Hey Justin, would you care to give any advice on the F550? Is it a good frame, did you use the power distribution board? What motor / esc combo are you using? All I have so far is an APM 2.0 pilot board on order from DIY Drones and have a few months to put everything else together. I want to know what your thoughts on the F550 frame are and would you have done something different? I am deciding between that and the next level frame but like the built in power distribution board on the F550. It would keep wires more organized and reduce the weight used by a wire harness. Am I connecting the dots or am I missing something? Also what do you think the max payload is that you could carry?
yoadrian,
I've got both the F450 and the F550 right now and I must say that, as much as I like the F450, the 550 is better in every way from my perspective. First off, the frame layout provides much more space for components and wiring...so much so, in fact, that mine feels naked and empty compared to the identically equipped F450. I use these guys for FPV and aerial video purposes, so having more room to pile on all the equipment is a definite plus. Second of all, the F550 is much more stable than the F450 in pretty much all situations in which I've flown so far. I've tuned the Naza on both of them as finely as I'm able to and I still find the F550 to beat the F450 hands-down.
I am using the power distribution board on both models and they both work great. I would suggest adding some of your own strain relief on the wires near to the solder joints (hot glue, zip ties, or something similar), but other than that the connections are solid and the setup is very clean and easy to modify rapidly.
I'm flying both models as stock ARF kits with all the DJI components in them as well as the Naza FC and they work great. I'm not familiar with the NextLevel frame, so I can't comment as to the comparison, but I can say that I'm pleased with my purchases from DJI so far.
Right now, I'm up to an all-up-weight (AUW) of 3kg on the F550 with two 3S 5300 packs in parallel and I get about 10 minute of flight time with that configuration. I don't have a gimbal on it yet, but I've been doing the duration versus weight testing to get a feel for what it'll handle. As I mentioned in my original post, this will give you over 1000g of gimbal/camera/FPV payload and still 10+ minutes of flying time.
There are only a few complaints that I have so far...
1. The DJI motor/esc combos seem to be hit or miss (caveat: in my experience only), as three out of the ten (F450 + F550) power systems that I've got have motors that start out slow and twitchy and then eventually spool up to full speed after pumping the throttle a few times. On the F450, I think I've traced this down to the ESC as opposed to the motors (others have found it to be due to the motors), but I haven't figured it out yet on the F550. To be honest, I've been having so much fun with it, I haven't wanted to tear it apart, but I know I'm going to have to figure something out prior to putting expensive camera equipment on it.
2. The DJI props are ok, but I suspect that this thing will come alive with Graupners or the like...now to find a place that has Graupners in stock!
At the end of the day, I enjoy playing around on the F450, but had I known what I know now, I suspect that I would have just gone straight to the F550. That having been said, I'm holding onto the little guy since it has it's own perks...
Let me know if you've got any other questions. Thanks and apologies to the rest of the group for going off topic a bit...
Cheers,
-->J