TuneRC 1-2S EZ AIO Review
• Chris
The TuneRC EZ 1-2S AIO board is the first - and hopefully not last - flight-controller manufactured by TuneRC. This one does some things different from all the other ones. From what I understand it was manufactured to the specifications of Bob Roogi (KababFPV) - he is even selling it in his own store.
This usually is a good indicator that the product is of good quality, otherwise Bob would not vouch for it with his name.
Big shout out to TuneRC for sending me the EZ 1-2S AIO for the purpose of review and feedback.
Who is TuneRC?
I always like to learn more about the company and people who produce our FPV related gear. TuneRC are a relatively small and boutique, Chinese FPV company founded in 2019. One of their first products was a 1 and 2S battery charger. Unfortunately I could not try it out for myself, but people who did are all raving about it.
One of the things that distinguishes them from other companies is, that they are actually, personally involved with the micro FPV community. Aria - the rep I have been speaking to - even joined IGOW (International Game of Whoop) 3 - and did quite well. They also sponsored some prices for IGOW.
It is refreshing to have a manufacturer that actually also uses their own product. Another thing to note is, that Aria is very pleasant and easy to talk to. With other reps you often have the feeling that you are running into a language barrier - not so with Aria, we chatted for quite a bit, I was throwing ideas at her and she seemed very interested and even seemed to consider some of my input, which is really refreshing - apart from him being an avid reader of my blog.
Design process
The EZ 1-2S AIO design took about two months for TuneRC to undergo a couple of revisions to get a refined product. Manufacturing took another month. TuneRC designs everything in house but they do not produce themselves, instead out-source to a manufacturing house of their trust.
TuneRC mainly sells through their own webshop since they value direct interaction with the customer.
TuneRC 1-2S EZ AIO
The flight controller is capable of running from 1-2S - it is intended for 1S toothpick style quadcopters and it has the classic 25.5 x 25.5mm whoop mounting pattern. The USB port is on the side of the board and will not fit most 1S whoop frames. It will fit some of the 85mm frames - for example the BetaFPV 85X - one of my favorite 85mm frames - it depends a bit on how you are exacly mounting your flight controller - stay tuned for more information how I do it on the BetaFPV 85x frame.
The flight controller weighs in at 4.7g withough the battery lead.
The solder pads are all huge. Even inexperienced pilots will be able to solder to this board without any issues.
The motor pads are all on the edge of the board. The pads for the receiver are place on the front of the board. SBUS, TX and RX pad are available, as is a GND and 5V pad. For those who need it, a 3.3V pad is also available. On the back of the board, you can find pads for the video transmitter and camera. GND and 5V pads are available for video transmitter and camera each.
The through holes for the power lead are big enough to fit 20AWG wire. Adjacent to the power load you will also find through holes for a low ESR capacitor, which unfortunately is not included.
The flight-controller comes flashed with Betaflight 4.2.9 which was the latest stable release at the point of manufacturing, which I really appreciate.
Bare minimum
This AIO comes with only the bare minimum to be considered an AIO - there is no built in receiver, nor video transmitter. Just flight controller and ESCs.
The ESCs come pre flashed with Bluejay v0.14, F-H-70, 24kHz firmware. The dead-time is not as low as I would wish for, but the fact that Bluejay is pre-installed, is a huge plus point in my opinion. The ESCs on this board can be flashed directly from USB, without the need to plug in a battery.
This board does actually not come with an absolute Amp rating, instead with a maximum recommended motor size: 1302.5 with 6400KV on 2S. Bob states that the sweetspot, and the design goal were his 13mm, 11250KV 1S motors.
In the package you will also receive an XT30 connector with 20AWG wires and rubber grommets to mount the board on M2 screws.
Who is it for
This flight controller is definitely not for everyone, I would say it covers a very specific segment of the market: People who want to run a reliable, 1S, toothpick of up to 3”.
For 1S whoop builds, there are better, more integrated solutions, even for a 2S whoop you are probably better off going with a more integrated version that comes at least with an on board ELRS receiver.
The TuneRC 1-2S EZ AIO board is for those people who want something reliable, are willing to pay a bit more and are very specific about the hardware they want to run - and especially a good choice for long range builds.
Another great thing about this board is, that it will provide a stable 5V rail, down to 2.2V battery input - making it perfect for all single cell 18650 builds.
Conclusion
At the price point of around $56 a lot of people might be hesitant to buy, since it is rather on the pricey side when compared to other products - at least when compared to the specs on paper. I still think that the TuneRC 1-2S EZ AIO is worth the money, simply because of the reliability. It has been working great for me personally and I have not heard anything negativ about this board - and this says a lot: usually people that are unhappy scream the loudest.
The board is very pleasant to work with: big pads, has Bluejay pre-installed, big power pads. A thing that I do not like is, that it comes with a mciro USB port instead of USB-C, but this is just me nitpicking.
If you want to run your own receiver and video transmitter anyway, I would highly recommend you to get this board.
I would really love to see a variant of this board with an on-board ELRS receiver with chip antenna. This would make an already great board even better.
Chris is a Vienna based software developer. In his spare time he enjoys reviewing tech gear, ripping quads of all sizes and making stuff.
Learn more about Chris, the gear he uses and follow him on social media: