X8 Big Baby
By HK-AERIAL VTOL on Oct 17, 2020
Andy says this is a beta because he doesn't know where it fits into FPV. Who cares... this little monster is the illest thing to hit the block. Rigs with more than 4 motors are usually huge, and I'm a real micro-buff. As usual: Hyperlites. On the old 'Shen-site they depicted a 6S, and so I waited for my chance to get these 'Pyro spinners. A 6S 14XX motor is kinda rare. HGLRC FD's, Tornados, and Hyperlites are the only ones I can think of.
HGLRC provided me with the guts*. Their Zeus 722 has what I really want when I build an X8: 8 DSHOT outputs. It just makes this kinda thing easier. That FC flavor is starting to become more prevalent, but not the norm yet. My first 3" quads ran HGLRC stacks and they were very stable, and so when I had the chance to review something from them I chose the F760 stack and an extra Forward 60A. That's right 2 60A ESCs for a 3". These motors love it and the combination is pretty near perfect. To produce an easy to understand reference for review I used the 3x4x3 HQ V1S. Just meat and potatoes.
FC\ESC:
*Full Disclosure: I was given the stack and extra ESC by a HGLRC promotional campaign. I will always give an honest opinion of components free or not.
The stability of this flight controller is really on par with or better than almost everything I've used. This thing is gonna set the standard for F7 and future series flight controllers. It is extremely robust and to me... a Matek regular... it "feels" like an F722-STD. I hope I don't offend anyone with that; coming from me it is intedended as a compliment as that has been my favorite FC to build with. The F722 Zeus is set up right, it has all the right connectivity, and really surpasses anything in its price range. Even if I paid for it I'd rate the stack a solid 9.5/10 (I do not prefer those little divets for the pads on the edge), ESC a 10. As a stack... it is a 10. Great value... super clean signal, and pad placements devised for a "clean" builder.
I made a video about the FC and a short (true) maiden (sorry... I'll figure out how to embed it when I got some time).
Photos
Part List
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Excellent, the X8s are multiplying! @kwadkenstine has a lot to answer for... ;-)
This is a good looking build, and it is hauling that GoPro around very nicely. These machines really should be novelty builds, I mean look at 'em, but they really fly nicely and bring something unexpected and great to the table.
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Holy cow! That thing looks amazing! Great photos as well - I had no clue as to how you'd wire an X8 with regards to the FC and ESC connections!
What kind of flight time do you get when you're carrying a GoPro?