QUADIFYRC Quadcopter reviews

Working with Bangood's Eachine brand, Skyzone have release a new range of box goggles; The Cobra S and Cobra X which differ only in resolution (800 x 480 and 1280 x 720 respectively). In this review I take a close look at the Eachine Skyzone Cobra X goggles and show you why I think they are head and shoulders above any other current box goggle

Let's get the Eachine thing out of the way first. This is simply a Banggood House Brand - they are just marketing and nothing to do with the manufacture. Manufacture is 100% up to Skyzone. Their brand is also on the line here and they won't release a rubbish product to mar the excellent name they have at present off the back of their excellent SKY03O goggles (reviewed here) and their stunning new SKY04X goggles.

Box goggles have traditionally been the realm of the beginner - Big and bulky with frankly ugly designs that were awkward to transport but they did have an advantage in that they had one massive screen. My first goggle were the Hobbyking Quanam Cyclops V1. They were a pain to carry, were heavy, looked ridiculous and were fairly uncomfortable but not since I have started using the DJI FPV goggles have I had such an immersive experience thanks the the large screen. The other benefit is that you can often wear prescription glasses with box goggles.

Given the benefit of the huge singe screen (which is cheaper to make than 2 small high res screens in binocular goggles) I'm surprised a premium box goggle hasn't been released sooner. In fact the 4+ year old Eachine EV800D is still considered to be the best option even though user interface, reliability and receiver performance are badly dated.

This is where the Skyzone Eachine Cobra S and X come in - a premium box goggle with all of the features that are usually reserved for much more expensive binocular goggles. Enough preamble, let's crack in to it.

The Eachine Shadow Fiend is a lightweight 4 inch quadcopter designed for long range flights. This version I have reviewed comes with the CADDX vista which is for the DJI HD FPV system. It is also available with the CADDX Nebula and analogue versions.

Like with all products they make, the Eachine brand is never the first to invent or innovate a category but they are more of a "me too brand" where they look to provide a comparable product to the market leader at a lower price. I'll be very clear here and say that Eachine is a brand only and not a manufacturer. Thus they can have very good products and very poor product depending on which manufacturer is used. Make no mistake though, this category was made possible by the development work completed by Dave C and then picked up with his blessing by Flywoo. Check out Dave C's excellent channel Youtube, I have been a long time fan.

The Eachine Shadow Fiend is a 4 in long range lightweight quadcopter designed for endurance and effciciency rather than power for racing or freestyle and is heavily inspired but the Flywoo Explorer 4 LR, the Iflight Chimaera LR 4 and the Diatone Roma F4. All are based around a lightweight deadcat or squashed x frame, lightweight electronics, efficient 1404 motors that range from 2750 - 3500kv with lightweight 4 inch biblade props. Additionally all are available in digital FPV and analogue versions as you can see below:

I think this is a wonderful category because long range flight was previously limited by large, heavy and expensive 7 inch rigs which although lovely to fly, can be very expensive to lose on a failed long range run. Yes these smaller rigs are more susceptible to wind more than their larger and more powerful brothers but the lower cost and the bind and fly nature of these 4 inch version has popularized this area of FPV that was previously a little mysterious and hard to attain.

The Eachine Novice I is a brushless 2s capable ducted micro FPV quadcopter that includes a basic transmitter, FPV goggles and batteries making it a genuine Ready To Fly (RTF) kit option for $145-$165 retail. It is available exclusively from Banggood here. The lightweight ducted frame makes it safe to fly inside and around people but it still has enough power to fly outdoors. Since it can run on 1 battery (1s) or 2 batteries (2s) you can fly it slow or fast. It will compete directly with the Emax Tinyhawk RTF which is 1s capable only and is $156 with only 1 battery. I've reviewed the Emax Tinyhawk here if you wish to compare.

A closer look at the components:
Below are all the components, click through for more details or if you need to purchase spares

Introduction and spec

The Eachine Lal5 is a new 5" freestyle quadcopter from Eachine. It's most notable features are the new Caddx Tarsier V2 camera system that offers a high quality analogue feed and up to 4k HD recording. Also worth pointing out is the impressively specced powertrain - high quality 2507 1850kV motors that look like they are made by the same OEM as flywoo. These are the biggest motors I've seen on a 5 inch quad before. Further details on specs:

• 225mm true x frame with 5mm thick arms
• 2507 1850kv motors (1750g max thrust)
• F4 flight controller with bluetooth control, 6 UARTs, barometer, 5V and 10V BEC
• 50A BLHeli_32 ESC 3-6s
• Caddx Tarsier V2 cam with 4k HD recording and ND8 filter
• Eachine TX805 25-800mw VTX
• RHCP antenna
• Dalprop T5046c v2 cyclone props

Build quality and component choice discussion

Electronics: Looking more closely at the electronics build it seems to be fairly well thought out. The primary stack contains the 50A BLHeli_32 esc, f4 flight controller and the TX805 VTX (my favourite budget vtx as reviewed here). Looking a little closer at the flight controller it actually has a barometer (for accurate altitude readings and bluetooth for connection via speedybee app. It also has a 10v rail for super clean video much life the Airbot Omibus F4 V6 which I love. Behind this there is a separate 20mm stack that holds the 2 boards that run the Caddx Tarsier v2. Aluminium standoffs are 30mm high so definitely not a low rider but the advantage is plenty of room to fit the stack with good spacing. The ESC has a 35v 470microfarad capacitor that should help manage voltage spikes and keep video clean and up front is the dual lens tarsier camera unit. Included is their ND8 filter which is a nice touch. The TPU 3d printed camera mount does a good job of bringing the camera forward to minimise props in view but still protects that camera well. Print quality is the best I have ever seen. Antenna is well integrated with the TPU mount but I fear signal will be blocked by the battery when flying towards myself - something I must test for sure. There is no receiver included but there is a loom pre-wired to 5v, ground and sbus for a frsky receiver. All pictures below can be embiggened

After quite a bit of teasing on their site, Banggood have released the Eachine VRD3 goggles for sale. These are a well-specced low cost 5.8GHz Goggle with DVR aimed at beginners or as a backup pair. On to discussion of the specifications below and what it included

Introduction
In the world of brushless ducted quadcopters (whoops) I have been lucky enough to review most of the big hype products - Happymodel Snapper7 and upgrades, Happymodel Mobula 7, Full Speed TinyLeader and now the Eachine Trashcan. Clearly it is a silly but memorable name and it will surely be easy to search for online.