging to biuld on. Everything is stacked in the center like a tower,
including your HD camera and battery. People sometimes call it the “true
X frame” to differentiate from “hybrid-X frames”.
Hybrid-X Frames
The Hybrid-X has the X frame arms, but H frame’s long body. Some
argue this has little to none differences to a H frame in terms of flight
characteristics, since the mass distribution are the same. But I think there
is a difference to how the thrust are applied on the frame (think about
leverage), and how the prop/motor vibration is transferred to the FC in
different directions through the arms.
Stretch X Frames
Very similar to an X frame in appearance, but the “stretch X” is stretched
out forth and back. The idea is to improve cornering performance in
racing and high speed flying.
By moving the rear props away from the front props can minimize air
turbulence, this allows the copter to fly fast yet remains stable.
What I personally found with stretch X frame is I have to re-tune PID and
rates because of the change of frame geometry, roll seems to be more
sensitive on the roll axis than a standard X frame.
A stretch X frame also tends to weight more because of the additional

material.
Square (Box) Frames

A square or box frame could be based on a H or X frame, with extra
material on the outside that connects the motor mounts. This basically
creates a tougher frame that is less likely to have broken arms. But the
increase in material blocks prop airflow, increases weight and air
resistance. Not a good choice for performance aircraft, unless you are
new to this hobby and worry about breaking stuff.
Plus Frame
Instead of flying forward like an X, a Plus Frame flies forward like a +.
It’s a special type of frame because it’s not very common and popular.
One of the downside is the front motor and propellers can easily get in
the view of the camera.
Stretch Plus
To solve the problem with the motor being in the view of the camera,
frame designers stretched the front and rear motors away from the
centre. But it’s still not a popular frame design apart from the fact that it
looks pretty unique and eye-catching.
Other Frame Configurations

There are some other different frame designs out there, such as the
deadcat, V-tail etc. But these configs are not as popular because they
often require custom motor mixing and they are harder to tune.
Unibody Design
A frame can be designed to have replaceable arms, but that means extra
hardware such as screws, bolts and extra bottom plate. That could mean
a lot of extra weight!
You can avoid the extra weight by having an unibody design (aka
monobody), where the arms are just part of the bottom plate. It’s not
only lighter but also makes frame assembly easier. However if you break
an arm, you would have to replace the whole bottom plate. Taking out all
the electronics and motors could be very time consuming.
With light weight racing frames where you are going to crash a lot and
have a higher chance of breaking an arm, having replaceable arm design
is definitely a bonus. But modern frame design has brought us very
durable unibody frame designs too, but I would only consider those for a
freestyle quad, and uses at least 4mm thick CF.
As for rigidity, I generally find frames with replaceable arms design stiffer
than unibody. The stiffness of unibody depends on how wide the
arms/body are, how big the cut-out is and how thick the plate is. I have
had some bad experience with 3mm unibody, It was so bendy and I had
oscillations that was really difficult to get rid of. I replaced it with 4mm
and it was much better.
Carbon Fibre Thickness

Thicker carbon fiber results in better rigidity and sturdiness, but it also
gets heavier. 150mm or smaller frame often use 2mm thick CF sheets,
while larger frames normally uses 3mm to 4mm.
However the thickness matters the most to the arms, so you might
sometimes find thinner top/bottom plates. That’s totally fine because it’s
your arms that takes most of the impact in crashes. 4mm arms are the
standard for durability, some serious racers use 3mm arms to save
weight.
Some people prefer 3mm just because they have lighter arms and less
overall moment of inertia and it contributes to the better flight
performance.
Filing Carbon Fibre Edges

If your frame comes with sharp finish, it’s recommended to file the edges
for the following reasons:
file it and then apply Cyanoacrylate glue (CA) can prevent carbon
fibre from delamination in a hard crash
the sharp edge can cut through wires, LiPo straps, etc
It’s best to do this under running water to avoid breathing in CF dust.
Freestyle or Racing
For racing, I would say the most important factor is weight and crash-
resistance, having very thin and easy-to-replace arms are going to be
really helpful.
For freestyle, the most important factor for me has to be how easy it is
to build/repair, and how tough it is against crashes.
Other Considerations
FC standoff spacing – Make sure the frame supports the FC and PDB
you are planning to use, common FC’s can have mounting spacing of
30.5mm x 30.5mm, or 20x20mm. Although there are 3D-printed adapters
you can get easily, it’s not always supported in some frames.
FPV Camera Mounting – There are now 3 main sizes in FPV camera,
standard, mini and micro. Make sure to find out the frame support the
camera sizes you are planning to use. You will also need to find out what
kind of camera tilt you can achieve, a tilt angle that is too small or too big
can hugely affect your FPV experience
Rigidity – We have mentioned the importance of frame stiffness more

than a dozen times . A well designed frame should be strong, crash
resistant, yet rigid. If there is bending or warping in the arms during flight,
your quad would be prone to vibrations. As a result the quad would be
hard to tune, and you might get jello in the flight footage. Flight controller
also had to work harder to stabilize the copter, it could even cause
overheat to your motors.
Weight is an extremely important factor to your quad’s performance.

Good carbon fibre all weight similarly. The main difference comes down
to how the frame is designed, how much material is used while
maintaining the strength, what sort of screws/bolts/standoffs are used
and so on.
Durability – It’s very difficult to predict how durable a frame is just by

looking at pictures and spec. The best thing to do is to look at reviews
and comments. Pay attention to how well the components are protected
by the frame and make sure nothing is exposed to crash damages.
HD Camera Mounting – If you plan to fly with an HD camera such as a

GoPro or Runcam 3, make sure to check if the frame can support it at
all! You might have to spend extra to get a 3D printed mount, or it might
be included in the kit.
Spare Parts and Warranty – No spare part available means buying a

new frame when you break an arm or top plate. Having spare part
available is extremely important. Some manufacturers even offer
“lifetime” warranty which allows you can get replacement parts whenever
you break it. Although these frames normally cost a bit more to begin
with, it’s still something worth considering.
Protection for the motors – Extra material around the motor mount
could potentially protects your motors from damaging in crash. Downside
is the weight.
Chamfered carbon fibre edges – more and more frames come

chamfered finished. What used to be a time consuming DIY job filing
those sharp edges, you could now save a lot of work.
Battery Location – top or bottom?

Should we put LiPo battery on top or bottom of the frame?
This is another controversial subject, and yet again I think it’s really down
to personal preference and frame design.
Let’s say if I had the choice, I personally would prefer to have battery on
top whenever possible for 2 reasons:
Center of mass is closer to the level (or plane) of the propellers,

where the force is generated. This reduces the moment of inertia
when rotating, it also makes the quad handle corners better in my

experience
Landing on battery can damage it (crashing is another discussion,
because it’s unpredictable which side would hit the ground first)
Pendulum effect when mounting battery on the bottom which makes
control a little less precise when doing extreme movements
Anyway, it’s getting pretty common these days to mount battery on the
bottom with the popular X frames due to space limitation.
Evolution of Mini Quad Frame

The world of mini quad evolves extremely quickly, products can often
become redundant in just a few months. In this section I will feature some
of the interesting frame designs throughout the history of mini quad, they
all have some unique features to offer. Please note that this is not a
comparison. :)
If you think I should cover other frames, please comment down below!
The Blackout frames were the beginning of mini quad, released back in
2014. It was expensive and hardly available back then due to popularity.
Shortly after the ZMR250 made it more affordable and accessible for
hobbyists world wide (many consider it as a clone of the blackout). Most
frames at this time were 250 sizes and running 5″ and 6″ props.
The Lumenier QAV frames were made popular by Charpu (he was
sponsored by Lumenier after all). And then there was this cool looking,
but heavy Atas Defiance 265 and Robocat.
The Alien by ImpulseRC was an iconic frame, as it was one of the first
hybrid-X frames and endorsed by many top pilots at the time. The
Armattan F series frames were also very popular back then.
The most popular size of mini quad settled at 5″, because most people
believed 5″ is the best balance between power and agility. And we began
to see more and more “True-X” frames.
Later we have X frames with different camera pod designs, and 3D

printing started to play a bigger part in mini quad frames.
Different materials are used in mini quad frames, such as the Ragg-E
that uses super durable HDPE. On the other extreme, some frames tried
to shave as much weight as possible by making skinny arms, such as the
X-foot or the QAV-ULX.
Some frames released in the 2nd half of 2016, we started to see vertical
standoffs were replaced with side plates structures. The Armattan
Armadillo and DemonRC Fury are great examples of that.
At the beginning of 2017, aluminium (metal) brackets are used in carbon

fibre frames. The new designs create a strong structure yet it looks
awesome! Both of these frames, the DQuad Obsession and Armattan
Chameleon have been featured in our top 5 best frames in March 2017.
Buy clone frames to save money… ?

There are a lot of overpriced frames out there, you should consider
carefully how much a frame kit is really worth. And frame cloning is a
very common problem in this hobby because how cheap and easy it is to
copy a frame design.
If you are considering a clone, then you must really like the design. I don’t
encourage people to buy clones, but if that’s what you can afford, I don’t
blame you. Anyway, try to avoid clones whenever possible, not just for
the quality, it’s more about sustainability.
It takes a company months to design, test and release a frame, it doesn’t

cost the cloners anything. It’s especially so for mini quad frames, after all
they are just pieces of carbon fibre, anyone with a CNC machine can do
it. Therefore frame manufacturers inevitably suffer from copying and
cloning. Cloners can sell their frames at half of the price or even lower,
because they didn’t invest in R&D, and they are using cheaper material.
Conclusion
You can measure the performance of a motor or ESC pretty easily and
fairly objectively, but it’s a little bit more complicated than that with a
frame. There are a lot to consider in the design, aesthetics, features and
user experience.
Anyway I hope this guide has helped you understand the basics of mini
quad frame!
Looking for frame ideas? Check out the frames we reviewed and built in
the past: https://oscarliang.com/tag/frame/ and our 250 parts
list: https://oscarliang.com/250-mini-quad-part-list-fpv/#frame.
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Posted in Tutorial and tagged beginners, frame, mini quad on 31st March 2017 [https://oscarliang.com/mini-
quad-frame-basics/] . 9 Replies
9 thoughts on “How to choose Mini Quad Frame – The Basics and

Evolution”
Tim
5th September 2017 at 3:38 pm
Hi Oscar,
have you ever seen/reviewed the HMB frames from MultiRC? The HMB series are made of
durable plastic. I still have my HMB-235, which is being abused since 2015, and still holds
well, I can’t imagine any carbon frame to be as strong…
Dey
7th July 2017 at 9:19 pm
About avoiding clones … HAH! They are as good as the originals in terms of durability maybe
the nish is not as good but de nitely paying for a overpriced as fuck frame is not very
clever, not to mention that 80% of people in the hobby cannot a ord spending 140$ in an
alien so decide to go for a 20/30$ one.
If it wasn’t because chinese companies are inside the game, ImpulseRc and friends would
keep stealing people “because there wouldn’t be any other option”, something similar to
what has been happening with fatshark.
Mateusz
11th January 2018 at 7:58 am
It’s just an opinion or assumption that rc-aircraft CAD design and crash tests cost that much
money, but the facts are that in normal life it’s called investment and it pays o very quick,
after selling just a few copies. People involved in frame design and sells know that very well.
There are genuine designs on the market, that sell at price slightly above production costs,
and are so popular that their frames are often “in restocking” for every new design. If the
product costs 3-5x the production costs to cover advertising and free give-aways to bloggers,
than it’s very often not a very good frame, which hopefully disappears from the market. It’s
just a wrong business model. Thanks to cloners, we do not have monopoly on frames, new
designs are appearing and they get cheaper and cheaper to stay on the market, which is
GOOD!
Cocheese
4th April 2017 at 4:46 am
This guys been doing di erent things – came up with a “Z frame”. Being scratch built, looks
like it has its weaknesses but i’m liking the concept: downanddirtydrones.com/air-drag-and-
cross-sections/
Xephex
6th April 2017 at 4:36 am
Theoretically pitching the motors into a forward position and having the body angled
upwards instead of angling the camera is more e cient than our current chassis form
factors. Its more aerodynamic and xes some of the current issues with camera tilt.
Nils
1st April 2017 at 2:49 pm
Hi Oscar,
nice article, thanks. Can you identify the penultimate frame -the one with the silver brackets-.
I intend to buy it :-)
Regards
Nils
Jonah
29th May 2017 at 10:55 pm
That’s the Dquad Obsession.
Jason Tan
1st April 2017 at 1:27 am
Hey Oscar can you tell me what the name of the frame is with a curved nose that the FPV
camera looks through.
It’s the second or third one down depending how you count and has an orange FPV camera
and I think black and gold tiger “F” motors?
The body looks like it has been formed around a mold or jig.
Actually I’d be great to caption all the frames with their names – I know your intent was
probably not to advertise frames, but I’d bet there are tons of readers wondering what this
frame or that frame is.
I love the Charmeleons, however mine has little cut out “bumpers” at the end of the arms – is
the plain round arm end just for the suki?
Oscar Post author
3rd April 2017 at 6:30 pm
That’s the Sparrow R220 :)
I only check blog comments once or twice a week, if you want a quick reply you can post
your question on this forum IntoFPV.com... You might get a faster response from me there
(multirotor related only).

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2018. 02. 02.

HOW TO CHOOSE MINI QUAD FRAME –

 Facebook 50  Google  Twitter  Reddit

What is a mini quad frame?

Skitzo Dark Matter Frame – Reviewed on our blog

The Ideal Frame

The design and material of a frame determines how crash-resilient it is.

It should be as light weight as possible

Quadcopter frames have significant impact on your quad’s flight

Aesthetic and easy to build

Sparrow Knight R220 – Reviewed on our blog

As an interesting fact, we usually call our quads by the name of the

Material For Mini Quad Frames

Light weight – a lighter racing drone means faster speed, better

Carbon fiber is electrically conductive. If you have live wires

Construction of a Mini Quad Frame

The body houses and protects your electronics components including

The frame size have influence on the following factors:

Max propeller size

Frame Size Prop Size

Frame Shape and Arm Layout

X style frames normally are lighter in weight because of the reduction in

A stretch X frame also tends to weight more because of the additional

Square (Box) Frames

Other Frame Configurations

Carbon Fibre Thickness

Filing Carbon Fibre Edges

It’s best to do this under running water to avoid breathing in CF dust.

Rigidity – We have mentioned the importance of frame stiffness more

Weight is an extremely important factor to your quad’s performance.

Durability – It’s very difficult to predict how durable a frame is just by

HD Camera Mounting – If you plan to fly with an HD camera such as a

Spare Parts and Warranty – No spare part available means buying a

Chamfered carbon fibre edges – more and more frames come

Battery Location – top or bottom?

Center of mass is closer to the level (or plane) of the propellers,

when rotating, it also makes the quad handle corners better in my

Evolution of Mini Quad Frame

Later we have X frames with different camera pod designs, and 3D

At the beginning of 2017, aluminium (metal) brackets are used in carbon

Buy clone frames to save money… ?

It takes a company months to design, test and release a frame, it doesn’t

9 thoughts on “How to choose Mini Quad Frame – The Basics and

That’s the Dquad Obsession.

1st April 2017 at 1:27 am

frame or that frame is.

Oscar Post author

3rd April 2017 at 6:30 pm

That’s the Sparrow R220 :)

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