The Bee's Knees (Miniquads)

Snarls

Gravity Tester
Mentor
I'm looking to upgrade some of the parts on my old ZMR250 build. Thing is I have been out of the loop with the latest and greatest, especially in the BlHeli/Betaflight department. So I am wondering if you guys can tell me what is currently the 'bee's knees' as far as miniquad components go. What is the current best ESC architecture/firmware, what do the best FCs currently have, what other developments are there.

More than just helping me out, maybe this thread can serve to document the status of this part of the hobby, and help keep others on track, because we all know it can be hard to keep up.


Current Standards:
*Excluding KISS setups which use KISS 24a ESCs and the KISS FC.

FreestyleSpeed (With Filming)
Speed (Pure Racing)
Frame:
6 inch5 inch5 inch X
Motors:
2206 2000kV2206 2300kV?
ESC Rating:
20-30A20-30A20-30A
ESC Firmware:
BlHeli SBlHeli SBlHeli S
ESC Protocol:
DShot 600
DShot 600
DShot 600
Props:
6" two blade 60455" triblade 50455" triblade 5051
Flight Controller (FC):
F3/F4 processorF3/F4 processorF3/F4 processor
FC Accessories:
Blackbox, OSD built inBlackbox, OSD built inBlackbox, OSD, Lap timer built in
Battery:4s4s4s or larger
 
Last edited:

French

Construire Voler S'écraser Répéter
F4 processors with betaflight OSDs or Raceflite Revolt
BLHeli S escs running Dshot 600 (digital protocol)
2206 motors or larger
TBS Unify VTX and smart audio (VTX channel and power changes through your OSD/Lua)

What's the weight of your frame? That may be the only thing that holds you back. Lots of new light frames out.
 
Last edited:

PsyBorg

Wake up! Time to fly!
Most any of the FC's now are pretty much caught up to standards. It boils down to what brand and what software you like programming in. Pretty much all of the Flights have Dshot and a boat load of filters. KISS is KISS its still my first choice. The new firmware is good and it now supports tuning with the Taranis if you load the LUA script and the newest firmwares for it as well. It works great and is a HUGE help in the field when conditions change.

Most of the newer ESC's can be programmed with passthru on the FC's so again what ever choice you prefer for quality and ease of use.

Finally Frames and motors. You have to match them now to what you want to do. Seems the split between a race quad and a freestyle quad has widened enough that one size no longer fits all. The trend for the Freestylers has been to go 2000 kv motors and larger pitch to make the "Butter quads" and the racers go with super light frames and F40 motors or the Emax redbottom (2600kv) I think?

I am still rippin the Alien and just completed a smoking quick Gremlin build. Just need to get the camera situation ironed out. I documented it all in several places. If you can grab a Gremlin they are a challenge to build and can be a serious lil beastie or a docile indoor cruiser.
 

French

Construire Voler S'écraser Répéter
Another recent trend is notch filters (switching to PT1 in BF) to reduce propwash


And switching motor directions (spin out) with yaw_motor_direction = -1 (after switching directions in BLH Suite of course)
 

Snarls

Gravity Tester
Mentor
Ok I'm going to make a 6" freestyle setup with standard props because I already have a KISSed out 5" racing setup. I want to try a Gremlin, but I recently made a brushed micro setup and don't want to put that on the shelf just yet :D

I'm going to reuse my 2204 2300kv Cobras, camera and vTX. For ESCs I found these BlHeli_S and DShot compatible 20a ones on Rotorgeeks. I think I'm also going to try out the Rotorgeeks SSD F3 board with Betaflight. For a frame I was thinking of just getting another martian with 6" arms. Anyone have any other 6" frame suggestions that can fit a recording camera?
 

LitterBug

Techno Nut
Moderator
I'm running 6" on a Shen Drones Krieger 225. Had a fatal ghost tree incident on maiden which I'm still trying to rebuild from.... DOH!!! Best price I have seen for this frame is at https://www.fpvheadquarters.com/multirotors/frames/shendrones/shendrones-kreiger.html. I'm running F60 2480KV motors, 6" triple blade props, DYS XS30A ESCs, and a DTF Seppuku F4 FC/OSD running dRonin firmware. (FYI, the video loops on the Seppuku site are from my Seuppuku on a 204mm Hellbender frame) This Krieger 225 was SCARY fast on maiden at half throttle.... up until the tree.... For me, the AutoTune in dRonin is "The Bee's Knees" My build thread is HERE

FWIW, I still run Oneshot125 and have not given in to all the DSHOT hype train even though I have plenty of hardware to do so. I think a bunch of the credit that is going to DSHOT really has to do with the overall improvements in BLHeli and not necissarily DSHOT.

Cheers!
LitterBug
K225atField.jpg
 
Last edited:

Snarls

Gravity Tester
Mentor
I've updated the first post with a table listing the 'current standards' in miniquad components. Let me know if anything is wrong or needs to be added because I certainly could be wrong. I've left out anything KISS related because it is easy to know what to buy if you want a KISS setup. Also if there is a demand for a micro quad version of this thread it may be worth making one. Although I can't say I am one who has knowledge in that realm.


I like Shendrones frames, but it is going to be tough to fit anything larger than a session on top. Also I'm not that much in to the DShot/super fast protocol hype either, the main reason I'm upgrading my ESCs is so I can get damped light :eek:(yes it's been that long). The Kratos is a very nice looking frame. Too bad it is out of stock.
 

Snarls

Gravity Tester
Mentor
I also totally forgot about dRonin. It's been over a year since I tried it out on a Naze32. How does it fly these days?
 

LitterBug

Techno Nut
Moderator
I also totally forgot about dRonin. It's been over a year since I tried it out on a Naze32. How does it fly these days?

dRonin is my Go-To firmware at this point in time. I'm running it on everything, singlecopter, tricopter, and quads alike. I dabble a bit with Betaflight and iNav from time to time, but the autotune has worked so well and is so locked in for all my builds, that I don't do much other than dRonin right now. I am running F3 & F4 boards. Think Naze32 is an F1 board. Have a 3" KISS AIO build in the works, and may KISS my FT STEMlin.

Cheers!
LitterBug
 
Last edited: