iFlight Alpha A85 -JESC Bidirectional Dshot

By wrong17 on Sep 25, 2020

8  1,343  10

I have been trying to build my own indoor 85mm tiny whoop that can get 7 minutes of flight time ever since iFlight built the Alpha A85. The best I ever got is about 5:30min on a BetaFPV 85x frame. So, I broke down and bought a brand new iFlight Alpha A85 from an online store to see what made them better. To my surprise, I still could not get anywhere near the 7 min flight times. But I must admit, I really like the build quality of the iFlight Alpha A85. It is a well thought out design and easy to work on. But there is one major flaw and I think it is because they can save on assembly time. The motor wires come out from the inside of the prop guards. Make sure you keep a close watch on the motors wires because the props can cut them up. Buy doing this, they can solder the motors to the AIO FC before they mount it to the frame. If they did it correctly and ran the motor wires from the bottom side of the prop ducts, they can only solder the wires after the motors are mounted.

About a week after getting the iFlight Alpha A85, I ended up selling it to a friend. Then I decided to build my own A85 because I had some spare 1204 motors and Caddx Nebula. Plus, I wanted to try any build my quad lighter than iFlight.

I went with the BetaFPV 1204 5K motors because I had a lot of spares and the HQ 2” props fit very snug on the props shafts without needing additional screws (trying to save some weight). After trying out the 1303 motors which comes stock on the Alpha A85, I notice I did not need any more power when I’m flying indoors. But I have to say that the 1303 motor ran a lot cooler in comparison to the 1204.

As for the Flight controller, I used the same iflight 20a AIO board that the A85 has. It is kind of expensive in comparison to some of the other 20a AIO boards, but it will fit perfectly without any modifications. Most of the other 20a TW boards are slightly larger and has a side mounted USB plug.

For some odd reason, I did not like the BF4.2 tune that it came with. So, I used my own tune and also ran JESC firmware on my ESC so I could enable Bidirectional Dshot. I included some screen shots of my BF settings in the image gallery below.

If you did not have all the misc. parts as I did, you are better off getting the kit because it is cheaper that way. I also found it interesting that the replacement fame kit comes with tons of hardware and even a carbon fiber brace. I did not use the brace because of the additional weight. I do not think the brace is necessary because it seem to fly perfectly fine with out it.


Outdoor flight:


Indoor Flight

Photos

Part List

Frame

iFlight Alpha A85 Replacement Frame w/canopy (5 builds)
Pyrodrone.com
$15.99

Flight Controller

IFlight Succex-D Toothpick F4 2-5S AIO Whoop Flight Controller for DJI w/ 20A 4in1 ESC - XT30 (2 builds)
Racedayquads.com
$34.99

Motors

BetaFPV 1204 5000Kv Micro/Whoop Motor 4 Pack (12 builds)
Racedayquads.com
$52.99

Propellers

HQ Prop Durable T2x2x4 Quad-Blade 2" Prop 4 Pack (7 builds)
Racedayquads.com
$1.89

FPV Camera

Caddx Nebula V2 Nano Digital HD VTX Air Unit Kit for DJI (47 builds)
Pyrodrone.com
$134.99

Antenna

RUSHFPV CROSSFIRE MICRO ANTENNA 915MHZ (3 builds)
Newbeedrone.com
$1.50

Receiver

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

Batteries

Gaoneng GNB 4S 520mah HV 80C XT30 Lipo Battery (16 builds)
Pyrodrone.com
$12.99

Radio

Team BlackSheep TBS TANGO 2 V3 PRO RC RADIO (107 builds)
Heli-nation.com
$199.99

Goggles

DJI Goggles 2 (8 builds)
Racedayquads.com
$648.99

HD Camera

GoPro Bones - HERO10 Black (FPV Lightweight Drone Camera) (3 builds)
Gopro.com
See Site

Battery Charger

HOTA F6+ 1000W 60A 1-6S Quad Channel AC/DC Smart Charger - Grey
Racedayquads.com
$185.99

Battery Charger

HOTA D6 PRO Dual Charger 1-6S AC200W/DC650W 15A w/ Wireless Cellphone Charging - Black (14 builds)
Pyrodrone.com
$117.98

Soldering Iron

TS100 Portable Programmable Smart Soldering Iron (265 builds)
Racedayquads.com
$58.99

Backpack

Lowepro QuadGuard BP X3 - Drone Backpack for 4 FPV Quad Racing Drones and 15" Laptop w/Exterior Mounts (Black)
Amazon.com
$286.00

Accessories

iFlight Crystal HD Patch and Stubby 5.8GHz RP-SMA Antenna Set for DJI - LHCP - Carbon
Racedayquads.com
$56.99
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Discussion

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DigitalLover   Oct 20, 2020  

how about flight time compared to original one? I really want to build one, may be beta95 canopy fit and we can use it with caddx vista

Show 1 more comment
DigitalLover   Oct 24, 2020 

Did you try origin with JESC?

wrong17   Oct 28, 2020 

Yes, I am using JESC firmware with the iflight 20a AIO FC/ESC

DigitalLover   Nov 03, 2020 

thanks you for all useful infos.

jermadjesty   Sep 24, 2020  

thanks for sharing, do you think the vista dji cam will squeeze into that canopy or only the nebula?

wrong17   Sep 25, 2020 

I have not tried squeezing a DJI camera in it because I had a Nebula. Even if you are able to make the camera fit I am not sure if you can get the full angle range with the camera. I tried sticking the crossfire nano RX on top of the Caddx Air Unit and I was not able to move the camera more than a few degrees. What I am trying to say is that there is not a lot of extra space under the canopy.

alfred0809   Sep 25, 2020 

the only two differences i know between caddx's micro nebula is that it is either black or grey and the lens is 2.1mm
The 1.66mm lens is heavy though, making it about the same as the original vista camera...and then it's only 60fps vs 120fps. I learned all this after I received it haha. Hopefully the wide FOV will make it worth my while.

jermadjesty   Sep 24, 2020  

also, what batteries?

wrong17   Sep 25, 2020 

Typically I use a GNB 520mah 4s HV lipo but I do not charger it HV. Without the HV charge it is more like a 450mah lipo.

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