Syma X5C Race Body

I came across this great race drone design for the Syma X5C https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1531770 but wasnt satisfied after mounting all parts together so I decided to do a bit redesign. My design is much lighter and also have a camera integration!

All parts must be printed with ABS! Dont try to print your drone with PLA (like me). It is too stiff and your drone will break apart after the first "hard landing". ABS is lighter and more durable making it the better material to print drone bodies.

To save weight I glued everything together with ABS glue which you can easily do yourself (https://www.matterhackers.com/news/how*to*make*abs*juice*glue*and*slurry). Parts stick together as printed in one part!

Here the improvements I did so far:

• Added a camera mount to the cover

(I personally like that cause you can film easier yourself while flying the drone. Disadvantage is that you need to open the body to remove the SD card.)

• Removed unnecessary parts to save weight form the body

(i.e. for the arm mounts)

• Reoriented LED holes and made small frames for easier LED mounting.

(Press the LED in the frame and fix with a bit ABS glue. Front LEDs might need to be cutt a bit which is no problem.)

• Added a frame for the on/off switch for better handling

(for even better fix use a drop of ABS glue on top)

• Added optional holes for M2 screws and nuts

(I used to glue the mount to save weight.)

• Removed filling from the arms

(not necessary for this form and when printing ABS)

• Improved mounts for the gear

(They dont look so "attached" to the body anymore and get more stability as sitting deeper in the arms)

• Added propeller protectors
• Added screw holes to connect base and cover

Assemble:

1. After printing all the parts you should first add the main board into the base. Glue the LEDs and the power switch and place the battery cable.
2. Prepare your gears and insert them into the arms (sand if necessary). You need to cut two parts of your gear to make it fit perfectly into the arm. The picture shows you where exactly.

https://cdn.thingiverse.com/assets/88/14/a4/45/c0/featured_preview_Anmerkung_2020-04-26_153751.png

The gear should sit that strong that you dont need to fix them, still I used a bit electrical tape in different colors also to see easily where is the front of the done. 3. Now you can glue the arms to the base. Push them into the holes until they are in the same level as the frame connected to the base. 4. Solder you motors back to the main board. 5. Insert the camera lense into the respective mount in the cover. I used a bit Uhu Pattafix which is great to mount it but be able to remove it. Also its great to avoid Jello! 6. Glue the battery cover. In case you want to screw it you have to do that before the main board. 7. Screw the cover to the base, I used M2 screws to do that. 8. Mount your propellers and slide on the protectors for the propeller. They should hold nicely but in case you want them to hold stronger you can add a piece of 1.75 mm filament to the hole at the protector. The arm have a hole and the same position to keep it optimal in place. 9. Optional. Add some gear protectors as well: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1919029

If you print everything using my settings your drone should be slightly lighter than the original Syma! With camera and gear and propeller protectors!!! https://cdn.thingiverse.com/assets/ba/1d/4b/d8/7d/featured_preview_IMG_20200413_182145.jpg https://cdn.thingiverse.com/assets/01/d6/5e/04/dc/featured_preview_IMG_20200425_001210.jpg

Enjoy printing and flying and dont forget to share in case you made this! Also let me know your experience in the comments.

Print Settings

Printer:

Geeetech I3 Pro B

Rafts:

Doesn't Matter

Supports:

Yes

Resolution:

0.2

Infill:

10%

Filament: Geeetech ABS

Black

Notes:

I used Cura for slicing. 2 Shells/top and bottom layers are more than enough. I also added "ironing" to get a nice top surface. Found it easier to print the cover with raft but have also good experience printing on ABS glue primed printing beds.

Lighter design with camera integration.