Micro Reverb Li-Ion Cruiser

By jdmkramer on Nov 10, 2019

59  4,433  25

I keep slowly refining my long range builds and packs and Lithium Ion keeps seeming more and more feasible for everything but my smallest quads. Granted, my favorite flying would be considered boring to most. Out of curiosity, I stuck a 2S HG2 on a toothpick and when that terribly mismatched setup flew for 12 minutes I knew it was time for a proper attempt at a 2S Li-Ion micro.

The entire build was picked around the HQ T4x2.5x2 props that have been sitting on my desk since they came out. They keep me thinking about smaller possibilities for long range quads. I poked around for a while looking for something, possible a 3" that could be modified to suit this prop. When I remembered there were 4" arms for the Micro Reverb it became the obvious choice. Motors were a tricky one. 4" T-mount is already odd, but I have almost no experience choosing micro motors. I may also run this build on a 3S 18650 and 3" tri-blades so I went with AMAX 1106 motors. (Another item that has been floating around in my imagination.)

I didn't set out to build a sub 250g craft but that's what I ended up with. Even after deciding on using my favorite components instead of saving weight. This little thing has all the features of my larger long range builds. (I guess other than a baro)

Hover tests finally happened at 2-3AM this morning, and I'm excited to see how it cruises. The sound of a light 4" biblade hovering was very promising. :)

Amax 1106 6300 w/ HQ T4x2.5x2 on 2S 3Ah Lg HG2 18650 Pack:

I've since upgraded the motors to Xing 1206 6500 and it can carry 21700 cells easily!

Photos

Part List

Frame

ImpulseRC Micro Reverb 4" Complete Frame Kit (4 builds)
Racedayquads.com
$39.89

Flight Controller

BrainFPV RADIX LI 20x20 Flight Controller w/ Graphical OSD (10 builds)
Racedayquads.com
$49.99

ESCs

Aikon AK32PIN 32Bit 35A 2-6S 20x20 4in1 ESC (55 builds)
Racedayquads.com
$58.99

Motors

4 x AMAX Inno 1106 6300Kv Micro Motor (4 builds)
Racedayquads.com
$51.96

Propellers

HQ Prop Durable T4x2.5 Bi-Blade 4" Prop 4 Pack (26 builds)
Racedayquads.com
$2.99

FPV Camera

RunCam Split Mini 2 Micro FPV Camera / HD DVR 1080P 60 FPS Recorder (M8 or M12 Lens) - Orange (89 builds)
Racedayquads.com
$69.99

FPV Transmitter

TBS Unify Pro 5G8 V3 (RP-SMA) (103 builds)
Team-blacksheep.com
$39.95

Antenna

AXII-U.FL 5.8 | (2 builds)
Truerc.ca
$11.99

Receiver

TBS Crossfire Nano RX Special Edition (9 builds)
Racedayquads.com
$34.99

Receiver

RDQ Micro M8N GLONASS GPS Module (72 builds)
Racedayquads.com
$15.99

Batteries

2 x LG HG2 18650 3000mAh 20A Battery (2 builds)
Imrbatteries.com
$10.98

Power Distribution

iFlight 2-8S Micro 5V or 12V BEC (11 builds)
Racedayquads.com
$6.99

Power Distribution

16AWG XT30 Pigtail w/ Capacitor (13 builds)
Racedayquads.com
$3.05

Misc Parts

A242 Threadlocker - 10ml
Racedayquads.com
$5.99

Misc Parts

2S Balance Lead JST-XH 2S1P Balance Connector Male/Female Plug - 10 Pack
Racedayquads.com
$4.99

Misc Parts

Clear Heat Shrink Tubing 1ft - Choose Version25mm / Thick (4 builds)
Racedayquads.com
$3.50

Misc Parts

Multirotor Foam Landing Pad 4 Pack - Choose Your Color (6 builds)
Racedayquads.com
$3.05

Misc Parts

RDQ 155mm Micro Battery Strap V3 w/ Metal Buckle for 2-3" Builds (6 builds)
Racedayquads.com
$0.89

Misc Parts

XT30 Connector Male/Female Set (3 builds)
Racedayquads.com
$0.79
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Discussion

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topsfpv   Nov 30, 2019  

hi, radix li must use minimum 3s to power. how do you power it with just 2s?

jdmkramer   Jun 08, 2022 

It runs fine on 2S for me. All the way down to 5v (2.5v per liion cell) when it literally fell out of the air.

Levin   Nov 11, 2019  
1

Looks great, more inspiration on long range 4 inch always great. Curious about your motor choice, have you tried larger, maybe 1204 or even 1404? Do you think the build would benifit from that?

Show 2 more comments
Fallkon   Feb 20, 2020 

emax 1606 in 2600kv, 3500kv or 4000 kv.

Bibbleq   Mar 07, 2021 

Curious if you took this to 1404? There seems to be a lot of choice in that size nowadays. Looking at what would suit 2s and 4" props myself.

jdmkramer   Mar 07, 2021 

My micro reverb went through some changes when Brotherhobby released their VY2004. Here's the build. I mainly fly 3S 1100 HV on it, but 3150Kv works okay with a 2S 18650. I cannot recommend the VY and Avenger 2004 motors enough for 4". Efficient, smooth and powerful. I fly a Hero8 on that thing no prob.

fly99   Aug 22, 2020  

Hi
Toothpick F4 2-4S AIO, did you make settings for 18650 battery

Mr.M.   Nov 25, 2019  

Your build inspired me building a similar quad, I like your idea of a sub 250g long range 4". At the moment I'm trying to find out the best way of power distribution using an addditional BEC. I use a Talon F7 which has an onboard 5V 2A BEC , but I'm not shure if I can use it to power both the TBS Unify Pro V3 and the RunCam Split nano. There are several possibilities now, including to choose 5V or 12V from the additional BEC ...
So what would be best? How do you use the additional BEC on your Build?
THX & many greetings, Mathias

Wingspinner   Nov 18, 2019  
1

wasnt thinking when the as post and should have written: while the 18650 li batteries are SMILAR technology to lipo, there is, supposedly between 20-30% more energy in a bare Li battery vs LiPo. However, the weight of all the packaging to keep the electrolyte from leaking out of the Li supposely more than makes up for the difference in energy dnsity when it comes to larger battery capacities. At least this is what ive read. Li are potentially less crash worthy also because they use liquid elctrolyte instead paste My apologies for the mistake but it would still be very usful to see data (like your total mah after a flight) that shows that premise to be wrong. THANKS!

jdmkramer   Nov 18, 2019 

I've been meaning to read a bit more about these Li-Ion cells, because the cases do seem quite durable compared to LiPo, but I've never given one a solid direct hit. Most of my larger packs are made from exposed cells in printed TPU rings, for simplicity and cooling. The worst I've dealt with is a broken solder joint from a crash. I'm really enjoying not having to worry about my packs nearly as much. I was terrible about leaving my LiPos charged and damaging them.

kfncolo   Nov 11, 2019  
1

Exactly along the lines of what I've been thinking of building. Keep us posted on flight times.

jdmkramer   Nov 15, 2019 

Flight times were impressive to me on 1106 with 18650 and I think 1206 with 21700 will do quite a bit better. I just posted some flight footage,

FrostedFPV   Nov 11, 2019  
1

isnt this setup very comparable to the new mavic mini? I havent done a lot of research but from the stuff i have seen it looks like a 4 inch quad with 2s 18650 battery.

jdmkramer   Nov 12, 2019 

That's very interesting and I never considered it. I'll be looking into the specs of some of these mini camera quads.

FrostedFPV   Nov 12, 2019 

yeah if this could achieve similiar flight times it would be a very capable long range quad.

jdmkramer   Nov 15, 2019 

Just added some flight footage.

IcarusIX   Nov 10, 2019  

super promising indeed, weight?

jdmkramer   Nov 10, 2019 

I forget exactly but definitely sub 250. I think it was 220something AUW.

IcarusIX   Nov 10, 2019 
1

remember when sub 250 was a miracle on 4 inch? actually idk, before fpv we were building 100g 4 inch quads with propsavers but with REAl real quads i mean. progress is insane. these tmounts and new props and boards arent too bad at all :D

jdmkramer   Nov 10, 2019 

Seriously. I put all the fancy bits in this thing, then after the hover I stuck it on the scale out of curiosity. Pleasantly surprised. The pack weighs about the same as the quad. I'm planning to do something similar but aiming for light weight, probably in 3" with that betafpv 20a toothpick board.

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