I'm a fan of micro quads, they make small spaces much larger - when I first started out this was the only quad I could fly in my yard without crashing. Airblade has a good thing going with their micros, and the Eclair is super cool for how simple and how light it is.
Originally I had RX1107 7600kv motors on this rig but the 4500kv RS1106 can put up with the 4S power much better. There are surely 4500kv motors out there with better reputations, but I had these on hand and they do work pretty well here.
Runcam's Split Mini is for the most part a good way to record HD on a micro size setup, but I haven't been able to get the UART control functionality working on any of the Split Minis, and they all seem to have a lot of mid to high frequency noise in the audio recording that almost makes it unusable without an extreme amount of EQ. The video does look pretty good regardless. Still, I'm tempted to switch to a Predator V2 and Runcam DVR Mini, because the DVR does a really good job with only one 20x20 board and the FOV on a full-size camera is much nicer to inhabit. Having the extra room wouldn't hurt, it was tough to cram a Stealth 200w VTw behind the camera!
In order to get telemetry on the Micro Lux, I had to use the inversion pad on the R-XSR. Apart from that the 20x20 Lux is a good FC, I've also used one in a flying wing with some success.
Airblade has some new 'Pro' versions of the Eclair now, and I think this is now called the Eclair 'Lite', and it's the version I would still prefer. It's plenty light but still has the capability to carry 4 20x20 boards, which is crazy. It's got relatively dead-cat stability and has serious get-up-and-go on 4S.
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AirbladeUAV has done it again and this time they've brought long range to the 5" class! Based on the popular Transformer Mini, the new Transformer 5" Ultralight adopts a lot of the same design philosophies with larger props and more payload capacity. It can fly upwards of 20 minutes on a 4 cell Li-Ion battery pack and in ideal conditions it's got a range of over 4 to 5 miles. In this guide I'll walk..
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With the release of the DJI FPV Drone cinematic FPV has become a lot more accessible, but you certainly don't want to crash a $750 drone! The QAV-CINE Freybott is a compact, lightweight cinematic FPV drone that can take a hit and keep going. It's a lot safer to fly indoors and around people. With a naked GoPro or the SMO 4k you can capture some great stabilized footage. In this guide I'll show you..
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Nice build!
Unfortunately, you will only get standard video out of the Predator+dvr which is not bad but HD from the Split is much nicer.
I have been able to control the split through a UART but the control is awkward. And all you need with the split is to push a button once in a while. Not worth wasting a whole UART for it. Telemetry and smart audio are much more useful.
Agreed, I use uart control on my larger builds, but they typically have a free uart anyway and the Split 2 has no problem with that functionality. The Mini is just weird around the fringes I guess! I actually like the video coming from the DVR, it's faster to edit.