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After two long weeks of waiting, finally the components arrived!

First of all, I am very impressed with the Tarot FY680 frame kit. Very impressed. Putting it together was a dream, the tolerance on the screw holes and their precise positioning was way better than I expected and the instructions were fairly clear, although there was no writing (all diagrammatic).

This is what came out of the box:

The carbon fibre is machined very nicely. This thing is going to look mean.

One small gripe is that they missed out some of the coloured plastic washers that connect the prop mounts as shown below:

Without these washers the collars will not fasten tightly around the beam, causing the prop mounts to slip. All in all, about 8 blue ones were missing, which meant that I had to fashion some makeshift ones out of heatshrink tubing. This works ok, but is not a permanent fix.

Here is the finished frame!

As you can see, it is a very mean looking machine. I was under the impression that the rods would be carbon fibre like the rest of the frame, however these are steel. They don't look too bad though. The central console has plenty of room for hardware and best of all, it can fold up into a compact package. The way I plan to route my ESCs will probably mean I will loose some of the folding capability at first, but I will figure out a way around this at a later stage.

Mounting the motors:

Unfortunately the pre-drilled holes in the motor mounts did NOT match up with the NTM Prop Drive 28-30S 800kV motors I bought, nor did they match with the adapter mounts in the matching Accessory Pack. So I had to drill my own, which proved to be quite repetitive and difficult (24 precision drilled holes in total). As you can see, drilling through the carbon fibre was quite sketchy, I had to go slow to ensure that I did not crack the mount. Some burring was unavoidable.

Attaching prop adapters:

Using 3mm screws to fasten motors to mount:

All props mounted:

Finally, the frame is completed!

In conclusion, if you are planning on building a hexcopter, I would thoroughly recommend this frame. The quality and ease of building took me by surprise and believe me when I say, I am not easily surprised!

Some things to keep in mind if you are considering a FY680:

• You may receive less washers than you need (fairly minor problem given the overall quality of the frame, but still a problem nonetheless).
• You will need a set of small allen keys (1-5mm) to complete the build, and a small phillips head screwdriver.
• Be careful with your motor choice if you do not wish to drill holes in the prop mounts. The provided holes are fairly standard I assume, however my motors were not compatible. This is strange because I'm fairly certain Hobbyking NTM motors aren't exactly rare.

On the whole, excellent frame, you get what you pay for. Spares seem to be readily available on the Tarot website, and only time will tell whether these are needed as I begin to subject it to my terrible flying. Stay tuned for my next post as I mount the electronics.

Blue Skies