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PATRONS FIRST: Micro LR Shootout Results
🕑 Added 2020-11-21 05:59:17 +0000 UTCHere's a preview of my Micro Long Range Shootout video, comparing the iFlight Chimera, GEPRC Baby Croc, Diatone Roma, and Flywoo Explorer. Some people asked if they could get the results early, before the winner sells out. Here it is.
For the best pure long range experience, the Flywoo Explorer wins. Although it's not the lightest of the group, it flew the longest and the farthest. However, I would personally choose the GEPRC Baby Crocodile, which had only 5% shorter flight time. The Explorer's 16mm FC and ESC may be less durable than the 25mm toothpick-style AIO on the Croc. The Explorer also uses softserial for its DJI on-screen display, which is buggy in Betaflight 4.2 and requires running 4.1 to make it work.
The Diatone Roma would have been my pick. It's lightweight. The frame is well designed. Diatone electronics are fantastic. It had nearly the same flight time as the Explorer. But it flew really badly, with twitches, jitters, and jello in cruise, and bad bounceback when flown aggressively. Confusingly, Diatone ships the Roma with GPS installed, but deactivated. Their argument is that GPS often doesn't work well on small quads like this, due to electrical interference. They're right about that, but my position is: either make it work or remove it.
Diatone says they are working to fix the problems with the Roma. Just this mornign I saw a post on the Diatone FB group with some suggestions for settings to help improve things.
Speaking of GPS, it didn't work great on any of these quads, but it worked best on the Croc. Possibly the roomier frame gave more room for wiring to avoid electrical interference? You would normall expect to get between 8 and 14 satellites locked. These quads were often lucky to get 4 or 5, the absolute minimum for usable position data.
The Chimera is in a weird spot in this roundup. It is significantly heavier than the others, with a 4mm single-piece bottom plate and arms. It's also available with 3800 kv motors, instead of the 3000 kv that the others use. Because of its weight, it has significantly shorter flight time than the others, although it can still fly for 8-10 minutes easily, and at least 25 minutes on a 3000 mAh LiIo pack.
The 3800 kv motors gave about 10% less flight time than the 3000 kv motors. But in my opinion, 3800 is the one to pick. The Chimera's thicker carbon makes it more appropriate for proximity flying, where crashing is a risk. For that purpose, you want the additional power and acceleration of the 3800 kv motors. If you put the 3000 kv motors on the Chimera, you might as well put 2mm carbon on it too and save some weight (iFlight are you listening?). I do think there is a place for the 3800 kv Chimera, and in fact it might be the one I would most prefer to fly, but long range purists will probably prefer something lighter.
Oh by the way -- if you care about getting under 250 grams, stay away from the Chimera. It's got less margin for battery before you hit that limit.
One last thing: nearly all of these have switched from the Caddx Vista to the Nebula, due to supply shortages of the Vista. I strongly recommend to stay away from the Nebula. Image quality is worse and it's not adjustable at all, so you're stuck in 16:9 and High Quality mode (no 120 fps low latency). The Nebula is lighter by about 4.5 grams, but in my opinion it's not worth it unless you are building a much lighter quad than this.
Is that what you need to know? Only one thing to do! Click the affiliate links below and purchase!
Purchase the Diatone Roma F4 at
- Diatone - https://bit.ly/2Hg6OcE
- Banggood (analog version) - https://bit.ly/2UzLcen
- Banggood (DJI version) - https://bit.ly/3kF3LIz
Purchase the GEPRC Crocodile Baby 4" micro long range at
- GEPRC - https://bit.ly/3kXu7Gw
- Banggood (Vista version) - https://bit.ly/34To8Np
- Banggood (Nebula version) - https://bit.ly/2TLXRuh
- Banggood (Analog Caddx Ratel version) - https://bit.ly/3jXRPRM
- Banggood (Analog Caddx Tarsier version) - https://bit.ly/3eotXWm
Purchase the iFlight Chimera4 at
- GetFPV - https://bit.ly/32KlBE2
- RaceDayQuads (DJI version) - https://bit.ly/34Dks2a
- RaceDayQuads (Analog version) - https://bit.ly/3kBS9H0
- Banggood (DJI version, 3800 kv) - https://bit.ly/3jKsfj4
- Banggood (DJI version, 3000 kv) - https://bit.ly/3ebeysn
- Banggood (Analog version) - https://bit.ly/3kKe0Mv
Purchase the Flywoo Explorer LR 4" at
- RaceDayQuads - https://bit.ly/3iyumpx
- GetFPV - https://bit.ly/3jxALCV
- Banggood - https://bit.ly/2StFQ38
Want an in-depth review of each of these quads? My Micro LR playlist is here!
Comments
Just looking for links to buy the Diatone in europe, the flywoo seems a lost cause in Europe sold out everywhere
Where does Diatone talk about fixes for the Roma F4? You mentioned them in one of your videos, but I don’t see them on the product page.
Joshua Bardwell
Based on its weight and performance, it doesn't really fit into this category and will get its own review.
What about the shocker??
That's great JB good job
Jason (Gmi Visuals)
Excellent..... so happy with my Flywoo Explorer LR. Despite a frustrating experience getting it delivered in a reasonable amount of time due to shortage of vistas. After waiting 5 weeks I bought the analogue which got delivered in 5 days. Put my own vista in. Couldn't get osd at all and eventually swapped the fc and esc to the iflight f4 succex-E with 5 full uarts. Despite this still didn't get osd!!! Turned out in the end that I had a vista with faulty diodes. A quick swap to another vista and all was good. So yes I had a lot of issues, non of which were down to flywoo. A few months on and all I can say is how much I love flying this quad..... great flight times perfectly capable at light Acro with correct battery. I particularly like 4s 450 for the extra power. After watching all the other options glad I got this. As for my gps I average around 11 Satellites.
Brian
So I guess you never got the Shocker?? Or did you?
So, can the Diatone’s bad flight characteristics be taken care of with a good tune, or is there something inherently wrong with the platform, preventing it from ever flying well? It is the best looking of the bunch.
Thanks ¶ ;-)--~
John P Larson
Great summation. I'm building a flywoo explorer and your reviews help me pick out the pi arts.
Great review, glad I got the baby croc. Mine came with the vista from Geprc.
