Hexacrafter X8 - Finished and Ready for Service!

[SleepyC]

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Ok guys, quite a few of you have asked for pictures of my finished Hexacrafter X8 Coax, SO here it is.

If you have never seen a Hexacrafter frame, they are a top notch, 100% professional, top-of-the-line, you can't really do better, multirotor frame. They are designed locally here in Ohio and actually manufactured here in the US. (A lot of it right here in Ohio.) Each kit individual parts are inspected and hand packaged by Andrew and his family. The kits are very complete, use THE best hardware you will ever see in a kit and are as forward thinking as a kit can be. Andrew is always four steps a head and usually tries to have mounting holes for most of the popular gimbals, and other accessories. Also, the kits come with a power distro board that could literally power a house. You will never have hot wires or a power bottle neck with a Hexacrafter kit.

The kit I chose was the HC-850. It can take up to 18" blades and is perfect for the Movi M5, Gremsy H6 or any of the other gimbals of that size. I chose to use the Avroto Lift series 3520's on this rig as I have personally found the Avroto motors to be the most reliable and coolest running motors around. Also Jim is from Ohio (keeping with my local theme) and has some of the best customer service in the brushless motor market!(Not to say that other motor manufactures don't make a great product, but when I find something that works, I tend to stick with it)

For ESC's I am using the ZTW Spider 50AMP opto w/simonK. But I have added a 1"x 1"x.75" Heat Sink to each ESC to just make sure they stay nice and cool.

Tarot Retracts are ready to slap on thanks to the retract mounting kit Andrew offers. They can accept several popular brands of retracts, and he even has a way to use the older style DJI S-800 retracts.

Obviously hanging underneath the rig is my Movi M5 and it's a perfect fit. There is enough room to run a toad in the hole, but I have heard some people have vibe issues with it, so I decided to hard mount mine to the vibe damp plate. Speaking of this plate. Andrew did not just toss on some rubber balls randomly to a few slabs of carbon fiber and hope for the best. He sent specific payload weights to a vibration analyzing company and had them manufacture specific rubber balls to fit his vib system to truly offer a tuned system that deadens vibrations while not allowing the gimbal to shake or move under forward motion. It is seriously bad ass.

The Hexacrafter X8 is available in a few versions the HC-850 (850mm motor to motor) and the HC-1150 (1150mm motor to motor) and both can use the standard motor mounting plates or the larger plates to accommodate the larger motors like the T-motor U7.

Another feature is that both sizes of the Hexacrafter X8 frame can be made to fold by changing a few things, and can be packed down in 5 - 10 minutes.

Here are a few assembly pics. There are no surprises. The manual included with the kit is superb, and if you have any questions or concerns, if you call Hexacrafter, you will actually speak to Andrew who is always willing to help you out.

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here it is during tuning and testing with 6.75lbs of weight...
SMOOOTH!

And now the finished masterpiece.... I LOVE THIS THING. IT SCREAMS BAD ASS!!
The HEXACRAFTER HC-850 X8
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YEA BUDDY!

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[Motopreserve]

Nice work sleepy.

 

[crayfellow]

Looks very nice. Did you use an off the shelf heat sink and the usual thermal paste? Remove shrink from the ESC's?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[SchrodingersCar]

Does the frame come with a power distribution option or is that from elsewhere?

 

[lazylathe]

That is one sweet looking, sounding and flying rig!
Very nice!

 

[SleepyC]

Looks very nice. Did you use an off the shelf heat sink and the usual thermal paste? Remove shrink from the ESC's?
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yes.. eBay special heat sinks and the paste from Micro Center... I cut squares that fit the heat sinks into the shrink wrap and removed the label to reveal the original heat sink..

Does the frame come with a power distribution option or is that from elsewhere?

The frame comes with the Power distro. Pre soldiered leads using a high temp torch. It is SERIOUSLY a great system. No power worries..

 

[crayfellow]

cool - thanks. Seems like a great way to go when the ESC's are not immediately cooled by prop wash. Cheers!

 

[Pumpkinguy]

Awesome, just awesome.

I second what sleepy says about @Hexacrafter and his products. I will not buy another frame after dealing with Andrew. I may have dropped a couple grand on his products but I probably received 5 grand in after sales service and support. When a dealer is there for you like Andrew it is truly priceless.

 

[Jim Schultz]

What landing gear is that? Also, what accessories did you purchase from Hexacrafter for the HC-850? Rails, or just a gimbal mount? Looks great!

 

[SleepyC]

What landing gear is that? Also, what accessories did you purchase from Hexacrafter for the HC-850? Rails, or just a gimbal mount? Looks great!

Those are the $128 Tarot Landing gear that everyone is using. I have had 5 pairs now on 5 rigs and only had one problem and that happened when walking up some stairs. The Tarot gear are seriously awesome and cheap enough to keep an extra set in the "spares" tub in your work kit.

And for this rig, the accessories I chose were the following:

(1) SEIP - Small Electronics Isolation Plate System

(1) KRLGS-Q Quad Strut Retact Landing Gear Mounting Kit

(1) GIDS MV- Type 2 Gimbal Isolation Dampener System-Movi

All the accessories are top notch and really complete the rig and make it "PRO".

 

[SleepyC]

If all wives would turn their heads and not look, My total for this beast adds up. But a reliable rig is not cheap.
So with the (2) 10,000 Pulse 6S packs sitting on it, A2, Avroto Motors, Spider ESC's, Heat Sinks, Bullet connectors, PRC8 Batt connectors, 15" Carbon Props, Hexacrafter Airframe, Hexacrafter accessories, build supplies (Shrink wrap, zipties, soldier) Movi M5 Package (case, remote etc) and my Gh4 with the 12mm or even the Cine lens (was balenced on my other handheld Movi for a job tomorrow during this pic) And Connex

I'm looking at a grand total of around $12,269.68 US flying in the air.

 

[Jason S]

Nice build!!

Any reason why you choose the Tarot Retracts over the m5 landing gear?

Or just because the kit comes with landing gear you just used that instead?

 

[SleepyC]

Nice build!!

Any reason why you choose the Tarot Retracts over the m5 landing gear?

Or just because the kit comes with landing gear you just used that instead?

I have the M5 tripod gear and although some love them I do not. Few reasons, it seems like the gimbal needed aditional tuning from the forces of the wind hitting the gear, not a HUGE problem but more time, and 2, when you have the tri-pod gear attached, it's pretty impossible to fly 1 man even for a flight as you have to take off with the gimbal in the "off" position and then fire it up after take off.

With the retracts, if my cam op has to sneeze or pee, he can go away and I can still fly a simple straight on "M5 in Follow me" mode shot.
Also the gimbal can be tuned quickly and started in a "on" position from take off.

 

[Hexacrafter]

SleepyC also has an early version of the Pre-Assembled Bus bars for Octo-S.

http://www.hexacrafter.com/179-assembly-service-bus-bar-soldered-assembled-octo-s.html
When planning an aircraft with accessories, please contact HexaCrafter as combination discounts are available when adding accessories such as load rails, landing gear, electronics isolation, gimbal mounts & isolation, Avroto & T-Motor motors & ESC....
We are interested in each customers specific needs, so let us know the application and we can suggest proven solutions.

 

[SleepyC]

SleepyC also has an early version of the Pre-Assembled Bus bars for Octo-S.

http://www.hexacrafter.com/179-assembly-service-bus-bar-soldered-assembled-octo-s.html
When planning an aircraft with accessories, please contact HexaCrafter as combination discounts are available when adding accessories such as load rails, landing gear, electronics isolation, gimbal mounts & isolation, Avroto & T-Motor motors & ESC....
We are interested in each customers specific needs, so let us know the application and we can suggest proven solutions.

No joke, I would 100% suggest calling Andrew before you purchase a rig, as he REALLy knows his rigs and can seriously direct you into the right direction.

 

[SchrodingersCar]

So I hope you don't mind if I completely rip off this build...

 

[SleepyC]

So I hope you don't mind if I completely rip off this build...

Not at all. Let me assure you that this is not just me, I discussed at length with Andrew, Jim and others what components to use.
Still now, Andrew woudl recommend teh T-motor 60AMP ESC's, but they were not out when I started this build.

But the frame, motors, and gimbal I can not recommend enough!

 

[SchrodingersCar]

Not to drag this whole debate back out into the air, but have you considered larger props on the bottom to boost efficiency? Are people still doing that?

 

[SleepyC]

Not to drag this whole debate back out into the air, but have you considered larger props on the bottom to boost efficiency? Are people still doing that?

I've tried it and if it helps I didn't notice. But I did notice a ESC temp increase and weird yaw habits.

 

[Pumpkinguy]

So I hope you don't mind if I completely rip off this build...

I don't think there is a builder out there that would be insulted by someone working off their successful design.