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Hey guys, throughout my time working with multirotors i have never seen a mini Octocopter, i have teen tonnes of min quads and a few Hex but no octos??? So I decided to build my own, this tiny beasty has 8 1534KV 53gram motors.
I could have gone smaller and gone for micro octo, but i wanted to be able to use 4s and 3s and these were the smallest motors that offered 4s capability.

http://hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__5423__FC_28_12_Brushless_Outrunner_1534kv.html

So i chose them, now i wanted this to be a fully fledged "drone" so i gave it enough internal space for the Taranis RX, the APM 2.6 and space for lighting controller.

The fact is all this micro quads etc do not offer the functionality of the APM, so i was determined to use it.

(on that note, please push hobbyking to relese the design files for the APM mini)

So anyways, the first frame i built was made from PVC, i made it in a vacuum former, I wanted it to be similar to the wardrones frame however as i had said to them , i had suspicions that the huge surface area under the prop blades would drastically affect performance and it did!

The copter was weak, lifitng itself was difficult, let alone a camera gimble!
And the worst part was it took me about 5 days to manufacture this thing eek.

I will also point out my arms are thinner than the wardrones frame was and so i can only imagine how much power they are loosing in flight.

Anyways, after all that effort and a dissapointing result, i went back to designing and made this:

The mini octocopter V2 laser file, this is one of two files for this simple but effective frame, it took me about 20 minutes to make the design and about 2 hours to cut and build the copter.

It can be made from MDF, plywood, acrylic etc, all are very strong, i chose MDF

It can withstand some hard impacts without taking much damage and is easy to fix.

I made large mounting areas for the key electronics so that you can use all sorts of setups, you can also remove 4 arms to use it as a Quadcopter or 5 to use as a tri copter.

This one looked far better and flew excellently!

 I hope you guys like the design, maybe this will inspire a generation on mini and micro ocotcopters hehe,

Just to sum it up, it can lift about 2KG using 8 1500kv with 7"props on 3s, i have 4s ESC's on order which should make it a rocket!

Tip to tip it is approx 55CM

So i hoped you liked it, i would like you to maybe answer a few yes or no questions please, not madatory hehe.

Yes or no to all please

1 Do you like the Idea of Mini Quads?  

2 Do you think the bright lighting will help with orientation?

3 Do you like the intergrated mini gimbal (go pro / mobious compatible)?

4 Do you think it is a robust (strong) design that can withstand a few dings?

5 Would you buy the Frame if it were to be sold, Costing about $10?

6 Do you find orientation to be an issue when distance flying multirotors?

7 Do you like the option of 4s and 3s for flight power?

8 Do you think this frame would work well with a variety of setups?

9 Do you use lighting on your copter to help with orientation?

10 do you prefer octos to Quadcopters?