I've gotten back into whoops due to cold weather and a revival in the local racing scene. 65mm 1s seems to be the best combo and there are dozens of options for builds but seem dominated by the Mobula 6 or the newbeedrone AcroBee or Hummingbird. I have to do something different so when I saw the Fractal Engineering 65 board I was smitten

The Fractal frame addresses several issues with tiny whoop frames:

• Weak unibody frames that can feel 'floppy' during flight
• Easily broken ducts and frame connections - breaking one duct usually leads to throwing away the whole frame
• Boring

The design of the frame accounts for a common USB port location of whoop boards facing down through the bottom. I mounted it facing up but I love this detail. The individual ducts protect the electronics pretty well, though the camera kinda hangs out there. Finally the TPU battery and camera holders work well enough but I'd like to see a little more camera protection available.

The only worry I have about this frame involves the mounting screws, eventually I think they'll wear through the frame holes if you re-mount the AIO too much.

While the Happymodel DiamondF4 is recommended, I picked the X12 v2.1 for its 12A ESC's. I've run into issues burning out HM ESC's under high load so insurance costs a few extra grams. I also prefer motor plugs since I hate micro soldering; including a camera plug means there's almost no soldering needed other than the PH2.0 battery connector. Both of these AIO's have everything you need including ELRS and a 400mw VTX. Adding a 100uF capacitor (not included with the AIO) seems to smooth out some of the video.

If you've bought this AIO, make sure you save a dump of the config! Built-in ELRS is a little clunky these days since the RX code has to be merged into Betaflight directly. The config included with 'baseline defaults' of newer BF releases will not work well. Also if you plan to flash with Bluejay, be sure to set the Min/Max start power to maximum amounts in configurator if you're using 48 or 96khz PWM frequency.

Another tuning protip: disable Airmode, you will need to add a little more throttle during slow maneuvers, but it helps with stability during hovers.

My favorite micro camera (Caddx Ant Nano Lite 4:3) needed a little modification by desoldering the camera control input, otherwise the camera-holder TPU band won't fit around it.

For motors, TinyWhoops 22,000kv 802 unibells rip like there's no tomorrow and the gold bling really sets them apart. Gemfan 1219 3-blade fans compliment these motors with enough stiffness and light weight while keeping us under 8-9Amps during crazy flying. Initially I tried using HM ex0802 16,000kv motors, but they wouldn't spin reliably and fly under 1s.