Slammed 5" / 5S Reverb

By War Chest on Jan 02, 2019

24  2,232  15

Introduction

This is the newest freestyle rig that I've added to my fleet. After spending the last 15 months exclusively flying X-Hover Stingy Frames with Betaflight based flight controllers, I've decided to try something as different from my standard builds as I could come up with while suiting my typical freestyle needs.

Why 5S power instead of 6S?

While everyone is migrating over from 4S to 6S, I decided to commit to a 5S powered route for all my quads because I also fly quite a few 6" quads. Since the 6" quad space is a relatively unpopular one, I've had a hard time locating a good, smooth, low-kv motor (1400kv) that matches a 6" / 6S setup.

In my opinion, 5S is able to keep the same rough consistency in power output as 6S is. The difference between 5S to 6S is far less dramatic than the difference between 5S and 4S.

Goal and Parts Selection

The goal of this quad was to build a relativey lightweight (for freestyle) and reliable 5S powered rig that is high kv in power, long freestyle flight time, and has excellent flight characteristics.

In order to achieve this, I've dropped the Reverb frame height from 30mm down to 25mm with aftermarket standoffs (for a lower center of gravity), selected the incredibly smooth and powerful 2407 sized ETHiX Konasty 2200kv motors and paired them with the extremely battery efficient ETHiX 5x3.1x3 S3 prop.

Weight Reduction

I've used the following method below for shaving weight off the typical Reverb Build:

  • Selected Micro FPV Cam over Fullsized FPV Cam
  • Used small 3D printed FPV Micro cam mounts instead of the stock carbon fiber FPV cam side plates
  • Used the TBS Crossfire Nano RX instead of the Crossfire Micro RX
  • Used slightly shorter titanium buttonhead screws instead of the longer standard steel frame screws.
  • Used 3 x 6mm titanium screws per motor over the stock 4 x 7mm steel screws that came with the motors.
  • Selected foam wedge to mount the GoPro Session instead of a 3D printed TPU mount.
  • Used one single lighter ETHiX battery strap over 2 standard ImpulseRC straps
  • Minimized use of zip ties and shortened wires to the appropriate length.
  • Used ThunderPowerRC 1500mah HV lipos (V2). At 184g, It's by far the lightest 5S battery made to date.

Average 5S powered Reverb / Kiss V2 AUW: 665g-680g
My current 5S AUW: 621g
With ThunderPowerRC's 1300mah 4S AUW: 585g

Results

With a "relatively" light 621g AUW, low cg, heaps of power, crystal clear FPV feed, and KISS V2 firmware, this freestyle quad is incredibly smooth and responsive. Kiss firmware (my first Kiss build) appears to have slightly less stick latency than even my best tuned 5" Betaflight quad and generally feels a bit more locked in and predictable from my intial tests. The Rotor Riot Micro Eagle Pro FPV cam (with gain dialed down to zero) is definitely a fantastic successor to the fullsized CCD based Swift 2. And finally, the 2407 2200kv Konasty motors (which TBH are highly inefficient above 80% throttle) are highly responsive and efficient from 20-70% throttle (where most freestyle pilots sit).

I may decide to change these motors in the future to a lower kv (2000kv to 2050kv) but for now, I'm happy with the heaps of power, predictablity, and 4 minute flight times.

You can see a full one take flight from this quad over on my youtube channel:

Photos

Part List

Frame

REVERB 5" Frame
Pirofliprc.com
$81.41

Flight Controller

KISS FC V2 - 32bit Flight Controller (62 builds)
Getfpv.com
$69.99

ESCs

4 x KISS 32A 32bit ESC (2-6S) (22 builds)
Getfpv.com
See Site

Motors

4 x Ethix Konasty 2407 2200KV
Store.rotorriot.com
$80.48

Propellers

ETHIX S3 WATERMELON PROPS (11 builds)
Newbeedrone.com
$3.59

FPV Camera

RunCam Micro Eagle Pro "Rotor Riot Joshua Bardwell Edition" 800TVL 16:9/4:3 NTSC/PAL CMOS FPV Camera - BlackDefault Title (24 builds)
Racedayquads.com
$46.95

FPV Transmitter

TBS Unify Pro 5G8 HV (SMA) (596 builds)
Getfpv.com
See Site

Antenna

Lumenier AXII 5.8GHz Antenna (RHCP) (2pcs) (199 builds)
Getfpv.com
$29.99

Receiver

Team BlackSheep TBS Crossfire Nano RX - Heli-Nation (1498 builds)
Heli-nation.com
$24.99

Batteries

Thunder Power RC TP1500-5SD100X
Thunderpowerrc.com
See Site

Power Distribution

ImpulseRC Wolf PDB V3 (12 builds)
Team-blacksheep.com
$48.49

Radio

FrSky 2.4GHz ACCST TARANIS X9D PLUS Special Edition (Mode 2) (EU) (Carbon Fiber) (9 builds)
Hobbyking.com
See Site

HD Camera

GoPro HERO5 Session (303 builds)
Getfpv.com
$199.99

Hardware

7 x Tools for FPV (57 builds)
Racedayquads.com
$48.65

Misc Parts

ETHIX GoPro Strap (4pcs) (4 builds)
Team-blacksheep.com
$6.95

Misc Parts

ETHIX Battery Straps (4pcs) (7 builds)
Team-blacksheep.com
$5.99

Misc Parts

M3x8 Button Head Titanium Screws (10pcs) (2 builds)
Getfpv.com
$5.99

Misc Parts

Ummagawd UMMAGRIP Universal Super Sticky Battery Pad (175 builds)
Racedayquads.com
$4.99

Misc Parts

5 PCS Super Loud 5V Active Alarm Buzzer Beeper Tracker 9*5.5mm for RC MultiRotor FPV Racing Drone (33 builds)
Banggood.com
$3.17

Misc Parts

Forever Tubes (Tubes & Caps ONLY) (4 builds)
Oashobby.com
$2.70

Misc Parts

PANASONIC FM Series 1000UF 35V LOW ESR CAPACITOR FOR ESC NOISE REDUCTION (36 builds)
Taco-rc.com
$1.49
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Discussion

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Briefly Flying FPV   Dec 12, 2019  

Awesome post! Love the pics! 👍

eduenlamer   Aug 26, 2019  

This is excellent! Everything from the actual quad to the build guide and images. This is how every build guide should be executed.
Made me want to rebuild my Reverb.

Sachatouille   Feb 16, 2019  

what size of stands off do you use ?

War Chest   Feb 20, 2019 
1

I use 25mm standoffs in the front and 20mm standoffs in the rear. (The reverb has a 5mm diff between the front and rear sections.)

Turbotaz   Feb 15, 2019  

where did you get the fpv cam mount?

War Chest   Feb 20, 2019 

I got the FPV cam mount at brain3d.co They have multiple types of 3D printed mounts for micro FPV cams!

Crownleyian   Jan 23, 2019  

That's one awsome looking Reverb mate, really awsome for a first build too!

War Chest   Jan 23, 2019 
1

thanks Crownleyian! my first Reverb but not my first wuad build. :)

Thund3r   Jan 16, 2019  

This is probably the coolest Reverb I have ever seen. You did an amazing job building it, as well as this RotorBuilds page. Great work!

War Chest   Jan 23, 2019 
1

thanks so much for the support Thund3r!

QuadConnect   Jan 04, 2019  
1

Just ran your pic through a image filter cause it looked nice...

War Chest   Jan 05, 2019 

Lookin good QuadConnect!

ItsPez   Jan 02, 2019  
1

Awesome build! Probably one of the most thorough descriptions I have ever read of this forum, from the reason for a 5s build to explaninging your auw. And the pictures are hot enough to be a wallpaper.

s00lfly   Jan 03, 2019 

That exactly what I say to myself ! That Reverb KISSed is sicker than mine :o

War Chest   Jan 03, 2019 
1

hey i appreciate the kinds words my dude

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