Mamba

By DrMacca on Mar 14, 2020

12  539  0

Not a particularly inspiring, unique or witty name but it's got Diatone Mamba branded motors and a Diatone Mamba stack and I was sleep deprived so sometimes you go with what's easy.

Regardless of the name, I love this thing!

Alt Tag

Keep in mind that I'm less than 6 months into this hobby and only fly micros due to the 250g no-registration limit here in Canada - so what feels good to me might very well be different to you. I have an Emax BabyHawk-R and a BetaFPV HX115 HD and I feel like this guy flies faster and handles much better than either of those BNFs.

This being only my 3rd build I was intimidated by the nano/16x16 stack size (the solder pads are tiny) but even with a regular soldering iron tip I had no real problems and I am far from an expert.

I only added the Flywoo LED strips because I goofed and cut one of the motor wires too short during the build (like I said, I'm a newb) but they're super light. Each strip has 3 tiny (TINY) pads to connect each wire and I found soldering 2 wires to one side to the 'front' of the strip and 1 wire to the 'back' of the strip was a nice workaround if you have shaky hands like me.

Alt Tag

I like the Eachine Triangle D a lot - it's cheap, the DVR quality is better than the goggle DVR and, most of all for me, it's LIGHT! I like the HD split-style cameras like the Caddx Turtle and the Runcam Split but they're all relatively heavy for micro-quads. By the way, the Triangle D is essentially the same as the HappyModel Diamond (which I had to select on the list below because the Eachine Triangle D wasn't listed).

Receiver is an XM+ because it's cheap and it works. I've had an issue with the RSSI after flying into a concrete pillar (who put that there?) but that's obviously on me.

I like the Caddx Baby Ratel for the FPV camera but I've learned that FPV camera image quality is incredibly subjective - reminds me of that "Is the dress blue or gold?" thing from a few years ago. Go with what you like.

The frame is awesome weighing only 17 grams but has plenty of room - instead of a 16x16 nano stack you could put in a whoop-style AIO board). It's also really strong (see aforementioned collision with stationary pole - receiver doing some weird stuff but everything else was intact).

The Mamba 1105 5500kV motors are fantastic and paired with the 2.5 inch Gemfan props are perfect for freestyle....or at least my version of it which usually involves me watching Mr. Steele and VikFPV videos and then going outside to power-loop into a tree. :)

Alt Tag

I'm flying 3S and with a Tattu 650mAh I get about 3 minutes flight time.

Mamba comes in at 138g with the aforementioned 650mAh 3S Lipo.

(Vast majority of the footage below comes from the Goggle DVR as it took a while for me to get a 32GB SD card for the Eachine Triangle D - which doesn't accept cards bigger than 32GB)

Photos

Part List

Frame

AirBlade Intrepid Mini Ultralight Toothpick (2 builds)
Airbladeuav.com
$17.99

Flight Controller

DIATONE MAMBA F411 /134 DSHOT600 4S 16*16 NANO STACK (6 builds)
Pyrodrone.com
$39.99

Motors

4 x MAMBA 1105 5500KV 2-4S Brushless Motor For Diatone GT R239 R249 R249+ FPV Racing RC Drone (32 builds)
Banggood.com
$39.96

Propellers

Gemfan Flash 2540-3 PC Propeller (171 builds)
Airbladeuav.com
$3.69

FPV Camera

Caddx Ratel Starlight HDR 1200TVL Micro FPV Camera - Choose Your Color & LensRed / 2.1mm (114 builds)
Racedayquads.com
$29.99

FPV Transmitter

Happymodel Diamond 5.8Ghz 40CH 25/100/200mW Switchable VTX FPV Transmitter with DVR Smartaudio Ready 3.3-5.5V (19 builds)
Taco-rc.com
$14.99

Antenna

2pcs Foxeer Lollipop 85.5mm 5.8G 2.3dBi RHCP UFL Super Mini FPV Antenna Red/Black For RC Drone (106 builds)
Banggood.com
$19.99

Receiver

FrSky XM+ SBUS Mini ReceiverDefault Title (1149 builds)
Airbladeuav.com
$12.99

Batteries

Tattu 11.1V 3S 650mAh 75C LiPo Micro Battery - XT30 (41 builds)
Racedayquads.com
$10.45

Radio

FrSky Taranis QX7 ACCESS 2.4GHz RC Transmitter - Choose Your Color (263 builds)
Racedayquads.com
$129.99

Goggles

SKYZONE SKY02C 5.8Ghz 48CH Diversity FPV Goggles Support DVR HDMI With Head Tracker Fan For RC Racing Drone (22 builds)
Banggood.com
$265.99

Goggles

Store.dji.com (241 builds)
Store.dji.com
See Site

Misc Parts

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

Misc Parts

Voltage Capacitor - 220uF 35v (2 builds)
Rotorvillage.ca
$1.99

Misc Parts

4 PCS FLYWOO Arm Board 4*10/15/20mm 1-4S
Flywoo.net
$1.49

Battery Charger

iMAX B6 Digital RC Lipo NiMH Battery Balance Charger (2 builds)
Banggood.com
See Site

Soldering Iron

Welding Soldering Iron with Thermostatic Digital-Controlled and LCD Screen Display, 60 W Temperature Adjustable 180℃/356℉-48
Amazon.com
$26.99
Show stores (9)

Discussion

Sign in to comment

Guides & Reviews

Jun 21, 2021

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..

Read more
Mar 04, 2021

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..

Read more