Defiant Wings Renegade Build log - 24" EPP fpv ship

[thenated0g]

I have been wanting to get back into fpv and have had my eye on the Defiant wings Renegade as its light 24" epp plane for micro fpv parts. You can fly super slow, IE probably wont be breaking a lot of parts on this, good for flying around the yard and tight places without to much stress.
$50 https://www.defiantwings.com/aircraft/renegade

The kit comes with pretty much everything you need except glue and electronics.
Build instructions: https://static1.squarespace.com/sta...b4b008e832f/1599074750505/Renegade+Layout.pdf

I used e6000 for the construction which, compared to most glider builds, was pretty easy and straightforward. I am going with a 2 servo setup, but you could add a 3rd servo if you wanted flaps/etc on the ailerons.

Here are the parts i ended up using:

Emax ECO 1407 3300KV

DYS SE1407 ll kv3600

The DYS SE1407 3600kv is a thoroughbred race motor designed for quadcopters; we use them to power a number of small aircraft like our Carbon Falcon, because of their light weight and powerful 450 grams of thrust. This motor features, imported NMB ball bearings, N52 neodymium magnets, 0.2mm...

alofthobbies.com

DYS XM 20A V1 esc

XM 20 Amp Speed Controller

specialized FPV racing ESC

alofthobbies.com

Power HD DSM44

Power HD DSM44 - Slim Digital Servo - 1.6Kg-cm (22.22 oz-in), 0.07 sec - 6g

Power HD makes a great little digital that packs a punch. Fast, strong and precise, and they even put a coreless motor in there.

alofthobbies.com

FrSky Archer R4

FrSky Archer R4 - 4 Channel ACCESS Receiver

The FrSky Archer R4 receiver is perfect for all types and sizes of models requiring 4 channels or less. As it utilizes the new and exciting ACCESS protocol, you can expect Over The Air firmware updates (OTA), increased range and telemetry performance as well as configurable S.Port/F.Port and...

alofthobbies.com

Gemfan Flash 4052 Tri-Blade 4"

Gemfan Flash 4052 Tri-Blade 4" Prop 4 Pack - Choose Your ColorClear

Insane turning performance and fast response!

www.racedayquads.com

RunCam Racer Nano 2 1000TV 2.1mm

RunCam Racer Nano 2 1000TVL CMOS 4:3/16:9 PAL/NTSC FPV Camera 1.8 - Orange

The Nano 2 improves upon the original nano while still being one of the smallest cameras available from Runcam! Now offering 1000TVL resultion!Perfect for your next micro, or anything you want to save weight on. Check out the rest of our Nano FPV Cams, and all our RunCam products! Features Even...

www.racedayquads.com

AKK Nano 3 Micro 25-200mW 5.8GHz VTX

Drone VTX for Sale - Drone Video Transmitters

Make a drone an FPV drone with a powerfuld drone video transmitter (VTX). No matter what connector you use, we have the VTX for your build.

www.racedayquads.com

VAS Micro Switchblade 5.8GHz U.FL Antenna

VAS Micro Switchblade 5.8GHz U.FL Antenna - RHCPDefault Title

The Micro Switchblade gives your micro sized aircraft top notch performance, yet weighs only 1 gram. Don’t let the small size fool you, the Micro switchblade boasts an incredible 2.25dbic gain and 0.92 axial ratio making it perfect for freestyle and backyard bashing. Based on the proven Patent...

www.racedayquads.com

Hobbywing 3A UBEC - above esc do not have ubec and i wanted cleaner power for fpv feed.

Hobbywing 3A UBEC

Sometimes, Internal BECs in Electronic Speed Controls just can't dish out enough amperage and it's not fun to find that out in flight. The Hobbywing 3A UBEC is a great option for those wanting some redundancy on their R/C aircraft. This switch mode BEC is capable of putting out either 5V or 6V...

alofthobbies.com

500 and 800mah 2s lipos.

Gens Ace 2S 800mAh 45C XT30

Designed specifically for UAV / UAS market, Tattu batteries have been designed to a higher tolerance level than your typical hobby grade battery. If you are looking for a lightweight, reliable battery to power your latest creation, the Tattu series of ba

alofthobbies.com

Its been a few years since i ordered fpv equipment, i can not believe how microscopic some of these parts are.

 

[thenated0g]

Wings have an I-beam setup with fiberglass kite rods and the horizontal stab has a top spar only to keep the weight down in the tail.
It is recommended to keep the EPP uncovered except for some goop or similar on the leading edges of the wing and motor pods to help with "landings".

The kit come with 3d printed motor mounts which are glued and screwed to the motor pods. My esc's came with little snap enclosures so i glued them underneath the motor pods.
Also recommended is to put some glue spread thin on the hinge lines, this helps stop them from tearing off in a crash.

There is a nice hatch underneath and an included lid, which i hinged on with a e6000 hinge, that can hold all your electronics internally.

 

[thenated0g]

Defiant Wings facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/527063417679143

Some videos:

 

[thenated0g]

From comments on the Facebook group it looks like flight times anywhere from 8-20 minutes depending on 500mah2 - 800 2s and how you fly it.

Should have mine finished in the next couple days.

 

[Wayne]

OK- That looks like a fun little thing. Might be fun around my house.

 

[thenated0g]

Working on the electronics this morning:


Also Andre shared his setup with me, he has 2 servos mounted under the wing so he can dial in flaps.

 

[thenated0g]

One little wrinkle in The matrix. wasted about 20 minutes this morning trying to figure out why my ESCs would not turn on or beep or do anything and I just assumed it was my problem with radio setup on the x20. And looking at the wiring I happen to see the label for the ESC's and their minimum voltage is 3S so I got some 450 tatus on order and I am going to change the props to 50/50 tri blades

 

[Wayne]

Don't feel too bad, I ran into the same thing on a similar build.

 

[thenated0g]

Don't feel too bad, I ran into the same thing on a similar build.

another thing i keep doing is, even though 2.4 is enabled on the x20, i dont enable the internal module at all and than wonder why i cant register. oh well ill get it eventually.

 

[Wayne]

LOL - Done that one too. Couple of the staff loved the X20 radios and bought them also, one of the guys is brand new to ACCESS, so he has been having fun remembering the new steps to bind. I'll admit that I'm stuck in ACCST land, but that is partially due to testing the new ACCST firmware we are developing.

 

[thenated0g]

After this little build im going to jump into the inav world. Prepping for a nice big fpv wing build with flight controller, 5.8 fpv with smartaudio, etc. I need to consolidate all my old fpv ships into one nice one and reclaim some wall space in my shop. But for now i can just lay all the electronics out and start watching inav tuts on youtube. I didnt really want to get into inav but i wanted 900mhz and that requires the sbus that a flight controller has. But now i have the chance to play around with dual RX's, 900 and 2.4, at the same time too. So this little renegade is an easy way to get back into the electronics of fpv stuff before the big one.

 

[thenated0g]

Shawn over at defiant wings has been a good online friend, helped me a lot with answers when i was getting into hot wire cutting. He is going to be releasing his D52 in the next month or two and im going to build one out when they are released:

 

[Wayne]

@RafaelAvila is our Inav expert should you need some help along the way.

 

[rcsoar4fun]

I have the same FPV system in a toothpick quad and I have been pretty happy with it. This thread reminds me I have a mini Skyhunter I need to build.

And I have a sailplane related inav project I need to move to the front burner.

 

[RafaelAvila]

Hello @Wayne and @thenated0g i currently have a bixler and a small skyhunter racer running INAV with return to home GPS among other awesome features like Auto Launch... and also recently helped a friend in florida, by remote access install a new system. TBS Tracer and DJI HD FPV in conjunction with INAV, and everything worked much better than expected I would be more than happy to help if you need anything

 

[thenated0g]

I have the same FPV system in a toothpick quad and I have been pretty happy with it. This thread reminds me I have a mini Skyhunter I need to build.

And I have a sailplane related inav project I need to move to the front burner

Thanks! I have a Matek F722-WPX and know enough to get it most of the way. I have a bunch of f722 specific videos bookmarked when i get to it, but thanks for the offer, i will ask you in that build thread whenever i get it going. I have been doing FC's off and on since multiwii days but its not something i enjoy and when it gets off track of a tutorial i get stuck.

Ill be going inav with gps and smartaudio with a 900mhz frsky sbus unit and a 2.4 access unit sbus'd to it for tandem setup. Using my x20 ethos radio. Just analog video on this build no DJI stuff.

@Wayne this reminds me of our discussions about trying out some longer range fpv slope gliding. I was just looking and its only about 1.5km from the Sunset beach glider launch to the north end of the state park. Make it that far gliding and you could engage a motor

 

[thenated0g]

Final touch was adding the FPV gear and getting the view set up correctly. Final weight is about 256 g which is back towards the more tail heavy side of the recommended CG but still within spec, but that's what I'm going to try it at for maiden.

 

[rcsoar4fun]

The Matek 722 is a nice FC. I have a 5in quad I built with the quad version. I wanted to test out a servo release, but I think the pinout changes if I go to Inav.

Looking forward to hearing your results

 

[thenated0g]

 

[Wayne]

Is it done yet?