The Alien frame from ImpulseRC is one of the most popular on the market for good reason. It's a bulletproof platform that flies amazing. The build is used by many top pilots including Mr Steele. This build guide is inspired from the video in which Steele shows how he connects the PNP50 OSD into his kit.

We've taken a different approach to many build guides out there. Below you'll find a single wiring diagram rather than step-by-step instruction or video. This should act as a handy reference and make the build straightforward to piece together. Please let us know what you think of this guide in the comments below.

Parts List

Wiring Diagram

Build Notes

Power Distribution Board

We are running the main battery power through the TBS PNP 50 and then connecting the output leads to the PDB. Because of this, we aren't going to be using the two large through-holes traditionally used to connect the XT60 to the Alien PDB. The output leads run up to the front of the PDB in order to give them a little more slack when mounting the PNP on the back of the body.

Be sure to observe polarity on the PDB. In our diagram we use the connectors with the dot to indicate positive. If you mix these up, bad things will happen and smoke will appear.

Flight Controller

Nothing too special here. We recommend soldering the main power leads through the holes from the bottom. You can also solder pin headers to the pads for the radio receiver connection if you wish to use a connector and make them removable.

Electronic Speed Controllers

Soldering the motors onto the ESC, we go straight on with the 3 wires. You can cross two of the wires to reverse the direction the motor spins, but in our case we will use the KISS jumper. Solder the following jumper on two of the ESC's to reverse the motor direction. The default direction your motor spins can be found by researching online or testing the motor on the bench.

The blue wire coming from the ESC's in our diagram is the telemetry wire. You can leave these off if you're not interested in telemetry information. We don't use them because we have an OSD and one less wire makes the build cleaner.

Radio Receiver

Again, you don't need to include the telemetry wire running from the X4R-SB (yellow in the diagram) unless you want it. We don't use telemetry because we have the OSD displaying battery and flight time information.

On-Screen Display

The PNP 50 needs some mods to work in this build. The following items need to be considered:

The output leads (male XT-60 end) need to be cut and soldered to the Alien PDB.

Remove the case and mount the PNP on the back of the frame. You might need to file the board down a bit to get it to fit within the standoffs - careful here.

In our setup we are going to use the mic onboard the PNP for audio. If you want to change this, there are jumpers to solder on the back of the PNP to use an external mic.

Ensure the jumpers on the PNP 50 are set to the correct 5v or 12v output for the camera and VTX you are using.

Any questions or comments you may have, leave them below or check out the Rotor Riot Facebook group.