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QUADIFYRC Quadcopter reviews

FUS SPARTAN V3 Review: Everything you need to know about this budget toothpick micro

28/8/2020

2 Comments

 
The FUS Spartan V3 is the first fully assembled quadcopter from FUS. It is a toothpick style micro with AIO FC/ESC and larger than normal 1104 5400kV motors. Most noticeably it has a VERY low price - just $85 before any discounts are applied (read on for those). In this review we will take a close look at components and the build quality. I'll share my recommended ESC and betaflight tune including VTX tables and of course review flight performance on 2s and 3s batteries including DVR. I'll also recommend a better set of propellers than the stock ones they are delivered with plus other cheap or free improvements.
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Breaking down the specifications piece by piece
All of the components used are off the shelf parts meaning replacing or upgrading is a very straightforward affair. Below are all the parts that make up this assembled quad:
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JHEMCU 20A AIO FC/ESC. Whether by good luck or by good planning, FUS have ended up with one of the most reliable AIO boards on the market the will easily power this quad on 2-4s. Can't have asked for a better unit here.
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DYS BE1104 motors. These have been around a long time, in fact they were the very first motors I ever reviewed on this site. The key weakness of these motors were the awful wires but since this is pre-soldered, not so much an issue.
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Runcam Nano 2 Camera. Best budget cam around. There is no available menu but this keeps it simple and keeps the cost down. Really nice image as you can see in my DVR below.
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FE200T 25/100/200MW VTX. This little VTX is better that I though now that I have the right VTX table. Check out the DVR below running on just 25mW
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FUS Spartan V3 Frame. I'm a little worried about the long term durability but the thin arm design allows for excellent airflow off the props. 3d print designs are very well thought out and nicely printed. Not available separately at time of writing, I'll link when it is.
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Gemfan 65mm biblade props. Nice props but no good for the weight of this quad. I recommend the Gemfan flash 2540 but more on that below.
As you can imagine at this price there are NO extras - just a budget battery strap, the one set of props and the instructions. Good, I''ll be replacing the strap and props anyway so glad resource wasn't wasted there. Now I come to think of it, "spartan" is an great description when it comes to describing the contents of the package. Sorry, dad joke (not really sorry).
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2 Comments

Rush Tiny Tank review - best nano VTX available?

12/5/2020

0 Comments

 
Introduction
The Rush Tiny Tank is a nano class VTX that has power output options of 0, 25, 100, 200 and 350mW output. It uses smart audio for parameter adjustment via betaflight OSD and has lock on technology that supposedly helps the signal. Perhaps more importantly it is very, very small and very light (1.6g). I used this VTX for my recent ultralight 3" TP3 build which I documented here.
Quick update: at time of writing there is a coupon code to get this VTX for  $17 with code BGRush12 The code expires 31 May 2020 or when they run out of stock
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Background
Rush FPV as a brand is relatively new but made a huge splash with their premium full-sized tank VTX. Many found these vtxs as good if not better than the best-in-market TBS unify VTXs but as the name suggests, more robust. They followed the initial Rush Tank with the Rush race (similar but no mounting points and recently the rush mini 20mm mount. Their latest version is tiny tank reviewed here and at 1.6g is designed for micro builds or even racers (where 350mw is much more than you are allowed to run anyway). For me it is a perfect size for a toothpick build where keeping it light is the build. Due to it's small size install was simple and I was glad to see it offers multiple wiring options as below - mounted in line with camera or separately to the flight controller.
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GepRC GR1204 1204 5000kv brushless motor quick review

7/5/2020

2 Comments

 
The GepRC GR1204 is a 1204 sized motor (12mm wide, 04mm high stator) suitable for micro quadcopters that is available in 5000kv. Specifically this stator size and kV has been identified as an ideal size to build an ultralight 3 inch build like a TP3. I bought mine from Banggood here to use for a ultralight 3" TP3 build that I've reviewed and discussed here.
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The GR1204 uses modern design and manufacturing so that weight is just 3.8g per motor (no wire). The stator is 1mm wider than early 11 series motors which offers slightly better torque and efficiency which is needed to better control a light 3 inch propeller. They are in a gold colour that looks better than the stock image suggest - they are beautiful in real life. Mounting for propeller is a standard 1.5mm shaft with 2 x m2 screws for a t-mount.

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2 Comments

HappyModel Sailfly-x review; best value quad I've reviewed in 2019 so far

31/5/2019

3 Comments

 
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The Happymodel Sailfly-X is available with free shipping internationally for around $88
Introduction
​I'm a scientist by training so not usually one to use hyperbole (especially where it feels click-baity in titles) but I really do mean it here: This is the best value quad I've reviewed so far this year. It is not the best long range, it is not the best free-style and it is not the best racer. But for those occasions where you are looking to fly in a small to medium park, empty office or commercial area out from your back yard which is 90% of my fling, this is the ideal tool for the job.
The HappyModel Sailfly-x is a "toothpick class" ultralight micro quadcopter. It has an all up weight of 38g without battery and can take 1s, 2s or 3s batteries. It is available with onboard FRSKY, FlySky or DSM reveivers or without a receiver where you can add crossfire or anything else. It is a fairly complete kit (see below) and is available for just $88 at full retail. Availability seems to be somewhat limited to Banggood at time of writing but my guess is that many retailers will pick this one up.

For this review I'll break down what is included, the specs, document differences from the stock betaflight and then cover off in the actual review performance on 2s, 3s, FPV performance and close with a summary and my recommendations. I'll also list spares and upgrade parts as the become available.
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Pretty good list of parts for $88
What is included?
  • 1x Sailfly-X FPV Racing Drone (see specs below)
  • 1x 3D Printed 30 Degree Angle Canopy ( Red) (BG listing is wrong - red is 40°)
  • 1x 3D Printed 40 Degree Angle Canopy ( Purple) (BG listing is wrong - purple is 30°)
  • 1x 3S 11.4v 300mah 30C/60C battery (nice to have this included on such a low cost model)
  • 8 x propellers (this is missing from BG listing)
  • 1x Propeller disassemble tool (meh)
  • 1x Screwdriver (useful but if you are like me you probably have a dozen of these by now!)
Specs and what this means
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Crazybee F4 V2.1 2-3s Mainboard: This is the single-board brains behind this quad and features an f4 flight controller, BLHeli_S DSHOT600 capable 4 x 5a ESC and onboard reciever (flysky, frsky, dsm). It has 2 full UARTs: one for smart audio VTX control and 1 spare you can use for an external reveiver. V2.1 offer the minor improvements over V2.0: plug for AIO camera attachment, stronger solder pads and better through-holes.
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EX1102 8500KV Motor: These are super-light motors at 2.7g each and nicely built. Best news is that compared to the prototypes and those found on the Mobula7HD they have 1.5mm shafts (instead of 1.0mm) and a much more suitable kV of 8500. I'm impressed by these little motors

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3 Comments

Hawkeye Firefly Micro Cam 2 Review: Budget HD Footage for your Quadcopter

23/4/2019

5 Comments

 
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Introduction
This is a review for the Hawkeye Firefly 2 Micro Action Cam specifically used for recording HD footage on FPV quadcopters

The ability to capture high definition footage for your own use or sharing with others is a key part of the FPV hobby. GoPro have had this market stitched up but are expensive especially now that the session series have been discontinued. The Runcam split, Caddx Turtle and now Foxeer Mix series have been great especially for smaller light quads but your HD recording is then fixed to a specific quad. Last year the Hawkeye Firely Micro Cam was released and had it's niche as a lightweight self-powered transfereable action came but it was forgettable with poor bitrate on 1080p footage which typically looked worse than 720p.

Well the makers from this camera have made real improvements for version 2 which offers the specs below, key of which for me is 1080p @ 60fps (spoiler: it's pretty good) and 2.5k @ 30fps all with its own battery that will power all 31g of it for about 60 minutes.
  • Resolutions: 2.5K 30FPS/1080P 60/30FPS/720P 60FPS
  • AV: PAL/NTSC
  • Micro SD card: Class 10
  • SD card supported: 8-64G
  • Weight: 31 gram
  • Battery: 600mAH
  • Working time: About 60 minutes
  • Charging time: About 2-3 Hours
  • File format: MOV
  • Lens: F/2.8, 6 glasses
  • Angle: Diagonal 160 degrees
  • Voltage: 5V
  • Current: 400mA
This is the new Hawkeye Firefly 2 Micro action cam that was released April 2019
Getting started
The camera itself is small and feels solid but is definitetly not water resistant in it's own right. Water resistance is achieved using the included silicon 'condom' which securely fit on the camera covering potential ingress points: button holes, LED hold, SD card. Only the sealed lens and sealed rear of the camera are exposed. Buttons are easily accesible with recessed button markings in the silicon skin that align perfectly with the actual buttons on the camera. Another thing, with the silicon skin on it actually weights 43g. Regardless I'll only be flying with this on, it offers good physical and protection and some basic water resistance.
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Imprints for buttons that align with those on the camera
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Silicon skin adds 12g of weight but importantly brings water resistance and shock protection

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5 Comments

Eachine Tyro79: Build tips, Setup and Review

1/3/2019

18 Comments

 
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The Eachine Tyro79 is the second in Eachine's Tyro series, the first being the budget Tyro99 5 inch quadcopter kit. The most astonishing thing about this quadcopter kit is it's price - it is only $79 for a 3" kit. Clearly there have been areas where Eachine have cut costs but they've made a suprisingly good quad given those compromises.

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18 Comments

Eachine Trashcan: Setup and Full Review

2/1/2019

20 Comments

 
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Thanks for visiting QuadifyRC.com. Be sure to check out our other reviews, tip and tricks and coupons and discounts
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. 
What is included?
For a budget micro quadcopter it comes with a remarkably well thought out and generous set of parts including
  • The quad itself (duh)
  • 4 x 300mah HV 1 cell batteries (that are used 2 at a time)
  • A PH2.0 bridge to allow 1 cell battery operation
  • XT30 connector if you wish to convert to true 2s packs
  • Basic USB charger 
  • A spare set of props
  • A nice carry case (The Emax Tinyhawk is the only micro to offer this till now)
  • spare screws and screw driver
  • A decent, well written colour manual in English
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It is great to see a case included here and like the mobula7, enough battery power to get flying in earnest. The included XT30 is a small gesture but a nice touch nonetheless.

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Full Speed TinyLeader Bench Review and Initial Flights

18/12/2018

2 Comments

 
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Introduction
The Fullspeed Tiny Leader is a new sub-micro class quadcopter from FullSpeedRC.com  that is ducted and competes in the now popular and increasingly competitive brushless whoop market. Full Speed is a now well known and respected producer of micro brushless quadcopters including the original Leader 120 (review here) and more recent Leader 2.5 (review here) and Leader 3 (review here). Below I will outline the published specs and what sets this apart from other brushless whoops - good, bad or indifferent. To clarify there are 2 current Full Speed Tiny Leader models: The TinyLeader Regular and TinyLeader HD with onboard HD recording. This review is for the TinyLeader regular


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Diatone 2019 GT R249+ 115mm 2.5 inch brushless micro setup and review

6/12/2018

9 Comments

 
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Introduction
The Diatone 2019 GT R249+ is one of the newest series of micro quadctopers from Diatone that is built around the Mamba mini f4 stack.

The full range from smallest to largest includes:
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GT R239 (Plastic frame with 2" props and 1105 motors)
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GT R249 (carbon frame with 2" props and 1105 motors)
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GT R249+ (carbon frame with 2.5" props and 1105 motors)
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GT R349 (carbon frame with 3" props and 1408 motors)
As you can see there is a high degree of modularity - for all except the largest they share the same 1105 5500kV motors. All sizes feature a 3mm thich carbon baseplate except for the R239 which uses and injection moulded plastic chassis and prop-gaurds. All models share the same injection moulded lightweight canopy and mamba mini f4 stack.

I've chosen to review the R249+ since my experience with micro quadcopters has lead me to believe that this is the 'sweet' spot in terms of performance and staying small and discrete when flying.

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9 Comments

HappyModel Mobula 7 setup and review

13/11/2018

20 Comments

 
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Introduction
The Mobula7 is made by Happymodel who also released the popular Snapper7 which I reviewed here. Like the Snapper 7 it is a 75mm brushless whoop but it is lighter and more importantly, designed for 2s batteries. The Mobula 7 is not the first ready to fly 2s brushless whoop to the market but it is by far and away the lightest at just 28g without battery. That means the small and light 0802 16000kV motors are able to reach their power potential even on the small 260mah batteries included in the kit and make this quadcopter move very quickly with extremely nimble handling.


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3 inch T-mount Propeller Comparison

24/9/2018

1 Comment

 
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T-mount propellers are those that are based on a 1.5mm diameter centre shaft secured by a 2mm screw either side. They have been the only mounting option for 2-2.5 inch props but are now becoming more popular for 3" due to the weight they save over a 5mm single shaft prop mount. There are only 4 different types of t-mount 3" prop currently available so I've compared them all plus the new HQ 2 blade which is due for imminent release plus a darkhorse prop in a smaller size to make up the numbers. Please note this is a subjective comparison based on my opinion but my help as a startpoint for your decision. This is based on real world feel, light time and bitter experience with motors I've burnt out.
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Emax Avan 3 inch tri-blade
This is the first modern design 3 inch prop designed for a t-mount which was released with the 3" Babyhawk R (reviewed here).
  • Weight and Response: 1.27g This is very light for  tri-blade and mass is concentrated near the hub meaning response is very good for a triblade of this pitch.
  • Pitch: Mid-range. This is well suited to 3s on an 1106 4500kV and will manage a 4s as well but is reasonably amp-hungry. Make sure your motors are not hot.
  • Balance: Very good, typical of modern tri-blade
  • Durability: Low-medium. Less material on the outer part of the blades means they bend/break easily, especially towards the edge of the blade
  • Other notes: warning: given the unique design of the blade near the hub, this is unlikely to fit any motor with a stator size larger than 11mm. Update: confirmed these fit successfully without modification on the RCX 1304. New RCX 1306 unconfirmed.
  • Recommendations: Excellent on 3s but be cautious on 4s considering this is limited to 13mm stator size
  • Available from: Banggood, Hobbycool

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Unique blade design close to hub means 11mm stator (maybe 12mm) is maximum
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HQ 3x3x3 v1s tri-blade
HQ props have the newest 3" t-mount prop design at present. This has been chosen as the stock propeller for the Full Speed Leader 3 (initial review here and flights here)
  • Weight and Response: 1.49g Traditional blade design meaning response is in-line with weight: slow (in this class)
  • Pitch: Agressive. On an 1106 4500kV motor with 3s this is amp hungry and with 4s it consistently burns out motors (as I found here with the Leader 3) Should suit the larger stators like the hypetrain brat 1407 well.
  • Balance: Excellent, typical of modern tri-blade
  • Durability: Medium-high. Ever since the launch of the original 5x4.3x3 v1s, HQ have really got their prop material sorted.
  • Other notes: I believe this agressive pitch is the reason behind the premature deaths of the original Leader 3 release. I'd recommend against using these on 4s for 1106 and below.
  • Available from: FullSpeedRC, Piroflip

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Gemfan 3035 triblade
This is quite an old prop and can be hard to find but is still suprisingly relevant.
  • Weight and Response: 1.42g This is a midweight prop and response is medium for a tri-blade
  • Pitch: Light. A light pitch means this is a good option for higher kv motors on 3s or 4s on 11mm sized stators. Probably a little light for motors with larger stator sizes.
  • Balance: Good,typical of a tri-blade.
  • Durability: Medium - probably slightly better than the avan.
  • Other notes: This is a good match for 11mm sized stators and some have found that running this prop on the Leader 3 can prevent motor failure on 4s without an appreciable loss in speed compared to the HQ 3x3x3 - probably because it can get this prop to peak speed unlike the HQ. Probably a bit light for larger motors. Can be hard to get hold off but Banggood and HobbyCool seem to have stock for international delivery.
  • Available from: Banggood, Gearbest,Hobbycool

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Gemfan 3025 bi-blade
This is the original 3" t-mount prop and so can be found for sale in weird and wonderful places
  • Weight and Response: 0.97g This is an extremely lightweight prop and reponse is very high as a result.
  • Pitch: Very light. A very light pitch means this is a good option for higher kv motors on 3s or 4s on 11mm sized stators. Probably wasted on anything larger than an 1106 unless you are looking for endurance.
  • Balance: Mediocre. Not intrinsically bad but being a bi-blade means it is prone to become unblanced quicky when damaged
  • Durability: Very poor. Short of landing on a pillow these are easily damaged
  • Other notes: This is a good match for 11mm sized stators that can be guaranteed not to stress your motors. I've even run these on 1103 motors on very lightweight builds. This is a really good match with 4s 1106 like on the leader 3 or babyhawk r but have poor grip when the weight is higher. Best prop available if you are superlight or want super-endurance.
  • Available from: Banggood, Gearbest,Hobbycool

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HQ 3x3x2 v1s bi-blade
Just released at the time of writing: as per the 3x3x3 above but bi-blade rather than triblade. Disclaimer: I have not tested yet and below information based on assumptions from comparing bi-blades and tri-blades in general. Will update once mine arrive and I've tested.
  • Weight and Response: 1.1g (est.) Bi-blade means this is a light prop and should be very responsive
  • Pitch: Agressive. Shoud be less amp hungry than the tri-blade version but would still recommend excercising caution using 4s on an 11mm stator size.
  • Balance: Good however being a bi-blade it is more prone to getting out of balance.
  • Durability: Medium-high: same as the tri-blade
  • Other notes: Although this still has an aggressive pitch, 1 less blade should mean this is less of an amp-hog for a given thrust i.e. it should be efficient at the cost of grip. Consider this for a lighter build or for extended endurance but expect to use more throttle to hold a line on cornering.
  • Available from: RaceDayQuads

Dark horse to consider...
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Gemfan 2540 flash triblade
Yes this is a 2.5" prop but objectively it is so good it is worth considering downsizing. You can find an earlier review I did on these here and a review on the Skystars Bolt X120 which uses these on 4s here
  • Weight and Response: 1.0g This is a very lightweight prop and response is very good - especially if it is on a motor designed for a 3" prop
  • Pitch: Agressive but since the blade length is smaller it won't stress your 11mm stator size motor. Pointless on any motor bigger than that (except perhaps the 1404/1304)
  • Balance: Excellent
  • Durability: Excellent. This is the toughest of the lot
  • Other notes: The standout prop in the 2.5" class punches above it's weight in 3" quads. It's durable and won't stress your motors (even on 4s) but it naturally delivers less maximum thrust and efficient due to it's size. I wish they'd make this same prop extended to 3"....
  • Available from: Banggood, Gearbest,Hobbycool, Piroflip

Others:
Please note the King Kong 2840 propeller was not included here because I found the Gemfan 2540 superior in every way. Also I have not include the Rotor X 3044 because it is difficult to source where I am based. The feedback that I have had is that it is more aggressive in pitch than any of the above props and probably only suitable for for stator sizes 13xx and up.​
1 Comment

Full Speed RC Leader 3 SE Review Part 1: OVerviewand setup

22/7/2018

7 Comments

 
PictureThe Leader 3 SE from fullspeedrc.com
Introduction
The Leader 3 (SE) is a follow up to the hugely successful Leader 120 which I have reviewed and documented modification extensively, most recently with a summary here. Both are available from Fullspeedrc.com This has been a highly anticipated release not least of which because there has been no releases from Full Speed since last years' Beebee 66 light. The good news is that a big chunk of that wait has been spent working on the Leader 3. FYI two of the main guys are pilots from Full Speed RC are pilots and do a lot of work testing before release which is a welcome change in this hobby compared to many models that come out half-baked.

Firstly the Leader is available in 2 variants. The standard model (Leader 3) can be seen below and weighs 87g with regualar standoffs. The Leader 3 SE is exclusive to Fullspeedrc.com and comes with a 3d printed canopy instead of the standoffs. It is 6g heavier but offers several benefits that I'll cover a little later on.

A run through the components
First the frame. Like the Leader 120 the base plate of the frame is 3mm thick although it has been stretched to 130mm motor to motor diagonally rather than 120mm This means it is capable of accepting a true 3" propeller rather than 2.8" maximum on the Leader 120. The frame is most definitely still a 'deadcat' shape meaning the two motors are further apart (107mm) than the 2 rear motors (98mm). Additionally it is a 'squashed-x' compared to a 'stretched-x' meaning the front and rear motors on the same side are closer together. This means it should be more stable in the roll vs. pitch axis but modern flight software somewhat negates this. Compared to the leader 120, sideplates have increased from 2mm to 3mm thick which should aid durability. More imporatantly a 19mm gap rather than 17-18mm means the leader 3/SE now natively fits a 19mm micro cam. It's worth nothing that the baseplate is only 1 piece so you cannot replace single arms. Personally I think replaceable arms are unnecessary on any quad size less than 4" since there is much less leverage for breaking on a smaller quad. The frame can be purchased separately here.
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107mm wide motor to motor at the front
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98mm wide motor to motor at the back
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130 - 131mm diagonally motor to motor
The canopy (Leader 3SE only). When I first saw the canopy I wasn't keen because it adds 8g weight however I think the functionality may just offset that - jury is out until I fly it some more. The 3d TPU print is of very high quality available in black,white, red, purple, blue or yellow and performs the following functions:
  • Replaces the standoffs
  • Provides strain-relieve for battery wires
  • Provides positive mounting and protection for VTX and receiver antennae
  • Sharkfit provides a fulcrum for flip over after crash (anti turtle) mode.
  • Provides protection for buzzer/LED unit
  • Looks tidy.
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The motors are 1106 4500kv which is the same specs as those found on the Emax Babyhawk R 3 inch and the Skystars X120. They are not open bottom and have mounting holes for regular t-mount props and the emax 2.3" avan props. Most importantly they are rated for up to 4s.
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The stack is a Fullspeed FSD F428 flight tower. The flight controller has a F411 chip and will run up to 8k gyro loop and so requires little in the way of soft mounting. The BEC onboard is 5v 3A. It looks to have a pad for current sensing which is good news if you are wanting to use this funtional although you'll need to use something like the FSD Amass XT30 Current Sensor since the ESC does not have native current sensing. Speaking of the ESC it is rated to 28A, runs BLHeli_S and most importantly is capable of 2-4s. The stack can be bought separately here.
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The VTX is a brand new unit that has only just been released by FullSpeed: the FSD TX600. This is a 20mm x 20mm stackable vtx that is switchable between PIT/25mW/100mW/200mW/400mW/600mW. All parameters can be controlled via betaflight/butterflight OSD via the IRC Tramp protocol. I'm looking forward to trying it because the test DVR that I've seen looks to be extremely clear. It can be purchased separately here
The camera used is the Caddx F1 which uses at 1200TVL CCD sensor. I've not used this particular one before and am looking forward to trying it out. FullspeedRC sell the camera here for only $15
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Propellers included are the HQ 3x3x3 At present fullspeed recommends these on 3s and the 2540 on 4s in summer. I'll be trying the included props on both 3s and 4s since it is winter where I am. Available here
Receiver: I requested a frsky receiver and FullspeedRC included their own model - a d8 based FSD frsky nano V2 which I've reviewed here (although this was the V1 version) The v1 has better range with a proper dipole antenna and broadcasts RSSI over channel 9 by default. This can be bought here - also available in spectrum and flysky flavour.
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The Build
Like the original Leader 120, build quailty is excellent. Solder is clean, wires are cut to length. Not much more to say here, it is well beyond my ability! With the quad assembled there is plenty of room behind the camera to adjust tilt (45° and beyond are capable) and the receiver is mounted in this void. with plenty of room left yet. This is speculation but I'd like to address anyway since it seems like a common thread: my best guess is the caddx turtles HD FPV/DVR (not yet released at time of writing) will fit but not without a little modification. My reasoning is that there seems to be 2-3mm 'spare' room between each stack layer. If these standoffs are trimmed by this amount you will be able to save 6-9mm in height which should be enought to fit the turtles board. It will require some fine wire management and a steady hand to trim the standoff but I do think it may be physically possible - a project for another day. That being said, the double stack of the runcam split micro definitely will not fit.
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I think I can get 2-3mm off each layer of standoffs here - enough to make room for a Caddx turtles maybe?
Software setup
Plenty to talk about here although most can be foundin commentary of the Betaflight screens below. If you don't choose to read these however:
  • This flight controller has a unique target that is supported in both betaflight and butterflight: 'FULLSPEEDF411'
  • Ships with Betaflight 3.3.3
  • It is the most customised betaflight I have ever come accross. Custom PIDS for 3s (profile 1), 4s (profile 2), buzzer, OSD, arm angle etc. etc. A lot of thought has gone into this.
  • Hex files for betaflight 3.3.3, 3.4.0, butterflight 3.5.0 are available here
Final thoughts pre-flight
As you can see from above this looks to be a very well thought out quad and not something slapped together from a spare parts bin. The Babyhawk R and Skystars bolt X120 have both shown that 1106 4500kV motors perform well on 4s in 2.5" and 3" so I am excited to see what the Leader 3SE will add here with all the work that has gone into development from a hardware and software perspective. On paper this looks to have the edge on both of those models in terms of weight, VTX capability and ESC current overhead however the real test will come in flight - stay tuned for part 2 of this review where I will cover flight in full - I already have 3s and 4s batteries charged for tomorrow :)
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The Fullspeed RC Leader 3/SE can be bought directly from Fullspeedrc.com and is also available at other retailers however buying from the source is your best chance to get your hands on one quickly.
If you are new to my site check out my reviews or tips and tricks blogs, they are loaded with useful information
7 Comments

HB64: Fast and Durable Brushless Whoop

18/7/2018

3 Comments

 
This review has been kindly written by @fpv_airborne who is looking to become a regular contributor here.
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Introducing the HB64 
The HB64 64mm micro brushless quadcopter is available as a plug and fly kit from HobbyCool.com with either 14000kV or 16000kV 0603 motors. This review is based on the 16000kV variant and is my pick of the 2. It is just 1mm smaller than a traditional brushed tiny whoop but has much more powerful motors. It is 11mm smaller motor to motor than the brushless Happymodel Snapper7 (review here). I am happy to say that the HB64 has impressed me very much!

What is included?​
  • 1x HB64 frame kit
  • 1x F3 flight controller
  • 1x 5A BLHeli_S Dshot ESC
  • 4x D0603 16000KV motor
  • 1x 25mW VTX+camera
  • 1x FS-RX2A Receiver
  • 1x 1S 250/260mAh 30C battery
  • 4x black BL31 4-blade propeller
  • 4x yellow KK31 3-blade propeller
  • 1x L style USB adapter plate
  • 1x propeller puller

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Quad specs: 
The HB64 brushless quad has a 4 in 1 esc and a F3 flight controller onboard. The 4 in 1 esc is rated to 5A and is Dshot compatible and has BLHeli_S configured onto it. These days, we are seeing several companies who are making AIO FC combo with built in esc but this stack seems to work very well. Added unnecessary weight is a big issue for micros but the HB64 weighing in at only 24 grams without battery or 30 grams all up including battery. This weight is impressive knowing all that is included. 4 in 1 esc, FC, battery, motors, props, frame and cam/vtx combo. 

The camera/vtx combo works much better than expected. It has a discrete monopole/whip antenna just from vtx to top of frame pod. This antenna is great for the quad because of its extremely light weight. It is also unlikely to  be broken because there is little surface area of the antenna to hit objects in crashes. This is an improvement from the original tiny whoops which had the cloverleaf antennas that are easily bendable and breakable. 
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Setup: 
The instructions that come with this micro quad are insufficient for the full setup of this quad. Included with my quad, there was a little sheet which had a diagram and labeling of the FC. This diagram only showed the FC and nothing else like the 4 in 1 esc, VTX diagram or receiver setup. Even though there is information on Google, it would have saved a lot of time and effort for the buyer to receive more extensive instructions. To that end I have spent some time here documenting what has worked in case others are looking for this information.

I was pleased to find that the betaflight firmware was fully setup with Betaflight 3.2 and only needs to be bound to the transmitter to be ready to fly. The pids and (ALL) settings have been adjusted to suit the quad. All that needs to be done is to bind the receiver to the quad, setup switches for arm etc. in the receiver tab and you’re ready to fly! 

While I was setting up switches, after I setup arm, I also set up ‘flip over after crash’ which is a MUST for anyone that crashes a lot because it prevents those awkward walks of shame to rescue your quad. To use flip over after crash, just switch the switch which is assigned to flip over in the receiver’s tab and then arm using the arm switch, tilt the pitch or roll depending on the angle and objects around the quad until the quad is upright, then disarm both switches and re-arm the arm switch. You will then be upright and ready to rip again!

Since I run a Flysky radio, I used a small FS-RX2a pro receiver but the SBUS-based FRSKY receivers will work in the same manner. To set up the FS-RX2A Pro receiver, all that is required is the receiver to be soldered to FC by the GND, 5V and ibus. Then hold the bind button on the receiver while powering on from lipo. Now turn on the transmitter and go into bind mode and that's it! As simple as that and it is bound together. This receiver only works for flysky transmitters but works amazingly well for the purpose and size it is. Next step is to go into betaflight and make sure the serial based receiver (SBUS AND IBUS receiver) is selected and Sbus or ibus in configurators tab, Then in receivers tab, select switches for arm and I strongly recommend you try flip over after crash and beeper in case it is lost or hidden behind something because this quad is surprisingly easy to lose behind a cabinet etc. 
Flying: 
Finally a good flying micro brushless!

Before I saw this I was hesitant to try another micro build after my previous Eachine H8 with AIO camera and tiny whoop. This is because back when I had those 2 quads, the power and components were not up to acceptable standard and the power was unbalanced so one motor would normally be powered more than the other 3 which created a lot of issues for the pilot. That is why I did not recommend them before. But all I can now say is “WOW”. From the first battery of this quad, I have been impressed. Within a year and a quarter, I can see the huge improvement that has been made in the performance and quality of micro quads, especially since they are now brushless which allows them to have more power and a much longer flight life. Moving forward into the future, brushless is becoming very popular because it allows for a lot more power than the brushed micros, lasts much longer and is more durable and can save weight because of the new ‘Naked bottom’ motors. 

While flying this micro, using the first 30 batteries, I was very impressed with the 3 - 3.5 minutes of continuous flying which is great flight time for a micro like this. But after the first around 50 packs through this micro, the battery life shortened to 2 minutes to max of 2.5 minutes before I started to feel the battery sag. This is not that much of an issue because it was only because of the batteries’ life time. You would have much more fun if you purchased at least 4 260mah 3.8V batteries and gain longer battery life because the flying time would be more spread out over multiple batteries versus the 1 260mah battery that is included with this micro quadcopter. 

I was really happy when flying this quad with the AIO camera quality. The quality and zoom of the lens on this camera cannot be changed, but as a stock unit they perform amazingly well. Everything in the camera’s sight is visible and surprisingly clear for a nano camera. The quality of this camera in my opinion is comparable to the “Stock” Foxeer HS1177 fpv camera with all the colour and clarity in the view. The camera however is fixed view. This means that the camera is fixed at a 20° angle. However, it works very well with the power and the weight of the quad while keeping the speed fast. 

The video I experienced with this quad has been more than enough for what it has been designed for. Flying this quad indoors, the video feed can travel through a couple of walls before severely breaking up. The antenna is well covered and at 25mw at 12 channels, I have not had many issues with the range unless flying between multiple walls. 
Conclusion: 
In conclusion, the HB64 micro brushless quad is an excellent micro quad for anyone from a beginner just getting into FPV to a long-timer FPV pilot for those indoor sessions or just some fun for those rainy days. It has more than enough power for indoor races or to rip around the house/warehouse. Its size and power also allows it to hit those extra small gaps that are impossible for larger micros or 3” quads to hit. Its advantages overlap the advantages from any brushed “Tiny Whoop” and for the HB64’s price point, it is definitely worth checking out and potentially worth buying if it ticks your needs. This quad is also very very durable. I have crashed it from high, slammed into many obstacles and it has just held up without any bent props because of the included prop guards. Within my first 20 flights, I crashed into a deep puddle of water where this quad was fully submerged for several minutes but after putting it under the hair dryer and letting it dry off, I plugged it back in and it worked like it did before the soaking. My last point is to address the quality of the solder joints and construction of the quad. Every part of this quad appears to be well thought out and as a result is strong and durable against many obstacles. In my opinion, I would recommend this quad 100%.

The HB64 micro brushless quadcopter is available at HobbyCool.com:
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3 Comments

Skystars Bolt X120 Review Part 2: Flight tests and corrections

17/7/2018

2 Comments

 
This is part 2 of the review. In part 1 I discuss an overview and setup (including betaflight settings from factory) are covered in detail: Part 1 review
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Correction
Firstly a very important correction. In the first review I showed a picture of the quadcopter minus battery sitting on a set of scales at 65g. I took this for granted and after measuring on my own scales got 84g. I don't usually trust weight in text but seeing it was sitting on digital scales I did not measure myself. Disappointing as this is misleading so I updated Gearbest immediately. To their credit they promptly took the image down and corrected the weight in the description - see below.

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Original image from product description page (now removed)
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My ready to fly weight less battery
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New description.
Preparing for flight
Just some minor housekeeping prior to the first flight. XM receiver was fixed in place on top of the VTX as it was dangling free when I received it. Antenna was fixed in place with a cable tie off the rear arm and heatshrink to secure. VTX antenna got the same treatment off the rear upper-deck of the frame. Lastly I replaced the rubbish battery strap with one from RJX hobbies (review here). Although a buckled strap was included as well as the one picture above, it was much too long? Weird.
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Yeah first antenna didn't work out so well. One replacement later it's not on a zip tie attached to the rear left arm
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WTH man?!!
Flight performance on 2s
Just because the Bolt X120 *can* fly on 2s doesn't mean you *should* fly on 2s. I used my Turnigy Nanotech 2s 950mah (47g) pack and needed about 40% throttle to hover. I could fly but performance was lacklustre and I got bored. I did get about 4 minutes flight time but won't say any more.
Flight performance on 3s
After my initial disappointment on the weight, performance on 3s 450mah turnigy nanotech was better than I had expected. It felt controlled with enough speed to be enjoyable. I had to switch to default betaflight 3.3 PIDs though since the customised PIDs look more like a 4s tune and felt sloppy as a result. I did manage to get good flight times on these little batteries of approximately 2.5 - 3.0 coming down at 3.75 volts and had fun doing so. Given then power of the quad I'd probably pefer a 650mah 3s for another minute or so of flight and would have less concern about sagging on big throttle punches. For the places I usually enjoy micros the most (tight with small trees) I found 3s the most fun.

Quick update: compared back to back on same batteries with my Leader 120 which is lighter (68g vs 84g) with 'smaller' motors (1104 7500kV vs. 1106 4500kV). I found it was similar speed with comparable handling and I actually got as good if not slightly better flight time on the Skystars Bolt - the extra stator size was negated by the lower kV from an efficiency standpoint. The leader however cannot do 4s...
Picture4s 650mah CNHL is a lot of battery on this quad
4s Powah
When I went from 3s to 4s on the BabyHawk R 3" (review here) I got a reasonable increase in speed but not 33% as you'd probably expect. Given the same motor size (1106 4500kV) I was expecting something similar here but got a complete shock here - This thing ABSOLUTELY SCREAMS on 4s. I've always liked the Gemfan 2540 props (review here) but have never tried them on 4s and boy, they sure hold up and deliver on the extra power, it was like a different quad altogether. The speed was like nothing I'd felt on a micro and I had real trouble managing in a tight area. This probably wasn't helped by the fact I was using a CNHL Ministar 4s 650mah battery which weighs 87g so I was really blowing out on corners, even with a lot of extra throttle. It reminded my of running a heavy 4s 3 inch with 1408 motors - super fast but handled like a brick. I'd dare say 450mah 4s at around 62g would be a better option for weight control. at the cost of some flight time. As it stood I was getting 4 - 4.5 minutes on the 650mah battery. I've since moved to betaflight 3.4.0 and have got the tune tighter without oscillations but it is still a handful. For my piloting ability running this quad on 4s requires a bigger area akin to my 4 and 5 inch quads but that kind of deafeats the purpose of this micro. For my money and ability I actually prefer this on 3s - It is much quieter and handles better with the lower weight which is better suited to small parks. The noise alone on 4s makes people more wary of this one. 

Conclusion
Rather than trying to recommend how many cells you should run I've merely stated my opinions on what I want from a micro. The most important thing here is that this Skystars Bolt X120 is well and truly capable of comfortably running 3s or 4s depending on where you are flying or how you are feeling on a particular day. The new throttle limiting feature on betaflight is a great way of limiting power to fly on 4s if for example you want to stick with just this battery size with power more akin to 3s. I've written a full tutorial on this here including how to assign to an AUX switch.

Although I alluded to the similarities to the original Leader 120 (review here) it is clearly a different quadcopter with a different feel and different capabilities - it has a much better camera and VTX but is much heavier and designed to run on more cells which make it heavier again for a different flight feel. A better comparison is perhaps the BabyHawk R 3 inch which I find handles better but lacks the speed of this model, particularly on 4s. Images below on a scale for all of these for comparison.
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Skystars Bolt X120 final weight
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Leader 120 upgraded with CCD camera and 200mW VTX
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Emax BabyHawk R 3 inch
The Skystars bolt can be bought exclusively from Gearbest in several different formats - an unbuilt kit with no receiver (PNF), a built quad with no receiver, or as a built quad with FRSKY or Flysky receivers.

Check on my discounts page regularly for specials but at the time of writing the unbuilt kit is available for $117 and the FRSKY BNF as seen here is available for $134
2 Comments

Finally a Real Brushless Whoop: HappyModel Snapper7

3/5/2018

3 Comments

 
PictureThe Happymodel Snapper7 is available from Gearbest
After several false starts including the FullspeedRC beebee66 which looked so promising (review here) I've finally found a real brushless tiny whoop - the Happy Model Snapper 7. This 75mm brushless quadcopter is 10mm larger in diagonal motor to motor distance than a typical tiny whoop or clone but can still be very much classified as an micro indoor quadcopter. I'm pleased to say that the awfully named Happy Model Snapper 7 exceeded my expectations in practically every area.

What is included?
The standard version is $10 more than the basic version and simply speaking offers superior value for money. Included is:
  • The Bind and fly brushless quadcopter itself
  • 3 x 450mah 1s LiHV 4.35v batteries
  • 6 channel charger
  • Spare set of 40mm propellers
  • screw driver, prop removal tool and screws 
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Don't get this one
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Get this one!
As you can probably see above the standard version includes 3 batteries instead of 1 and a 6 channel charger instead of a single USB charger. Because I was so impressed by the charger, I'll call out here the details of what made it so special:
  • 6 independent charging channels. This is not a parallel charge meaning you can plug in out batteries of varying voltage at any time
  • LED readout that cycles through the voltage of each channel, input power supply and USB output voltage
  • Wide 6-24v DC 5.5mm barrel or XT60 power supply. This means you can use practically any 'wall wart' power adapter you have lying around or more interestingly any 2-5s Xt60 lipo making for a very nice portable charging unit. The LED readout for input power detailed above mean you can ensure your charge lipo is not over-discharged. Nice.
  • Output voltage for each cannel can be switch between 4.20v and 4.35v meaning you can charge any combination of standard or high voltage lipos on the 6 output channels.
  • Output current can be switched between 0.2A or 0.5A per channel for slow or fast charge.
  • Choice of JST connectors, PH 2.0 and small (sorry I cant remember the pin pitch! Will update if I remember)
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Awesome charger!
Quad specs and discussion
Key specifications of the quad are:
  • Crazybee F3 flight controller with SPI integrated FRSKY or Flysky receiver and 5a BLHeli_S ESC (more discussion below)
  • AIO 700TVL CMOS cam with 5.8GHz 40ch 25mW vtx
  • 0703 19000kV motors
  • 450mah 1s HV battery
  • Aluminium/carbon 75mm frame with canopy
  • 28.2g without battery, 41.8g with
  • Soft mounted flight controller

The real innovation and star of the show is the integrated flight control/ESC/receiver. The flight control and BLHeli_S ESC on the same board is nice and a useful step forward from spearate boards as on the BeeBee 66 that mean it is more compact and weighs less (4.3g for this board). We've seen integrated receivers before but not with an SPI interface as this one has. In theory the SPI interface is much faster than the SBUS interface (gyro is connected via SPI) but for practical results this frees up a spare UART and ensures you get FULL telemetry (confirmed on my Taranis Q-X7s). Addionally it means that rather than choosing a serial receiver in betaflight, you choose a dedicated SPI receiver and can choose between D8 or D16 for FRSKY or AFDHS or AFDHS2a for FRSKY. Lastly binding is easy! you no longer need to use 3 hands to hold the tiny button down while binding - power on and then hold the bind button down for 2 seconds. Bliss!! The Crazybee F3/ESC/RX is available separately in FRSKY and FLYSKY versions
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Nothing much to note about the AIO camera from spec perspective, nor the motors - the real test will be in flight. The frame however is intersting. The rings around the props look like ducts but are actually just protectors meaning you should expect flight performance more like a typical guard-less quadcopter rather than a ducted whoop. Guards look to be cast from 7075 aluminium and are integral to the frame, i.e. cannot be removed.
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Can't take these gaurds off unless you want to remove the motors too.
Setup
The instructions that come with this model are succinct, well written and complete. It goes into detail with receiver choice in betaflight and binding procedure due to the SPI interface. As mentioned above: Easier to bind and choose the correct recevier. For flysky users it is particularly useful that you can choose between AFDHS and AFDHS2a. You'll be pleased to know that betaflight has been full set up from factory for all the elements that are unique to this quad althought the PIDs are stock (yet run fine). Please see below for stock betaflight setup and my comments in the gallery below:
It's worth noting that since this runs BLHeli_S, all of the latest Dshot commands are available including motor beep and anti-turtle mode aka 'flip over after' crash. Both work very well :)
You'll be pleased to know that the VTX displays 8 separate mini leds for channel and 5 for band meaning choosing a channel is really easy. short press changes channel, 2 seconds or longer changes band. I was also pleasantly suprised that camera angle is adjustable on an actualy pivot - first time I've seen a proper implementation on a whoop-style.
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Check out the camera angle you can acheive!
Flying
I've seen a number of brushless whoops that have looked great on paper but none yet have actually bettered the flight experience by a simple brushed whoop like my santa whoop (part 1 and part 2 reviews here). That's because until now the brushless motors haven't scaled down well and offered poor power and efficiency. This meant they had no better thrust than a good brushed whoop and much worse battery life.

I'm really pleased to say that this model is different. Yes I know it has a 10mm larger frame and a 450mah battery but performance is superior to even a heavily modded whoop. What does this mean? It can better recover from manouvers and it is a more viable outdoor flier on still days. Punch outs are surprisingly good! As you can see from the video it will happily navigate a playground and trees. The flight characteristics are really interesting. I'd liken it more to a micro burshless than a whoop because of the extra power and lack of full ducts. This means I can be more aggresive with cornering using more roll rather than the yaw-heavy flying I do with whoops. Further to this it makes me more confident in acro mode whereas I find a whoop in acro mode really foreign. In tight spaces and obstacles and at lower speed (e.g. indoors) I still feel more comfortable in angle mode, just like a brushless whoop.

For flight time I got about 3 minutes when charged to 4.2v or 3.5 minutes when charged to 4.35v. Open field flying dropped battery life to about 2 minutes but this is not typical flight with a micro like this. This tells me these motors are most efficient in the 30-80% throttle range which is where most tighter flying is done - like the playground, indoors or around small trees. Nice to know the power is there if needed though. I'm not a fan of brushless motors smaller than 1102 but think these 0703s are actually pretty good - particularly with this combination of components. Furthermore they are the quietest sub-1102 motor I have heard. Spares are available here: https://www.gearbest.com/motor/pp_1717534.html

I was really pleased with the image out of the little AIO cam - it was as crisp as I've seen with as good a colour handling as you can expect for this type of camera. The camera angle adjustment was really nice and with the power this offered a well thought out capability. Video signal was very good even around trees and I started to drop RSSI on the control link well before video deteriotation before travelling out on an open field. I think the receiver antenna location could be optimised (below) but think you'll struggle to get the 300m claimed range...​ <Quick update> I've since routed the antenna up through the canopy rather than underneath. I think the reception may be marginally better but certainly no more than 100m in line of sight conditions.
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Playgrounds are a perfect spot for the Snapper7 on a still day
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Battery is held by a rubberband which is lightweight and secure for this size
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I untucked the receiver antenna, this should give a little better reception
Conclusion
The HappyModel Snapper7 is an excellent supermicro brushless whoop-style quadcopter that is available in a great value 'standard' pack which includes 3 batteries and and versatile charger. For it's size it is very light weight thanks to the heavily integrated FC/receiver/ESC board that includes the very latest receiver interface that makes setup extremely simple. By combining this with well made  19000kV motors and a suprisingly good AIO camera they have created a brushless tiny whoop that lives up to what we've wanted - a familiar whoop style quad that is suitable for indoors with a level of power and response that micro brushed quads just cannot achieve. Furthermore it feels much more at home in rate mode (acro) flight compared to a ducted whoop. Unlike earlier brushless models this does not come at the cost of battery life where 3-3.5 minutes flight time is realistic. Only time will tell how the motors and aluminium prop guards will hold up but with 20 or so packs through I've not caused any permanent damage plus the motors are still running quietly.

The Happymodel Snapper7 is available in a basic bind and fly package with 1 battery and a simple charger for just $85 in flysky or frsky versions but I'd recommend instead going for the $95 standard package which includes 3 batteries and an excellent 6 port charger.
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Frsky basic: 
https://www.gearbest.com/brushless-fpv-racer/pp_1660085.html
Flysky basic: 
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https://www.gearbest.com/brushless-fpv-racer/pp_1660087.html
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Frsky standard:
https://www.gearbest.com/brushless-fpv-racer/pp_1659533.html
Flysky standard: 
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https://www.gearbest.com/brushless-fpv-racer/pp_1659535.html
Recommendations:
I'd happily recommend this as more powerful alternative for a brushless whoop for indoor flying and even outdoor flying in no or low wind. Unlike a the heavier brushless ET100, ET115 and ET125 models, the light weight will have much less chance of damaging your home with crashes when flying indoors.
3 Comments

EMAX BabyHawk R 136mm 3 INCH micro quad review

12/4/2018

2 Comments

 
PictureThe Emax BabyHawk R 136mm with all the gear I need to fly FPV
The Emax Baby Hawk R is a micro brushless quadcopter that was launched by Emax in early 2018 as a follow up to the highly successful Emax Babyhawk (not r). It was launched as a 2 inch but 2.5 inch aftermarket arms quickly became available in the aftermarket and hugely improved the power to weight ratio, disc loading and efficiency. Emax themselves have now taken this one step further with the Babyhawk R 136mm (3 inch). Compared to the 2 inch version is has the longer arms with the new Avanflow 3 inch 3-blade propellers and a reduction in motor KV from 6000kv down to 4500kv although motor size is still the same 1106. Weight of the 3 inch is 86g compared to 82g. I will review the Babykawk R 136mm (3 inch) here.

Specs and discussion
  • 136mm motor to motors. This is relatively compact for a 3" stretched x frame.
  • Emax Magnum F3 Magnum flight controller with MPU6000 gyro. Will run the latest versions of Betaflight (3.3)/Butterflight (3.4) with pretty much all options available up to about 4k/4k gryo pid loops. F4 would have been nice for better future proofing but F3 is fine for now. The flight controller is nicely softmounted on the frame. Not usually necessary for the MPU6000 gyro but a nice option nonetheless.
  • Emax Magnum 12A BLHeli_S esc. On paper looks weak but the reality is that EMAX have rated this for 4s on the 1106 motors so it is all that is required. There could be an argument for going with BLHeli_32 but probably falls in the same camp as the F3/F4 discussion.
  • Emax RS1106 4500kV motor. Nice torquey kv rating to spin the 3" props. Designed in the good efficiency/power range for 3 or 4s.
  • Foxeer Arrow Micro Camera. Solid branded CCD FPV camera
  • Emax Magnum 25mW / 200mW VTX. Basic VTX with two most common operating frequencies for a micro. No smart Audio is a minor disappointment but cannel change button is easy to access as display LED.
  • Avan 3 inch props. Will comment more on these since the specs alone don't leave us a lot to go with.

On paper none of these components are especially exciting or on the hype-train. A big HOWEVER though - all are very tried and true, solid and well balanced. This means reliability and reduced cost. The each have a job to do and do it without fuss or flair. It's fair to say though that when you bring them together they are greater than the sum of parts.

Quick rambling thoughts how 3 inch quad weights

I think of 3 inch quads in 2 ways - a shrunk down 5" based on large motors and 4s batteries or an embiggened micro based on 11XX series motors and 3s. This clearly fits in the camp of "embiggened micro" since it is based around 1106 motors however it is farily unique in that the ESC, motors as well tough frame and cowling are well and truly engineered for 4s - best of both worlds as it were. By constrast my lightweight FlexRC komori (build blog is here) can take 4s but the frame would not hold up to carrying the extra weight of a 4s. Conversely something like the Furibee X140 (review blog here) is pretty gutless on a 3s where it can't overcome the 120g+ weight of the quad.
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The Flex RC komori is a 72g 3 inch. It is limited to 2 or 4s because of the lightweight frame's ability to take a hit.
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The Furibee X140 is a 125g 3 inch and is by no means heavy for a 3 inch. It can run 3 or 4s but really needs 4s IMO
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The Babyhawk R weighs 86g and is designed for 3s or 4s
Setting up

I haven't delved into all the betaflight screens this time because for the most part this is down to preference and your gear. What I can say though is that although not installed from the factory, EMAX have provided some VERY good PIDS for both 3s and 4s. Here is the link to their page or for convinience please see below:
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3s PIDS. Click to enlarge
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4s PIDS. Click to enlarge
Fly the damned thing

At the time of writing I've only run this on 2s and 3s. 2s was using a 46g 950mah turnigy nanotech battery and was very uninspiring but hey, at least it can be done! 3s was much better than I thought it would be. I used the Turnigy Nanotech 3s 460mah battery (about 42g) and got 2.5 - 3 minutes flight depending on how hard i pushed, coming down at about 3.75v per cell at rest.

The first thing I have to say about the flight is that all of these solid if unspectacular components do come together so nicely - they are all well suited which not only make for an enjoyable and reliable fllight experience but means the cost does not blow out. In addition the protection offered by the 3mm carbon-armed and cowled frame means that even after tumbles there is a good chance you can just rearm and get flying again - it is tough! The other benefit of the cowl is that it looks cool, different from the top plate/bottom plate or side cage frames that are out there.
In the air I think the standard emax 3 inch props props are a real star. They have a pitch that starts of very slight at the tip and gets more and more aggressive with larger blade area the closer you get to the motor. It means that even on 3s with a realtively slow spinning 4500kV motor you can get really good performance. Combine this with the excellent PIDs as above and it has honestly been one of my favourite flying experiences, particularly staying tight and low around trees in parks where I do most of my flying. I do find the blades bend relatively easy but do bend back fairly easy as well. I'm pleased that they are a good prop because there is a realy dearth of 3" propellers with a t-style mount. A quick note that the motors come down barely warm.
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Here you can see the unique design of the prop the emax officially calls: AVAN MINI 3 INCH PROPELLER 3X2.4X3
Punch out power is ok on 3s but will hold my judgement till I get some 4s packs. understandably the light 3s packs make for great agility which is why I had a lot of fun with proximity around the small trees in the park that I have close to work.

For FPV camera performance is good - as to be expected from the foxeer arrow micro CCD. VTX is clear in the right conditions and is better than most other micros however I do undersand this can be improved significantly with an AXII ufl antenna (or the cheaper UXII). Channel and power level is easy to change via the small button but as suggested above there is no smart audio or tramp protocol to do this over betaflight OSD.
Summary

Obviously I haven't tried on 4s yet (I am just choosing a 500-700mah 4s to order), but based on the performance of 3s I think this quad is a real winner.

Emax have done a fantastic job on not getting carried away on needlessly overspeccing the quad in areas you cannot really taking advantage of. In doing so they have a solid, robust and well priced offering that I can see becoming very popular like the babyhawk before it albeit with less shortcomings. Better still the support that emax appear to be offering beyond regular customer service such as offering tuned PIDs means that community support will mean there are always going to be clever fixes and modifications that will be available, making obsolesence for this model is less likely. Make no mistake obsolesence is a real issue with quads because once the community moves away from a model there is less support in total available.

Although experienced builders and customisers will still likely want to build their own, It is very easy to recommend this as a first 'racing' micro quad becuase of it's inherent features and support. As a micro quad builder myself it's hard for me to say but this is actually more enjoyable to fly than most of my custom builds because it all comes together so nicely. For that reason it is easy to recommend this to the more experienced set that just want to fly and not fiddle with the micro electronics etc - for example if you have come from 5 inch racing or freestyle quads.

The Emax BabyHawk R is currently available from Gearbest with or without receiver. The model without receiver is $166. If I get access to any specials I'll post on my coupons ans discounts page.
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Flight videos

​...to follow
2 Comments

FLyFOX 110 Micro from Hobbycool.com - Monster Power

25/2/2018

0 Comments

 
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The Flyfox 110mm is a BNF Micro 2 inch quadcopter for newcomers HobbyCool.com. I was most interested in this micro quadcopter because so far as I can see, the BNF model here is completely exclusive to HobbyCool.
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Specifications
The frame is based on a 3mm bottom plate with 1.5mm sideplates attached by tabs and 3d printed standoff - very similar to the Leader 120 but with a different look and more importantly, a factory micro CCD camera. The frame with hardware on its own weighs 15g and is available here for less than $10. Speaking of the camera, it looks to be nicely protected by the frame without impacting the view however only a limited amount of camera angle is available as can be seen in the image below:

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As you may be able to see the connector plug hits the flight stack with any more than about 25° angle. There is the option of moving the camera forward in the anterior holes but this would mean less camera protection.
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78.8g ready to fly with xmplus receiver and battery strap but not battery.

Electronics are fairly typical - F4 flight control and 20A DSHOT600 ESC. 2 nice suprises I was not expecting here though - tramp control of VTX (my first in a micro) and a baromoter in the flight controler (my first altogether!). ESC uses a JST connect which should be ok although I would have preferred a XT30. Voltage drop may or may not be an issue but in practicality in all except my lightest brushless quads (less than half this weight), it is a much more robust and convinient connector.
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Click for thrust data from manufacturer
The biggest talking point of this 2 inch micro though is the 1106 7800kv AOKFLY motors - the biggest and highest KV I have ever experienced in a micro, especially one than can only swing 2 inch props. For those of you unaware, the larger AOKFLY motors for 5 inch quads like these RV2306 are well regarded as very good performers at a budget price. The closest motor to this spec I've come across to this is the EMax 1106 7500kV and these have a tendency to get hot on anything over 2s so for now, will limit to 2s batteries.
​This quad is PNP so does not ship with a receiver so I used my favourite XMPlus for FRSKY. It does however ship with a nice 550mah 2s GNB battery which unfortunately for me is still with Hobbycool since getting batteries to where I live (NZ) is getting harder and harder. Lastly a buzzer and 2 x programmable LEDS are connected and mounted and 16 x Kingkong 2035 4 bladed props with screws are included.

All solder joints that I could see looked to be good, wires were well trimmed, routed and secured and the build quality looked good.

All up weight including props, battery strap but no battery is 78g which is heavy but it's worth noting that this is in a power class of it's own with these monstrous motors.

When I first plugged in betaflight configurator in I was expecting to see a dead stock list of settings but was pleased to find some customisation - see below for a list of stock settings which included a number of modes set, craft name, DSHOT600 etc but unfortunately no custom PIDs (or rates). ​Prior to the initial flight the only changes I made to setting were for my receiver with RSSI set to channel 16 and my stock modes - arm-disarm; angle-horizon-air; beeper off-beeper on.
Getting ready for FPV Maiden
Even before I started FPV I could tell from the hover test that the PIDs were too aggressive by the excessive fluttering I could hear. This is to be expected because the comparitively large motors have absolute control of the motors and so the feedback loop is exaggurated. I knocked P, I and D down for all three axes to get it in the air without risk of damage but it could certainly do with some more tuning to crispen up the controls. Since it was Betaflight 3.2.0 that was installed, PIDs were easily changed via OSD.
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If you are getting a lot of fluttering try these PIDs to start. They take away much of the oscillation and motors remain cool but are overly conservative
Since I did not have the stock 550mah 2S GNB battery (which is highly regarded) I used my turnigy bolt HV 2s 500mah 65c batteries charged to regular voltage with stock jst discharge connectors. For what it is worth, radio was FRSKY QX7s and goggles were the AOMWAY commander V1s. Takeoff weight was 104g
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Ready to maiden. Here I used the Gemfan 2035 props instead of the stock Kingkong 2035. Not sure what my shadow pinkie finger is doing here. Drinking a cup of tea?
Maiden Flight
The quad powered on without issue and I was off flying immediately. I started with the stock propellers but switched the the Gemfan 2035 4-blades after finding that they had a bit more top end through a wider blade at the tip. Power was predictably high for a 2 inch but regardless of the large motors lacked a bit compared to a quad swinging a 2.5 inch prop (e.g. leader 120, HGLRC Hornet, Mini Fight). Update: After more time with the Gemfan 2040 Hulkie 3 bladed props I found I was able to get better performance again out of these 3 bladed props over either set of 4 blades. As I suspected when I first reviewed the hulkies, their stiffness and less blades are better suited to a high power setup.
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Wobbly Gemfan 2040 'Hulkie' props in action!
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Due to the large motor size response was excellent but given I tend to have a preference for light weight over power I found that hard flying took quite a toll on the batteries. For moderate to heavy flying I found I got about 2 minutes of flight on the 500mah batteries, which recovered to about 3.73 v per cell on resting. During flight though I did get a lot of warning of battery low and land now but in reality just need to change the battery voltage hysterisis setting to be a little more tolerant - article on how to do that here. Update: 15 packs later I consistently get 2 minutes on these batteries. 

It is fair to say that between the large stator height of 6mm and very high kV of 7800, this motor is designed for 2s and no more - even trying 3s did not cross my mind... not only because of the likelihood of the motor cooking itself but because you simply cannot take advantage of it with the 2 inch props - it will just make more noise and heat.

Batteries and motors aside, the quad feels like any other high powered 2 inch - powerful but certainly not floaty where you need more throttle to make it change direction. Camera performance was on par with other CCD micro cameras including the Runcam swift micro, Foxeer arrow micro, HGLRC Elf, Furibee MS 1672. Video signal was good - typical for a dipole but like that it had the option of switching by 25mW-100mW-200mW via tramp protocol in the ESC. To be consistent with other reviews I stuck with 25mW. It's worth mentioning that when the vtx dipole is laying flat against the quads as in my pictures the reception is poor. Even when I temporarily bent it up performance improved a lot, but will cover this more in my list of recommendations.
Conclusions
The Flyfox 110mm BNF from Hobbycool is a high powered 2 inch drone that is well built and fairly priced at $129 the time of writing. It's key feature is the massively powerful 1106 AOKFLY motors that are fast but make the quad heavy and limits battery choice to 2s, even though the electronics can take up to 4s. These features make for a fast quad in a straight line that needs extra throttle in corners to help keep a line. The downside is that battery life is shortish - 2 minutes flat out on a 500mah battery. The kit is well provisioned with 16 propellers in total and a very nice 2s 550mah GNB battery.

Recommendations
  • Ease off on the PIDs as posted above. Motors are too powerful for this prop size on default 3.2.0 pids even with dynamic filtering.
  • First off the Gemfan Hulkie 2040 props seem to offer slightly better efficiency and top end compared to either the stock kingkong 2035x4 or gemfan 2035x4 propellers, probably because of the motor power. 
  • Change the battery strap for a better one!!
  • The camera can be moved forward with holes available to allow more than about 25° camera angle.
  • I'd probably change the battery connector to an xt30 just to ensure it is not a contributor to voltage sag
  • vtx aerial should be poked up out of the frame with support from zip tie and heat shrink for best video transmission
  • I can't help but think a larger frame that would allow 2.5 inch props would take better advantage of these motors the Froggie 135 from RCX comes to mind. In saying that I think this may actually be my favourite micro frame in looks, practicality, durability - just for my preferences I prefer the way a 2.5 inch flies in anything over about 40g.

The FlyFox 110mm BNF Micro brushless quadcopter is available exclusively at HobbyCool.com I'd like the thank Kevin for the sample he provided for me to review.
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Super lightweight AIO Camera Shootout

18/1/2018

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PictureTypically AIO cameras are limited to brushless quads now. Here is my santa whoop with the LST S2
Since half of the planet is currently having weather that is forcing people indoors at the moment (not me haha!) I've reviewed some All In One (AIO) camera and VTX combos. Traditionally these have been used on tiny whoop style indoor brushed quads and smaller micro brushless quads although more and more brushless quads are using slightly heavier micro CCDs as standard.

Weight is still very much the name of the game in brushed quads as you'll struggle to get a 4:1 power to weight ratio even on the larger 8520-based brushed micros. This means CMOS-based AIO cameras are still the norm because they are so light. In this round up I've gone for some of the lightest cameras I can find and best of all, 2 include video in / video out so that no tricky wiring hacks are needed to run betaflight OSD.

Note: This is clearly not an exhaustive test, I happened to have a number of AIO camera at the same time I ordered for various micros so had a chance to compare. I though the improvements over the Eachine TX01 were impressive so thought it would be work sharing.

​The Contenders:

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Eachine TX01 - $20 at time of writing

The now classic Eachine TX01 is a 600TVL CMOS Camera with a 120° claimed field of view and a VTX running 25mW 40 channels VTX. It weighs 4.5g with the standard antenna but you can get it down to about 4.0g with a basic monopole antenna. Being older it is larger in size - 20mm wide, 34mm high with the inflexible CP antenna and 16mm total depth including lens. Included here because this was somewhat of a standard 6-12 month ago. No video in / out standard but can be modified to do so with a bit of work. Channels are easily changed and cleared displayed on the single digit large led display. This camera is fixed to NTSC.

You can find this one at Banggood here. Exclusive to them as far as I know
LST - S2 Video out only - $9 flash sale at time of writing

This variant of the LS2 is a 800TVL CMOS Camera with a 150° field of view running a 25mW 40 channel VTX. It is a more recent model and weighs only 3.3g (3.6g claimed) It is very small physically - 14mm wide, 14mm high excluding the flexible antenna and about 15mm deep with lens. It uses a linnear dipole antenna attached by ufl connector and so can be changed easily. This particular model has no video in / out. It can probably be modified for this but I have not yet tried. Channels are easily changed and clearly displayed with 8 LEDs for channels and 5 for bands. In addition this is PAL/NTSC switchable with a blue LED to signal PAL mode.

You can find this one at Gearbest here. Exclusive to them so far as I know
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LST - S2 Video in/out - OSD ready - $16 at time of writing

This is identical to the camera above EXCEPT it has video in and video out wires meaning you can connect to betaflight OSD without modification. This has made it 0.2 g heavier @ 3.5g

You can find this at Gearbest here Exclusive to them so far as I know
CM275T - $17 at time of writing

​This update to the CM275 is a 600TVL CMOS Camera with a 120° field of view running a 25mW 48 channel VTX. It is the lightest AIO I've seen at 3.2g. It is very small physically - 14mm wide x 14mm high (excluding the flexible antenna) and about 15mm total depth . It uses a linnear dipole antenna attached this is soldered directly to the board. As per the image it has video in/out so can be hooked up to betaflight OSD without modification. Channels are easily changed using 2 buttons and clearly displayed with 8 LEDs for channels and 6 for bands. In addition this is PAL/NTSC switchable.

You can find this at Gearbest here or FlexRC here
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Runcam Micro Swift 2 with Fullspeed TX200 piggyback VTX - $35 at time of writing for camera and vtx

Just as a comparison I've included this combo in the list. Although larger it can still be set up and an AIO system. Total weight is 8.2g and it is 19mm wide, 19mm high without antenna and approx 19mm total depth. It uses a linnear dipole www.gearbest.com/camera/pp_719175.html?lkid=11603721antenna attached by ufl connector and so can be changed easily. Although it doesn't have video in/out the video cable is very easy to intercept plus the micro swift 2 has a basic battery voltage and time OSD built in. It is bigger and heavier so not suited toa brushed quad but the light handling of the camera is vastly superior. Full review here

You can find the TX200 at gearbest here or Banggood here.
You can find the micro swift pretty much anywhere but here is the link for Gearbest
Results
Clearly discussion on image quality is missing here - I found the 4 CMOS AIO camera above very similar and wouldn't be able to tell apart in a blind test. The only AIO I've picked up which is clearly inferior is the VM2751 standard on the leader which is not included in this shootout. I thought this camera/vtx was the weak point of the Leader 120 quadcopter.

Recommendation
For a micro brushed quad without an OSD I'd recommend the LST S2. For goodness sakes it is only $9!!! Further to that it is light, easy to change channel / band / video format and small.

For a micro brushed quad with OSD or if you are after every milligram of weight savings, get the CM275T. It is CRAZY light at 3.2g and has a very convinient video/in out so that you don't need to mod your cam just to enjoy betaflight OSD - assuming your FC supports it. I know it's at odds with what I said about brushless and ccd cameras but this will be going on my Eyas X2 rebuild going for the lightest 2" possible - targetng 35g with props. Here is my original X2 eyas build on rotorbuilds if your curious.

For a brushless quad 2s and up just get the micro swift or equivalent and the TX200 VTX. The video quality is just so superior in all but the best lighting conditions. VTX can be a little tricky with band / channel display but transmission quality is excellent and you have the ability to bump the transmission power up to 200mW.
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The Eachine TX01 lives in my Eyas X2 which is currently beinf rebuilt. Has been a reliable performer but I'm shooting for well below 40g in this 2s quad now
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The LS2 without video in/out is remarkably light and excellent value at only $9. This proudly resides in my santa whoop with Furibee F3 board and 0716 motors
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LS2 with video in/out adds about 0.2g but allows for easy hook up of betaflight OSD if you have it
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The CM275T is simly the lightest AIO camera/vtx I've seen and it now supports betaflight OSD with Video in/out. I'll be using this in my Eyas X2 rebuild and will be pushing for 35g total dry weight
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A micro CCD cam with TX200 vtx piggy back is still my favourite choice for brushless micros, leader 120 shown here. Many micro CCDs to choose from that have near ideantical performance. This is the HGLRC elf in this picture
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Beebee 66 By Fullspeed RC - not quite there yet

9/1/2018

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The Beebee 66 is a micro 1s brushless powered quadcopter which is essentially a brushless Tiny Whoop. It is made by Full Speed RC, the same company that produced the highly successful Leader 120. (review here). Gearbest kindly supplied me a BNF Beebee 66 to review. I was desperately hoping for this to be the brushless answer to the tiny whoop but I'm really bummed out that it just isn't. Read on to find out why.


Adding a receiver
Since this was supplied as a BNF model, it came without a receiver. I opted to use the lightest FRSKY receiver I had on hand - an XM that I'd finally figured out how to fash with the RSSI channel 16 firmware. In most models this is a matter of soldering wires to the exposed pads on the top of the flight controller. However,since the FC and ESC are part of the structure of this quad AND the FC is flipped upside down to sit the ESC connector in a manageable location, the prop gaurd, 4 nylon nuts and the flight controller itself had to be removed before I could access the receiver solder pads. Then I needed the help of a multimeter to figure out ground, +5v and signal wires. Once soldered up with a short length of silicon wire to the receiver it was easy enough to re-assemble and tuck the XM reciever underneath the canopy behind the AIO camera/VTX. Pics below of course can explain this better:

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Canopy and prop gaurds removed to allow access to flight controller
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No instruction manual provided so please feel free to take note of pads for connecting to ibus or sbus receiver

It's not the end of the world wiring in a reciever here but can be fiddly with particularly small hardware. I'd recommend if you did buy this model that you purchase with the receiver of your choice pre-fitted.

Betaflight Setup
Kept it pretty simple here. Because this is quite a different steup than I am used to I retained the stock settings on Betaflight 3.1.7 that it arrived with. All I did was set an arm switch and a mode switch for angle-horizon-air. Below are the default settings from Betaflight 3.1.7. Oh yeah, receiver had to be set up too. Like most f3 boards receiver is on UART 3.
Quad Prep
The only other preparation was pretty straighforward. The included GNB High Voltage 1s 260mah Lipo battery was easily charged using the included USB adaptor and a micro usb cable I had on hand. Only 1 set of props was included that are press-fitted on the tiny 0705 fullspeed branded (Sunny Sky made) 0705 brushless motors. I left the VTX on the default channel for the initial flight that my Aomway Commanders (review here) picked up as 5905MHz.

First flight
Please look away if you love your Beebee 66 because it starts to get a bit ugly here. After fully charging the LiHV batteryand confirming everything was working ok I armed and found the props were fouling on the TPU canopy. Minor annoyance down to the tight tolerance in the slightly flexible TPU canopy. Easy enough to bend out of the way and I was back in action.

The first thing I noticed how loud the motors are - not in idle where they are practically silent but under any sort of load. Next as part of test with  line of sight attempting a 'punchout' I could clearly see the quad dipping (pitch/roll) and twisting (yaw) under load. I'll attempt to tune this out later on and will post another review if successful. Moving on to line of sight I found the flight performance dull and uninspiring. What's worse was that after just one and a half minutes flight my battery was sagging down below 2.7v - the motors were clearly very demanding for their relatively mild output. I really wanted this quad to be a success and in fairness there is a chance I could have a less than perfect unit but my experience is my experience and I was disappointed. I do have some thoughts on how to improve though and I'll cover this in my Next Steps section below.

Comparison to a brushed micro
Please understand that these comments aren't made from isolation - I've had some experience with tiny whoops based on 7mm motors (like the JJRC H67 or Eachine E011) and although these are cheap brushed toy grade quads, they offered equivalent or better power and a flight time of 4 minutes plus on the same size battery with much smoother flight performance. A quick note that I actually tried the stock battery from the JJRC H67 (260mah non-HV) and got only 1 minute flight before it sagged below 2.7v under load. After recovery it bounced back to 3.65V but this same battery give my 4 minutes plus in my E011 FPV or santa whoop​.

Recommendations
At this point I can't recommend this quad. The performance I experienced was poor and the flight time was unacceptable. My guess it that the brushless motors do not scale down well to 7mm, at this size the brushed motors seem to be more approprate. I'd recommend going in one of two directions:
1. Tiny whoop based around 0716 (7mm) brushed motors. Something like the Santa Whoop I made here. It is much more simple, much less expensive, quieter and more durable against crashes. Motors will need replacing after 30-50 packs but are inexpensive.
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2. Brushless micro based on 1103 motors and 2s. The 0705 motors on the beebee 66 have shown me that right now this is a step too far for brushless. On the other hand even the budget racerstar 1103 motors perform well (no longer available get the eaglepower 1103s instead) on a 2 inch lightweight quad with a small 2s battery. See my build here for a lightweight 2s quad that I really miss right now (had to salvage parts). Good news is I have more parts on the way for an even better build!
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Next Steps
I'm not content to leave things be with the Beebee 66 and the latest version of this model (Beebee 66 lite) has shown the direction I want to go in - removing weight. I'm skeptical of getting to the level of improvement I want but with some of the parts below I think I can replace the canopy with a simple camera holder. remove the propgaurd and TPU supports and save up to about 4g. Will this make enough difference? Not sure but will report back when I'm done. Make sure you bug me about the follow up in the comments if I'm too slow! Below are some of the weights of the components I'm interested in:
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Gemfan FLash 2540 Propellers

21/11/2017

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Gemfan have recently released the 2540 Flash propeller to add to their growing library of micro propellers. This time rather than sticking with their 'Hulkie' naming on the 1940 and 2040 propellers, they have gone with 'flash' from their popular 5" 5152 prop.

The design is stylistically similar to the 5152 in that it is a swooping 3 bladed propeller with a pronounced wingtip. Colours currently available as below. I like the yellow as they are easy to find!

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The material feels very much the same as the gemfan 2040 Hulkies which I reviewed here but the design is much more refined and so will not make any further comparisons as design will impact performance and durability more than material.
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Propellers come in a pack of 4 x CW and 4 x CCW making for 2 sets. These can be bought in multiples depending on the vendors as below.
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For testing I used my Leader 120. This is a popular model and I have put 80 odd packs through this one making it a good test mule. Also, I have experimented with other props like the Gemfan 3025 alongside the stock King kong 2840 for more than one point of reference.

Since this frame will fit a 2.8 inch 2840 prop there is plenty of room on a 2.5 inch 2540 without losing too much blade area. No issue installing so will move on to flight performance.

Performance on 2s
The first thing I noticed about these props is that they were very quiet. I flew in a reserve where there were several people enjoying the sun and very few people even noticed the quad flying about. The noise made was even less than the 2840s which are already very quiet. On 2s the performance was almost on par with the 2840s. I was able to hover at around 25% throttle with a 47g 950mah 2s battery and had flat out speed close to the 2840s. Cornering (grip) felt about 90% as good as the 2840s which is the grippiest quad/prop I have - even more than my 5" racing floss 2. Balance was excellent with no increase in jello at high throttle over the 2840s which have always been well balanced for me.

Battery life was definitely superior to the 2840 props. As you'll see from my pics below I got around 6 minutes from the 950mah battery with fairly heavy throttle flights as I was in a large reserve. This is about a minute more the the king kong 2840s with similar flying and comparable times to the Gemfan 3025 (although the 3025s were slower on 2s). It was an enjoyable 6 minutes too - the quad felt tight with these on.

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 Performance on 3s
For 3s testing I used my Turnigy Nantoech 3s 450mah 65C batteries that weigh approximately 45g.

The performance gap between the stock 2840 and new 2540 propellers were even less pronounced than on 2s. If there was a difference in performance compared to the 2840s in top speed or cornering grip I could not tell. The advantages did remain though - 2540 propellers were again more quiet and I had a similar increase in battery life: from roughly 3 minutes of hard flying to roughly 3.5 minutes+ hard flying (see below). Lastly at higher RPM I actually had less jello than any prop I have used on this quad before. This suggests they have excellent balance.

In short I got all of the benefits I enjoyed on 2s with none of the downsides.
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Durability
Oddly enough I haven't had a crash worth speaking of yet. I'll update here once I've had a view and can give more of an opnion on this.
Conclusion
Simply put these are now my favourite prop on both 2s and 3s for the Leader 120. I can only guess that the more modern design helps get the efficiency up over the 2840 on 2s with very nearly the same top speed and grip through corners. On 3s the gap was even less and I'd struggle to tell the difference between these and the 2840s. The only real change was that there was less noise and more flight time.

In conclusion these will be my go-to prop from now on my leader 120 on 2s or 3s. The slight downside of marginally less top speed and cornering grip is easily outweighed by the reduced noise and improved battery life. Give them a try for yourself, they are inexpensive.
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Buy from Banggood in a packs of 8 (2 sets) for approx. $2/set
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Buy from Gearbest in a pack of 40 (10 sets) for approx $1.50/set
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Christmas Whoop!!! Part 1: Santa FPV for $25

2/11/2017

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Time for a cheap, high performing tiny whoop build with a twist - Christmas style. I know it is a novelty but the JJRC H67 Flying Santa Claus RC Quadcopter is actually the Eachine E011 in disguise. The E011 in my mind is the absolute best starting poing for a tiny whoop with the larger 716 motors that have absolutely no problem lifting an All In One (AIO) camera. So what make this build so special? Freakin' Santa Claus does!

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The JJRC drone is in Christmas themed colours and comes with a Santa minifig. The best (and most annoying part as a parent) is the noisy sound module on board that plays a Christmas tune. As a stand alone unit this is a micro brushed quad that flies very well albeit with a small but proportional remote. Of particular note, the motors and battery are very good and will give you a genuine 5 minutes of throttle-heavy flight time. Included in this pack is:
  • The quad itself with 716 motors
  • A full spare set of (4) propellers
  • Prop removal tool
  • Screw driver
  • A very good 1s 260mah battery
  • USB battery charger
  • Santa minifig to stick on the top

The sound - so annoying! Turn up for maximum effect.
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This quad is a lot of fun but it needs more FPV! I used the LST - S2 5.8G 800TVL HD Micro CMOS FPV Camera which is tiny and weighs only 3.5g. I've built an E011 whoop before with a 5g AIO Eachine TX01 camera and it had no problem lifting that. This new LST camera will offer much better performance even the seemingly small 1.5g weight difference has a very big performance impact on these brushed whoops.

See below for pictorial instructions for mounting the camera in the spirit of Christmas. The minifig is very heavy at 4g but I couldn't leave santa out of this garish whoop so will take him off when we start taking the Christmas decorations down, weight savings will have to wait for now.

Here is a handy tip given the crappy stock reciever range. Drill a 2mm hole on the canopy as shown above and poke the antenna through it. You get over 100% more range which is absolutely necessary as this does not have a failsafe and will fly away from you if you lose signal!

In conclusion this is an absolute bargain for a basic little FPV rig. To date all of cheaper fpv ready whoops have the smaller and less powerful 6mm motors and I'm suprised that a 7mm motors FPV ready unit hasn't been released. No problem though, as you can see above building this is not difficult or expensive and much more rewarding. The set up as above flies well enough but needs quite a bit of throttle. When you decide to take the minifig, canopy and speaker out you'll find performance will increase dramatically but that can wait till after the novelty has worn off :)

If you want to use your own hobby-grade transmitter and have the full control of betaflight with acro/air mode, check out part 2: Adding the Furibee F3 Flight Controller. I'll have a link live here by 4 November.

Parts in this build:
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JJRC H67 Flying Santa Claus RC Quadcopter
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​LST - S2 5.8G 800TVL HD Micro CMOS FPV Camera ​
See this page for current bargains on Gearbest for play and racing
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LEADER 120 PNP MICRO FPV QUAD FROM GEARBEST - PART 2: First flight and (No) brownouts

11/9/2017

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This is part 2 of my review of the Leader 120 by Full Speed from Gearbest. For part 1 click here. As at September 2017 try code HarvestRCnew7 to get this for only $US93.99!
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None of the dreaded "brown outs" here

Straight up I have had none of the reported issues of brownouts as many of the youtube reviewers found on the first version of the Leader 120. In saying that my review modelis version 2 which I has the fullspeed branded black motors. The default idle speed of which there was a lot of chatter about was set at 10% from the factory in Betaflight 3.1.7. This is very high and reducing it to my regular 3.5% caused no issues. So on to the more interesting stuff!

Flight characteristics

This is a great little flier, As I expected from hearing the motors run in betaflight they are very quiet and coupled with the well-balanced KK 2840 props it lets off very little noise in flight. Coupled with the size, this makes it much more socially acceptable to be flying in areas that aren't completed isolated. The rates are not stock either and I actually really liked them, even compared to my stock betaflight 3.2.0 settings when I flew my 5" quad immediately afterwards. There are an awful lot of micros that have poor or no tuning from the factory so was escpecially pleased when the tuning here required practically nothing for those either lacking the know-how or too lazy to do. Power is excellent on 2s and comparable to many 2" quads on the 3s - the bigger props and relatively light weight really make these motors come alive. Handling was predicatable and I felt I had good control even in heavy gusts. 

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Stock battery

The stock battery can be described as adequate. I can see the voltage alarms were set low at 3.0 warning, 2.9 critical to allow for the sag but it keeps you in the air with moderate flying for up to 4 minutes. Considering I was able to flow without esc desync, losing vtx signal or getting failsafe, this probably makes it better than 90% of included batteries out there (not kidding).

I'll have a follow up tips and tricks article soon where I look at some of the other internationally available battery options including 3s.

FPV - Camera and VTX

Ahh a chink in the armour. Hitting a sharp price point eventually means compromise and I think I've found it. Typical of All In One (AIO) cameras this handled low light on a dull day poorly even with the focus correct. Kind of makes branches jump out at you when flying under trees - that's my excuse anyway. Secondly although the VTX does well enough for 25mW, it still only does 25mW. That means that I started seeing breakup at 100-150M away or as soon as I was on the wrong side of even small trees. The good news is you can pop this on your RC car or tiny whoop (I STRONGLY recommed the Eachine E011) and upgrade this one. There is more than enough lift for the extra weight of a micro CCD camera like the Foxeer arrow micro or Runcam swift micro and a Vtx like the new one from fullspeed that is 25mW/200mW switchable to mount on the back. I'll be making such a change in the near future and reporting back in a new article in the tips and tricks section.

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Early conclusions

This model is an amazing combination of well-matched parts with good assembly and a custom tune making it compelling on paper. I'm pleased to say that this transfers into flight characteristics and power making it an option you should definitely be considering if looking at a micro in 2017. I personally think this frame size that allows for a 2.8" prop rather than 2" is much better matched to this motor size and not nearly so sensitive to weight meaning for a more robust and enjoyable flying experience. My only real gripe is the video quality where camera light handling and vtx power lets it down. It is hard to argue at this price point though and in a future article I'll be doing a budget mod to address this.

Most interestingly, I built a model from parts that was very similar to this before this model was announced. Cutting to the chase the PNP version from Gearbest was more quiet and felt more solid in the air (perhaps due to the tune/rates) than my own build. Power was similar: although noisier I think the DYS motors had an edge although for the small difference I prefered the ones in this PNP model. I preferred the adjustible power vtx on the model I built to bump up power but this is really starting to split hairs. This does have me second guessing my build vs buy strategy but I think this is testament to the well thought out component list Full Speed have chosen.

Buy the Leader 120 from Gearbest
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leader 120 pnp micro fpv quad From Gearbest - Part 1: bench review

7/9/2017

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Firstly, thank you to Gearbest for supplying this model in exchange for a full review including my observations and recommendations from having built a very similar quad from parts. I'll review here and then run a series of tip, tricks, mods depending on how it flies stock. You can find the PNP version (no receiver) here. As at September 2017 try code HarvestRCnew7
to get this for only $US93.99!
​
I'm going to skip the unboxing, I don't have anything to add other than the picture of all the parts included below, so straight to the good stuff.

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The parts included and build quality have improved...

First off the motors are no longer and unbranded red 1104 7500kv. They are now branded SZ speed and full speed but are still rated the same. From what I can see the shaft length extending through the bell is shorter. Great idea - the only job this does is to centre the prop which the screws hold on. Less stress when trying to put tight props on (looking at you Gemfan 2035) and you don't have a 1.5mm drill bit. Below is a comparison to my DYS 1104 7500kV. You can see my review on these here
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The comparisons to these motors don't stop there. Both are similar external size, and the magnets are simlarly strong - very notchy compared to the racerstar motors. From there the leader 120 motors are better. Wires are multicore, slightly thicker and much more flexible and easy to manager. On spin up in betaflight they are so quiet and smooth! Not noisy like the DYS even when they were new. In fairness the DYS are powferful so if the stock leader 120 motors get anywhere near this I'll be happy, especially given the improvements.

This flight controller and ESC is ubiquitous and first appeared on the ARFUN90. I've reviewed one in full here - in short reliable and well featured. What impressed me here was the quality of soldering and the cable managent, just so clean - see below. I wasn't going to compare my efforts but I'd already soldered in the receiver and the macro image makes me feel inadequate! From what I can see of the earlier reviews, this looks to have improved substantially.
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Betaflight setup and the Flip of Death

This model shipped with the full release at the time of writing - 3.1.7 (3.2.0 still in release candidate). Interestingly along with the physical changes the software settings have been changed to address some of the brownout/flip of death issues the early reviews had. Most notable digital idle is set at 10%. Since I'll maiden this with stock settings I'll go with that and see if moving back to my standard of 3.5% is still viable. 10% is not ideal for me as you will never be able to fully chop throttle for flips and whatnot. Cool to see that they have addressed it and looking forward to seeing if this issue may have gone altogether.

I'll post some pics of the key betaflight screens for prosperity below (flip through them) but I intend to move to 3.2.0 as soon as I have completed initial flights and can confirm everything is functioning as expected.
Weight

I'm something of a lightweight jukie when it comes to miniquads, benefits include longer flights, better agility, greater crash resistance through lower intertia. See the gallery below for the various weight measures but in short 64g dry, 94g AUW ready to fly with the stock 2s 500mah battery. This include an ibus FS82 1g receiver which was not present when I too the photos.

This is a very respectable weight for a micro that swings 2.8" props as these props generate a significant amount of lift in combination with a motor of this rating.

All this and it includes my favourite beeper/led combo (reviewed here) - a beeper is a must for micro quads as you can loose them even in short grass! I can anyway.
Size comparison to other micros

This is not a big model by any stretch. The beauty of these micros - and to be clear this is still a micro - is you can fly in small areas (not indoors!) with less danger and concern to the public. They are also quick to get in the air and consumables like batteries and props are cheaper too. This model measures 120mm diagonally motor to motor and offers most of the experience of a 5" FPV quad. Picture below compare to an E011 typical tiny whoop and an 80mm EYAS x2 with 2" props
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