Eachine Lal5 Upgraded to 6 inch: Review

Recently I had a first look at the Eachine Lal5 - a new 5 inch freestlye quadcopter from Eachine with built in 4k recording and massive 6s 2507 motors. At the time it flew well but I felt it was overpowered (and overweight) for a 5 inch quad. There were a few minor build issues that also affected the quality of video transmission. Shortly after release, Eachine announced that initial models should have had nylon screws rather than steel for the Caddx tarsier stack to fix the video issues and recommended this upgrade on the early models. They also released 6 and 7 inch arms based on popular demand. For this review I've chosen to show you how to complete these upgrades and what you can expect from performance when you do. Here's a teaser - it is much improved

Correcting the video feed
The video feed on the Lal5 suffers 2 issues: firstly the steel screws on the stack in the early models create electrical noise in the video feed and secondly the low profile antenna is easily obstrcted by the frame and battery.

Eachine suggested that the metal screws holding the tarsier boards to the frame were the cause of poor video. Seems unlikely but worth a try

Stock VTX antenna is easily obstructed by the top mounted battery. Not good when you are a long way out and turning for home that you loose video signal...

Firstly if you have one of the earlier release models you'll need to replace the screws on the rear 20x20mm stack (caddx tarsier boards). This is a simple swap, the hardest part is getting the right screws - I recommend m2 x 12mm available here ($3-$4). These are the longest commonly available m2 nylon screws. You'll need to remove the lower spaces when you reassemble and I recommend covering the bottom of the lower board with insulation tape to properly insulate the board from the frame. Easy peasy.

Nylon M2 screw pack (choose 12mm)

Insulation tape on the bottom of the board since I took the spacers out due to nylon screws being shorter

Tasrier camera boards rear stack now has a lower mounting profile with the shorter m2x12 nylon screws

The next part is a frustrating issue to fix - the poor placement of the vtx antenna. The Eachine Lal5 has a nice integraded low profile tpu mount for the vtx and rx antennas and these work great on race quads with bottom mount batteries but on a freestyle quad with top mount battery the antenna (and signal) are quickly obstructed when the quad is facing you - the worst possible time! For example... fly out with clean video signal. Turn to fly back, vtx antenna obstructed by battery, no video signal, crash, :(. After wracking my brain for a fix I found a common 80mm MMCX to sma adaptor like this one ($2-$3) fitted pefectly in the old TPU mount and then you can choose any SMA adaptor you had lying around. I used an EMAX Pagoda 2 but would recommend the Foxeer Lollipop 3 ($15-$20 per pair) over this as it is more durable.

80mm MMCX to SMA adaptor opens up options for more VTX antennas

Foxeer Lollipop 3 SMA is one of the best value/most durable antennas about at present

Opening in the 3d printed antenna mount is the perfect size for a SMA fitting

New antenna is at the right angle with excellent clearance from props

You can see the white pagoda vtx antenna easily clears the battery now and video signal is much better!

With these two fixes in places I found the following - electrical noise (when quad was armed) was noticably reduced but more importantly signal quality regardless of quad orientation was greatly improved.

Upgrading to 6 inch arms and props
As mentioned in my initial review I found the large 2507 motors to be a little under-utilised on 5 inch props. What does this mean? Essentially the motors are larger than is needed so there is more weight carried and the current draw is unnecessarily high at high throttle, especially with the included Dal T5046c props. I consider this motor to be suited to 6 in or 7 inch although for 7 inch you'd probably want to drop to 4s. Since I have predominantly 6s batteries now I chose to upgrade to the recently available 6 inch arms for the Lal5 at around $6 x 4 pieces. I have chosen to use these in combination with the excellent HQ 6x4x3 props. I wish the arm upgrade was as simple as the Emax hawk 5 arm upgrade to 6" where they conveniently left excess wire for the conversion but it was not. Wires had to be extended. Luckily there are pre-made PCBs readily and cheaply available now, some with LEDs. I chose to go cheap and functional so went with the diatone pack that contains 4 each of the 'race wires in the following sizes all for about $2

• 30mm
• 35mm
• 40mm

6 and 7 inch arms for the Eachine Lal5

HQ 6x4x3 props - arguably the best 6 inch prop presently available

Diatone motor extension wire is CHEAP and included 3 different sizes

I chose the 40mm ones and soldered these inline after cutting the motor wires where I wanted them place. Not difficult but it is time consuming. I also took the opportunity to swap motor locations in order to run props out - solely for the purpose of keeping grass and mud off the HD portion of the tarsier camera.

Although arms are designed to be quick release, you'll still need to loosen stack crews to remove old arms and install new ones

Arms off, not a lot of slack in the motor wires

Definitely need to lengthen wires or more accurately add motor wires

24 cut wires and 24 solder point later here is the outcome. Not as tidy as usual but reliable soldering with no shorts

A closer look at the diatone 'race wire'

Reverse props mean no more grass and dirt and crap on the lens of the tarsier HD cam. Shown here with the ND filter on

The end result of these changes is that the larger props are better suited to lift the weight of this heavy quad and efficiency has improved a lot as a result. This is definitely a change I'd recommend if you have the 1850kv variant of the motor and can run on 6s (I us an 80% throttle cut) on 5s or for more gentle cruising on 4s. This efficiency and the ability to now effectively carry larger batteries as well as a vastly improved video signal makes it an ideal candidate for longer range and I've since installed a $10 GPS to give me accurate speed measurement but moreso the ability to run rescue mode if I happen to get out of control range. If you want a tutorial on this install please comment here or on my facebook page and if there is interest I'll write it up.

Conclusion
In hindsight Eachine have now changed to nylon screws for the tarsier stack but it is a shame they haven't improved on the VTX antenna from stock. That said the fix is neither difficult nor expensive. Although it's probably a matter of taste or opinion I find the 6 inch props are significantly better suited to this quad with a similar level of control but vastly improved efficiency particularly away from full throttle. Upgrading to these or the 7 inch arms/props makes it much more suitable for long range by simple GPS addition. In my opinion these changes makes this otherwise nicely speccd quad better balanced and rounded - certainly with the Tarsier 4k hd cam it becomes suitable for recording freestyle, cruising and long range adventures.

​Thanks for reading, if you found this article useful please feel free to like or share, the facebook links below directly link/like this article. Links are affiliated and help me buy the bits I need to produce this type of content. If you are looking for quads or parts check out my coupons and discounts page which I keep updated with only the parts and quads I like at a proper discount

Parts used

Nylon M2 screw pack (choose 12mm)

80mm MMCX to SMA adaptor opens up options for more VTX antennas

Foxeer Lollipop 3 SMA is one of the best value/most durable antennas about at present

6 and 7 inch arms for the Eachine Lal5

HQ 6x4x3 props - arguably the best 6 inch prop presently available

Diatone motor extension wire is CHEAP and included 3 different sizes