Designed. Printed. Flown.

JanthinaReframing flight

A 3.5 inch freestyle FPV quad
a fully FDM printed monocoque.

From the design to the air ↓

Joel Weikel

Janthina drone

Built for flight.
Engineered for crashes.

I wanted a drone with a frame I could design, print, test, and change myself.

Real-world testing led me to an impact-resistant polycarbonate design. With a 4S battery and high-kv motors, the drone can accelerate at over 6G.

Download the frame on Thingiverse ↗

Class: 250 g
Frame weight: 76 g
Propeller size: 3.5 in
Print time: ~7 hours

Design evolution

Three versions.
One idea taking shape.

Move the slider to compare the original pusher concept, the first flying PETG frame, and the final PC-CF design. Change the view to see the same progression from another angle.

Blend between designs Original concept

The assembled Janthina drone on a stone surface — The current design, assembled and ready to fly.

The airframe

A printed structure.

The current Janthina frame is printed in carbon-fiber polycarbonate. Making the body myself lets me adjust its shape and the placement of the electronics between flights.

The frame has to hold everything securely while surviving the impacts that come with learning to fly freestyle.

Drone component layout and frame design in Blender — The component layout in Blender.

Design process

From layout to flight.

I started in Blender by laying out all the components. I used FreeCAD for the parts that needed exact dimensions, including the VTX and flight-controller stack mounts.

Then I shaped the body with Blender’s subdivision surface modifier and prepared it in Qidi Slicer. Testing and revising the printed design was as much a part of the process as the modeling.

Printing the carbon-fiber polycarbonate frame.

Construction

Seven hours on the printer.

This is the frame printing on my QIDI Q2. A full print takes around seven hours and produces the 76 gram structure.

I published the design on Thingiverse so other people can print it, build their own drone, or change the design.

Flight footage / Insta360 GO 3S

Flight footage

A view from the drone.

This footage was captured on my Insta360 GO 3S.

Electronics

What’s inside.

Motors: NIN 1404 V2 ULTRALIGHT
ESC: GOKU G45M 32BIT
Flight controller: GOKU F722 Pro Mini V2
Video transmitter: SpeedyBee TX ULTRA
Camera: CaddxFPV Ratel2
Receiver: Flywoo TCXO 2.4G ELRS
Battery: GNB LiHV 4S 850mAh 120C