The Cyrus frame has been designed immediately after Runcam Split was released.
After its launch it became obvious that its use on traditional frames will mean few problems: props in view, frame in view and/or camera would be exposed to crashes thus ruining the investment.
I wasn’t happy with any of the frames that ware on the market so together with a friend designer - BRDM (https://armattanproductions.com/pages/designer_product_grid/1218), we got to work.
Our co-operation gave birth to the Cyrus.
We set of with a few clear requirements for the new frame:
to allow for unobstructed field of view for the wide angle HD recording;
to fit Runcam Swift without any mods required;
to protect the camera unit as much as possible;
to allow for wide range of uptilt angles as well as GoPro lens use;
to keep the centre of gravity of the frame as close to the flight controller as possible;
to be a true X racing frame;
to have replaceable arms, but maintain maximum frame rigidity;
to allow for easy maintenance of the stack.
We have managed to tick off all of the above points and the frame went through two prototype iterations before we have decided to release it.
The frame allows for a bottom mounted battery, 4in1 esc, FC/PDB and Split in one single stack. It also allows for part of the stack to be mounted from the top plate. This way it’s possible to have the main quad stack connected permanently to the bottom part of the quad as the Split and VTX is part of the top of the frame.
The arms are deliberately made thin. This is both to save some weight as well as to take the first punishment of a crash and save the rest of the frame should it come to worst. For this reason there are 5 arms included in the kit! You may not be able to easily mount ESC’s on them, for this reason I suggest using a 4in1. There is ample space in the stack for it.
The frame comes together really well, but as the vertical plates are only 22mm apart it can get a bit tight in that space. For this reason I suggest planning your wire routing carefully before finalising the assembly.
The camera mounts allow for both the standard lens as well as the gopro lens. The uptilt can be anything between 5 and 90 degrees (in some cases some standoffs would need to be removed), so any kind of pilot should be able to use it.
I would like to mention that I adopted some of ideas from other frames, like DemonRC and BRDM - props to those guys!
After puchasing the amazing SCX frame from Space Cowboy - Maurice i wanted to mount the GoPro to it.
For that reason i invested in the Session mount that Maurice released here.
Unfortunatelly after few crashes that mount made its toll on the camera and its back aluminium plate got so bent out of shape, that the little button on the bottom of it fell out never to be seen again.
That made me think.
I have spoken to Maurice about it and made a decision to make my own design that would be a bit kinder to the Session.
So here it is.
It incorporates mounts for both the cameras and stiffens up the whole frame even more.
It also protects the fron lense glass as well as the back of the camera from damage from the mount itself.