Syma X5C-1 Modifications thread

[Mike H.]

Updated stage 1 weight loss #8.

Stock upper shell 14.4g


After lightening mods 13.2g...Leave the motor holder studs in place and the studs at the very end of the arms !!!!!!!!... i also chose to leave the switch alignment/ holder in place to not have a loose switch...If we add this to our other efforts of mods already measured and completed this gives us now a measured 22.9g of weight removed from the X5.. (read full details on weight loss mod number 8.)


So we take off all the accessories..do the weight loss mods...take off the camera and not install a stock battery..oh wait, we cant fly without the battery but even when we install it you may as well say it isnt there weight wise.

I have one more possible weight mod to try and not sure of weight loss numbers just yet....To me it would be somewhat of an appearance change that i may not like enough to go with but, some might not mind the change so, i will present it anyways when i prepared to try it out.

We may very well reach 25g or more of weight loss...That is HUGE guys...And to top it off it would look like a stock x5 leaving some of your friends scratching there heads how yours is such a better flyer with much longer flight times even with a stock 500mah battery

 

[Mike H.]

Update on that last mod i was going to try...what i wanted to do was remove the light lenses...I did remove one and got a weight .2g so all 4 would be .8g....I then wanted to use those colored plastic paper protectors or paper inserts you find in the stationary department of most any store...This would add back a little weight but there is no clean way of mounting the plastic sheet to replace the lens...you can mount it on the body to cover the cavity but it wouldnt look right...I just put the lens back on..ill take the .8g penalty to keep the stock look of the x5...You can just remove the lenses if you wanted but it would leave a deep cavity and cause drag...So, not a mod im liking personally.

For those using the battery door like myself, those have some small ribs on the back side that may drop a couple tenths of a gram or so... its 1.1g so, if we can get it under 1g then why not...Im going to do this myself and ill post up a before and after pic of the weight....no matter the amount of weight reduction this is now #9 on the list...If i find more ways to remove even more ill be sure to post it....It will be harder now to find even the littlest of weight but it will add it up.

Every little bit is adding up nicely but i wont sacrifice major function or appearance to get it.

 

[Mike H.]

Sheesh..alot of work for .1g but thats what i got by removing the ribs on the battery door.

Stock battery door 1.1g

Modded 1g

 

[Mike H.]

I did an inside flight with the stock battery at 84g flight weight (no camera no skids)... just hovering around and making whatever corrections needed to not crash into a wall or fly into the ceiling from any drifting....I used my phones timer to get a time..Im figuring in like 5 seconds after the start to get to the controller and and lift off then 5 seconds to set the controller down and shut the timer off..Ill let the numbers speak for them selves here...Remember, this was using a stock 500mah battery.

I would like to also note that lift off throttle percentage and percentage needed to keep it in the air was maybe 35% throttle if that....punch out at 50% throttle sent it off like a rocket compared to stock...at 100 percent throttle i couldnt react fast enough to cut throttle before slamming into the ceiling...HUGE difference in power to weight ratio here.

 

[Mike H.]

Here's a pic of the flight weight recorded with the stock battery installed....Also, weight without a battery installed...This is still without the lower half of the body lightened and no excess wire removed...looking at another 3 grams there...This makes wonder what ill be able to do to the X8C.

Without stock 500mah 20c battery.

With stock battery

 

[Mike H.]

Second half of the body completed...I was able to do this without removing all the electronics from the body and made it as easy as possible for myself....you do need to lift out the motor holder assembly but that not difficult at all to do...it just pulls up of the plastic stud...I removed everything but the motor holder guides and anything in the center connecting to the battery and fcb areas as reinforcement...i was able to remove another 1.4g to bring the body weight loss total to 2.7g and now a complete total of 24.3g .. i want 25g

Weight of lower half.

After mods.

New flight weight with 500mah battery...i would expect a full 9-1/2 minutes of flight now...Ill try a flight with the new venom 600mah and see what that gets me..haha....then the 700mah venom.

 

[Mike H.]

Add 1 gram to the weight above..i didnt have the battery door installed when i took the weight so, flight weight is 82.4g and not 81.4g.

Next ill be installing the camera inside the body.

 

[Mike H.]

This proposal to mount the camera inside the shell is not going to work at least in the x5c-1 body shell...mounting everything is no problem...the problem is no way to get the memory card in and out due to lack of space inside the body and even if there was you would have to disassemble the quad and flight board to get to the memory card.

I now have a hole in the front of my body for a lens and no way to do this conversion...Big SIGH.

I can mount the camera above the flight board but one would still have to pull the 2 body halves apart to get to the memory card...i guess 4 screws isnt so bad but i was hoping to have access from the outside of the body..the lens wiring just isnt long enough to do that.

Time to order a new body and re do the weight mods to it.

CAMERA MOD terminated unless further notice.

 

[Mike H.]

Ok, all isnt lost...i got the set up inside the body..i was able to get the memory card in but cant get it back out..haha.

The on/off switch is coming out due to it not working properly and the battery plug from the fcb needs to be used the old fashioned way and not in that nice little easy to plug in spot...Then most all that area will need to be cut out, then ill be able to have easy access to the memory card...the card sits lower than the top of the plastic and the card is long enough that i cant lift it out once the card is released....Im charging a battery now to give it a test flight...I hope i dont have a heating issue with the camera heating up the fcb...These cameras run pretty warm.

I have a slight angle down on the lens..ill see how the view is ..im not wanting a full on straight shot as i dont want the props in the view...Hopefully its around the same view i had mounted under the quad and, i would be happy.

 

[Mike H.]

Oh..almost forgot..flight weight with camera installed before i cut out a chunk of plastic to get to the memory card...Add 1 gram to the number..no battery door again before taking the shot..sigh.

 

[Mike H.]

After 5 cycles of the new Venom 600mah 30c battery here is a stop watch flight time...No sitting in one spot hovering...Im doing full circuits, figure 8's, flips, and punchouts till the lights are tiny specs...I cant beleive the range with this x8 controller..simply amazing....I pressed lap restart instead of stop button for the timer but the bottom number is the true time...give me about 3 seconds for turning it off after i saw lvc lights flashing....Over 10-1/2 minutes here easily..The more i cycle the venom battery the better it seems to get...Maybe closer to 11 minutes after another 5 cycles..ill see.

 

[Mike H.]

I received my 500mah 25c batteries this week...Ill test these against the stock 500's when i get a chance..They weigh in at 14.8g but also have an extra plastic sleeve all the writing is stamped on instead of stamped on the battery so this could very well be the added weight.

The stock 500mah 20c claims 1.9amp/hr and these 25c are stamped 1.8 amp/hr....hahaha....i dont expect any difference really between the 2...Wasnt a bad deal however at less than $2 a piece to get over 9 minutes of flight time...I bought 3 of them.

 

[Mike H.]

Just ordered another x5c-1...Gearbest has them at $23.00 for a BNF (no camera/no tx) and they confirmed it used the V6 board..Great deal...the board alone is $13.00...Spare motors, motor holders, props,lights , lenses and body for $10.00..Ill take it.

 

[Mike H.]

Ill be adding on to the mods of how to make a cheap balancer for the x5 props...This could work with most any toy quad using the hex style mounting...Im sure it will help with flight times, improved motor life and, even some better video quality.

 

[cragv]

I hope you don't mind the old thread resurrection, but this message is most appropriate here: thank you for your thoughtful list of info about your modding and weight-loss experience with your X5C, it was an interesting read!

FWIW:
- the wire optimisation mod (pic) saves about 0.8g, having just done it myself this week.
- the camera absolutely can be installed in the top canopy with all plastics removed. I have done this previously (pic) and cut a slot in the rear of the top 'dome' to easily access the mSDHC slot.
- waterproofing with liquid electrical tape (vid) adds but a few grams and for the cool factor, is kinda worth it - I'm at 91.3g without camera and with bigger battery.

Thanks again, this thread was the inspiration for the above Cheers.

 

[Mike H.]

I hope you don't mind the old thread resurrection, but this message is most appropriate here: thank you for your thoughtful list of info about your modding and weight-loss experience with your X5C, it was an interesting read!

FWIW:
- the wire optimisation mod (pic) saves about 0.8g, having just done it myself this week.
- the camera absolutely can be installed in the top canopy with all plastics removed. I have done this previously (pic) and cut a slot in the rear of the top 'dome' to easily access the mSDHC slot.
- waterproofing with liquid electrical tape (vid) adds but a few grams and for the cool factor, is kinda worth it - I'm at 91.3g without camera and with bigger battery.

Thanks again, this thread was the inspiration for the above Cheers.

Nice work my friend..Ive been away for sometime but ill be back soon with some long term updates and some changes.

This x5c1 is still my most frequent go to quad for fun...its amazing what a little work can do to improve its performance all around.

 

[Mike H.]

The next build will include stage 3 mods for the ultimate X5C-1

 

[cragv]

You may notice my first camera mod is completely absent on the other pic and video. In April this year, with newly installed 7mm motors from Micro Motor Warehouse, I foolishly flew my X5C-1 in gusting gales and part-way through an otherwise entertaining flight on my 7 acre property, I lost control and cut the throttle after it got away from me. It was only 20m up and 50m away from me at the time, but it was above the trees and over a steep slope of a neighboring property. I've since spent about 5 hours scouting around for it, high and low, in ever-expanding search areas, but to date have failed to recover it! Rest in peace, version 1. You were missed!

The rest of my mods are on version 2 I'll keenly await your next updates here!

 

[loganlexow]

The next build will include stage 3 mods for the ultimate X5C-1

Dood...... I'm addicted to this thread and you are leaving me HANGING!!!!

I recently won a X5C and have been flying the crap out of it with a smile on my face the whole time! I am SUPER curious about your 7mm motor "awakening". I keep going back and forth whether to do the MMW 8.5mm motors or not. I have no idea why I would want to, the thing is fast enough lol.

Thank you for all these time consuming posts for geeks like me!

And no, I don't care that I resurrected an old thread.

 

[grx]

Dood...... I'm addicted to this thread and you are leaving me HANGING!!!!

I recently won a X5C and have been flying the crap out of it with a smile on my face the whole time! I am SUPER curious about your 7mm motor "awakening". I keep going back and forth whether to do the MMW 8.5mm motors or not. I have no idea why I would want to, the thing is fast enough lol.

Thank you for all these time consuming posts for geeks like me!

And no, I don't care that I resurrected an old thread.

Looks like it has been some time since they have posted. Don't think I would bother retrofitting the motors on an X5C. Seems like it would end up being more trouble and expense than it is worth, when you could just move up to another quad which already has more powerful motors, better capabilities and a 7.2 volt power supply to boot. The X5c is a great cheap quad but I don't think I would go to the extremes we have been discussing here. it is what it is.

I did remove 10 screws from my x5C body, the prop guards, the LED lenses (The Leds are brighter with them removed) and the motor mount fittings underneath the quad were shaved off flush (probably reduces weight and drag with little downside if you are using the original landing skid). The props are sanded. I also repositioned the camera and insulated it from vibration at the same time by installing screws into the camera housing and a series of black rubber washers. It isn't the most weight conscious approach to this but it does look almost stock (nothing just jammed in there). Other people have the camera mounted on a plastic card hanging by zip lines but it seems like the camera could get pushed around by the wind like this.

This is about as far as I'm gonna go on mine outside of it's custom paint job, colored props and larger batteries. After this, I'll probably move up to a light weight 7.2 volt model. don't see the point of chopping and chopping to gain 30 seconds of flight time with a limited quad.

Mine does have the transmitter modification for range and I have multiple antennas I can use. Haven't tested range but I've had it roughly 150 feet away while 150 feet in the air. That's actually been scary at times. Would like to take it even further but I have limited areas around here to fly in.