CinePickle : A toothpick made into a 3" Cinewhoop

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Design updates

• 04/21/22 : uploaded a V2 version with a different ducts/standoffs settlement. Should be more robust. If you got a V1 already and need the files please ask me.

Project Introduction

I put up a few days ago a [new linke of Pickle Toothpick frames] that are more suitable to what we want to build in 2022 and especially HD setups. That gave me a dumb idea, that in fact i had in mind for a good year i think. Can a Tootpick frame be turned in a usable cinewhoop ? Let's see then :

What we have here : A slightly beefed Pickle Toothpick 3.5 inch frame and a set of accessories to convert it into a 3 inch pusher cinewhoop.

please note that it's yet quite experimental and have to be proofed as good to fly, test at your own risks and please report any issue found.

The look of the ducts ended up as the ones my friend Connor Skylion Hubbard made for the Cinesplore. It's a bit of a coincidence, i wanted something that's low profile.

Feedback after first flights

While it works as is there are a few details to note. The frame weight is quite hight, 95g built up. So it have no real weight advantage over similar commercial designs. The ducts are a very close fit, maybe too close. And more problematic maybe, the duct structure probably needs to be stiffen up. When you push the quad it have some twitching probably because the ducts are moving a bit too much and touch the props. Besides that the quad is perfectly flyable and behaves reasonably well. As a conclusion i'd say it requires some more work, or maybe a different approach, the printed ducs alone are 60g, a bit too much for my taste.

Parts to cut (carbon fiber)

• 1 x Pickle SOE 3.5 inch frame (12,7g in 3mm CF)
• 1 x bottom plate that can take M2 pressnuts to assemble the whole electronic stack (easier maintenance, 4g in 2mm CF, can be cut in 1.5mm) 
• 1 x front brace top plate that holds the cameras (nano fpv cam and naked gopro on top) (3.2g in 2mm CF)
• 1 x front brace bottom plate (0.3g in 2mm CF)
• 3 x side side ducts retainers to strengthen the whole structure (3 pieces : 0,8g in 2mm CF each). those take M2 pressnuts as well

Printed Parts (TPU for most)

• 4 x separate ducts (12-13g each in TPU or better in PCTPE)
• 2 x nano or micro cam mount (left & right in TPU)
• 1 x cam mount hotshoe (for HD cam installation)
• 4 x optional duct blockers (that prevent the ducts from moving on the standoffs)

Assembly hardware

• 10 x 20mm M2 standoffs
• 11-13 x M2 pressnuts (for the duct retainers, the bottom plate, the upper cam plate to install the rear screw of the camera mount).
• 1 x M3x18mm or 20mm screw for the hd camera mount
• 16 x M2 5mm screws for the motors
• 16 x M2 6mm screws for standoffs assembly
• 4 x M2 8-10mm screws for the front standoffs (going through TPU to standoffs)
• 6 x M2 6mm screws for the duct retainers
• 1x M2 5-6mm screw for the rear HD cam mount hole

Recommended motors

* 1404/1505/16xx/1804

Recommended electronics

* a 20A AIO flight controller is fine

Getting the frame cut

My recommended places are [www.cncmadness.com] (CA/US/Worldwide) and [www.carbon-posten.de] (EU/Germany) or [CNC DRONE 91] (EU/France). Great quality cuts and fair pricing/delivery time.

you need to send the provided DXF files with the following instructions :

• 1 x Pickle SOE 3.5 inch frame (in 3mm CF)
• 1 x bottom plate (in 2mm CF, can be cut in 1.5mm)
• 1 x front brace top plate (in 2mm CF)
• 1 x front brace bottom plate (in 2mm CF)
• 3 x side side ducts retainers (in 2mm CF, 1.5mm should work too).

You can optionally ask for a light chamfer on the frame