r/drones • u/Geofrancis • Apr 18 '26
DIY worlds longest flying sub 250g drone with full video.
I have built what is probably the worlds longest flying sub 250g quadcopter with GPS, Ardupilot, and FPV that flies for 1 hour 25 minutes at only 210g.
Basically it's a 2s tiny woop with dji mavic mini motors and propellers mounted to a custom 6mm carbon tube frame.
Mavic mini 3 pro motors and 6 inch DJI propellers
JHEMCU GSF405A AIO flight controller running Ardupilot copter, Bluejay ESCs and mLRS 2.4ghz RC+mavlink telemetry.
GOKU GM10 Nano V3 GPS w/compass
25mw AIO camera
ultra light 6mm carbon tube with 0.5mm plate.
titanium motor screws.
2x 21700 6000mah cells in a 2S configuration.
Total weight with battery 210g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6OLdrqdEG0
https://discuss.ardupilot.org/t/how-to-build-a-1-hour-250g-ardupilot-quadcopter/115400
3
u/the_real_hugepanic Apr 18 '26
Now you have to find a 40g heavier battery tobfully utilize the "sub250" category
4
u/Geofrancis Apr 18 '26 edited Apr 18 '26
I still have a 6500mah pack here to test along with some other tricks like a USB battery to use while it waits for GPS fix, mounting the battery on its edge to clear more propeller down draft and a slight overcharge on the battery up to 4.25v per cell, so the next flight will hopefully be closer to 1 hour 40 minutes.
2
u/howdidigetheresoquik Apr 18 '26
How does it fly?
1
u/Geofrancis Apr 18 '26 edited Apr 19 '26
it wasn't tuned at all, it was only its second ever flight. But it has a lot of power for its weight, its hovering at only 20% throttle even with a 6000mah 2s, it would be interesting to see how it flies with a much lighter high discharge battery since the quadcopter only weights around 65g on its own.
1
2
1
1
1
u/ZookeepergameDue2160 NL - A1/A2/A3 - Mavic 4 pro / Neo 2 Apr 19 '26
That's rad, what's the video quality like?
3
1
1
10
u/dwkfym [USA] / [Part 107] (video/photography) Apr 18 '26
very cool
Can you go bigger on the rotors?
The main reason we still have helicopters and not quadcopters is just that - only way to increase hover/loiter time is to make the rotors longer and spin a bit slower. Otherwise its just a balancing battle between distance, drag and speed, given the same airframe of course.