Mikrokopter Mikrokopter frame vs. Droid

[MICROFOE]

I have been looking at some of the kits and different parts for the Hexa and Octocopters and noticed that the Droid frames are 3-4 times the price of the Mikrokopter frames. What are the advantages of the Droid that makes them worth that much more? Is it better to go with a set kit or is it better to mix and match parts, more of a custom setup?

How long does it take to build the unit from a kit and what kind of total cost can I expect?
I am looking for the photography angle and a smaller amount of just general flying.

 

[Bartman]

Microfoe,
Welcome to the forums, we hope you find everything you need here!
The MK kit frames work just fine and I flew mine up until just recently with little to no problem. I suspect I was up against the max weight it could carry and it didn't blink an eye. The Droidworx frames on the other hand are a step up in terms of design and materials and they lend themselves a bit more to adaption of additional stuff. Give me one or the other and I could live with it just fine, but if money's no object then I'll probably go with the Droidworx.
Time to build depends on you, your experiences, your work habits, etc. My first Okto build took me a couple of weeks and that's probably a week longer than most just because I took my time and made sure every step was done correctly. The result was an amazing flying machine that survived everything I asked of it except for the simulated space shuttle reentry maneuver into a tree and even that episode left my electronics, motors, and quite amazingly, my camera intact (FWIW, the MKTR camera mount makes a wonderful reentry shield). All up with a camera mount, wireless equipment, a Canon camera, two batteries per flight, plus the MK kit I figure I had $5500 or so flying around every time it lifted off.
The upside to all this is that it worked great and has provided me with an immeasurable amount of experience with which I'm now building other things. The downside is that it was so expensive and important to me that I didn't really ever fly it for fun.
If you're brand new to this we could help with some of the basic decisions but at some point you have to just get started as this isn't as easy to learn just from watching others. A good way to start is to buy a basic quad whether it's MK or something else and just start flying it. Learn to fly a basic quad before ever flipping the GPS switch and you'll be assured a very fun and successful experience. The MK basic quad can be expanded to either a flat Okto (eight arms in a flat circular arrangement) or a coaxial quad (four arms each with a motor on top and bottom) at a future time and the same electronics and motors can be used.
Hope that helps!
Bart

 

[ovdt]

Hello,

I also own both MK QuadroXL and Droidworx AD6-HL frames. Let me summarize with cons and pros:

MK Frames Pros:
* Easy to build
* Using standart aliminium square arms, which you can buy locally cheap.
* Suitable for learning flying multirotors

MK Frames Cons:
* Not as rigid as Droidworx
* Some parts quality are incredibly bad. For instance, standart landing gear, Lipo holder etc. They don't worth a penny if you ask me.
* Not suitable for heavy lifting. Needs some modifications if you want a heavy lifter. For instance you need better center plates which can resist the high tension
* Parts are very expensive if you ask me. 12 Euros for a 29cm aliminum arm? Oh no....


Droidworx Frames Pros:
* Very rigid, and suitable for mid-to-high heavy lifting operations. The build quality if very good for most of the parts.
* They heave an excellent landing gear which has a bay for Lipos. It's also eide enough for photography and video.
* The company is improving the design day to day.
* Their latest motor mounting adaptor is one of tho most efficient and reliable one ( the heavy lift versions, I'm not happy with the standart ones (40mm) . It's hard to mount the screws, and easy to break them)


Droidworx Cons:
* Especially motor mounting adaptors are too expensive. There are some parts like gear rail adaptor, which is easy to break
* You have to buy the spares from Droidworx if you don't know designing and machining. Normally, if you use std MK frames, you can buy std aliminium arms from your local shop.

I recommend you the Rust Frame Rev 8 from aglhobbies.com . The price is very reasonable. Motor mounting adaptors are also available and you have the freedom to choose from round or square arms. Even you can use carbon round tubes.

The pros and cons I listed are my experiences. Some of our friend maybe will not agree with specific points.

What I'm doing right now?

I'm building my own frames. But if I wouldn't buy MK or Droidworx frames, I wouldn't know the weak points of them so I couldn't build my own.