Alien

Introduction:

I actually found out about this quad while researching something else. I had a super s frame with bad electronics (accidentially put a 2s battery - doh!) and the idea of building a lightweight 1s quad always intrigued me. I thought this would be a good one to fly around my yard.

Conclusion:

This one took a lot longer to build out than I had originally anticipated because I had different ideas/approaches I wanted to try. I was curious about 1s, but also wanted to see how it would fly on 2s. I quickly gave up on the idea of a teeny 1s stack and then wanted to put on the escs that I took out from my moskito. As I was wiring it up, I realized that the weight of 4 independent escs would really add up quickly and I abandoned the effort and focused instead on getting the Fishpepper 4in1 esc. It's a tiny ESC, but a real pain to solder up since the signal pads are in the middle. I ended up going with a teeny 1s FC instead of the fishpepper FC mainly because of OSD. I either save some weight on the receiver or OSD. I chose to put on a better receiver and go with the built in osd. I could've saved some weight by using a lighter receiver, but I think the range offered by the XM+ is worth the extra 2 grams. After all was said and done, it came to 35grams using the Gemfan Hulkie 2" props (not pictured). I felt it was acceptable given the flexibility of the craft. I named it alien since it looks kinda like a chest buster...lol.

1s Review: Amazingly, it flies exactly like what I would have expected on 1s. This is a great indoor quad (need to try the prop guards that came with it). The power level is great as it doesn't get jumpy like 2s, but has enough prop diameter such that it doesn't lose altitude so quickly like tiny whoops. It feels really nice. Unfortunately, turtle mode doesn't work on 1s as the props don't have enough thrust on that voltage level. Turtle mode worked perfectly after I realized that I had it on low rates and flipped the switch back to high. Also, this is probably the quietest brushless micro I have (comparable to brushed whoop style quads). I am very impressed with these flexrc motors.

2s Review. I only flew half a pack on 2s since I felt it was better suited for outdoors. Definitely a lot more power, but with the higher rpm motors and larger props, it is not punchy and there is a delayed throttle response. Need to wait for a good day to fly outdoors to review this again.

Drawbacks: The main drawback so far is that the props are right in the field of view. This is after I already tilted the camera way beyond what the camera mount allows. I believe this is a design flaw and they should release a new camera mount to allow for much more aggressive camera angles. Also, OSD voltage readings are incorrect since the FC is powered by the regulator to provide a steady 5vs.

Update 10/4/18 - After the teeny f4 flight controller came out, I knew I had to upgrade this so that I could get OSD voltage and remove the unnecessary voltage regulator. While I was at it, I added a large beeper and a couple of other nice things without giving any consideration to weight and unfortunately it grew to 42 grams. I was a bit disappointed, but it does still fly nicely and I was able to get the voltage readout I wanted on the OSD.