IFLight Turbobee 120rs review

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 ​

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.

What is included?
1x TurboBee 120RS Micro FPV Race Drone
1x 10*100mm Magic Battery Strap (It's the crappy strap style, take a look at this article for options)
1x 10*125mm Magic Battery Strap (as above)
1x XT30 Male Connetor Cable 
1x 3D Printed TPU Antenna Mount 
2x 40mm Protective Tube for Antenna
1x 3D Printed TPU Fixing Mount 
8x Gemfan flash 2540 props (but no 65mm props)

In summary it's just a basic kit with the quad, the receiver you chose, some crappy battery straps and props

A Closer Look at the Specs

• 2.5mm thick 2 level frame the weights around 12.2g. A bit on the heavy side considering there are lots of extra 3d printed parts
• SucceX F4 Flight Controller. This is a nice 16mm F4 flight controller based around the Matek F411 Target
• SucceX Micro 12A Brushless ESC. 12A 2-4s capable BLHELI_S Esc
• SucceX Micro VTX. 25mW - 200mW capable VTX with Tramp telemetry to change settings via betaflight OSD
• Caddx.us Turbo Eos2 1200TVL Camera. Unfortunately this is the 16:9 version which has a poor vertical FOV
• iFlight 1103 10000KV Motor. Light but fairly high kV motors especially for 3s?
• Gemfan 2540 3-Blade Propeller. Nice props but a bit on the heavy loading side for an 1103 10000kV motor

Betaflight settings
​The Turbobee 120RS comes loaded with Betaflight 3.5.7 which is not the latest release, I would have preferred 4.0 but regardless you can find the stock diff to the right if you wish to revert back settings:

turbobee_3.5.7_default.txt
File Size:	1 kb
File Type:	txt

Download File

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Since this is an older version, I've updated my firware to 4.0.3 which was the latest at time of writing and customised the settings as you can see below. All images can be embiggened Alternatively I've included a diff file of this later version to the right:

quadifyrc_turbobee_120rs_4.0.3_diff_all.txt
File Size:	2 kb
File Type:	txt

Download File

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Flight performance
The manufacturer has stated this quad is suitable for 2-3s. I don't believe this is right. I did try on 3s but motors were hot and the battery had unbearable sag. I'd strongly advise against 3s and so all my testing was done with 4s.

A quick note on weight
When the toothpick formula was devised by Bob Roogi (KababFPV) it was based around an all up weight of no moe than about 72g using the 65mm bi-blade propeller. As more people have tried to enter this lucrative space we've seen more variation driven by innovation or by the parts available to a manufacturer. Although the Turbobee has nice components in isolation, they do come together as a fairly heavy package. Below is a comparison between some of the popular options at present. This is with 65mm props on the 120RS as well - the stock 2540 props are much heavier. This weight really comes into play in flight performance because not only is the weight without battery heavier, but a larger battery is needed as well to get meaningful flight times meaning a double disadvantage. And, all this on the same sized motors...

The Turbobee 120RS (left) is significantly more heavy than the fullspeed toothpick or happymodel sailfly x. Review for the toothpick here and sailfly here

Using the stock 2540 Props
Although I think the Gemfan Flash 2540 props are awesome, I don't this this is a very good application: The motors are too small for the amount of weight, blade area and aggressive pitch from the prop and the kV is too high. The result is the need for a larger battery to supply the necessary current and then the battery sag and poor flight time that goes with it. Below you can see DVR from a flight I had with a 2s 450mah battery and 2540 props. The only advantage here was that due to the large blade area per mass, it was very quiet.

Using 65mm bi blade props
This was a definite improvement in efficiency but not to the extent of lighter toothpick quads like the fullspeed toothpick and to a greater extent the sailfly X. Performance was not as good as these too either, even with the 10,000kv motors and of course battery sag and flight time was worse. That said it was still a reasonably enjoyable flight and the large blade size for the weight makes for fun flying - just not as fun as the other models I've mentioned. Again, DVR below

FPV and control link performance
As good as the FPV signal is with the iflight vtx, I just don't like the camera. Not because of the image qualilty but because the 16:9 variant as included here has a poor vertical field of view. This means obstacles tend to 'sneak up' on you more than those cameras with a larger vertical field of view. Even the same camera in 4:3 format is a vast improvement as you can see in the DVR from the Hobbymate Asteroid review.

Control link is the best I've experienced in this class of quad hands down as mine came with a genuine XM+ receiver which is vastly superior to the onboard unit on the Sailfly or the nano v2 unit on the toothpick. All other things being equal I've been out over 1km on these.

What next?
As you can probably tell I was disappointed with the performance. Compared to other models in the same segment the flight time, handling and speed wasn't there because I just don't think the components are well matched:

• The frame is quite heavy
• The stack is quite heavy by strongly specced
• The motors are good for a light frame but too high in kV, especially for 3s

Thus I came to the conclusion that this quad needed a larger, lower kV set of motors to take advantage of the weight and durability of the components. I happened to have some 1104 600kV motors around which although older were about the right size. If choosing new I definitely would have gone with the Diatone Mamba 1106 5500kV (made by BBB) which are simply excellent motors - a great mix of power and efficiency. Regarldless my 1104 6000kV motors from the original Eachine Lizard95 would have to do.

Below are some pics of the comparative weights and the painful task of extending motors wires I had to go through. Bad enough on large motors but excruciating on micro motors!

Outcome and conclusion
So flight is much better, more in line with what I'd hope for. 64g is very light for 2.5 inch micro, in fact nothing has been this light since the original Leader 120 which is the same weight as this when a proper camera is installed.

Sadly I had an unrelated issue (my own fault) that damaged the ESC so it is grounded after only a handful of flights. I'm not in a hurry to fix it though... Why? Because the quad I've build below is essentially what iflight have moved to in their 4s version, furthermore the Fullspeed Tootpick pro has since come along at the same weight, with larger 1106 4500kv motors capable of 4s, a better FPV cam and VTX AND at a lower price. My review of that quad is here.

I will be keen to complete this upgrade to see it through and although the components are very nice, it's hard to recommend this one unless you can get it on a significant sale. My thoughts are this is a quad that has been rapidly put together to take advantage of the hype in this class without thought to balance. The components are top rate, just not together in this combination. 

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