Jun 2, 2021
In this article I want to present my top three picks for analog nano FPV cameras for 2021 and explain what makes them a top pick for me and when I would choose each of them. Since there is no perfect product I will also highlight some cons.
To qualify as a Nano camera it has to be 14mm wide and has to have M2 mounting screw holes on either side.
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May 26, 2021
The past couple of weeks while refining and updating the flight-controller comparison chart I have been thinking about what my perfect flight controller would look like, and I wanted to share my thoughts and see what you think. Oftentimes I have a feeling, that I settle for something that is good enough and simply live with it, because I have no other choice, then I get used to it and do not question it anymore.
First of all: there will not be the “one” perfect flight controller that fits every application, so I will look at it from the perspective of whoops and micros/toothpicks - lets say up to light weight 3”.
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May 23, 2021
In this article I want to show you my personal workflow and tooling for designing and manufacturing a micro quadcopter frame from start to finish. I will show you the steps I take, things I consider during the design process, the tools I use, hard- and software and some tips and tricks to make things easier.
I will show you all of this based of a real world example, my latest frame design. Designing frames is a lot of fun and a great challenge. This article is meant as an introduction and my intention is to show you that you too can have your own frame and that it does not have to be as complicated and expensive as you might think.
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Apr 28, 2021
Thinking about building a 1S brushless whoop and you are not sure which AIO flight controller to use? I want to show you a couple FC’s which I think are viable choices and explain what I am looking for in my 1S flight controllers.
Obviously there is no ONE perfect flight controller, otherwise this article would be pretty short. It depends on what you are looking for, and this might be different for everyone. I will show you what I look for and how my decision process looks like.
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Apr 23, 2021
Mar 10, 2021
The HappyModel Cine 8 is - as the name suggests - a 85mm cine whoop with which you can carry a Insta360 Go. This copter - similar to the UZ85 - comes as a kit which you have to assemble yourself - and there is no soldering required.
I really like the concept of having to put it together yourself. Everything is plug and play, meaning that all the wires come with plugs and you just plug them in and you are set. The assembly can easily be done in under an hour.
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Feb 27, 2021
DSHOT - Digital shot, is a very popular protocol for flight-controller to ESC communication. In the quadcopter hobby it is nowadays pretty much the standard. The protocol is used to send the target throttle value from the flight-controller to the ESC which in turn interprets it and drives the motor accordingly.
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Feb 22, 2021
Most of you will probably know what BLHELI_S is - the de-facto standard firmware for most brushless-whoop ESC’s and generally most ESC’s we use in the quadcopter hobby nowadays.
Apart from BLHELI_S there is also BLHELI_32 - the 32 bit version of BLHELI which provides bidirectional DSHOT and ESC telemetry out of the box, but is only available on a small subset of ESC’s and up until now only very few of the AIO boards that we commonly use with brushless whoops and toothpicks come with BLHELI_32 ESC’s.
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Jan 27, 2021
In this article we will take a closer look at the T-Lite - Radiomasters first contribution to the niche of gamepad shaped radios.
As the name suggests it is a direct competitor to FrSky’s X-Lite but obviously also competes with other gamepad shaped controllers. I will compare it to the X-Lite and the BetaFPV Lite radio which I have been using for quite some time.
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Jan 17, 2021
I was intrigued when I first saw Nvision Junior Racer75 - I am a sucker for the color purple, so this one instantly won my heart. I have never heard of Nvision before, but the copter seemed super sturdy and I needed to try it out.
This is a whoop sized, 75mm quadcopter - but this one is intended to be flown with 2-3S - and I really recommend 3S for this one, but more on this later. Let’s first address the elephant in the room - this thing weighs in at a whopping 55g without a battery. This is pretty substantial - especially since there are whoops in this size class that weigh less than half of that.
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