 B03 pro with f02H canopy compared to an E011 with Betafpv canopy Introduction Tiny whoops have firmly cemented themselves as a bonafide class of FPV flight. Racing is held indoors and can be run irrespective of weather and is very popular as a dedicated series rather than just something you do when the weather is rubbish. The beauty is that if you only want to do it when the weather is rubbish it is not expensive and you can have a great FPV experience even at the lower end of the scale which you can add to if you feel like it. Last year I wrote a series on the E011 whoop using a budget camera and F3 flight controller (part 1 and part 2 blogs) but in this review I'll cover the Boldclash B03 Pro which has better control as a stock quad, devilishly simply to convert to FPV and offers something for rate mode flight that is superior in performance to Betaflight or Butterflight.  The B03 Pro whoop The Boldclash B03 Pro is a tiny whoop style quad made by boldclash and features the 716 size motor (7mm diameter, 16mm long) which is now generally recognised as a superior size to the earlier 615 motors for performance and flight time on 31mm props. It is generally similar to the Eachine E011 except in cowl design, transmitter and flight controller. This last bit is particularly important as I'll get to later. It can be bought with either 1 x 300mah battery or 3 x 300mah batteries - larger than the 260mah included with the E011. The set of spares included is basic - screwdriver, 1 spare set of spare props, a prop removal tool and a basic USB charger.  Obligatory what's included in the box pic. I'll assume you, the reader here is somewhat familiar with quads so in order to keep this review concise will focus on the similarities and differences between this and comparable tiny whoop style quads. First of all I'll note that the B03 Pro compared to the earlier (now obsolete) B03 standard does not have the psuedo altitude-hold mode - the controller operates the same as any other mode 2 controller. Flight performance is comparable with the E011 which makes complete sense - same motor size, similar weight similar battery size. What heavily weighs in the B03 pro's favour though is that the highest rate mode allows a much greater angle than the E011 meaning much faster forward flight and better rates in general. The B03 pro battery has approximately 15% more capacity meaning that flight times are up about 15-30 seconds but flight-time repleatability is difficult here. The transmitter is slightly larger than the E011 model but otherwise comparable: toy-style gimbals and basic trim control as well as a 'flip over' button and a button that cycles your rates. I'll mention here that this runs the Bayang protocol which means that you can use your full size remote to run with a cheap multiprototcol module $7 for a FRSKY compatible one from Banggood and the same price for one comparible with a FLYSKY controller at Banggood. Alternatively the Jumper radios (I can recommend the T8SG V2.0 plus) are all compatible with baked in multiprotocol. Interesting fact that Bayang protocol has much lower latency than Frsky, Flysky or even Crossfire... If you go no further than just buzzing around line of sight then this is a great little quad - solid performance from a ducted brushed micro quad with good battery life and only $17 with one battery or my recommendation is $23 with 3 batteries. We're not here for line of sight though and where Boldclash really stands out is their genuinely plug and play option for FPV. Which brings me to the... BoldClash F02H FPV - The most complete FPV whoop solution I've ever come across FPV whoops have the jankiest camera mounting solutions you ever seen - 3d prints that fully expose the delicate camera, rubber bands, double sided tape. I've tried them all and get between 1-5 crash landings before I have to reassemble it or replace the camera/vtx unit due to damage. Sadly this is even the case with my beloved santa whoop as you can see below. Vacuum formed cowls like the one developed bu NotFastEnuf (Shanghai mullet) or the one by BetaFPV improve camera protection greatly but still don't positively mount the camera. The Boldclash F02H fixes all of this by using a purpose build canopy that exactly fits the Boldclash F02 separated camera/VTX and that alone. The result is a unit that is built as one and is very positively mounted and bolts down exactly to the mounting points of any tiny whoop-style quad. Things go one better with the Boldclash B03 pro though where it plugs into the main board. To install:
The finished unit weighs just 5.5g which is very reasonable considering it includes a full cowl. Vtx channel buttons are easily accessble with a button integrated into the canaopy and there is direct provision for video in/out if you wish to use a FC that supports Betaflight OSD. The Angle is fixed at 10° which is very common for whoops. The camera will run down to 2.9v meaning you do not need to run an up-regulator; 1s vbat is just fine. Since the camera vtx is based on a split board it is much lower profile that the BetaFPV cowl, Shanghai Mullet or even the UR65 cowl which I use as well.  Video performance is good - comparable with the VM275t and other more recent AIO cams that I run. It's 48ch/25mW fixed which is pretty much the norm and signal range is no better or worse than anything else I run. I do like that it is switchable PAL/NTSC as I prefer the extra resolution of PAL but I know others prefer the slghtly higher NTSC refresh. I can't recommend this unit enough. It seems more expensive at $20 but it is so sleek, clean and durable that I can see it lasting a heck of a lot longer than anything else I've used so far. I'll clip this blog here as this is where you may want to stop if you are just want a cheap basher that performs well using the included toy remote or your own with multiprotocol. In the next blog (which I'll link here when available) I'll cover more powerful CM03 insane 19000kV motors and most importantly the upgrade to NotFastEnuf silverware - this particular flight controller lends itself to flashing with this particular firmware that outperforms anything betalfight, butterflight or inductrix is capable of. It is not an easy process though so will keep this to the next blog.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
