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QUADIFYRC Quadcopter reviews

Skyzone-Eachine Cobra X Goggles review: Box goggles I'd Actually use

4/2/2021

8 Comments

 
Working with Bangood's Eachine brand, Skyzone have release a new range of box goggles; The Cobra S and Cobra X which differ only in resolution (800 x 480 and 1280 x 720 respectively). In this review I take a close look at the Eachine Skyzone Cobra X goggles and show you why I think they are head and shoulders above any other current box goggle
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Let's get the Eachine thing out of the way first. This is simply a Banggood House Brand - they are just marketing and nothing to do with the manufacture. Manufacture is 100% up to Skyzone. Their brand is also on the line here and they won't release a rubbish product to mar the excellent name they have at present off the back of their excellent SKY03O goggles (reviewed here) and their stunning new SKY04X goggles.

Box goggles have traditionally been the realm of the beginner - Big and bulky with frankly ugly designs that were awkward to transport but they did have an advantage in that they had one massive screen. My first goggle were the Hobbyking Quanam Cyclops V1. They were a pain to carry, were heavy, looked ridiculous and were fairly uncomfortable but not since I have started using the DJI FPV goggles have I had such an immersive experience thanks the the large screen. The other benefit is that you can often wear prescription glasses with box goggles.
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These were my first box goggle. Had a great screen but thank goodness we've come a way since then 
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The Eachine EV800D has been probably the best box goggle for the last 4 or 5 years.
Given the benefit of the huge singe screen (which is cheaper to make than 2 small high res screens in binocular goggles) I'm surprised a premium box goggle hasn't been released sooner. In fact the 4+ year old Eachine EV800D is still considered to be the best option even though user interface, reliability and receiver performance are badly dated.
This is where the Skyzone Eachine Cobra S and X come in - a premium box goggle with all of the features that are usually reserved for much more expensive binocular goggles. Enough preamble, let's crack in to it.

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HappyModel Crux3 Review and Setup: Way over 6 minutes flight no sweat

12/11/2020

2 Comments

 
The Happymodel Crux3 is an ultralight 3 inch micro quadcopter capable of running 2s and 1s batteries. It ships with multiple on board and external receiver options including FRSKY, DSM and now TBS crossfire as well. 
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Happymodel have been quiet recently with their own brand so it is good to see them with a release again in a evolution of the ultralight micro class. This started with the Sailfly-x and Larva-x which were both in the 2.5 inch / 65mm class. The Crux3 steps up to a full 3 inch blade and uses all of their past learnings on making things lightweight in what I feel is more of a finished package. 

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Diatone Roma F5 Review: The best out of the box 5 inch I've flown

23/10/2020

2 Comments

 
The Roma F5 is a new 5 inch freestyle quadcopter from longtime quad maker Diatone. Diatone have launched with a number of configurations that differ mostly by video system:
  • Diatone Roma F5 with analogue video in 4s or 6s motor kv
  • Diatone Roma F5 lite with lower cost camera and F4 flight controller in 4s only
  • Diatone Rome F5 with DJI Air Unit
  • Diatone Roma F5 with DJI Caddx Vista Unit
In this review I will cover the Diatone Roma F5 (analogue) with 6s but findings are mostly applicable across the range. 
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It's been way too long since I last covered a Diatone quad, 2 years in fact since I looked at the GTR249+ here, a very well put together 2.5 inch micro. With the Roma F5 they have developed and all new frame, all new motors and VTX and ESC/FC combo under the Diatone Mamba Brand. They have gone top shelf with the camera on the analogue version too, the Runcam Phoenix 2 being one of the best currently available. I'm glad that Diatone and the other premium manufacturers are focusing on freestyle oriented ready to fly rigs rather than racing rigs as I think this is where the market is - Those who are genuinely interested in racing will tend to build them up from scratch to get the exact feel they want. Freestyle rigs on the other hand a more forgiving - for the most part frames, motors and other trends have remained more stationary so you know it won't date so quickly.


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T-MOTOR FT5 PNP REVIEW PART 2: Performance and recommendations

21/7/2020

1 Comment

 
If you haven't yet seen the first part of my review of the new T-motor FT5 5 inch freestyle quad, I looked at the specification of the components used, the build quality and betaflight setup here:

T-MOTOR FT5 PNP REVIEW PART 1: FIRST LOOK AND BETAFLIGHT SETUP

This means that for this second part of the review I can focus in on flight performance and any recommendations. For the purpose of flight performance I'll break this down into FPV performance, performance on 6s and performance on 4s
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FPV Performance
The Caddx Ratel has been around a little while and has been hugely popular. This is the second commercial FPV camera made with the massive 1 1/8" CMOS sensor that makes for an image that is pushing the quality limits of the NTSC/PAL protocols for analogue FPV. This is my first chance to use one and I've been impressed. It is comparable to the Runcam Micro Eagle but more compact, lighter and at a much more reasonable price. Caddx camera QA has been benefiting from their partnership with DJI as well, presumably from an upgrade to their manufacturing facility. My guess is they have a better, cleaner manufacturing error that keeps the dust off their sensors. The unit included with the FT5 has a 2.1mm lens which offers a fairly mid-range field of view. It's a really nice camera from the goggles especially since I have been flying micro quads a lot recently but of course the DVR (below) never really does it justice.

Because this frame is made for analogue and digital I don't love how the camera is mounted here, the location feels like a bit of an afterthought. Sure there is no frame in view but it does sit proud of the frame and is more prone to damage depending of course on how you fly.
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Top down shot showing how the lens clears the frame and could put it in harm's way
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Exaggerated at this angle but lens sits proud of the front standoffs although TPU "chin" offers protection
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See the clear TPU spacer that allows the 20mm wide DJI cam to mount natively

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HappyModel Larva-X: Review, SETUP, PIDS

9/9/2019

9 Comments

 
The Larva-X is a new lightweight micro FPV quadcopter made by Happymodel, a company who are very well known now to innovate new trends and hype in micro quadcopters. The Larva-x looks to be a more robust and refined evolution of the "toothpick" class of ultra light weight quads, this time with a more robust frame, better receiver options and a better FPV system, which addresses complaints on some of their earlier models.
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The Larva-X is available now from many retailers. Below is the link from Banggood who ship internationally from $0 and up. At time of writing (9 September 2019) they have their big anniversary sale on and have the Larva-X on Special for $83 using the code "BGANLX" and this link: Happymodel Larva X 100mm 2-3S 2.5 Inch FPV Racing Drone
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Specifcations
100mm carbon fibre frame - Although a spindly design, this is 3mm thick carbon. It feels rigid and very robust, a big improvement on previous frames which were light but prone to breaking.
Happymodel EX1103 7000KV Motor - An extra 1mm stator height gives 50% volume over the 1102 motors found on the sailfly-x. 7000kV is a good rating for 3s primarily or 2s for smaller areas.
Crazybee F4 Pro V3  Flight Controller - V3 of this flight controller no longer requires the additional capacitor as seen on the sailfly-x and eachine red devil
Onboard 10A 4in1 ESC - The extra current overhead (10a vs 6a) and voltage overhead (up to 4s) means that this should be MUCH more reliable on 3s... it is well away from current and voltage limits with 1103 7000kV motors
Multiple receiver options - Have options to choose onboard frsky/flysky/dsmx which have typically poor range but for the first time they are offering discrete receiver options including XM+, R-XSR and even TBS crossfire!
Happymodel Diamond VTX - Not only does this offer 25mw-200mW OSD selectable transmit power but it also includes an onboard DVR for static-free recording.
Runcam NANO2 FPV Camera - Hooray! A better camera. The rancam nano 2 is currentl recognised as the best price per performance nano size cam at present.

What is included in the kit (other than the quad as specced above)?

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Eachine RedDevil Review

29/7/2019

0 Comments

 
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The Eachine Red Devil is available exclusively from Banggood
Introduction
​The Eachine Red Devil is a 120mm "toothpick"class quad: an ultralight micro that is capable of swinging 65mm bi-blade propellers. This quad is very similar to the Happymodel Sailfly-X (which I reviewed here) but with a bump in specifications, particularly around the FPV camera and VTX. You can actually think of this as an updated Sailfly-x much like the Eachine trashcan (reviewed here) is actually an upgraded Mobula7 (reviewed here). Is it better than the sailfly-x though? Mostly less but it does feel like it needs a little extra to take advantage of this. Read on to find more.
What's in the pack?
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Like the Eachine Trashcan (and unlike the Sailfly-x) the Red Devil ships with a nice protective zipper case that you can store the quad, some simple spares and batteries in. It also ships with a simple but useful selection of spares as listed below:
The quad itself
  • 3 full sets of propellers (12 props) (spares here)
  • 3S 11.4v 300mah 30C/60C battery (spares here)
  • Propeller disassemble tool
  • Screwdriver
  • Eachine Handbag
A closer look at the specs:
  • Crazybee F4 v2.1 board - The quad is build around this very familiar all in one board. It has a F411 processor that is capable of 8k/8k Gyro/PID loop with all dynamic filters and features. It also includes a 4 x 5A esc that is capable of 2-3s including a very useful current sensor. Lastly it has a built in recevier (Flysky, FRsky or DSM) which makes it compact and light.
  • EX1102 8700kV motors - Nice light motors with 2 bearings, identical to the Sailfly-x's motors but supposedly a slightly higher kv.
  • Caddx EOS2 FPV cam - A polarising camera this one... I've had good and bad experiences with this cam. Superior to an AIO cam at day but surprisingly doesn't handle the low light as well
  • 25-200mW vtx - This is a welcome addition that means I can run more that the 25mW I'm limited to on AIO cams like those on the sailfly x. 
  • 2s 300mah 30/60c battery - Nice lightweight battery that suits the Red devil well. Same as the one included with the Sailfly-X
A closer look at the quad itself
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Same light but flimsy canopy as the Trashcan
There are a few surprising element to this quad that you wouldn't pick up on from specs alone. Firstly you'd expect that with heavier cam and vtx the quad would weight more than the Sailfly but surprisingly it doesn't - this is because the canopy is much lighter than the hefty 3d printed unit on the sailfly meaning that it comes in at a very familiar dry weight of 38g. This does come at a cost though as noted later in the flight review (jello).

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THE SWEET-SPOT Value 5" FREESTYLE PART 2: Full Review

9/7/2019

0 Comments

 
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Recently I've built a 5" Freestyle quadcopter based on the best value components - not the cheapest but the best price/performance ratio (i.e. bang for buck). The components I've chosen plus comparison to alternatives can be found in the component selection article here. As it stands the build cost of this one is around $150-$170 depending on which specials you can take advantage of. I see the RC Addict (His YT channel here) has done a similar thing for a race build and he refers to it as the "The cheapest quad worth building"

This quad has since been built, setup, flown, adjusted and then flown a lot more. I'm now in a position to pass judgement over all of the components and will then cover as the quad in total. For each I'll look at the positives and negatives and then go into a little more discussion with my recommendations
Emax Eco series motor 2306 1700/2400kv (I used 1700kV)
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The Emax Eco 2306 is only $10-12 each in 1700kv or 2400kv
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Here are the 1700kv variants on my 6s build
Positives
  • Iconic Emax brand  - quality
  • ​Motors are very light (30g incl. wire)
  • Motors use 9mm bearings
  • Very smooth power delivery
  • Very efficient
​Negatives
  • Don't have the peak power of more heavier, more expensive motors
Discussion and recommendation
At the time these Emax Eco were chosen as they were the standout budget motor. They have been available for $10-$12 and based on how they perform represent outstanding value - the top equal standout recommendation for this parts list. Emax had the original breakthrouhg brushless motor in the quad scene - the RS2205s which changed the industry. While others have caught up since they still make well-researched high quality motors. The Eco series draws off the learnings from the LS and RS2 series - they remain VERY light but have increased the bearing size from 8mm to 9mm to improve durability significantly. Retained from the RS2 and LS series however are the thin magnets. Although these mean the motor doesn't make the same peak thrust as heavier motors with larger magnets, it does gain in improvements through being lighter, more efficient and smoother at throttle transition. This makes it a great match to freestyle where these positive attributes tend to be preferred over peak thrust @ 100% throttle. In use these are very nice motors to fly. They are quiet, smooth and cause less battery sag and longer flight time than more expensive motors I use such as the brother hobby returner R6 2306.

Interesting that based on the success of the Emax Eco, iflight and brotherhobby have followed suit. 3bhobby also have the training motor although this may have just been out when the emax eco was launched.
DIATONE MAMBA F405 MK2 Betaflight Flight Controller/40A 3-6S Brushless ESC

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IFLight Turbobee 120rs review

4/7/2019

5 Comments

 
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The Turbobee 120RS is an ultra-lightweight micro quadcopted that loosely fits into the new 'toothpick' class. It is available in 2 variants below (2-3s and 4s), each offered with multiple receiver options (frsky, flysky, dsmx, futaba ad even TBS crossfire:
  • 2-3S iFlight TurboBee 120RS SucceX Micro 
  • 4s iFlight TurboBee 120RS Suc ceX Micro ​
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My review is based on the 2-3s version with 1103 10,000kV motors as above
Introduction
iFlight is a brand that is rapidly growing and is going some impressive things in the FPV space - everything from micro quads to the Giant X-Class rigs. They have always been middle range for value but now they are bringing polish to their products. Here I've reviewed the Turbobee 120RS 2-3s micro. It does fall into the toothpick class and yes, although it comes with Gemfan 2540 props it does fit the 65mm bi-blades.

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Fullspeed Toothpick Pro Review

1/7/2019

0 Comments

 
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This review is for the Fullspeed Toothpick Pro, the more robust 4s-capable micro quadcopter made by Full Speed RC. It is available from the following retailers that will ship internationally with options for FRSKY, Flysky, Spectrum and now TBS Crossfire as well:
  • Fullspeed Toothpick Pro direct from FullspeedRC.com Update 4 July: Use code FSD12 to get 12% off everything on the FullspeedRC.com site - brings the price to $111. 
  • Fullspeed Toothpick Pro from Banggood.com Update 3 July: Use code BGToothpick to get 12% off here - brings the price to $111. Code can only be used 20 times (5 already gone)

If you are looking for the the standard 2-3s Fullspeed toothpick, the full review of that can be found here and is available below:
  • Fullspeed Toothpick direct from FullspeedRC.com
  • Fullspeed Toothpick from Banggood.com
Fullspeed RC were the first to market with a bind and fly quad inspired by Bob Roogi's "toothpick"design - an ultralightweight quad based on small motors and 65mm props suitable for park flying. This was a very good park flyer - quiet and well built with good performance on 2s or 3s. It does have a full micro camera and VTX meaning it has a very nice FPV feed but is slightly on the heavy side. This model has obvioulsly been successful for them so they have quickly followed up with the Fullspeed Toothpick PRO. Specs compared with the standard toothpick below which I will discuss further:

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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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HOBBYMATE ASTEROID 3 INCH QUADCOPTER: Review

9/5/2019

2 Comments

 
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The Hobbymate Asteroid is a new 3 inch quadcopter that is available in kit, BNF or PNF formats that is available with motors and electronics suitable for 4s or 6s (!) operation. Following on from the awesome Hobbymate Comet (built here and reviewed here) this is another premium set of components at a spectacular price. It is available exclusively from HobbyCool.com here:
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http://hobbycool.com/asteroid-3-mini-fpv-racing-drone-kit/

In part 1 of this blog here I looked at the build and betaflight setup process in full. In this part 2 I'm taking a closer look at the components and review in general.
On the bench
From a specs standpoint this is a pretty special kit but that only tells half the story. I'll walk through the components and talk about their strong and or weak points
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Hobbymate 1505 motors made by RCInpower. These are the stars for me. Like other modern RCInpower motors they are beautifully made: the single piece machined bell, the strong magnets with retention ring with an impossibly small air gap and the multistranded windings. Just as interesting is the size choice. 1505 is a wider stator but much shorter than usual. As a result it should have more turning force (torque) but potentially less top end and better efficiency as a result. Although it sounds like a large number the stator volume is not actually that big - see my comparison table below for some suprising comparisons.
1108
1306
1407
1408
1505
1506
1606
760
796
1077
1231
883
1060
1206
Comparison of common 3" motor stator volumes in cm^3
​Motors are available in 4300kV for 4s and 2700kV for 6s. Mine are 4300kV which I feel are a little high for 4s but more on that later.
iFlight SucceX F4. This is a pretty special unit from a specification standpoint, the most compact powerful flight stack to date:
  • 35A BLHeli_32 ESC
  • F4 flight control with 3 UARTS
  • 25/100/200mW VTX
Like most modern iflight products it is nicely made and presented.
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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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EACHINE VR D3 SETUP and Review- STARTER FPV GOGGLES

8/1/2019

10 Comments

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

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Full Speed Leader 2.5 Setup, mods and review

1/11/2018

4 Comments

 
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The Leader 2.5 is a recent release from FullspeedRC and as well as being available on their own website, is also available from Banggood and Gearbest. If you do decide to purchase, Fullspeed over many more customisations and offer free shipping till Jan 2019. The Leader 2.5 follows the recent Leader 3 but is limited to 2.5 inch rather than 3 inch propellers. My objective for this blog is not to write a tradtional review due to the similarities to the Leader 3 but to cover the keys settings and physical changes I'd strongly recommend to enjoy this quadcopter.


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EMAX HAWK5 Review Part 1: Bench and early Flights

4/7/2018

6 Comments

 
PictureEmax Hawk 5 pictured here with a turnigy graphene 4s 1500mah 65c lipo
So the Emax Hawk 5 has been out for a couple of months now and it has really captured the imagination of community. This is because it was an EMax-USA driven initiative that started as a way to sell more parts (Magnum stack, LS motors, Avan props) but ended up so much more. Where the Hawk 5 separates itself from all other bind and flys that have come before (except perhaps the holybro kopis) is that is more than the sum of it's parts - the development that has gone into matching the components, developing a strong, stiff yet lightweight frame and then tuning the whole package means it is a bind and fly that is genuinely competitive for racing out of the box. Listening to HyphPV and Sean Taylor in various channels they both believe this is a bonafide racer which is high praise coming from them.

I'll try keep this review brief because there has already been a lot said about this quad but I'll try to address the aspects that struck me as peculiar or aspects I don't thik have been well covered.

Component choice
I think the component choice looks solid but unspectacular however the way that this comes together in for flight is super impressive.
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Emax Magnum Stack F4 flight controller
The flight controller is an F4 with a MP6000 gyro so can do 8k/8k pid gyro but no more. This acceptable but once the more advanced filtering like on butterflight and betaflight 3.4+ becomes more widespread it will be adequate but not a lot more.
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Emax Magnum stack 30A 4in1 BLHeli_S ESC
The ESC is a BLHeli_S 30a and rated at 3-4s. It does not have BLHeli_32 and some of the advanced features that are offered there *however* Emax have stated this will run 6s with a lower kV motor (1600-1700kV) and this has been confirmed by Conrad "Furadi" Miller in races.
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25mW/200mW VTX
The VTX is very simple. It has 48 channels and is power switchable between 25mW and 200mW. It does not have smart audio or tramp protocol which is unfortunate however it easy to change the channel and read the large LCD screen.
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Emax Hawk 5 Frame
This is impressive. This is a light and so far strong frame. I'd estimate it at the 70g mark based on final weight of the full ready to fly quad. It has replaceable arms (and comes with a spare!), options for top, bottom or 'toilet tank' battery mounting and a built-in soft mounting setup. It looks like a larger version of a babyhawk R. I have a Floss 2 frame which is very functional and light but this frame is similar in weight and function but just feels more polished.
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Emax LS2206 2300kV motors
This is surely the choice that looks peculiar on the surface. Many 4s race drones typically use larger (2207, 2306, 2307) motors that have a higher kV (2500kV). This surely makes the 2206 2300kV motors on the Hawk 5 look under-done. Perhaps they are if you add a go pro but for this quads primary purpose of racing the are not and perform beautifully. I'll cover this more during flight discussion but I can see this choice was not take lightly: they provide plenty of power and do so with excellent efficiency. Don't forget Emax also have a 2207 2400kV or 2550kV motor and consciously chosen not to use this motor here even though it would have cost them no more.
Setup
Rather than going through the setup step by step in boring text, I've screen-grabbed all the relevant tabs from betaflight below. In short this quad includes custom filters setup, PIDs and rates so that you have an excellent tune right out of the box. This perfectly matches the specfic frame geometry, weight, motors and props that are used. Confident tuners will no doubt be able to adjust to their specific feel but I can say that I've come across no better custom tune in any quad yet, it is comparable to the babyhawk R (my review here) which makes sense - it was tuned by the same team.
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Quick changes before flight
​As you can probably tell from the image here, I folder out the receiver antennae mounted to the cable ties (tied to the rear standoffs). Not my favourite place to mount but they'll  do. Also I used a sturdy cable tie to mount the VTX antenna to with the usual heatshrink trick. I'll replace this with the included pagoda as soon as I start flying with others since dipole can mor easilt interfere with racers on other channels.
Early flight performance
Wow. I had preconceptions that the 2206 low kV motors would be underpowered but was completely wrong. This is a fast, highly manouverable quad that is well tuned. To date it is the quickest quad I've flown and objectively has been found to hit over 100mph consistently. More than that though it corners well thanks to the 'grippy' props and light weight. I won't carry on here about flight but it felt well and truly locked in, the best quad I have flown. 

In terms of FPV the signal was excellent on 25mW which is what I'm limited to on racing. There was absolutlely no sign of electrical interference or noise on my go-to channel (F2 - 5760MHz) at any throttle level. Just as importantly the image from the foxeer arrow micro pro is surprisingly good. This camera is a surprisingly good improvement over the micro arrow 1 or 2 and the micro swift 1 or 2 - I believe the presets were greatly approved on. I've actually ordered 3 more of these cameras to replace my others with because so far have not been a fan of the newer CMOS cameras.

One thing that felt unfamiliar to me were the way the props delivered power and the noise or the lack thereof. Additionally they pull a lot of current -I peaked at 110A on a 1500mah 4s pack. My guess is that in order to take advantage of the relatively low kV motor they went with a VERY agressive propeller with a distinct geometry. After swapping over to a HQ 5x4.8x3 which is stilla fairly agressive prop the Hawk 5 felt much more familiar and predicable to me with a power delivery and audible feedback I'm much more familiar with. I didn't feel I lost anything in speed or grip but peak current draw dropped off to 97A, i.e. 10% improved efficiency at high throttle. I need to note that props are a personal thing and this is my preference. You may find you like the stock Avan Flow props much more, I'm more of a HQ/Dal guy.

Lastly I'll say the efficiency on this is very impressive, again probably down to their choice of motor.. Everyone flies differently so will get different flight times depending on what they are doing but this I founf that even with my most tired 4s 1000mah pack I was able to get 3 minutes of flight which outperformed my lighter Floss 2 build which hand 'only' 2205 motors. On a good 1300mah I got 4 minute sof hard flying and from 1500mah about 4.5 - 5 minutes.
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Conclusion
If you are looking for a 5" bind and fly quad quite simply this is the one to get. $250 sounds like a lot compared to other cheaper ones but as I've said before this is so much greater than the sum of it's parts. The clever choice of components, lightweight frame and wonderful tune make this a great quad and it shows - at the time of writing it is always in and out of stock depending on where you shop. Since so many have sold there is also a very big community - more people to solve problems and enhance. For example customs canopies, go pro mounts and recommendations for budget meaningful modifications and customisation is much more readliy available than for less common quads that tend to come and go. I'll bet this quad will be around and supported well for a long time.

Support is great - as you can see above all parts are available from many retailers so replacements are not just available but commonly available. 

I can't speak to reliability yet since I haven't flown enough but since they haven't gone with the very latest and leading edge technology and hardware, that means there have been time to iron out the bugs. I'm expecting few problems but will certainly report back if there are.

Lastly I'll make a note again on the efficiency. In the race for power with bigger motors and steeper props this often gets forgotten but EMax seems to be going down the path of optimised efficiency and it shows here. The rhetoric from them is the the LS and newer RSII series are motor were not developed for all out power but more for efficiency which is what racers have really been demanding - making sure that on fast tracks that they still have battery left at the end. This is a benefit to the racer of course but for the casual pilot more efficiency = longer flight time = more stick time for learning and more of the the fun part of FPV... actual flying!

In summary this is a great model and comes highly recommended from me. Of course I'll be looking to improve where I can do so effectively and cheaply and will write about this where it's meaningful. Gearbest kindly supplied me this model and I'd encourage you to purchase from them as per the link below. Using this affiliate link comes at no cost to you but will help me to continue making and publishing reviews like this and recommendations for improvement.
Updates! I've new written a blog on bang for buck upgrades and also a comprehensive walkthrough on a VTX upgrade to allow DVR, smart audio, great power options.
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Emax Hawk 5 Bind and Fly Quadcopter from Gearbest (currently in stock at time of writing):

https://www.gearbest.com/brushless-fpv-racer/pp_1670812.html
Parts available:
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Emax Hawk 5 5 inch replacement arms
Banggood ($8 for 2)
Emax USA ($8 for 2)
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Emax Hawk 5 6 inch arm upgrade
Banggood ($8 for 2)
​
Emax USA ($8 for 2)
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Emax LS2206 2300kV motors:
Gearbest ($`18)
Banggood ($18)
Emax-USA ($18)
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Emax LS2206 replacement motor bells (x2)
Gearbest ($14)
Banggood ($14)
​Emax-USA ($14)
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Emax Magnum F4 stack (ESC, FC, VTX, Reciever)
Banggood ($110)
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Emax Hawk 5 Magnum 30A 4in1 ESC
RaceDayQuads ($45)
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Emax Hawk 5 Magnum FC
Emax-USA ($29)
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Emax Hawk 5 complete frame
Banggood ($45)
Emax-USA ($45)
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Emax Hawk 5 Magnum 25/200mW VTX
Emax-USA ($22)
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Emax Avan Flow 5" Props
Banggood ($4)
Picture
Foxeer Arrow Micro Pro Camera
Gearbest ($28)
Banggood ($25)
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Emax Hawk 5 Hardware Kit
Banggood ($5)
6 Comments

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