Cinewhoop Drone

Single-piece printed airframe

The full airframe is modeled in SolidWorks as a single-piece printed frame integrating four ducts, motor mounts, and the top plate. Printing it as one piece removes fasteners and joints from the load path, at the cost of requiring every dimension to be correct before the print starts.

Four PLA prototypes were used to refine duct height, wall thickness, and motor stand-off geometry. Testing the prints identified wall flex, insufficient prop tip clearance, and stand-off heights that the CAD model did not predict.

4S power system and radio link

The stack runs on a 4S 14.8 V LiPo system built around an ESP32-class flight controller (a GEPRC TAKER F411 AIO with a built-in ELRS receiver) driving four 12 A ESCs, four GR1404 4500KV brushless motors, and Gemfan D63 tri-blade props.

Soldering and first power-up

I soldered the XT30 power input, a 220 µF filter capacitor, and the motor phase leads directly to the flight controller. On continuity testing I found a solder bridge across the R001 current sense resistor and corrected it before applying power for the first time.

A shorted sense resistor would have damaged the board as soon as the battery was connected, so I now test continuity across every joint before applying power.