XBEE-X MK2 (replaceable arm) Mini Quad Frame Review & Build

XBEE Frame Review XBEE XB-X MK2 is a beautifully designed 220 Mini Quad frame for 5″ propellers, with replaceable arms. Compact and light design, with great attention to details, provides potential for clean and light build. Almost all about this frame can tell you these two pictures of super light and clean build

and these flight videos:

Get your XBEE Frame from Top Drone. There is also a uni-body frame available, 6″ prop version, 180mm version and super light racing frame. XBEE Frame Overview The design is beautiful and attention to detail from the designer of the frame is just amazing! The frame is easy to put together. This is one of my favorite designed frame.

XB-X is a square, true X frame for 5″ props, width and length of the frame are the same (156mm). Motor to motor distance is 220mm.

Frame enables mounting of small FPV cameras such as HS1177 in a fully encased assembly which protects the FPV camera during crashes and enables pointing the FPV camera at a wide variety of viewing angles. The FPV camera is supported by 2 side walls. There is a cut out at the back of the top plate through which allows you to change video channels. Additional antenna mounting plate can be used to support the VTX antenna.

It’s recommended to use 1300-1500mah size batteries mounted underneath the frame. Fully assembled frame weights 101g, which is pretty solid for a frame with 4mm thick replaceable arms.

The construction is very simple: the 4 arms are sandwiched between the bottom plate and the center plate. This makes the arms super stiff, compared to unibody design.

Center plate approach allows you to remove 1 arm by simply taking out 2 screws with just 1 tool. Top plate is held in place by 4 spacers. The spacers have a textured grip surface treatment, which makes holding of the spacers during assembly and servicing of the frame really easy. Spacers are 31mm tall giving you plenty of room for all the electronics to be protected inside.

The frame and accessories comes in a nice package. All CF parts and accessories are individually packed in plastic bags, which is great because that practice protects them from damaging each-other. CF parts weight 92g:

Carbon fiber from Top Drone is high quality and the milling is clean, did not find any flaw after careful inspection. The edges are sharp, so I recommend filing the edges of all carbon fiber parts before building it, to prevent the cables and straps getting cut in daily use. Also, after filing I reinforced the edge of CF with CA glue. What comes in the box and frame details: XB-X MK2 (Replaceable 4mm arms) - Size: 220mm Features - True X - Full Carbon Fiber - 2mm top plate, 3mm bottom plate - Matek PDB include(PDB-XT60 w/BEC 5V & 12V)) - Black steel screws Weight - Frame: 101g Includes - Carbon parts - 4 x 4mm 5inch ARMs - 1 x 2mm top plate - 1 x 2mm bottom plate - 1x 1.5mm center plate with integrated nuts - 2x 2mm Cam mount(side) - 1 x 1.5mm Wire mount - 1 x 2mm Antena mount - 1 x 2mm Battery plate Hardware - 7 x Matt black standoff - 8 x Metalbolt 3x6 - 6 x Metalbolt 3x8 - 4 x Nylon post 3x6 - 4 x Nylon post 3x8 - 4 x Nylon nut 3mm PDB parts - 1 x Matek PDB-XT60 with BEC (5V and 12V) - 1 x XT60 - 1x 14AWG power cable(black, red) - Rubber ring You can buy the frame here: http://www.xbee.kr/ What I like about this frame: * Very tough, strong design * High quality carbon fiber, cut is super precise, zero issues with assembly of frame * True X * 4mm thick arms * Replaceable arms * Beautiful design, compact and light with attention to detail * Easy to assemble * Integrated HD camera mount - no need for messy DIY HD camera mounting or soft and breakable 3D printed parts * Frame comes with the battery plate lipo protector Things to improve: * Carbon fiber finish is a bit rough, edges were sharp * HD Camera mount – would like to point out that this mount can be great for gopro session type cams, but its not so happy solution for HD cams with screen in the back. Suggestion: Rather to ship with PDB, I would rather see one spare arm in exchangeable arms frame set. I think this frame would buy pilots who already have PDBs, more and more integrated FC/PDB/etc. products are present today or, in my case, I don't even use PDB in my build (I use 4in1 ESCs and take 5V for my receiver from REVO FC or VTX). Parts list: Dshot300, BetaFlight 310 BB763 8/8/8: betaflight_3.1.0_AIRBOTF4.hex on Banggood REVO clone - https://goo.gl/LTxIc0 Racerstar RS30Ax4 V2 BB2 2-6S 4in1 ESC BLHeli_S 16.5 - https://goo.gl/NV24Z4 *Now BG sells 4in1 ESC version with 5V 1.5A BEC and with Dshot Blheli_S firmware already onboard - https://goo.gl/NPytul Skyzone FPV googles - https://goo.gl/2emKA8 4X Racerstar Racing Edition 2205 BR2205 2300KV - https://goo.gl/lLDUQq HS1177 FPV cam - http://goo.gl/63IMzM 2.1mm lens for FPV cam - https://goo.gl/CKukDT Eachine ET526 5.8G 40CH 25mW/200mW/600mW Switchable FPV TX - https://goo.gl/Q1f5nj Skyzone 5.8GHz RHCP 4 Leaf FPV Antenna TX/RX SMA/RP-SMA - https://goo.gl/iw7m0i DALPROP T5045C Cyclone - https://goo.gl/pzHdn1 Conclusion: The XB-X flies great, with predictable flying characteristics, its easy to tune, as expected from true X. Frame is a very well-thought-out and beautifully designed. Build was very easy. The best feature is HD camera mounting solution and possibility to exchange arms without dissembling the entire frame. Overall XB-X is great frame and I really enjoyed building and, most of all, flying it. I really recommend this frame to any pilot, from novice to skilled one. As novice pilots will appreciate easy build and its toughens that will survive many crashes and ease of replacing arm if it brakes without losing time to swap entire frame, mater of fact, it can be easily done on the field. Skilled pilots will appreciate its lightens, integrated HD cam mount and true X form.