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Let's say we can all agree on that the frame and landing gear are one group, would you group the motors, props, ESC, and Batteries together, or split them out as four separate items? Does the wiring get weighed as part of the powers system, or is the power wiring its own category? Are flight controls, radios, and camera/gimbal a single group, or are camera/gimbals, sensors or IR cameras considered in their own category like payload? Where does the FPV camera get weighed?

Or, does every designer/builder tally them up differently?

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  • $\begingroup$ Why do you want to group components? I don't think we can answer the question without knowing the purpose of the grouping. $\endgroup$
    – Robin Bennett
    Commented May 29, 2020 at 10:19
  • $\begingroup$ @RobinBennett This is a design question related to weight and balance. When designing a drone the 'groups' would be used to isolate and fine tune the mass or components. It is more granular than AUW. $\endgroup$
    – HansenJC001
    Commented Sep 17, 2021 at 14:49

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To me the only weight that matters is the total weight of the craft that is airborne. Or commonly referred to as All Up Weight (AUW). That is what performance depends on. That is what regulations are based on ( mostly ). Anything else is just the weight of individual components in my opinion.

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  • $\begingroup$ +1 Sometimes w/o battery is also important, but agreed. $\endgroup$
    – ifconfig ♦
    Commented May 28, 2020 at 4:36
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Short answer seems to be no standardization.

Personally, I am only concerned with AUW and have no concern for individual groupings. If I'm all that concerned I can either weigh each component individually or check the product info.

I can see where grouping components together would make sense, though. If a craft is being designed to be modular with multiple configurations for different missions, weight groupings could be valuable for planning. Groupings would be up to the engineer or designer.

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