Archive
Open source frames: the GNU GPL v3 release
Mode 2 FPV, a commercial carbon frame manufacturer, released its entire frame line under the GNU GPL v3, with design files on GitHub and Thingiverse, in a market that normally guards its geometry.
What was released
Mode 2 FPV built and sold carbon FPV frames direct to US customers, from roughly 2013 to 2020, through a WordPress and WooCommerce shop. At some point before the site's last real capture in May 2020, it published a page titled "Open Source Frames" stating that its frame designs were released under the GNU GPL v3, with source files on GitHub and Thingiverse.
The company's own one-line descriptions of the individual frames, quoted from that page and from the surviving product pages, are the clearest record of what the line covered:
- Ghost: "the frame that revolutionized FPV racing, and inspired heavily by the original Hyperlite Floss."
- Shredder, on its 7" size: "helped to popularize the 7" long range frame segment."
- Shredder II, released additionally in 10": "helped popularize longer range 10" FPV flight."
- Splinter: "designed to be a carbon fiber upgrade for the Tiny Whoop class of FPV drones."
- Interceptor: "one of our very first concepts, this frame was made to be a proverbial tank. It proved to be basically indestructible."
- A 1000 mm X-Class racing frame, the MAX V1 Alpha, is named on the same page with no further description surviving.
- Gizmo, an earlier 3" frame retired once the Kilowatt replaced it: "with the Gizmo gone we needed a new 3" frame."
Ghost 2, Shredder and Kilowatt also carry documented dimensions and weights, captured from their own product pages rather than the open source page itself. Exact capture dates for those individual shop pages were not recorded in this project's research; what follows is what the archive captured, not when.
| Frame | Size | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Ghost | — | — |
| Ghost 2 | 4" to 7" | 60 g to 75 g |
| Shredder | 5" / 7" | 100 g / 105 g |
| Shredder II | 10" | — |
| Kilowatt | 3" | 30 g |
| Splinter | Tiny Whoop class | — |
| Interceptor | — | — |
| Gizmo | 3" | — |
| MAX V1 Alpha | 1000 mm, X-Class | — |
What a GPL v3 licence lets a builder do
The GPL was written for software, and applying it to a physical part is less common than applying it to firmware, but the effect is the same: the source is yours to use. For someone who owns, or wants to build, one of these frames, a GPL v3 release means three things in practice.
- Print the accessoriesTop plates, camera mounts and the other printed parts that shipped alongside a frame can be reproduced without asking permission.
- Modify the geometryArm length, stack spacing or a mounting pattern can be changed, and the result flown, shared or sold.
- Reproduce a discontinued partA frame that is no longer sold, such as the Gizmo, can still be built from its original files by anyone who has them.
What redistributing one requires
The GPL is not the same as public domain. If you take one of these designs, change it and pass the result on to someone else, whether as a file or as a printed and cut part, the licence attaches four obligations to that act.
- Name the originalCredit Mode 2 FPV as the designer of the file the new version is built on.
- State your changesSay what was altered from the original design.
- Disclose the sourceMake the design files available, not only the finished part.
- Include the licencePass the GPL v3 text along with whatever is redistributed.
None of this applies to simply printing a part for your own quad and flying it. The obligations bind redistribution, not use.
Why this was unusual
Frame geometry, arm angle, stack spacing, the arrangement that decides how a quad handles, is normally the one thing a commercial frame manufacturer keeps closed. It is the product. A competitor with the CAD file can cut the same frame without the years of crash-testing that produced it. Mode 2 FPV published that file anyway, for its whole line, while still selling the finished frames commercially. That combination, an open design and a paid product built from it, is why the release stood out enough in the FPV building community to be the thing this domain's surviving links point at.
Where the files were actually hosted
Mode 2 FPV's own page named two places for the source: GitHub and Thingiverse. The Thingiverse side is still verifiable today, at Brian Welch's profile, thingiverse.com/mode2fpv/designs.
The GitHub side is not. No GitHub repository URL for these designs was captured by the Wayback Machine, and no GitHub account belonging to Mode 2 FPV or Brian Welch has been located. This page will not guess at one. A wrong repository link would be worse than no link at all, and it is exactly the kind of error a builder who owns one of these frames would notice. What can be said is that GitHub was named as a source alongside Thingiverse, and that only the Thingiverse side of that release can actually be pointed at from here.
What this page cannot answer
Some questions this page would ideally answer are not documented anywhere in the record this archive was built from:
- Where the GitHub repositories are now, or whether they still exist.
- Why Mode 2 FPV stopped operating. The site's last real capture is from May 2020; nothing in the record says whether the company closed, was sold, or simply stopped updating.
- Anything about the Terminator frame beyond the fact that a URL for it,
/shop/terminator/, once existed. No capture of that page survives. - Any sales figures, production numbers, team membership or sponsorships. The site had
/team/and/team/sponsorships/pages, but neither was captured.
The rest of what survives about this domain's earlier era is on the archive index.