Ok, here is my review of the new arms.* Scale of 1 to 5
Durability 5 – It’s aluminum. And these guys are way more stiff than the originals. You are going to bust your props and center plates before you permanently damage one of the arms.
Cooling 5-* This is one of my favorite parts…I wanted the extended arms mainly to use larger motors. I bought Suny Sky 24-16 800kv motors, and used 12x 4.5 apc Multirotor props ( the new apc props designed for us) The lift will inevitably be awesome but I wanted to make sure that these bad boys would stay cool with a heavy load. I am flying with about 8lbs of gear, and I have both flown for longer flight times, and shorter times* neither of which ever made the motors or arms feel even slightly cooler. The arms definitely wick the heat away…Changed out the batts 3 times, flew for 20 minutes with only enough down time to change batts and never got hot.
Weight 4 – The weight increase is not significant, esepecially if you use these guys towards their main benefit, larger motors and props. I am flying wit 2 4amp 4s batts. They are heavier than other solutions, but the weight is completely offset by the benefits.
Mountability 4- Here is where I had my only issues. This is where one must be careful, but not because of anything on Aimdroix’s end…..There are effectively 2 sets of screws that you can use to mount the stock DJI motors to the stock arms when you buy the f550 kit. The motor screws in the motor packs, and the frame screws which are the same size. For the stock arms, the frame screws are fine and work great because they are longer, and have a recessed piece. But for the aimdroix arms, that recessed piece will wedge its way in to the aluminum very easily causing the screws to be over torqued. Aimdroix’s simple answer to this should be “only use motor mounting screws- do not use screws with the threading missing near the hex end” I used the motor screws when I installed the new motors and they were perfect.* I can take pics on this to clarify later.
Quality 6!- The quality is amazing. You guys should tout this all day. You can look and feel that this upgraded is more professional and better suited for more professional aspects/more dynamic uses of the hobby like AP or FPV. If anyone sees this big bird now, they say, man, how many thousands did it cost you? That’s because it really is that nice.
Handling 4- I give it a 4 because there is no gain settings relevant to the new setup (yet)….I have been playing with tuning the gains, and I have found that I need to make sure I have remote control of the gains so that I can adjust for different conditions. While this is generally true even on the stock setup, users will find that they are adjusting gains slightly more as a result of the longer arms. I suspect better prop/motor combos will solve most of this, but the usual troubleshooting of the gains gets more complicated as the arms are longer. When she is set for her conditions, she is as smooth as can be. Even with a heavy load and moving around.
What would I add?? Nothing. These things are obviously engineered well, and given the due diligence of a professional product.* I am stoked that I made this upgrade. Make sure the users are aware that they will need to extend the length of the esc’s because the longer arms make the esc stop just short of the motors. A best practice of using deans or some other type of power connectors to connect the ESC’s to the main board would answer this nicely, and give the users an easier way to upgrade later without having to unsolder ESC’s.
Thanks for making an awesome product guys. It is a lot of fun to fly a big bird that is both smooth and agile when need be.
