FullSpeed Toothpick Review: The perfect Park flyer

This is a review for the Fullspeed Toothpick, an ultralight fully featured micro quadcopter that is 2s and 3s capable. It is available from the following retailers:

• FullSpeed direct
• Banggood​

Introduction
The toothpick is the latest release from Fullspeed, the company that bought you the Leader 120, the Leader 2.5 and 3.0 as well as the Tiny Leader. In a departure from the naming system their newest micro qudcopter is called the FullSpeed toothpick as a nod to the motor/prop combination that has been extensively test by Bob @ kababfpv.com (with his blessing). The outcome of using this mix of components is meant to be efficiency, control, surprisingly good power and safety. More on this in the review that follows.

Adressing the TinyLeader ESC issues
To immediately address the elephant in the room Fullspeed have moved on from the issues they faced with the tinyleader  ESC which had a relatively high failure rate. The toothpick here uses the same 16/20mm stack but with v2.1 of the ESC which as you can see in this video appears to be much more robust.

Component overview
I'll give my quick thoughts on the components below and will point something unique out with this build compared to others in the class - it has indivual components rather that a range of all in one gear we've become so familiar with on the Mobula7, Tinyhawk, Trashcan and even the new Sailfly-X. This means you can replace or upgrade component by component as required.

The FullSpeed F412 fight controller is a discrete 16mm unit that attaches to the ESC by a conventional cable. It uses a 411 chip so is well supported and can run 8k/8k. Target in betaflight 4.0 (release) onwards is Matek F411 and if you upgrade you will need to allow for board rotation of 270degrees. This is the same unit found in the Tinyleader

The FullSpeed 412 ESC is a 16mm 1-3s capable unit that can run up to 12a continuous per channel. It is a heavily upgraded version of the unit used in the TinyLeader. There is no current sensor 

Motors are 1103 8000kV and based on the classic racerstar BR1103 motors. They have twin ball bearings and mercifully have silicon wires unlike the extended motor wires + heatshrink as per the racerstar originals. I think this kV is a great choice for 2s but possibly a stretch for 3s. They are light at 3.2g each, use a traditional 9x9mm mounting pattern and include a 3 pin micro jst connector which is commonplace.

Propellers are the 'magic' kingkong 65mm but now have the correct shaft size of 1.5mm meaning you no longer need to drill. Better still they are in translucent grey meaning there is minimal pickup in your FPV feed.

Vtx is the FSD tx600 unit which runs tramp protocol and up to 600mW transmit power! Like the tinyleader there is nothing in this class that is anywhere near as powerful. As I found in my Leader 3 review it provides a very cleanFPV feed.

Camera is the Caddx Turbo Micro F2. This is a full 19mm 1200TVL CMOS camera with an image superior to anything in toothpick size class. If you don't like the image you can swap for practically any 19mm micro cam.

Receiver is the fullspeed nano frsky v2 which is also available in DSM or flysky. It does not have diversity and runs in d8 mode. It does broadcasts RSSI on aux 5 as well as has RSSI telemmetry which is useful given range is not fantastic. Given it is a discrete unit it is easy to replace with a diversity receiver or crossfire etc if needed. An interesting foot note is that this can be switched between inverted and non-inverted signal quite easily as can be seen here

Full Speed developed their frame and canopy in house by the talented Rohens Lei. He is the guy who is piloting their quad around the carpark at ludicrous speeds in their videos. The toothpick frame is just 1.5mm thick but well supported with additional struts front and rear. Frame and canopy weigh just 9g

Setup for flight - Betaflight
Like the other Fullspeed models they have customised settings in betaflight for the toothpick right down to having custom rates. Other than setting an arm switch nothing is else is needed other than the customisations you prefer. For me this is OSD and rates. It's worth noting that the nightly build of betaflight that this flight controller currently ships with is not 100% compatible with the latest version of betaflight (10.5.1 at time of writing). Some functions like switches and OSD are unavailable through the GUI. My recommendation is to save you diff file, update to a full release version using the Matek F411 (4.0 at time of writing) and apply your diff as needed. Screenshots of unique setting loaded from the factory below (to follow):

Setup for flight - VTX
The VTX is locked to just 25mW output power and limited channels from the factory. before you fly for the first time please unlock it as below:
1. Press & hold the button for 5s to adjust Channel. Red LED will flash 3x & show the Channel. Short press for 1x to switch Channel.
2. Press & hold the button for 5s after step1 to adjust Band. Green LED will flash 3x & show the Band. Short press for 1x to switch Band.
3. Press & hold the button for 5s after step2 to adjust Power. Blue LED will flash 3x & show the Power. Short press for 1x to switch Power. （Only to unlock the transmitter so the power select mode can be accessible.）
4. Press & hold the button for 5s after setp3 to save setting. All LED will flash for 3x to show the Channel, Band & Power. 

Flight performance FPV
Given this has a camera and VTX that is superior to anything in it's class it's understandably good - more comparable to a 5 inch quad. The only loss in quality comes as a results of the smaller electronics that surround the vtx which are noisier but this is a fairly minor quibble. I always forget how much a good FPV feed improves the experiences. Std disclaimer that Aomway Commander DVR is awful and what you see in the goggles (reception AND image quality) is much better. I will note the the Caddx F2 makes a bit of a mess of red light in bright conditions but NOTHING like the Caddx EOS2 as per the Eachine Trashcan.

Overall flight characteristics
The first thing I noticed is just how quiet this little quadcopter is. This doesn't get discussed enough and I think it is really important especially if you life in urban areas and/or a conscious of disturbing others. The next thing is performance is really impressive given the size. It is definitely not as fast as a 5 inch nor is as fast as a good 2.5 or 3 inch running 1106 motors but the agility makes it feel fast. The motors are not especially powerful and you never feel like you have as much control over the prop as you do with bigger motors but it is very smooth and unlike many other micros surprisingly vibration free. The flight characteristics are vastly superior and more predictable than any ducted quad. It is understandably faster too (including Mobula 7, Eachine trashcan)

It sounds like a weird mix of things as I read this passage but this combination makes for the perfect park flyer - quiet, light (and so safe) but fast and without the poor flight characteristics that plague the ducted quads, especially in any wind. I think this little guy will always come with me to take advantage of even small parks during lunch time or when I'm out with the kids with minimal chance of pissing the public off - very easy to pass off as a quiet unassuming toy.

Flight performance 2s
Without beating around the bush I found 2s to be the best feel. Throttle felt more linnear and the little quad felt more predictable in the kind of places I want to fly it. The 2s 300mah GNB HV surprisingly gave me about 3 minutes flight compared to 2 minutes in my original tinyleader and 2.5 minutes in my tinyleader modded to take 1.9 in props - quite staggering efficieny. I found that around 2s 450mah was the sweet spot - enough for over 5 minutes (!) of flight without hurting the performance on weight. My 46g 950mah battery was definitey too heavy - more than the quad itself! As Kabab has stated around 70-72g is the sweetspot.

Flight performance 3s.
There's no doubt that 3s is faster but felt the predictable throttle response wasn't quite the same as 2s. With a 3s 300mah battery got around the same flight time as the 2s 300mah. This tells me that somewhere between the maximum throttle on 2s and 3s the motors are starting to lose some efficiency and so my guess is a throttle limit of about 80% would greatly improve flight time whilst not limiting real world performance. The speed was fairly intoxicating but it did feel a little too fast for the control I had (my DVR on the left below). It's fair to say that a better pilot could probably manage as can be seen from Rohen's early garage flight on 3s (below right). You'll be pleased to know that the motors and ESCs handled the 3s packs just fine, I've now put through a dozen or so 3s packs. This hopefully means the ESCs woes are behind them and the tune is about right so as not to cook the motors.

Other observations

• Like the other Fullspeed models I've reviewed the build quality is excellent - nice soldering, good cable management and tight screws.
• Motors still use the 3 pin micro JST connectors but the front motors use an extension cable owing to the stretched geometry of the frame. You could argue that direct soldering may be more efficient but my gut feel is that the voltage drop across these extra connections is negligible compared to say the battery connector
• The frame feels delicate and almost flimsy in the hand but is suprisngly robust.
• The 3d canopy is nicely printed and I personally like the look of it a lot more than others in this class - like a tiny version of a 5 inch racer.
• The battery strap is rubbish, I thought we got rid of these months ago. Please use a more suitable one Fullspeed!
• The magnets in the motors are weak. You could conceivably get more power from a stronger motor but I don't think it is necessary here. One advantage that I am enjoying with weaker magnets is smoothness and efficiency - many of the larger 5 inch motors are going this way for freestyle applications.
• Props are wonderful. I can't stress enough how much better it is not to have to increase hold from 1mm to 1.5mm and destroy the balance of the prop as a result.
• The receiver is well mounted but does not have great range. If you need more I'd recommend upgrading to a regular frsky XM

cable management is tidy

Receiver can be easily accessed for binding

Looks like a shrunk down stretched 5" racer

Motors are similar to racerstar BR1103. This is not necessarily bad - mine are 2 years old and still going

VTX is a full 20mm and up to 600mW! Mounted at 45°

Side by side with the Mobula 7

Recommendation
I think the toothpick class of quads fits a really nice niche. For areas that are unsuitable for powerful 3-6" freestyle quads due to noise, space, proximity of public I think these are a great alternative without the compromises of flight charactertics like yaw washout as we find on brushless ducted quads. That said they are certainly not suitable for indoors like whoops are. An added bonus is the improvement in efficiency that is allowed by these large, light propellers.

What I believe sets the Fullspeed toothpick aside in the class of toothpick quads are the discrete components, especially the fpv system which has a good camera and a very good vtx. It is on the pricy side at around $130 but it does feel like a well balanced, easily serviceable model. This is probably my favourite fullspeed model since the original Leader 120 and I'm happy to recommend it if you are looking for a quiet, efficient park flyer. 

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