Eachine Twig Cine drone conversion with Geprc Cygnet CX3

A while ago I have reviewed the Eachine Twig and I have mentioned that my intent was to use the parts and convert it into an 3 inch HD cine drone, based on 1105 motors.
I own a Cinebee 75 which is good flyer, small, noisy, with very short flight times and sensitive to mild wind conditions. The size difference doesn’t matter much to me and I’m better off with double the prop size since the flight performance is unmatched.
During my review I have found out that the Eachine motors used on the Twig are relatively economical thus providing about 6-7 minutes of flight time with 3S 450mAh battery. This was a good starting point for creating a cine drone with flight time of about 3-5 minutes.

I already own the Diatone GTB 339 Cube and I like it very much being one of my favorite drones for park flying. The only downside is that this version uses RunCam Nano V2 camera and I needed something capable of recording an HD video without having the propellers in view.

The Frame

In order to have my propellers out of view I needed new frame and I have decided to use the Geprc Cygnet CX3 for the job. Geprc has proven record of producing top quality products, frames included. The attention to details and the provided extras along with the frame put them among the top budget drone manufacturers.

The frame is made of 3K carbon with 7075 CNC-ed aluminum front and rear cages. Top and bottom plate thickness is 3mm bringing it to overall weight of around 37 grams.
As the other frames provided by Geprc the Cygnet also comes with plenty accessories, like 2 battery straps, antenna tubes, XT30 connector with wires, a capacitor, and small led board that is mounted in the back TPU printed cover.

Conversion

This frame is intended to be used with 20 x 20 cm stack, and the Eachine Twig comes with CRAZYBEE F4FR all in one board which is 25 X 25 cm so in order to mount it I have 3D printed an adapter that sandwiches the bottom plate. The vibrations are dampened by using the rubber grommets that come with the Cygnet.

This is by no means a perfect solution, rather it is just a proof of concept and it just worked for me. If you are interested, you can get this adapter on Thingiverse.

The next thing to do was to de-solder the motor connectors and extend the motor wires. The motor connectors were interfering with the board placement and the motor wires weren’t long enough to be routed.

This was a bit tricky since the ESC motor pads are relatively small but all ended well in the end.

 

The video transmitter is placed above the flight controller.
I have used a Caddx Turtle V2 which has 20 X 20 board and it fitted perfectly in the front mount of the Cygnet.

Flight Performance

I’m really impressed with the flight performance. There are some performance loses in comparison with the original Twig because of the added weight, but for a Cine drone they are negligible.
Here is a video from the maiden flight.

I have even tried adding a prop-guards similar to the ones used on a Cinequeen, unfortunately the added weight was too much and it resulted in bad flight performance.

All in all, for the price the Eachine Twig has some really good components for an affordable price and I would highly recommend it for similar conversions.

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