The project

Onix 111 is a first-person view freestyle drone1 that I designed in 2017. It consists of a tiny frame made for 2.3" - 2.5" propellers. This frame had all the technology you could find in a larger 250 class FPV drone (5" propellers) at the time. It was designed to be very robust. For example, the camera was fully protected regardless of its angle and the battery was mounted on top to avoid landing on it.

I wanted something tiny because their bigger siblings were noisy and did not comply with the regulations in force at the time. The distance from motor to motor is only 111mm. It’s made from carbon fiber manufactured by Armattan Productions. The Onix111 was also my first serious project using Autodesk Fusion CAD software.

Mechanical drawing showing general dimensions

General dimensions

Autodesk Fusion CAD rendering with camera and pseudo electronic but without motors and propellers

Autodesk Fusion CAD rendering

Inspired, I invented a brand called “elevenQuad” and the drone was named “Onix111” because of its dimensions and the black color of the carbon fiber.

Banner with on the left the 11quad logo, in the center a rendering of the drone and on the right the Onix111 name with '2.5 inch' size written just under

Features

  • Quadcopter FPV drone
  • 111mm motor to motor
  • 2.3" to 2.5" props
  • 1104 to 1106 motors
  • Pythagorean 3:4:5 geometry
  • Runcam Micro Swift camera
  • Top mount battery
  • Camera angle from 0 to 90°
  • Almost no propellers in the field of view of the camera
  • Estimated at 15.4g carbon only (without optional back plates)
  • Optional 0.5g back plates to reinforce the frame and offer better cable management
  • 3 strong and super light M3 aluminum standoffs thanks to a 4mm outer diameter
  • 22mm long standoffs, enough to stack 3 electronic boards
  • Back plates can be replaced by custom 3D printed parts to add leds or buzzer
  • 20x20mm mounting holes for the electronic
  • Flight controller can be adjusted back and forth to improve the gyro position or cable management
  • Top plate support up to 61mm long battery
  • Easy access to VTX button and LCD

  1. Definition of first-person view (radio control) on Wikipedia ↩︎