F3 V4

[Gundummy]

I'm amazed after being away for a stint that things have progressed so far.  Not sure if anyones used this board yet put its got the wow factor i must admit:

http://www.banggood.com/F3-V4-Flight-Control-Board-AIO-25mW-200mW-600mW-Switchable-Transmitter-OSD-BEC-PDB-Current-Sensor-p-1102946.html?utmid=1195

[Gundummy]

Just a bump on this, is this the norm for mini quads these days or is the general opinion to just buy one good to go out if the box like a vortex etc??

[BlueFlyer]

Some might spit out their coffee and re-read this... but I've actually been looking at getting a miniquad lately and I've found some that appear to be actually very good, pre-built, pre-tuned racers that you just need to add your RX to and get flying... I would say because of the advancement you speak of... they're pretty much plug n go nowadays, as Ratty said on the TBS Tango thread, he's been flying with stock PIDs most of the year.

Amongst my favourite was this one:

http://www.banggood.com/Diatone-Crusader-GT2-200-FPV-Racing-Drone-w-F3-SP3-48CH-VTX-30A-BLHeli_S-ESC-HS1177-700TVL-Cam-PNP-p-1095494.html

review here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8o42CoP3lq4

[English Turbines]

Crusader GT....its quite a machine Blue....can see why you might be tempted....lol

   :vulture:

[BlueFlyer]

Crusader GT....its quite a machine Blue....can see why you might be tempted....lol

   :vulture:

I know right?

There's a running joke on here that I hate miniquads... I honestly don't. It spawned from me getting bored to death of the same old same old videos popping up... oooh, flips n rolls... ooh, more flips n rolls, this time in a park, this time in a field, this time in a car park.... you catch my drift.

In actual fact, I've built so many quads I genuinely can't think of a number... but I'd say less than 30. Including AP quads, mobius carrying quads, heavy lift quads, GoPro gimballed quads, a few tricopters, a few Y6 multis, a hex and yes... several miniquads.

The main reason I've focused mainly on fixed wing FPV for a long time now is because the RTF/ARF quads were catching up in terms of price. By the time I bought 4 really good motors, a brilliant frame, an awesome flight controller, the ESCs and Props, and a well performing brushless gimbal, not to mention a GoPro to put on it... you're getting really close to the price of a RTF quad such as a phantom, or a miniquad like the ImmersionRC Vortex.

Not only did these RTF quads not cost that much more than my self built creations, but they outperformed my creations in every way... stability, camera quality, ease of use and so on... I decided I was going to stop wasting my money on self building quads because no matter what I could never quite get them dialled in as well as a RTF phantom.

But As Gundummy points out at the opening of this thread, times have changed around me whilst I've been focusing on fixed wings... these boards coming out nowadays are leaps and bounds ahead of the KK5.5e, KK2.0, CC boards I was using in the past.

People are flying well specced out racers on stock PIDs, and getting great results from so called "cheap" ARF quads that have at their heart these brilliant flight controllers.

I was terrified of my first few miniquads because of how unstable the things were on old naze boards with crappy firmware and stock PIDs.

The running joke about me being a fixed wing fuddy duddy who hates anything miniquad related, I feel has masked the fact that I actually do know what the F I'm talking about... I just need to catch up with some of the latest tech.

[Coyote]

To be honest I didn't realise there was a V3 or V4 of the F3.

I too run stock PIDS now. I don't bother tuning they are that close.

I like the idea of the board. A bit all your eggs in one basket though if it gets knocked.

[Gundummy]

No mention of an OSD....?

[CurryKitten]

It mentions an FTDI interface for an OSD on the next picture down - but it's a bit unclear to be sure.  It's also a bit unclear what voltage it would be passing out to the camera connection, 12v/5v or simply a passthrough of the lipo ?

I like the idea of the all in one.  True if you break it, you break more bits - but it's not really that expensive - way less than we used to pay for ImmersionRC VTX's just a few year ago.  It's quite difficult to break something that's in the centre of the quad as well with all the arms and things to break first.

I think it might be very useful and make things a bit easier - especially on these smaller frames where space is harder to come by.

I also noticed this thing on Banggood the other day

http://www.banggood.com/RacerCube-Integrated-F3-EVO-4-In-1-20A-F396-ESC-Frsky-8CH-PPMSBUS-Receiver-for-X-Racing-Frame-p-1095370.html?rmmds=category

Kind of like the TBS stack of stuff I suppose (check's that Trappy hasn't snuck up from behind) although you could use the 20a ESC (and the RX) stack in the first FC mentioned in the thread I suppose.

I generally like the easy integration - saves all that tricky and time consuming soldering.  I too fly on mostly default pids (I generally twiddle with rates/expo/tpa) as when I fly I want to have fun, not constantly land and retweak and repeat all day.

[Gundummy]

Good observation Wayne, there is an OSD built in which is configurable via the FTDI socket



The thanksbuyer site quotes:

HGLRC F3 V4 Pro has integrated all funtions of F3 fligth controller, OSD, BEC, current meter and 3 kinds of power transmitter digital display+PDB.etc.
- Support 2-6S power supply
- 4 layers of PCBA
- 4 layers of gold-plated board
- Adjustable 5.8G video transmitter, 25mW, 200mW, 600mW
- Support automatic switch OSD and USB

Even takes a GPS module! .. I feel the piggy bank shaking to upgrade my miniquads outdated Naze....

[iwan_canobi]

This looks pretty smart, I'd be tempted to add this to a small plane and stick a GPS and you have a full blown AP with OSD, current sensor and VTx all in one small unit.

It's pretty impressive to cram so much on there, I wonder how they are handling the power distribution reliably with all of the other components on there. Must be an EMC nightmare!

[Gundummy]

Must be an EMC nightmare!

I've heard quite well .....

I'll let you know - Santas got one on the way  ;)

[Gundummy]

On offer http://www.lightake.com/p/F3-V4-Flight-Control-Board-AIO-25mW-200mW-600mW-Switchable-Transmitter-OSD-BEC-PDB-Current-Sensor_MU2131335.html

£38.22 with all cables, buzzer etc

[English Turbines]

On offer http://www.lightake.com/p/F3-V4-Flight-Control-Board-AIO-25mW-200mW-600mW-Switchable-Transmitter-OSD-BEC-PDB-Current-Sensor_MU2131335.html

£38.22 with all cables, buzzer etc

  Be interesting to see how it performs...a very small package.....:)

As the Actress said to the Bishop....

                 :vulture:

[Gundummy]

My old "half tuned" naze board needed a replacement.  this will shed a few gr off the mini quad thats for sure. Hopefully tidy it up as well.