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I purchased my Mini Flip
as a kit from Dan at
DyiQuadCopters.com
whom I became acquainted with through
RcGroups.com. RC Groups is a
great R/C website with great info on all
aspects radio controlled rigs and Dan is a
great contributor to this group.
The Mini Flip 360 is a small clone of the
Hoverthings FLIP FPV rig but in a smaller package... and
with foldable arms (nice!). Unique to this
Quad airframe is the "body" is isolated from
the "dirty" power/motor layer of this
machine with rubber isolators - cool :-)
When I have the time I prefer to build my
own as it
will get you very familiar with the workings
of the whole machine. I got pretty much the full kit,
Frame, motors, ESC, props etc. Everything
except the NAZA controller and receiver which I already
had.
Everything comes packaged nicely in sealed
plastic bag compartments so no loose parts
to get lost :-) Dan ships QUICK... I ordered
this on a Saturday, received it on a Monday
and had it built Monday evening!
The Frame Build is very straight forward and
was build with ease and good directions...
but as typical in any build most of the time
is spent figuring out the electronic
component layout. Although I probably could
have squeezed the ESC's in between the
"dirty and clean" plates I chose instead not
to modify either the motor or ESC wire
length and located the ESC's on the very
bottom of the frame.
I chose to make up a "power distribution
squid" since the ESC's came with JST plugs
with pigtails for EZ soldering. I added two
more JST plugs, so 6 total JST plugs with
the business end terminating with a Deans
T-plug for connection to the battery. 4 JST
plugs for the ESC's, one plug for my video
downlink and one to power my NAZA unit.
After a bit of fiddling (I'm a great
musician) with the components I got the rig
together pretty well - ESC's on the bottom,
NAZA directly on the CG, radio receiver zip
tied to the top of the frame and my video
downlink transmitter (vtx) forward of the
NAZA unit with the vTx antenna poking out
the top deck.
I managed the layout such
that both the NAZA unit and GPS were right
on the CG. I'm using my old GoPro HD because
it was sitting around and also it has a nice
anti-fisheye lens on it - should be great
for FPV. This will also let me use a 2200Mah
3S battery to get very close on the
recommended CG.
This will make an exceptional travel FPV
quad. Folded, the footprint....is well,
only slightly larger than MY footprint :-) I
plan to add a folding GPS tower to finish
off the compactness of this machine. The
folding on the frame is accomplished with 4
thumb screws. A bit fiddly and you need to
be careful not to lose the nut on the back
side (be nice if the thumbscrews were about
2mm longer!), but adequate and does the job.
My particular setup is with: MT-2212
Tiger motors, 8x4.5 props, 12Amp ESC's, NAZA
V1 w/GPS, GoPro HD,
OMWAY 200mw video
downlink, and 2200MAh
3 cell battery.
FLIGHT TESTING:
I've had several short "NAZA tuning" flights
and 3-4 full on FPV flights now.... I'm
getting this bugger dialed in pretty good
(no wind) and it's a hoot to fly around. I'm
getting 8m30sec flight time on my setup
flying somewhat conservitively... not
ripping it up just yet.
I'm not quite the pilot to go full manual
just yet, but that is what I bought this
for... to learn how to really rip it up and
be flying in full manual mode before long.
Until then I'm fighting the NAZA a bit
trying to find that sweet spot and stability
and still be able to manuver quickly.
Currently my NAZA basic gains are:
95/90/100/90 and atti are 85/85. Weather
conditions are ideal with no wind and a bit
overcast and cool. After over 8min flight
time the battery, ESC's and motors are all
running only slightly warm :-)
On thing that has amazed me from the
get-go is the quality of the video - meaning
very close to jello free even on my old GoPro HD which was
notorious for jello on quads.... even
without balancing the props (yet) my video
was very good. I think this will very
quickly become my go-to "sport quad" for
quick and easy FPV video, especially for
travel. Video sample HERE.
What I will be looking for will be how well
it survives crashes and quickly I can get it
back in the air.
PROS:
- Ease of the build
- compactness of this machine
- fun to fly :-)
- can be built fairly inexpensively
- Good quality parts
CONS:
- Being small means a bit more difficult fitting your electronics
- Folding is nice, but also means potentially lost parts
- Wish space between clean and dirty plates was 3mm bigger to accomodade
ESC's easier.
BOTTOM LINE:
If you are looking for a compact, mobile,
zippy craft this one is definitely worth
considering. Although I've only had this a
short while I can tell it's going to replace
one of my other quads very quickly. This
thing is FUN. More updates as I get more
flight time :-)
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