Hi again to all of our readers. Today we have something very special — brand new radio from FrSKY company — Horus X10.

This radio has been announced some time ago and several units were released prior to start of the mass production. We have one of those units on hands and want to share our first impression about this product.

Our personal opinion about the aim of releasing this radio — is to target pilots who have Taranis X9D Plus but were not willing to upgrade to Horus X12S due to more expensive cost or numerous functions. With X10 and X10S release — situation might change! If to take my example — I like Taranis QX7 very much but was using it only as a backup radio because X9D Plus had additional switches and sliders that I am constantly using on my models. X12S was to heavy and large for me… So, the best option would be to have the radio that would incorporate all X9D Plus functionality, would have modern design, bigger screen and that would introduce something new. This day has come — Horus X10|X10S fulfills all of my expectations.

Let’s start with the video:

Technical Specifications and Features:

• Full Weight: 980g
• Operating Voltage: DC 7.2V
• Operating Temperature: -10 ~ 60 ℃
• Operating Current: 350mA@7.2V
• Number of channels: 16 channels (up to 32 channels)
• Model Memories: 60 (extendable by microSD card)
• Transmitter Panel : Silver/Amber/Carbon (for X10S only)
• Built-in iXJT+ module(the enhanced RF performance and the less latency) with 3 antennas (2 are inner V-shaped and 1 external (removable))
• Wireless trainer system (bluetooth module)
• Support FrSky Free Link App for iOS (Download link: https://www.frsky-rc.com/app/), Andoid app in the development
• FrSky FrTX (Support OpenTX System)
• Antenna detection and SWR warning
• Industrial LCD: 480*272 readable outdoor color screen, TN type
• Built-in Li-ion battery, 2,600mAh, 18650 type, 2S, JST balanc plug, with protection
• M10 hall sensor gimbals and extendable stick ends (with ratchet, spring tension andjustment, easy mode change, holow shafts to add stick tips switches)
• External module JR-type compartment
• Dedicated Smart Port
• Dedicated reset button
• 3.5mm headphones jack
• 3.5mm trainer jack
• miniUSB port to connect to PC
• microSD card slot (not supplied)
• micro USB-type C port for dedicated FCX10 charger
• dedicated FCX10 LiON charger (included)
• full Smart Port telemetry
• X, LR, V8II, D receivers
• nonEU and FCC FW choice
• Haptic and voice feedback
• Speaker
• color LED under Power ON|OFF button to infrom different radio states
• 6 x 3POS switches, 1 x 2POS switch, 1 x momentary switch, 2 x side sliders with center detents, 2 x round pots (left with no center detent and right with center detent), 1 x 6POS switch, 6 x trims
• Rotary dial with ENTER at center on the right, MDL|SYS|TELE|RTN decicated button on the left with combined PgUP|PgDW button at center

Seems like every important function and control is present in X10 amd X10S radios.

The only difference between X10 and X10S would be the sticks. M10 for X10 and M12 doe X10S (10 bearing design, PWM signal (no ADC), full-aluminum construction). And color scheme — X10S would be available only in carbon-fiber scheme. In future — we would be able to upgrade X10 radio with M12 Hall sensor gimbals from X10S radio (at least FrTX OS has this option) but we have to be careful — if we would change M10 to M12 and viseversa without changing its type in FW — the main board might be damaged.  

In order to make this text more convenient to read, we would like to focus on pros and cons of X10 when compared to all other FrSKY radios available.

Let’s start with Taranis X9D Plus:

X10 Pros:

• modern design
• better materials
• feels more expensive
• big color screen
• FrTX and OpentTX FW choice
• newer iXJT+ module with 3 antennas
• detachable external antenna
• additional 6POS switch
• 2 x additional trims
• new and more convenient style of control
• dedicated Smart Port to flash receivers and to tune and flash sensors and modules
• LiON 18650 regular batteries that charge much faster
• wireless trainer and telemetry downlink app for iOS (and Android)
• M10 stock Hall sensor gimbals
• possibility to upgrade stock sticks with additional switches
• comes with stick protectors
• power button with LED indicators

Cons:

• a bit wider — you would have to get used to it
• price
• screen suffering more from direct sunlight

In comparison to QX7:

Pros:

• modern design
• better materials
• feels more expensive
• big color screen
• FrTX and OpentTX FW choice
• newer iXJT+ module with 3 antennas
• detachable external antenna
• additional 6POS switch
• 2 x additional trims
• 2 x additional 3POS switches
• new and more convenient style of control
• LiON 18650 regular batteries that charge much faster
• wireless trainer and telemetry downlink app for iOS (and Android) (available with QX7S)
• M10 stock Hall sensor gimbals (M7 sitcks available with QX7S)

Cons:

• a bit wider and heavier — you would have to get used to it
• price
• screen suffering more from direct sunlight

In comparison to Horus X12S:

Pros:

• newer iXJT+ module with 3 antennas
• new and more convenient style of control
• LiON 18650 regular batteries that charge much faster
• smaller
• less weight
• price

Cons:

• a bit less aluminum in design
• no GPS
• no accelerometers
• no analog joystick
• no additional vertical sliders
• only 1 speaker
• a bit less advanced M10 sticks (but even more advanced M12 sticks in X10S)

So, to summarize — definitely a win over X9D Plus or QX7 radios but a just a fraction behind current flagship X12S. For me — X10 is the most balanced choice that has combined the best solutions from all FrSKY radios including all necessary functionality and excluding very rare things that I am not using. Despite its cheaper price — I still like it more than X12S in terms of design, shape and feel. It just handles better (for me) and more compact.

In the box:

Horus X10 | X10S comes in very good soft case together with neck strap, wall adapter, FCX10 LiON charger and stick protectors.

Controls:

Everything is good here. All controls of X9D Plus are present + additional 6POS switch and 2 trims. Pots are tight enough to have pleasing feel. M10 Hall sensor magnetic gimbals are very smooth and have all the adjustment possibilities to tune it to your liking. Sticks have hollow shafts and there are unused connectors inside the radio to upgrade your sticks with tip switches. Stick length is adjustible and almost similar to X9D Plus M9 construction.

UI control is done with the help of right rotary encoder with ENTER at center — solution that was introduced in X12S but finally settled down in QX7 radio, and left dedicated model, system, teleemtry and return buttons with combined page up and page down button at the center of this circle. Looks like a combination of X12S with QX7 menu controls… But I like this new way of button placement. Didn’t have any problems with control logics when I was setting my first model.

Long and short button press would also bring some additional functionality to each button. But this is the matter of which FW is currently used — therefore, I would not concentrate on that.

Screen:

Seems to be the same unit that was introduced with the release of X12S. Same size, resolution and panel type. It is not touch or IPS because such panels would suffer a lot from direct sunlight. This TN panel is perfectly usable outdoors with enough maximum brightness to see the infromation. If you watched my video — you already have a clue what it looks like when exposed to sun.

Ports:

In addition to regular miniUSB, 3.5mm trainer port, 3.5mm headphones jack and microSD card slot (the card itself is not supplied with the radio), we have Smart Port that is used for RX, modules and sensors flashing and tuning + microUSB type-C port for LiON charger. MiniUSB, S.PORT and trainer port are located at the back and covered with rubber protector. So, we would still have some hard times with keeping miniUSB cable attached while placing X10 on the table. On the other hand, FCX10 charger is attached to the bottom left side and doesn’t prevent radio to stand vertically or lay on the back.

*new versions of X10 and X10S are equipped with barrel charger connector instead of USB type-C and have internal charger. 

Insides:

Evеrything is good and neat here. This radio is very easy to disassemble — only 4 screw.

Here you can see 3 antennas attached to iXJT+ module. 2 inner antennas are located in case like that:

New more flexible and thinner stick cables, bluetooth antenna with the reset button at the bottom part and LiON 18650 elements as radio batteries. Keep in mind that if you would like to substitute stock 2S 2.600mAh 18650 elements (JST 2S balance plug) — you would have to buy dumb 18650 cells and take out protection board from stock cells to use it with the new ones. The charging in X10|X10S works like this:

• 18650 in FrSKY pack are any regular dumb cells
• They have added special protection circuit under pack heat sink that have thermister on board
• Middle contact on 2S JST plug on main board supplies temperature info to FCX10 charger
• FCX10 charger measures the incoming total voltage + temperature and has cells overvoltage, overcurrent, thermal protections, safety timer, input overvoltage protection….
• In case if you want to use larger capacity cells — you would have to use the same board from stock pack

X10|X10S by itself (mainboard) doesn’t have overcharge or overdischarge protection circuits, only reverse polarity protection. Therefore, all other protection should be incorporated in cells or in FCX10. In addition — you cannot use other USB type-C charges to charge LiON batteries inside this radio. Only the dedicated FCX10 charger.

*new versions of X10 and X10S are equipped with barrel charger connector instead of USB type-C and have internal charger. 

My unit came with no batteries — I’ve installed them myself. So, not very neat….

FrSKY claims 350mAh power consumption. But I’ve measured it to be ~400mA at full brightness. It means that stock battery should last for about 7-9 hours at full brightness (in fact — it is, tested). Supplied FCX10 charger outputs 1.5A which means that it would take about 1.5 hours to recharge. As stated on RCG — despite 17V provided by the stock wall charger you can feed 12V from car charger to FCX10 and the charger works fine. So, the problem of charging in the field is solved.

*new versions of X10 and X10S are equipped with barrel charger connector instead of USB type-C and have internal charger. 

Much better and faster than NiMH batteries in all other radios. FCX10 charger has LED inficator that is constantly lit while charging and goes OFF when charge is completed.

There are many mods already performaed by different pilots that use 4×18650 elements with 6Ah total capacity instead of stock battery.

Overall feel:

In overall, this radio feels very balanced and convenient to use. I am a thumb flyer with short fingers and small hands. But I would say that it wouldn’t take much time for me to completely move to X10 from X9D Plus despite its larger size and more distance between some controls. This radio is so attracting to me that I’d happily face all difficlulties of getting used to the handling in favor of using it in future.

Rubber grips do a great job and my middle fingers are right behind upper switches. Yes, the overall feeling is new after 4 years of using X9D Plus, but I’d get over it. The only element that was always questionable — is 6POS switch in the middle that cannot be easily reached. The only option to use it is to release one of the sticks and make a move 

For TBS Crossfire users:

There is a hardware mode that enables 400k baud between the radio and TBS module. You can find HW board here: LINK   How ro perform this mode HERE And how it loks inside X10 here:

FW:

OpenTX released their nightly builds that include both X10 radios. I already installed OpenTX to X10, transferred all my models from X9DPlus using OpenTX Companion and tried to fly. Seems to be working well.

Links to OpenTX FW:

1. OpenTX Companion nightly builds http://downloads-22.open-tx.org/nightlies/companion/windows/
2. SD card contents http://downloads.open-tx.org/2.2/nightlies/sdcard/
3. How to install OpenTX to X12S (applies to X10 | X10S as well) https://www.frsky-rc.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/How%20to/How%20to-X12S/HOW%20TO-Horus%20X12S-170531.zip

Stock FrTX also works good. I could manage to set all my racing quad models with all necessary special functions, mixes and logical switches.

Overall impression:

Very good. Probably the best radio from FrSKY so far. X10 in Amber color scheme is the most beautiful unit I’ve ever seen. FrSKY definitely made a giant leap ahead in terms of design, details, crafting and making the first impression. They’ve learned a lot from the experience of releasing all previous products and tried hard to remove all possible issues — if QX7 and X12S releases were facing some minor flaws with final products — X10 radio seems to be 100% ready. This is first radio I want to use as my main unit right after I’ve taken it out from the box and switched it on. From exterior design and smallest details to declared functionality and feel — everything fulfills my expectations. And I’d definitely be moving… I can predict that this product would become one of the most selling radio on the market and a perfect upgrade for all X9D Plus owners as well as the best in class radio for all other users.

Its been a while since our last news about AKK Technology latest products. But are happy to mention that this company R|C products lineup is growing and gathering the attention of many pilots around the world. By collaborating with Aliexpress and creating their own site with a webshop AKK Tech made the purchase process much easier for Asia, Eurpore and CIS region which would also positively  affect their presence on the different markets.

Let us remind you about AKK products that we’ve already tested:

• A1 3in1 mini FPV Cam+VTX set
• CA20 FPV camera 
• X1P | X1 FPV VTX
• TS5828 FPV VTX
• LR2 5.8GHz cloverleaf antenna set
• ML2 5.8GHz cloverleaf antenna set 

Our short summary: we were impressed with A1, CA20, X1P and LR2 product perfromance. They look similar to other brands but the price to performance ratio was unbeatable in case if you’d buy it from AKK. We are still using these until now in our FPV quads, for about 3 months and have no quality issues.

Today, we have something new:

1. AKK A5 — 3-in-1 mini FPV cam+VTX (25mW, 40CH)
2. AKK K31 (K33) 5.8GHz 40CH 600mW VTX

Let’s start with AKK A5:

AKK A5 tech specs:

• Output power: 25mW
• Input power: 3.2–5V
• Current consumption: 3.2V-5V, 200mA
• Camera resolution: 600TVL
• Video system: NTSC
• Minimum illumination: 1 lux
• Field of view: 120° viewing angle
• Antenna dimensions: 22mm
• Antenna: dipole
• Frequency: 5.8GHz 5 bands 40 channels (with raceband)
• Size: 18.7*13mm(L*W)
• Weight: 4.5g

Features:

• Compatible with 5.8GHz googles and monitor.
• 40 channel with raceband
• Good quality image with zero latency
• Button control instead of switches to change channels

Package includes:

• 1x A1 AIO FPV Camera and VTX
• 1x Power Cable with 1 extra adapter
• 1x Manual

This mini FPV set looks pretty similar to AKK A1 mini FPV set from our previous reviews. The obly major difference is that A5 comes as separate FPV cam and VTX connected with wires instead of one soldered piece in case of A1.

Such module separation would have its pros and cons:

Pros:

• Easier to fit into different frames because we can move camera and VTX around
• Easier to fit into different frames regarding non-removable VTX antenna
• Easier to fix either module by replacing it (instead of replacing everything)

Cons:

• A bit more weight of two elements + wires
• A bit less neat setup because of wires
• A bit more space on frame to consume

That is how we see it… As an example — we can take our KingKong GT90 (90mm FPV brushless copter) and try to fit AKK A5 or A1 FPV sets. In case of A5 — we do not see any problems — it has the same camera size and VTX that would easily fit on top of the upper frame plate. But such setup would be a bit heavier if compared to the same setup using AKK A1. On the other hand, AKK A1 would not fit perfectly. We would have to mod KK 90GT front part of the frame to fit it inside. But we would end up with less weight, less wires and front VTX antenna placement… Both setups would work fine, just with a slightly different approaches.

Viewing angle of A5 FPV camera seems to be close to declared 120 degrees FOV. The lens is hot glued at place to secure from unexpected turns and defocus. If it would suffer a hard crash we would still be able to replace the lens. Camera board size is regular: 14x14mm.

Camera has 3 pins JST connector with Video, +5V, GND wires which connects directly to the VTX board. VTX equipped with a single multifuntional button that changes CH (short press) and BANDS (long press) and blue|red LEDs that blink to infrom us about the selected CH (blue) and BAND (red).

There is a yellow wire loop on the camera to VTX connector. If you want OSD in your setup — just cut the loop and solder inner cable to VIN and outer to VOUT pads on OSD.

Full frequency table:

VTX antenna type is dipole.

A5 performance:

I can only compare A5 to A1 and KK 90GT stock camera. All three devices have the same 5.8GHz 25mW power output and the same dipole type antennas. A1 is a combined set of camera + VTX and KK90GT stock / A5 has separate camera and VTX boards.

I had a good head-to-head comparison video of A1 V/S KK 90GT stock FPV set performance which I’ve used now and added A5 performance to compare. Unfortunately, I’ve changed the travel path and had to reverse video footage for A5 to synchronize video from all three devices. But you would get a clue anyway, especially for the worst part — when I am walking behind my house.

I would say that A1 and A5 sets perform more or less similar to each other and definitely better than KK 90GT stock camera and VTX which completely lost signal behind my house.

So, either you choose A1 or A5 micro FPV set for your next build — both would do a good job for any micro quad!

You can buy AKK A5 on AliExpress, AKK website or on Amazon

Let’s switch to AKK K31 (K33) 5.8GHz 600mW VTX:

Tech specs:

• Output Power: 26-28dBm
• Operating Voltage: 7-20 V
• Output Voltage(VOUT): 5 V
• Supply Current: 280 mA
• Operating Temperature : -10 +85 ℃
• Video Band Width: 0-8.0 MHz
• Audio carrier Frequency: 6.5 MHz
• Video Input Level: 0.8,1.0,1.2 Vp-p
• Video Input Impedance: 75 Ohm
• Audio Input Level: 0.5 ,2.0 Vp-p
• Audio Input Impedance: 10K Ohm

Package includes:

• 1X5.8G FPV transmitter
• 1X5.8G antenna
• 1XConnector and cable set
• 1X Product manual

Features:

• Super mini, lightweight and durable
• It supports full range of 40 channels including raceband
• 40 channels, cover A, b, E ,F, r bands
• Easy to use 2 buttons and 2 LED display to change channels and frequencies.

Note: K33 variant has vertically aligned antenna connector

First of all what comes in mind when you buy this product is its size: 31x25x9mm which is kind of big in comparison to what we’ve got used to for 210-class frames setup. I would assume that such VTX should be rather used with 250 and up class frames. The best VTX option for 210 and smaller frames would be AKK X1 or X1P instead of «K» lineup. But those are perfect for 250, 330, 450 and larger copters, planes and other R|C models.

AKK K31 VTX equipped with 2 LED indicators and 2 buttons which which makes it fast and easy to choose the necessary channel and band. Full frequency table:

Now, lets see how it performs against AKK X1 at 200 and 600mW and AKK TS5828:

Video shows that AKK K31 performs very similar to AKK X1 (X1P). One of the best VTX I’ve tried so far. Such testing environment is kind of tricky — the more power VTX would output — the more interference and noise we would get. AKK X1 has the ability to switch power output (25-200-600mW) which makes it perfect for racing and to compensate such strong signal back reflection of the testing location. That is why it performs better at 200mW in comparison to 600mW. Surprisingly, AKK K31 which has 600mW fixed power is almost on par… and much better than AKK TS5828 VTX that also has 600mW fixed power and suffers much from back signal interference.

So, I would say that if you want 600mW VTX for your 250 class and larger FPV copters or other models — AKK K31 (K33) is a very decent performer and very easy to operate. But if you want something good for your 210 frame — it is better to stick to AKK X1 (X1P) VTX.

You can buy AKK K31 VTX on AliExpress, AKK own shop and on Amazon

Only couple of weeks passed since we had reviewed the latest family of FrSKY flight controllers and we are ready again to impress you with the two new FrSKY receivers: R-XSR and G-RX8! Both seem to become the bestsellers in the nearest future!

Honestly, which other company in R|C field brought so much new products to the market for the last quarter? New radios and their revisions, new FCs, new receivers, new modules, new sticks…, together with the new company website…  Seems as FrSKY staff never sleeps  But we would never have enough, right?

So, two new and very interesting receivers today. Let’s start with the R-XSR:

Currently, one of the most popular FrSKY receiver on the market is XSR. It has reasonable size and weight, full telemetry, 16CH SBUS and SPORT. Many FPV racing copters and smaller class helicopter pilots would choose this receiver as their favorite because it fits perfectly in almost any setup and frame. It works flawlessly, very stable and reliable, gives very good flying range.

Some time ago, when some smaller FPV racing frame classes (like 190 and less) started to emerge, FrSKY introduced XSR-M receiver — very similar to XSR but with significantly smaller weight and dimensions of: 26×19.2 V/S 20x20mm, 4.3g V/S 1.8g.

XSR V/S XSR-M dimensions:

Additionally, it has slightly improved range and easier procedure of changing antennas which are detachable now…

And guess what!? It seems that FrSKY would always find a way for further improvements: R-XSR is the newest receiver in XSR family, packed in tiny dimensions of 16x11mm, having almost no weight (1.5g) and features highly demanded redundancy function!

XSR-M V/S R-XSR dimensions:

Technical specifications:  

• Dimension: 16*11*5.4mm (L*W*H)
• Weight: 1.5g
• Number of channels: 16CH (1-16CH from SBUS channel, 1~8CH from CPPM channel)
• Operating Voltage Range: 4~10V
• Firmware Upgradable
• Compatibility: FrSky X Series modules and radios in D16 mode

Features:

• Ultra mini size and light weight
• Support telemetry and Smart Port enabled
• Full range
• Switchable SBUS/ CPPM signal output
• Supports redundancy function
• IPEX connector, replaceable antennas

Manual can be found HERE

Get your FrSKY R-XSR HERE 

In real life it means that while having all features of XSR or XSR-M receivers, R-XSR would:

• be an appropriate choice for any model of any size and class
• would fit perfectly into something like 90mm FPV copter frames
• outperform any other tiny receivers by functions, features and range
• would bring more range and radio link stablity if used with second receiver as a slave

Quick note on redundancy feature: R-XSR (as well as other X-series FrSKY receivers that have extra «R» in the name) has the ability to accept signals from the second (slave) receiver over SBUS and to select and forward the strongest signal among them to flight controllers over SBUS (or to servos over PWM). Consequently, having two receivers — master and slave — on the same model would significantly improve signal quality and help to maintain good RSSI levels even in the most complex environmets. Any SBUS equipped receiver could act as a slave (telemetry should be turned off on slave). The best slave option would be to use XM+ or other receivers with the ability to turn on «telemetry off» mode.

As the result — if you were flying in some highly «contaminated» environments like forests, buildings or just with many other models and experiencing RSSI problems — R-XSR might help a lot to get rid of radio signal warnings and get the most reliable link with your model. Along with all other features it has and all other usage scenarios it provides concerning its tiny size and weight.

Example: KingKong GT90 (FrSKY Vantac 90GT) with AC800 receiver V/S FrSKY R-XSR:

Range test:

Tested it against XSR and XSR-M receivers. Our previous test of XSR V/S XSR-M showed a slight advantage of XSR-M due to the newer antenna design.

Newest R-XSR is slightly behind regular XSR in terms of RSSI range test figures — 1-2 RSSI points less at the same range and in the same places… As with any other full range small FrSKY receiver — you can expect ~1.5km in the open flield and some different results in highly «contaminated» enviromnemts depending of amount of obstacles or radio interference around. But it is absolutely win over FrSKY XM (not XM+) and any third-party tiny receivers that have very limited range of ~150m. But even if you feel that it is not enough for you — there is an ability to use redundancy function and a slave receiver to make radio signal almost bullet proof.

I would say that R-XSR is a must for any pilot with >80mm copter frames or other small models. There is no other so capable, so small and full range receiver on the market.

Note: keep in mind that total antenna length of R-XSR is only 9cm in comparison to 14.5cm in XSR-M. 

As always — this receiver has SPORT which means that we can unpgrade or change (EU LBT to FCC) FW version and daisy chain other SPORT telemetry sensors. 

Get your FrSKY R-XSR HERE 

Now, lets jump to G-RX8 receiver:

FrSKY claims that G-RX8 receiver is mainly addresses glider model pilots. Why? Because among all other tasty functions it has in built high precision vario sensor capable of registering flying altitude with 0.1m resolution along with the vertical speed.

In contrary to XSR-family, this receiver belongs to more universal type which is more common for planes, helis, gliders and larger copters. The absence of the hard case also tells us that it is mainly intended to be used with planes and gliders. 8 regular PWM ports togehter with 16CH over SBUS, analog telemtry input pin (A2) and SPORT create many possible usage scenarios. I would say that the closest relative in all FrSKY family would be RX8R receiver that has a hard case and more PWM output ports but the same features and no variometer inside.

Technical specifiations:

• Dimension: 55.26*17*8mm
• Weight: 5.8g
• Number of Channels: Up to 16 CH
• Operating Voltage Range: 4.0 -10V
• Operating Current: 100mA@5V
• Operating Range: Full range
• Firmware Upgradable
• Compatibility: D16 mode

Features:

• Intergrated high precision variometer sensor
• Support redundancy function
• Support telemetry data transmission
• Switchable SBUS/PWM mode (1~8CH from PWM outputs and 1~16CH from SBUS output)

Manual can be found HERE

Get your FrSKY G-RX8 HERE 

Similarly to other X-series receivers with extra «R» in the name — G-RX8 also features redundancy function which would greatly improve radio signal reception on the model.

Quick note on redundancy feature: G-RX8 (as well as other X-series FrSKY receivers that have extra «R» in the name) has the ability to accept signals from the second (slave) receiver over SBUS and to select and forward the strongest signal among them to flight controllers over SBUS (or to servos over PWM). Consequently, having two receivers — master and slave — on the same model would significantly improve signal quality and help to maintain good RSSI levels even in the most complex environmets. Any SBUS equipped receiver could act as a slave (telemetry should be turned off on slave). The best slave option would be to use XM+ or other receivers with the ability to turn on «telemetry off» mode.

Some more peculiar abilities of G-RX8:

• Can be programmed to output 1-8CH or 9-16CH range over PWM
• Can be used in pair with other X-series PWM equipped receiver to output 1-16CH over PWM
• In SBUS mode: 1-6CH PWM would output high precision PWM signal (error <0.5us), SBUS IN would be used to connect slave receiver for redundancy system and SBUS OUT would output 1-16CH.
• PWM mode: 1-4CH PWM would output high precision PWM signal (error <0.5us), 4-8CH PWM would output regular PWM signal and SBUS IN|OUT would not be used.
• In built variometer sensor can be turned On|Off

As always — this receiver has SPORT which means that we can unpgrade or change (EU LBT to FCC) FW version and daisy chain other SPORT telemetry sensors. 

Glider function:

Along with:

• RSSI — signal strength
• RxBT — receiver voltage
• A2 — analog port for main battery voltage (with voltage divider like FLV02)

G-RX8 would provide:

• Alt (m) — altitude
• Vspd (m/s) — vertical speed.

There is a dedicated Variometer setup under Telemetry tab in model settings menu in which we can choose vario source (sensor) and setup all necessary model ascend, descend and Alt hold tones. While flying the model we would be able to hear whether our model gaining or loosing altitude and understand climb and descend vertical speed. Additionally, there are some telemetry LUA scripts that would also provide visualization of this data.

Note: it might be very handy to setup and use telemetry data reset function right before the flight to bring Alt readings to zero while on the ground.

Range test:

Range was checked in comparison to RX8R and X8R receivers. No problems here. This receiver is a full range model which can deliver >1.5km flight range in open field with ease. RSSI figures are the same as on X8R and RX8R receivers at the same places and on the same distance. In best circumstances such receivers can have ~ 3km radio link. But even if it would not be enough for you — you can always use redundancy feature and a slave receiver with G-RX8 to get the best possible flight distance.

Get your FrSKY G-RX8 HERE 

Thank you for reading!

Stay tuned, more reviews to come….

FrSKY continues to develop and give out new interesting products pleasing every single R|C hobby fan. This time, it is a new family of capable flight controllers for FPV racers based on recently introduced F4 boards + one additional F3-based board. To be honest, we always preferred FrSKY FCs over any others because they all have intergated FrSKY receivers (XSR is the most common) which saves final model flight weight, reduces the amount of cables and makes assembling process much easier. But not only that…

Today we would like to present 3 very new FrSKY FCs:

1. FrSKY XSRF4O — F4-based FC with integrated FrSKY XSR, BF OSD and SDcard cslot for blackbox
2. FrSKY XSRF4PO — F4-based FC with integrated FrSKY XSR, BF OSD, SDcard cslot for blackbox and PDB (with current and voltage sensors)
3. FrSKY XSRF3PO — F3-based FC with integrated FrSKY XSR, BF OSD, SDcard cslot for blackbox and PDB (with current and voltage sensors)

First of all — as it is seen from the model names «XSR» stands for FrSKY XSR receiver (S.PORT full telemetry), «O» stands for BF OSD and «P» stands for PDB. Where else would you find so capable all-in-one boards with all those features intergrated on the factory? And having such FC as XSRF4PO or F3PO  means that you would only end up with a single board in your model which would communicate with ESCs, VTX and camera. That’s it. Isn’t it an excellent idea? Having a single board inside the frame… No more huge amount of cables, no need to spend countless hours on soldering everything together… !

Buy XSRF3PO HERE

Buy XSRF4O HERE

Buy XSRF4PO HERE

Let’s start with more conservative XSRF4O:

Specifications:

• Based on F4 STM32F405 CPU
• Built-in 6-axis sensor MPU6000 (SPI) (Accelerometer/Gyro)
• Built-in BARO BMP280
• Integrated XSR receiver (SBUS, S.PORT), Full telemetry
• 1~16 channels SBUS output
• 1~6 channels PWM outputs
• Integrated BF OSD
• VTX and camera pads
• Buzzer control pads
• LED control pads
• Integrated voltage sensor
• Current sensor pad
• Dedicated V IN|GND pads
• Boot button
• Receiver BIND button
• Aditional S.PORT pads for XSR FW update and S.PORT sensors connection
• Built-in SDcard slot for BB
• Dimension: 36x36x6mm (LxWxH), with 30.5mm mounting holes
• Weight: 7,7g
• Operating voltage: 4-10V (5V is recommended)

This board is very common in terms of its shape and cababilities + has the intergated XSR recever . Requires power distribution board with 4-10V power supply to run. The layout looks like this:

Now, let’s jump to «PO» boards which are physically not so common: XSRF4PO

Specifications:

• Based on F4 STM32F405 CPU
• Built-in 6-axis sensor MPU6000 (SPI) (Accelerometer/Gyro)
• Built-in BARO BMP280
• Integrated XSR receiver (SBUS, S.PORT), Full telemetry
• 1~16 channels SBUS output
• 1~6 channels PWM outputs
• Integrated BF OSD
• VTX and camera pads
• Buzzer control pads
• LED control pads
• Integrated PDB (up to 6S)
• Integrated voltage sensor
• Integrated current sensor
• Boot button
• Receiver BIND button
• Aditional S.PORT pads for XSR FW update and S.PORT sensors connection
• Built-in SDcard slot for BB
• Weight: 14g
• Dimension: 60x36x6mm (LxWxH), with 30.5mm mounting holes

Exactly the same board to XSRF4O in terms of all capabilities but additionally intergrates power distribution board with dedicated ESC connections (SIG, BAT PWR, GND) and current sensor. Moreover, PDB is capable of 6S LiPO max input voltage. Layout looks like this:

This layout tells us that there is no 12V output. There is 5V output for camera or other devices, but you should use the appropriate VTX that would be able to accept raw flight battery voltage depending on the battery you’d use… Or you can add step-down voltage regulator.

And the last one is XSRF3PO:

Specifications:

• STM32F303 CPU – F3 Processor
• MPU6050 Gyro with I2C BUS
• Integrated Betaflight OSD
• Intergrated FrSKY XSR receiver (S.PORT. SBUS), Full telemetry
• Built in MicroSD card slot for BlackBox
• 1-8 PWM outputs (1-4 outputs are situated in the corners of the board)
• LED strip pads
• Buzzer pads
• OSD pads (camera + VTX)
• Integrated PDB (up to 6S)
• Integrated voltage sensor
• Integrated current sensor
• FC boot button
• XSR bind button
• Aditional S.PORT pads for XSR FW update and S.PORT sensors connection
• Weight: 14g
• Dimensions: 60x36x6mm (30.5mm mounting holes)

Very similar to XSRF4PO in terms of shape and PDB integration but really is a similar product to XSRF3O which we have reviewed last week. Its layout:

This layout tells us that there is no 12V output. There is 5V output for camera or other devices, but you should use the appropriate VTX that would be able to accept raw flight battery voltage depending on the battery you’d use… Or you can add step-down voltage regulator.

So, to summarize all FrSKY current FCs available:

• XSRF3E — F3Evo-based, when you want 8/8KHz gyro and PID loop rate + XSR receiver + telemetry
• XMPF3E — F3Evo-based, when you want 8/8KHz gyro and PID loop rate + XMP receiver + SDcard for blackbox and external OSD
• XSRF3O — F3-based, when you want 4/4KHz gyro and PID loop rate + XSR receiver + telemetry + BetaFlight OSD + SDcard for blackbox
• XSRF3PO — F3-based, when you want 4/4KHz gyro and PID loop rate + XSR receiver + telemetry + BetaFlight OSD + SDcard for blackbox + PDB + current sensor
• XSRF4O — F4-based, when you want up to 32/8KHz gyro and PID loop rate + XSR receiver + telemetry + BetaFlight OSD + SDcard for blackbox
• XSRF4PO — F4-based, when you want up to 32/8KHz gyro and PID loop rate + XSR receiver + telemetry + BetaFlight OSD + SDcard for blackbox + PDB + current sensor’

Seems that we have a good product line here that can satisfy almost any pilot with FrSKY radio…

There is one more FC from FrSKY which is called XMF3E. It is almost like XMPF3E but made to fit some smaller frames with board dimensions of 29x29mm. Main difference s are also: XM receiver with limited range of 300m and 4.2V power supply. This board would not be discussed further because it is not very suitable for the most popular 180-250 FPV copter frames.  

Small note about F3 V/S F4-based flight controllers:

F4-based FCs mean that such FC would have faster processor (72 V/S 160MHz), more flash memory (256KB V/S 1MB), and sometimes more UART ports. What it means in real life is that F4 FC is capable of 32KHz looptime, while 8KHz is selected — leaves more room for processor to run all other features, capable of running recently introduced but resource-heavy «dynamic filter», can handle OSD by main processor instead of usind additional OSD unit.  The only drawback compared to F3 is that F4 doesn’t have integrated inverter and using SBUS and S.PORT features might be tricky (all FrSKY FCs based on F4 do not have this issue.)

So, F4 boards would only be required if you have ESCs that are capable of running much faster types of communication than OneShot 125 or 42. Only if you have DShot600 and more capable ECSs — it is reasonable to jump to F4 instead of F3 or F3Evo. Or, if you require more than 3 UARTs or want so many features enabled at a time that your F3Evo|F3 processor shows more than 30% load figures on a bench.

In the box:

All of the controllers come in a small boxes with English user manual and a set of soldering pins for all available pads. But in case of FCs with integrated PDB (XSRF4PO and XSRF3PO) we would also find XT60 connector and soft mounting spacers made of rubber. The package is nothing to worry about during the transportation. English user manual is ok and it really helps to understand board layouts and initial BetaFlight setup.

Formfactor: 

As we’ve already said — XSRF4O is a regular box-shaped board with 30,5×30,5mm mounting holes (36×36 board size) that would fit any kind of FPV quad racing frame but requires any PDB with 4-10V power supply. ESC PWM singnals are located at the corners of the board for easy reach. USB connection is directed to the side of the board and ESCs numbers are located so that it would correspond to BF setup in case if the board located properly without applying yaw compensation.

In contrary, XSRF4PO and F3PO are unique and despite having the same mounting hole dimensions (30,5×30,5mm) — they both have rectangular shape with 60mm in length (width is regular 36mm). LiPO battery connections are at the back and ESC connections are at corners, corresponding to BF ESC setup. USB port is on the side.

This means that NOT every frame is capable of accepting such FCs. For example, I have KDS Kylin 210 square-shaped frame which would not let FrSKY «PO» fit directly. My FPV camera mount and VTX back vertical mount stand closer to each other than 60mm needed for this FCs and frame aluminum standoffs also prevent using these. If I had some longer frame (1-2cm) I wouldn’t have an issue.

So, either to change the frame or try to fit «PO» FCs transversely. In this case, either board would protrude from both sides of a frame to about 1cm…

Not very aesthetical and safe. Moreover, turning FC around 90 degrees would mean that ESC connections at the corners of the board won’t correspond to ESCs on the arms, forcing me to remap the resources in CLI section of BetaFlight setup. Everything is possible and acceptable but the best solution would still be changing the frame to something more suitable.

On the other hand, thinking of the advantages of such all-in-one board setup — I would finally go with the new more suitable frames… I am just amazed with how easy and neat such setup should be to assemble, with much less of cable connections and soldering required. The weight should also be slightly reduced due to no wires between PDB and FC + due to PDB FC integration.

Initial Betaflight Configuration and FW:

In contrary to previous FrSKY controllers XSRF3E and XMPF3E which should be identified as SpRacing F3Evo during FW upgrade using BetaFlight GUI, all newer boards would have the following names:

• XSRF3O & XSRF3PO — FRSKY F3 in BetaFlight FW upgrade list
• XSRF4O & XSRF4PO — FRSKY F4 in BetaFlight FW upgrade list

All these boards have the current FW version 3.2.0 RC2 with all features working properly and supporting the newest BF tabs and settings. All boards feature dedicated BOOT button for easy DFU mode access when FW flash in necessary.

FrSKY boards require some defaults in order for the intergrated XSR work correctly and that are initially set on the factory, supplied in the FW files and mentioned in manuals. Those are:

XSRF3O & XSRF3PO

• UART2 should be Serial RX
• UART3 should be SmartPort
• Receiver Mode should be RX_Serial
• Serial Receiver Provider should be SBUS
• RSSI_ADC Analog RSSI input should be disabled
• RSSI CH should be CH8

XSRF4O & XSRF4PO

• UART1 should be Serial RX
• UART6 should be SmartPort
• Receiver Mode should be RX_Serial
• Serial Receiver Provider should be SBUS
• RSSI_ADC Analog RSSI input should be disabled
• RSSI CH should be CH8

All boards would incorporate BF OSD setup, Battery Voltage&Current, LED strip and BlackBox with SDcard tabs in addition to all other BetaFlight setup tabs and features. All those tabs should be setup as it is usually done on all other boards or additional boards with the same features. Nothing strange or unexpected in settings.

Note: intergrated XSR receiver in all FCs has physical S.PORT pads. Those pads can be used to flash XSR with the newest FW versions, change FW region (from FCC to EU LBT and vise-versa) and even to connect other S.PORT telemetry sensors in chain. But remember that you cannot flash integrated XSR with the FW from the stand-alone XSR receiver. You should locate dedicated FW for integrated XSR on FrSKY website.   

Tests, flights and recommendations:

We have already tested XSRF3O board some time ago (in our previous review). It flies good, easy to tune, all features work as expected. It replaced our previous SpRacing F3 board because XSRF3O intergates receiver, OSD and SDCard slot making our FPV copter easier to assemble, more advanced in terms of amount of features and less heavy (only 288g for 210-class frame). Integrated XSR seems to be working exactly the same as any other stand-alone XSR receiver. The range is the same…

Consequently, the newer XSRF3PO would act very similar if not identical… This board shares the same features and specifications… The only difference is that «PO» would also act as PDB making the whole setup even more convenient. We have checked all the features on the bench — everything working fine, but we cannot really make any flight checks now because we are in a process of making / ordering some suitable frames that would accept such rectangular design. But we have already tested the amount of noise or interference from PDB to camera + VTX on the bench with motors and ESCs running — PDB quality seems to be very good as there is no visible picture problems or interference lines. It might happen so that we wouldn’t even need the additional capacitors to filter out the noise.

Other 2 boards that are based on F4 are also yet to be tested thoroughly. I have already tuned and flown XSRF4O which was set to 8/8KHz looptime for my HobbyWing XRotor DShot600 ESCs and XRotor 2205/2300kv motors. I haven’t noticed much of a difference with XSRF3Evo board which had 8/4KHz looptime configuration on the same setup. A bit more precise and a bit more predictable. But I would continue to tune PID and other settings to polish the flight capabilities of the board trying to find the obvious advanyages of F4 boards over F3Evo.

As to XSF4PO would also wait for the newer frames to arrive. All bench tests and settings show consistent and expected behavior. All features work as described. But we would still conduct some flight tests on order to share it with our readers. As already mentioned for F3PO — PDB quality is good and picture quality from FPV camera and VTX shows no signs of distructive noise.

We would add flight test videos to this review soon.

Note: all FrSKY flight controllers with XSR receivers have detachable XSR antennas. So, antenna swap is not a problem. 

Conclusion:  

I have 4 FPV racing quads that I use regularly. All of them are based on FrSKY XSRF3E (F3Evo), XSRF3O and SpRacing F3 FCs. I would definitely get rid of SpRacing F3 boards just because they don’t have the necessary features and require additional stuff, wiring and soldering… I would definitely change it to FrSKY FCs with integrated XSR receivers and other features. Those of my quads that have ESCs capable of DShot600 (and more) are already using XSRF4O and would be using XSRF4PO in future because F4-based boards are able to handle >8KHz looptime and don’t have any stability or processor calculation power shortage issues. But those quads that have OneShot ESCs would be left on XSRF3O and XSRF3PO flight controllers because 4/4KHz is totally enough in this case.

Anyway, concerning that I have already tried what it is like to build and use a racing quad with all-in-one boars — it seems that I would never go back to all-separate solutions. All-in-one boards make the whole setup much more convenient to assemble, much easier to look after it and more neat. In addition to that, all described above boards originate from a good manufacturer — FrSKY — and incorporate one the most popular receiver in FPV racing world — XSR. This is everything that I need for all of my quads!!!

Buy XSRF3PO HERE

Buy XSRF4O HERE

Buy XSRF4PO HERE

Remember our first QX7 review? The one that was talking about the very first white color radio in the world? This was Part I. And there we claimed that this radio would become a bestseller on the matket… It was our prophecy and it really worked!!! QX7 had a rocket launch and fastly spread out in among hobby addicts. There was a constant shortage at first couple of months and than sales stabilized at some high level.

While working hard to satisfy the market demand, FrSKY company gathered all initial customer feedback and introduced some changes to fulfil further auditory expectations. And today we want to point out all changes that were done to QX7 since the early releases to show how this radio has matured and its final and current look.

First, watch our video about it if you are too lazy to read 

Now, I want to insist on reading PART I of QX7 review first if you haven’t done it yet. Part I has all necessary and important information about this rafio which we would not focus on during this time.

So, let’s look closer at the new (current or late) FrSKY Taranis QX7 and compare it to early version we have here as well:

Externals:

Color modes: initially this radio was available only in black and white color. But after I have created my famous color mode many people started to ask me where have I bought such radio, some Chineese suppliers started to post my mod photos on their shops… I’ve even got some requests not to promote this mod further because it is misleading many potential customers…. :). BTW — Part I has the description how I’ve done this mod.

A bit later, Banggood shop decided that they would exclusively provide their customers with some new shell colors and the ability to choose one. They currently have green, purple, orange and blue versions. And I have green one here to compare it with my personal paint mod.

What can I say here? Banggood has won this battle in terms of paint durability. Their paint is added to plastic during the injection moulding process (there were some rumors that it looks like hydro-dipped or somethink like that, but it is not true). So, paint becomes a part of the plastic itself. It would stay here forever. No fear of sctratches, high temperature or moisture. My mode, despite being more pleasing to an eye, is afraid of physical damages. It is just several pint layers sprayed on top of the shell and some additional layers of protective lacquer…. It is like a piece of art — beautiful but not very practical.

Anyway, banggood did a right thing — they gave people a new choice…

You can purchase QX7 with a choice of different colors HERE

• Screen: another very good change that I’ve noticed is about the screen. As it is clearly seen on the pictures — early version screens were more succeptible to contrast lines (vertical dark lines on evenly lit background) when contrast is set to >16 points. I’ve dialled contrast to 20 and screen brightness to 100% on both radios to show you the difference. Current radio version has hardly visible contrast lines. It was never a problem in early QX7 or even in X9D, X9DPlus radios because it could be controlled by the amount of contrast set in system menu but still is a good step ahead.

• Pots: left upper pot (S1) is now smooth and has not center detent whilst right (S2) has it. Early versions had both pots with center detents… There were people who proposed to FrSKY to introduce one smooth moving pot in order to control something like gimbals, etc which means constant movement. FrSKY listened!

• Sticks: early radios had to be opened upon arrival to remove spring load from throttle stick. Both sticks were completely spring-loaded from the factory. But who wants that now? DJI users? It is only a small portion of people… FrSKY listened again and removed spring tension from THR to eliminate some questions and troubles people can run to while opening the case and trying to locate what needs to be srewed in to accomplish the task. But the ratchet is still there…

• Battery holder: QX7 currently comes with 6 AA battery holder… Not a big deal especially when everyone chooses 18650 or other battery options but still much better than not having this in the box as if it was with early radio release.

Internals:

• S.PORT at the bottom is finally functional. It can be used now to update or remap all S.PORT devices (RXs, sensors, modules, etc) and to work with telemetry. It is now also supported by OpenTX. It would differentiate early and current boards and show some options about bottom S.PORT functions. Early versions didn’t have S.PORT pins soldered to the mainboard and there were some obstacles to solder it yourself. Only external module pins could be used to work with S.PORT devices. Now, it is much more convenient and straight forward. Good change!

• Antenna is now soldered to RF board. Early versions of QX7 had efl antenna connector which means easy antenna mod. But this also means that radios would not comply to some regulations standards and would violate certification rules. Moreover, antenna mods might lead to unexpected RF amplifier behavior and result into burning it. So, my personal opinion — soldered antenna is not a drawback — it might eliminate some additional problems….

Here is some side-by-side mainboard, RF part and other internals comparison pictures:

One additional interesting thing that I have spotted on the back side of the shell in the external bay — shell opening for extrenal module pins is now changed so that: it became much wider to minimize the chance of pins bending when assembling the radio and got some new back supports to properly align with the pins on the internal board…. This was hard to do for FrSKY, i think. And it should have been very expensive — changing plastic mould matrix after it has been already developed and physically created…

That’s it. I couldn’t find any other visible changes between 2 radio releases — old and new one. If you happen to have early release — there is no need to sell it and run for the newer versions. Not much of a change… On the other hand — this radio has matured from the best product to a perfect one. It was the bestseller since the realease and now it became the ideal product that stays at the very low price point. The only thing left to wait to make this radio 100% masterpiece are Hall sensor gimbals «M7» that would hit the market in some nearest future. Anyway, no other radio around that can even try to come close to QX7. And what is the most important — Taranis QX7 is a good illustration to show that FrSKY company is opened to market feedback, reacts to it very fast and stays very flexible in order to meet all expectations. Such attitude deserves much of respect!!!

Read our FrSKY Taranis QX7 full (in depth) review. PART I  

Our Taranis QX7 manual and setup guide: HERE

Buy this color versions of QX7 from banggood: HERE

Many times, especially during winter season, I’ve been looking at the tiny whoop FPV copters at different online stores but never hit «ORDER» button — they’ve all looked attractive but equipped with brushed motors… thus, underpowered. Maybe they are good for indoor use, but I always prefer to have something more versatile, something that I can fly indroors during bad weather or winter season and at the same time something that I can take with me outdoors and have almost the same experience as I do with the larger 180-250 class FPV copters. I’ve even tried to fly a couple of brushed models — they all feel slow and definitely change the way I’ve used to fly and move my fingers. Moreover, brushed motors wear over time resulting in adding more and more THr input to fly the model. Not really good.

On the other hand — there is a new and quickly emerging market niche for micro FPV copters powered by the brushless motors. And one of the first companies who already got something to say about it is KingKong — a company that is very well known for its good FPV products like props, RTF whoops, antennas, transmitters and so on. And you know what? They already inroduced more than one brushless RTF FPV micro quad — KingKong 90GT and KingKong Q90.

Today, I would concentrate on KingKong 90GT. I have this quad for almost a week now, had a plenty of flights and can now share my experience. Let’s start:

KingKong 90GT technical characteristics:

• Flight Control: Micro SpRacing F3 6Dof Version with 32-bit STM32F303CC processor and MPU6050
• Motor: 1103 7800KV Motor
• ESC : 3A Blheli_S 4 in 1 Brushless ESC (OneShot 42/125, MultiShot, DShot 150/300/600)
• Camera: 800TVL CMOS Camera FOV150 Degree
• Propeller: 2 CW & 2 CCW (Red transparent)
• FPV Transmitter: 16CH 25mW VTX
• Battery: 2S 7.4V 350mAh 25C
• Wheelbase: 90 mm
• Dimension: 82x82x28 mm
• Weight: 42.9g (without battery)

Comes in several versions:

• ARF (no receiver)
• PNP with FrSKY AC800 (only RSSI on telemetry)
• PNP with DSM2 receiver
• PNP with FASST receiver

My version is FrSKY AC800 receiver because I am using FrSKY Taranis X9DP and QX7 radios.

In the box:

• Carry case, «lunch box» type
• RTF copter
• 2S 7.4V 350mAh 25C battery
• 2 sets of 1935 porps
• 1 set of prop screws
• 1 set of plastic protection frames
• 1 set of longer screws with washers for potection frames
• 2 spare battery holder rubber rings
• 1 wrench
• microUSB-USB cable
• 1 set of additional cables for F3 board
• short manual

You can get the manual HERE

New version of this product: FrSKY Vantac GT90 — similar product but with much better FrSKY receiver XM in the bundle. 

You can buy KingKong 90GT: HERE Don’t worry, this shop is from good person in China. It might look unfinished yet but your orders would be pocessed in the best way. Support this shop on its early stage and we would eventually have one more good place to order from. If you would have any questions about your order — leave a comment and I’d help you out.

So, in other words, what are the features and what is so good about this model?

• 90mm wheelbase powered by 1103 7800kv brushless motors that give plenty of power and larger copter feel
• no motor wear over time, brushless means durable
• common tuning practice due to the use of F3 board, BetaFlight|CleanFlight FW, BLHeli_s ESCs.
• removable plastic props and frame protection that would let you fly indoors and outdoors with maximum protection

Really nice features and package that brings this model much closer to its larger brothers — 180, 210, 250 class quads. I would go over each element step-by-step:

Packaging:

Just excellent. Everything is neatly packed in a transparent lunch-type box that not only potects the model during shipment but also would serve a role of carry box in future. Really clever.

Frame:

2mm carbon fiber one-piece main base plate and 1mm upper plate with plastic standoffs for PDB and upper plate. Plus aluminum standoffs and soldered pins between PDB and flight controller. Looks and feels pretty sturdy for 90mm FPV quad.

Motors:

• Height: 14mm
• Weight: about 3.9g
• Shaft: φ1.5mm (1mm outside)
• KV (rpm/V): 7800
• Voltage: 3.7-11.1V
• Battery: 1-3S lipo battery
• Prop: 3 inch, 2 inch, 65mm, 45mm

1103 7800kv brushless motors with 1,5mm shafts (inside) and 1mm shaft (outside). M2 thread for 4 bottom screws and same for 4 top prop screws. Interesting fact is that when we use this model without plastic potection — there are 4 screws provided to hold the motors. But in case if we’d install plastic parts — we only have 2 longer screws with washers per motor to tie them to the frame. Of course, you can find another 4 screws of the same length with washers to have the complete set.

Those motors have a plenty of power for 90GT. Although the THr input is a bit less reactive comparing to many 210 class copters, but still it is much more closer to larger rivals in terms of power than any most advanced brushed model.

PDB + ESCs:

4 in 1 ESC + PDB board that is soldered to the flight controller. ESCs are 3A BLHeli_s and capable of OneShot 42/125, MultiShot, DShot 150/300/600 types of communication. This is absolutely great. Using the latest digital technology like DShot on micro quad brings this model even closer to the larger models we are all got used to.

Note: get familiar with DShot in my other review: HERE

Of course, not much reason to use DShot600 because the flight board is only capable of 4/4KHz loop rate and DShot300 is more than needed. But still this little model beats many other products in this aspect. I am using DShot300 currently. Moreover, you can use BLHeli_s standalone or Chrome applet to configure and update the FW in all ESCs. I would explain this a bit later.

PDB and FC boards are not only held together with 2 aluminum standoffs and screws but also soldered with the pins that deliver power from PDB to FC and ESC signals from FC to PDB. Changing PDB or FC could be a little pain consequently. But nothing really bad. The worst scenario is if one or more of the ESCs are damaged. In this case you would have to change the whole power distribution board.

One strange thing here is that PDB battery connector is a 2S balance plug instead of any other more common type power connector. This is not really an issue as this connector seems to handle input current… but I would better change it to some more convenient type like XT30 or JST plug.

Flight controller:

This seems to be micro SpRacing F3. Delievered with 3.0.1 BetaFlight FW from the factory and preconfigured pretty well to start flying out of the box. The HW configuration is using UART2 to connect receivers, motor outputs 1-4 for ESC signals and 2 additional +V and GND pins to deliver voltage to flight controller from PDB. There are also:

• BOOT button that is required to upgrade the FW of the board
• I2C unused port
• UART3 for PPM, PWM receiver port with LED strip control on pin 9 (so, we can have the additional LEDs) and ability to connect OSD or telemetry. Video on how to connect OSD is at the end of the review.

In case of AC800 receiver, BetaFlight confguration is the following:

• UART2 configured to be SerialRX
• Receiver Mode: RX_Serial
• Serial receiver provider: SBUS

Other configuration:

• 4/4kHz loop rates
• MultiShot communication with ESCs (1070 min THr)
• BlackBox logging enabled (there is a flash chip on the FC to carry the logs)
• Accelerometer enabled
• Modes are: ARM on AUX1, Horizon, Angle and Acro on AUX2
• Default PIDs are:

apart that Super Rates for Roll and Pitch should be 70. And D setpoint weight = 1. The complete configuration damp file is stock kingkong90gt

There is no buzzer on the FC. In order to find the lost quad in the field we can set Beacon (signal) in ESCs configuration for 1 or 2 minutes delay. In this case our motors would make a sound instead of a buzzer.

Camera and VTX:

Not bad at all. 800TVL with 150 degrees FOV — this is quite a good piece of FPV technology. You should understand that such small package would suffer a bit more noise because of the smaller physical matrix light sensor in comparison to larger cameras in 180-250 class copters. Lens is removable and can be turned to find the best focus. Camera is fixed in place and cannot change the vetical angle. I wouldn’t tell that this is an issue because we have 150 degrees FOV which is enough to fly FPV without tilting our camera.

VTX is 16CH 5.8GHz 25mW with a button to change frequency. Each press of the button would result in different combination of VTX LED double flash color telling us which CH is currently used.

The VTX range is fine, at least with my KDS Kylin Vision FPV goggles and Aomway cloverleaf antenna. I am able to fly 2 floors of my concrete house without signal blackout and have an acceptable signal strength in the field. It is not comparable with larger 200 or even 600mW VTX with cloverleaf antennas but pretty much enough to have fun indoors or at the field with not so many obstacles around. Let’s say that it is not obvious what would happen first — VTX signal loss or tiny AC800 receiver failsafe…. I would conduct some tests and publish the results here a bit later.

Protection frame:

Definitely a good option for indoor use or for beginners trying to get familiar with flying outdoors. A set comes with 4 separate larger curved parts around porps and 4 parts that join everything together. Total weight with protection is 75g which is 7g more than the weight without the plastic frame. Not much.

Installing this protection means that you would have to remove motors and original screws and use longer screws with washers provided. One other good thing to do is not to use small front plastic joint as it is situated right infront on the camera and disturbs the picture.

Receiver:

I have AC800 receiver for FrSKY. This receiver is kind of actibg strange sometimes. It might show some sudden channel jumps. But usually work quite good. The range is kind of short — something like 100m at open spaces when RX is on top of the frame… If you want something better — you can buy FrSKY Vantac GT90 — same model with FrSKY XM receiver (the link is at the beginning and at the end of this review).

Preflight Mods:

Although this model is almost perfect, I would say that it still needs a couple of mods before the first flight:

• I’ve moved my AC800 receiver to top of the frame (on top of the VTX or move VTX back and mount AC800 infront with some double sided tape. This would ensure the longest range for the RX)

• I’ve added some foam tape under the battery. This ensures that the battery would stay in place.

Flight Setup:

Despite having good PIDs and preconfigured quad out of the box, I’ve done some extra settings:

Updated the board with the latest BetaFlight FW. In order to do that:

• You should have BetaFlight configurator Chrome applet on your PC.
• Press and hold BOOT button on the board and connect the board with the provided microUSB-USB cable to your PC.
• Go to Firmware Flasher, select SpRacing F3 board and latest stable FW underneath

• Select «Load Firmware Online» and than «Flash Firmware»
• When FW flash finishes — you can disconnect the board and connect it again without BOOT button.

After that, I have configured my ESCs to run DShot300, to brake on disarm and to give a searching buzz :

• You should have BLHeli_s Chrome configurator applet on your PC
• Remove your props, power your quad
• Connect to BLHeli configurator

Configurator would discover your ESCs and there would be a button at bottom right to read the configuration from ESCs. Hit that.

note: this screenshot is taken with other ESCs. Follow the text to find the appropriate settings for KingKong 90GT ESCs.

One the next screen you would see some default parameters along with the option to select and upgrade the FW. Notice that this applet shows some common parameters sections and each separate ESC additional parameters. Moreover, it would also tell you which FW version you currently have on each of your ESCa and let you choose from the drop down menu the appropriate newer|older ones. Decide whether you want to upgrade.

The rest of the parameters are:

Common parameters:

• Programming by TX: common sense — whether you want to use programming mode from TX or not. Leave it default.
• Start up power: the power with which the motor would start to spin. Usually should be left at default 0.50
• Temperature protection: common sense. I set it to 90C.
• Low RPM power protection: protection from overpowering the motors at low RPM — set YES.
• Brake on stop: you can set this to YES which means that motors would stop quickly when DISARMED
• Demag Compensation: protection from motor stalls caused by long winding demagnetization time after commutation. Leave it default.
• Motor Timing: common sense. Most of the motors would run with Medium (default) settings.
• Beep strength: common sense
• Beacon strength: the strength of beeps for motors when Thr is idle too long. Don’t set it high or it can burn your motors. Default value is ok.
• Beacon Delay: time perior of THr inactivity after which beacon beeps would be sounded. Set this to 1 or 2 minutes — this would act as searching buzz instead of buzzer that we do not have on FC.

Individual parameters:

• Motor direction: the direction of motor rotation.
• PPM mix. throttle: for DShot set it to be 1000 (*note)
• PPM max. throttle: for DShot set it to be 2000 (*note)
• Flash FW: look at the top bar of each ESC — it says which version and which FW is currently on your ESCs. Check for the newer FW versions in the drop down menu. Flash if necessary.

Just hit «Write Setup» and you are done.

*note: Since DShot doesn’t require to calibrate Thr signal for ESCs,  Min and Max Thr values should be set to the stated limits of 1000 to 2000. The digital signal is passed within those boudaries, therefore, it should be like this for any DShot ESC.

Now, as you are done with ESCs setup, you can connect to BetaFlight configurator, select DShot 150, 300 or even 600 on the Configuration tab. Better to use DShot300.

The last thing to do is to set the idle Thr % for the motors and ESCs (you can see such parameter in the Configuration tab below DShot protocol selected).

This is also easy:

• go to Motors tab
• check «I uderstand the risk……..» warning at the bottom right
• connect your flight battery if it is not yet connected (better to use some current limiter, but I don’t use it)
• click on Master slider and with your keyboard UP button (one press at a time) start to increase Thr%.
• when the motors would start to spin normally (no stall noise, no clicks, just a smooth run) — write down the resulting value. Let’s assume that you’ve got 1070.
• Subtract 1000 and divide by 10. 1070 — 1000 = 70/10 = 7
• You can now enter this number as the idle Thr% in the Configuration tab.

That is it. Your motors and ESCs are now ready to go.

Original DShot document on Github: HERE

Important: one of the main question about DShot and reason to have those on your quad is the loop time: what loop time DShot can handle and how it correlates with the gyro and PID loop times on your FC board. As you probably know, the rule to set max Gyro loop and PID loop frequency in Configuration tab is CPU load of the FC (shown at the very bottom of the applet). CPU load should not exceed 30% after making the change. F3 board on KingKong 90GT would allow up to 4 / 4kHz to run but it depends of the features enabled on the board (acceleromter, barometer, etc). Since one of my flight modes (Horizon) requires accelerometer to run, I can go as high as 4 (gyro) / 4 (PID loop — that is what ESCs would use) kHz loop time and get 27% CPU load. Now, let’s see what DShot is capable of:

• DSHOT150: 4kHz max
• DSHOT300: 10,6kHz max (10,6khz is only available on 32khz gyro boards)
• DSHOT600: 16kHz max
• DSHOT1200: >32khz max

So, in my case DShot300 is the right choice. Why? Because DShot150 would reach the limit (it is always bad not to leave some room) and DShot600 would be a huge excess that would drive DShot600 ESCs to the max amount of signals despite the FC board is incompatibe of running such speeds (FC PID loop is 4kHz, DSho600 loop is 16kHz ). Therefore, DShot300 is a good choice.

Than, I’ve configured my radio and calibrated channels on the Receiver tab of BetaFlight FW. This is common.

• You should have your channels configured so that min CH of the radio would result in 1000 in Betaflight, mid channel = 1500 and max CH = 2000. You should use subtrims and endpoints setup in your radio to do that.

note: there is a small problem with AC800 receiver and FrSKY Taranis radios. No matter how I’ve tried to set endpoints in the radio — it would result in something like 1079 min and 1965 max values in BetaFlight. In order to overcome this, we have to scale the channels in BetaFlight configurator using the following CLI commands:

Suppose you have -100 min and +100 max CH range for all channels in SERVO tab of your model in Taranis radio and you are resulting with the same figures in Betaflight Receiver tab (1079 min and 1965 max value for corresponding channel). You can execute the following commands in CLI:

rxrange 0 1079 1965

rxrange 1 1079 1965

rxrange 2 1079 1965

rxrange 3 1079 1965

save

This would scale down BetaFlight channels input so that they would correspond to incoming AC800 signals. (Thank you Reavski from RCG for a hint)

Finally, I have reconfigured my PIDs slightly. 

Only made RC rate and Super Rate a bit more to have 1000 degrees speed of manuevers upon full ROLL and PITCH inputs.

Overall feel:

Flies great. It is really very close to the experience of flying on 180-210 quads with a good HW setup. Power is enough to jump over obstacles very quickly and make quick rolls and flips. Moment of inertia is easily controlled when having such powerful motors and this what really differs 90GT from brushed copters. Motors run smoothly and quietly. VTX power is enough to fly 2 concrete floors indoors and pretty large range with no obstacles outdoors. 25C rating battery is also enough to deliver some good pitch pump power. This model really feels and behaves as if it is a larger quad. And it does not force you to change the style of flying compared to 180-250 quads. This is the most important for me. Moreover, the durability of the motors is much higher than brushed motors have and the frame seems to be capable of standing many collisions.

First flight indoors video (camera picture is better, this is my bad recorder):

First flight outdoors video (camera picture is better, this is my bad recorder):

Conclusion: 

I love KingKong 90GT. It really does its job almost perfectly. It is capable of indoor use during some bad weather as well as outdoor flights almost on par with larger brothers. I would say that this model is ideal for any beginner — very durable, has the removable protection, gives the experience of larger models. Excellent hobby entry and a must have for everyine who wants to fly indoors or keep hands warm during long winters. But keep in mind that you’ll need some spare batteries. Stock one is good only for 3 mins of flight time. I would suggest 450-500mAh 25C 2S instead.

New version of this product: FrSKY Vantac GT90 — similar product but with much better FrSKY receiver XM in the bundle. 

You can buy KingKong 90GT: HERE Don’t worry, this shop is from good person in China. It might look unfinished yet but your orders would be pocessed in the best way. Support this shop on its early stage and we would eventually have one more good place to order from. If you would have any questions about your order — leave a comment and I’d help you out.

Urgent!!! Excellent offer if you are willing to buy FrSky Taranis QX7: the lowest price on the market AND 4-7 days express delivery worldwide!!! Such offers are rare, don’t miss that one!!!

Hobbywing — a well known name in the R|C hobby for a long time — not only for perfect Platinum ESC series for helicopters and numerous auto R|C power products but also for the recent series of modern ESCs and motors for popular FPV racing quads. We are especially pleased with the fact that such respected company has joined the emerging quad electonics market and keeps it technologies up to date. We would rather vote for HobbyWing instead of trying to distinguish bad from good among many products and one-day companies that saturated this market.

Today, we would like to review two latest FPV quad products that make a perfect match if used together — Hobbywing XRotor 2205/2300kv motors and XRotor Micro BLHeli_s DShot600 ESCs. Moreover, we would go over the process of tuning those ESCs and explain what is DShot and how to deal with it. Kind of a guide for those who would like to try but is not familiar with DShot yet.

Let’s start with the motors:

Hobbywing XRotor 2205/2300kv Tech Specs:

Full specs in the MANUAL

These are really beautifully crafted motors. With great attention paid to details and high quality materials used. As seens from the pictures, almost every design element serves some technical role. Not only the motor iteslf makes an impression, but everything starts even with the box — small, neat and informative. There is even anti-counterfeit codes to make sure that you get the genuine product.

Box contents are: 

• Motor (CW or CCW)
• Self locking nut to hold the prop
• 4 x M3 short screws (for the thinner type of frames)
• 4 x M3 long screws (for thicker type of frames, 4-5mm frames — ok)

Motor performance: 

HobbyWing shows the following performance graph for this motor:

Unfrotunately, we don’t have our own thrust stand to check those figures… We can only compare different motors in real flight conditions or|and try to locate the necessary tests on the web. That is what we’ve found so far:

source

Full results file: HERE

Very interesting results that definitely shows that Hobbywing XRotor 2205/2300kv are one of the best 2205/2300kv motors currently available on the market. Our opinion is the same — we have tried and found that those are making impression and looks to be the best we’ve flown so far. Smooth, powerful, quick and staying cooler than many others. What really impressed us is that they are only 5g heavier than our favorite Kylin 2204/2300kv motors that look much smaller and fragile. Only 20g added to our flight setup after changing all 4 motors from 2204 to 2205 but the power output has noticeably increased. Max. throttle input now results in faster climbs and more speed. But the battery drains a bit faster as well…

We wouldn’t say that such powerful motors should be the only choice. Some entry pilots might prefer to use 2204 motors in favor of a bit longer flight times with less speed but with more manuevrability. But those who compete on racing quad arenas would definitely need something like these motors to have the most out of their setups.

By the way, HobbyWing has other 2 options for XRotor motors: 1800 and 2600kv. Check the series details HERE.

Manual and test parameters for 2205/2300kv motor: HERE

You can buy Hobbywing XRotor 2205/2300kv worldwide: HERE

You can buy Hobbywing XRotor 2205/2300kv in Ukraine: HERE

Enough about the motor, let’s shift to the perfect driving match — XRotor Micro BLHeli_s DShot600 ESC. 

Tech. Specs:

Features:

• Quality components: EMF8BB21F16G MCU (with the operating frequency of up to 48MHz), 3-in-1 drive IC, American Fairchild MOSFETs, quality ceramic capacitors, 3-ounce copper and 4 layers of PCBs guarantees less heat, higher efficiency and rapider response.
• The ESC supports the original BLHeli_S firmware. User can flash or upgrade the firmware via the signal cable (on ESC) and program 4 ESCs simultaneously after connecting their flight controller to the BLHeliSuite software (if the flight controller uses the CleanFlight or BetaFlight firmware).
• The ESC firmware uses hardware generated motor pwm for smooth throttle response and silent operation. Damped light does regenerative braking, causing very fast motor retardation, and it inherently also does active freewheeling.

Each ESC comes is a separate package that includes:

• ESC (power and signal/gnd twisted cable with servo connector soldered, ESC is wrapped with the heatsink and have moisture protection laquer and hot glue applied)
• Spare heatsink
• Manual

ESC package also has the countefeit product protection label.

So, what is so good about those ESCs? Of course — it is an ability to work in DShot 150,300 and 600 modes. Moreover, you wouldn’t even need to remove signal filtering capacitor to succesfully run DShot600 like you would do in many other DShot600 compatible ESCs.

You can buy XRotor Micro BLHeli_s DShot600 ESCs worldwide: HERE

You can buy XRotor Micro BLHeli_s DShot600 ESCs in Ukraine: HERE

From this point, let us start the short guide to DShot and show how to deal with it:

DShot — is a new way of communication between flight controllers and ESCs. It is not only an improvement over the very familiar OneShot125, OneShot42 (or even a MultiShot) but it is rather a very new way of communication because DShot represents a digital protocol, not analog. It still uses PWM signal but the peaks of the signal are used to indicate «0» and «1». Why is it better over regular PWM that sends electric pulses to ESCs to determain power? Because DShot is:

• Not succeptible to jitter and noise
• Doesn’t require ESC calibration due to the absence of the oscillator drift
• It has high resolution of 2048 steps
• It has CRC in the signal and every signal is proven to be correct
• It virtually capable of >30kHz loop times
• It is more precise that «analog» type signal

Looks promissing!

Do not be afraid of DShot. It just looks complicated but in fact it is easier to setup and work with than the regular ESCs.

My example of working with DShot ESCs would be based on described above motors, ESCs and SpRacing F3Arco and F3Evo boards (in my case FrSKY XSRF3E but any other F3 would do).

XSRF3E wiring diagram:

In case of F3Arco — it is very simple and straight forward. In case of F3Evo it is a bit more complicated — read the *note section to get F3Evo DShot compatible. And I also assume that you use BetaFlight FW on your FC.

*note: in case if you are using F3Evo board — solder motor 4 signal cable to motor 5 signal output on the FC. Upon the next FC connection to BetaFlight configurator do the following: in CLI type the next commands:

resource
resource list

save the results to any text file to be able to use them later, if needed

and more commands:

resource motor 5 none resource motor 4 A06 save

this would move MOTOR 4 to new pin assignment to fix DMA conflict with motor outputs 2 and 4.

and: 

set sdcard_dma = OFF

this would disable BlackBox logging to fix the DMA conflict

Source

So, the first thing to know is that most of not all of the FCs with BetaFlight would let you setup BLHeli ESCs using a passthrough method. Just solder ESCs, motors and everything like you always done before and with the props off prepare the following:

• From Google Chrome store download BLHeli applet for Chrome.
• Remove your props, power your quad, connect FC to the BetaFlight Configurator and make sure that you have OneShot125 or 42 selected for now.
• Disconnect from BetaFlight and connect to BLHeli configurator

Configurator would discover your ESCs and there would be a button at bottom right to read the configuration from ESCs. Hit that.

One the next screen you would see some default parameters along with the option to select and upgrade the FW. Notice that this applet shows some common parameters sections and each separate ESC additional parameters. Moreover, it would also tell you which FW version you currently have on each of your ESCa and let you choose from the drop down menu the appropriate newer|older ones. Decide whether you want to upgrade. I did it, flawlessly.

The rest of the parameters are:

Common parameters:

• Prgramming by TX: common sense — whether you want to use programming mode from TX or not. Leave it default.
• Start up power: the power with which the motor would start to spin. Usually should be left at default 0.50
• Temperature protection: common sense. I set it to 80C.
• Low RPM power protection: protection form overpowering the motors at low RPM — set YES.
• Brake on stop: leave it as NO. We don’t need braking.
• Demag Compensation: protection from motor stalls caused by long winding demagnetization time after commutation. Leave it default.
• Motor Timing: common sense. Most of the motors would run with Medium (default) settings.
• Beep strength: common sense
• Beacon strength: the strength of beeps for motors when Thr is idle too long. Don’t set it high or it can burn your motors. Default value is ok.
• Beacon Delay: time perior of Thr inactivity after which beacon beeps would be sounded.

Individual parameters:

• Motor direction: the direction of motor rotation. Set this appropriately to the direction you need. You can check motor rotation direction when connected to BetaFlight configurator and using Motor tab. You might have to return here again to change the direction.
• PPM mix. throttle: for DShot set it to be 1000 (*note)
• PPM max. throttle: for DShot set it to be 2000 (*note)
• Flash FW: look at the top bar of each ESC — it syas which version and which FW is currently on your ESCs. Check for the newer FW versions in the drop down menu. Flash if necessary.

You can also check the default parameters in the ESC manual: HERE 

Just hit «Write Setup» and you are done.

*note: Since DShot doesn’t require to calibrate Thr signal for ESCs,  Min and Max Thr values should be set to the stated limits of 1000 to 2000. The digital signal is passed within those boudaries, therefore, it should be like this for any DShot ESC.

Now, as you are done with ESCs setup, you can connect to BetaFlight configurator, select DShot 150, 300 or even 600 on the Configuration tab.

The last thing to do is to set the idle Thr % for the motors and ESCs (you can see such parameter in the Configuration tab below DShot protocol selected).

This is also easy:

• go to Motors tab
• check «I uderstand the risk……..» warning at the bottom right
• connect your flight battery if it is not yet connected (better to use some current limiter, but I don’t use it)
• click on Master slider and with your keyboard UP button (one press at a time) start to increase Thr%.
• when the motors would start to spin normally (no stall noise, no clicks, just a smooth run) — write down the resulting value. Let’s assume that you’ve got 1050.
• Subtract 1000 and divide by 10. 1050 — 1000 = 50/10 = 5
• You can now enter this number as the idle Thr% in the Configuration tab.

That is it. Your motors and ESCs are now ready to go.

Original DShot document on Github: HERE

Important: one of the main question about DShot and reason to have those on your quad is the loop time: what loop time DShot can handle and how it correlates with the gyro and PID loop times on your FC board. As you probably know, the rule to set max Gyro loop and PID loop frequency in Configuration tab is CPU load of the FC (shown at the very bottom of the applet). CPU load should not exceed 30% after making the change. F3Evo boards would allow up to 8 / 8kHz to run but it depends of the features enabled on the board (acceleromter, barometer, etc). Since one of my flight modes (Horizon) requires accelerometer to run, I can go as high as 8 (gyro) / 4 (PID loop — that is what ESCs would use) kHz loop time and get 27% CPU load. Now, let’s see what DShot is capable of:

• DSHOT150: 4kHz max
• DSHOT300: 10,6kHz max (10,6khz is only available on 32khz gyro boards)
• DSHOT600: 16kHz max
• DSHOT1200: >32khz max

So, in my case DShot300 is the right choice. Why? Because DShot150 would reach the limit (it is always bad not to leave some room) and DShot600 would be a huge excess that would drive DShot600 ESCs to the max amount of signals despite the FC board is incompatibe of running such speeds (FC PID loop is 4kHz, DSho600 loop is 16kHz ). Therefore, DShot300 is a good choice.

That is it. 

We hope that this review and small guide helped you to understand what is so good about recent DShot protocols and such products as HobbyWing XRotor series ESCs and motors that are capable to run it smoothly. Have it, set it, fly it. And you would notice the positive difference right away.

Our setup:

• KDS Kylin 210 frame
• Hobbywing XRotor 2205/2300kv motors
• XRotor Micro BLHeli_s DShot600 ESCs
• FrSKY XSRF3E (F3Evo board with integrated XSR RX), BetaFlight
• Matek PDB
• Foxeer 700TVL CMOS FPV cam
• DalRC 5,8Ghz 600mW VTX
• Aomway 5.8Ghz cloverleaf antenna
• Some addressable LED strip
• KingKong 5045-V2 3blade props
• 1,300mAh Bonka 45-90C 4S

Original DShot document on Github: HERE

You can buy Hobbywing XRotor 2205/2300kv worldwide: HERE

You can buy XRotor Micro BLHeli_s DShot600 ESCs worldwide: HERE

You can buy Hobbywing XRotor 2205/2300kv in Ukraine: HERE

You can buy XRotor Micro BLHeli_s DShot600 ESCs in Ukraine: HERE

Today, I want to share the new KDS Kylin 210 FPV racing copter frame build process, talk about its advantages and overall opinion about using it.

Last season, I’ve been using KDS Kylin 250 (280) RTF kit frame and setup and I want ot mention that despite more than 1000 flights and many crashes with some bad ones, this frame is still alive and flies perfectly.

The only drawback that it has currently is not due to its quality but rather due to the shifted pilot experience and demand. Kylin 250 is an excellent product but currently can compete on par only with other 250-class copters. This brings an issue when any competition series would not separate 180 class copters from any other classes and forces anyone to compete in one session despite the fact of totally different flight weights and setup power. Therefore, when it comes to participating in some events, we have to stay tuned to others setups and be on par with those.

KDS Kylin 210 frame is aimed to remove this difference. Recently, it looks like pilots have chosen to fly 200-210 class as the mainstream and Kylin 210 perfectly fits there.

The price of the frame is not much to talk about — only $23. Many frames cost much more than that. But even having such low price, this frame is not a compromise…

It comes in a bag with all necessary screws, carbon fiber plates and plastic mounts to complete the setup. Unfortunately, I couldn’t locate any assembly manual for that and this is the reason I am writing this short review.

In the bag:

• Four 4mm carbon fiber arms
• One 2mm carbon fiber base plate
• One 1,5mm carbon fiber battery plate
• One 1,5mm carbon fiber top plate
• Two 2mm carbon fiber camera mounting plates
• One 2mm carbon fiber VideoTX back plate
• Four alluminum standoffs
• Four plastic standoffs
• A set of M2 and M1.5 screws to join everything together

As you’d expect — this frame is fully carbon fiber material with plastic standoffs placed 30,5mm diagonally to accept any current flight control and PDB boards.

So, I would summarize all features:

• 30,5 mounts for any current FC and PDB boards
• Camera holders spacing to accept the most famous cameras like Foxeer or RunCam
• Special holes at the top plate to accept additional ring camera holders
• Plenty of room between bottom and top plates to have the 2-4 layer electronic sandwich
• Universal motor mounting holes to accept wide motor range
• Special top plate openings for VTX antenna connector
• Battery plate spaced from bottom plate to accept battery strap

As you can see, no problems here. Frame is capable of accepting any current racing electronics and is easy to work with.

Now, lets talk about the technical design in terms of durability:

What I’ve noticed in terms of «designed» durability is 4mm thick arms that have some «puzzle» design at the frame ends so that they would make one piece when placed toghether. This would definitely add much to the durability of each arm in case if force is applied from the front and sides.

Most of the force would be evenly spread around all screws and both arms at joints. Moreover, each arm has 3 screws and all 3 come through all 3 buttom parts — battery plate, arm and base plate. From that, I can make a prediction that this frame would last quite a long time.

All joints are well designed as well. Not only they retain parts but also kept minumin and serve a second role of supporting something else. Clever way of designing.

Lets assemble a frame:

• Take a base buttom plate, couple of arms, battery plate, 2 longest M2 screws and 2 M1.5 screws.

• Hold the base plate so that metal thread holes would be facing down (straight side is back).
• Take one arm, place it on top of the base plate and align it so that its 3 holes would correspond to 3 holes of a base plate.
• Take battery plate and place it over the arm so that its 3 corner holes would align with  arm holes. (Part with wide opening is back)
• Put 2 longest M2 srews through 2 outer holes off all 2 plates and arms assembly.

• Do the same for the rest of 3 arms.

• Take 4 aluminum standoffs and screw it on each of 4 screws furthest from the center of the frame.
• Take 4 M1.5 screws and put them through the whole assembly starting from battery plate, through arms and to the base plate threaded holes.
• Take 4 plastic standoffs and place them on top of the rest inner 4 long screws.

• Take 2 camera mounting plates, align its base with frame openings in front and near aluminum standoffs.
• Take VTX back plate and align it with the openings in battery holder plate.
• Cover everything with the top plate and use 4 shorter M2 screws to tie it to the aluminum standoffs.

• That is it. KDS Kylin 210 frame is assembled.

Everything fits perfectly well. I really enjoyed assembling this frame.

For my flying setup, I’ve chosen the following electronics:

• KDS Kylin 2204 2300KV motors
• KDS Kylin 20A ESC (OneShot125)
• FrSKY XSRF3E (F3Evo board with integrated XSR RX), BetaFlight
• Some regular PDB
• Foxeer 700TVL CMOS FPV cam
• KDS Kylin 5,8Ghz 600mW VTX
• Aomway 5.8Ghz cloverleaf antenna
• Some addressable LED strip
• KingKong 5045-V2 3blade props
• 1,300mAh Bonka 45-90C 4S

In my setup, I have only 2 layers of electronics because the receiver is intergrated into F3Evo flight board. But even if it is not — there is still a plenty of room between bottom and up plates to fit separate RX, buzzer and other parts. And action camera can be easily mounted on top because it is kept clean from anything else.

The flight season has not started yet here. The weather doesn’t allow some good flight sessions but from what I’ve tried — I can conclude that this frame and setup is much more ineteresting, powerful and lightweight in comparison to 250 class.

Kylin 210 with FC F3 Acro only weights — 94,5g.

My total setup weight: 288g. And my total flight weight with the battery — 440g. This is almost 100g less than the corresponding setup on 250 class frame. Seems that it would help a lot to have some more flight time, to compete on par with other 210 class frames and setups and to have some extra fun during the 3D freestyle. Can’t wait for a good weather to give this copter a really good try…

KDS Kylin 210 frame could be purchased HERE

Build a second frame with slightly different setup:

Cam: Foxeer 700TVL
VideoTX: 5.8GHz KDS Kylin 600mW
Antenna: clover, Aomway
Flight board: SpRacing F3Acro
Power DB: Matek
Motors: KDS Kylin 2204 2300kv
ESC: KDS Kylin 20A OneShot125
LiPO: FlyMod.net 1,300mAh, 4S, 45-90C
Props: 5x4x3

Urgent!!! Excellent offer if you are willing to buy FrSky Taranis QX7 and other FrSKY radios: the lowest price on the market AND 4-7 days express delivery worldwide!!! Such offers are rare, don’t miss that one!!!

Excellent FrSKY Taranis X9D Plus, more specialized Taranis X9E, new groundbreakng flagship Horus X12S and now the youngest brother in the FrSKY radio product lineup — Taranis Q X7. Claimed to have significantly lower price comparing to Taranis X9D Plus, this product is aimed to conquer minds of new hobby incomers and provide uncompromised experience for some tough budgets.

FrSKY premier dealers list

Link to the shop of my own preference 

FrSKY Taranis X9D Plus Special Edition is out (M9 gimbals, upgraded switches, new stick ends, detachable antenna, EVA case, new shell designs)

Now, welcome — the world’s first FrSKY Taranis Q X7 in white color!

For those who are not familiar with FrSKY Taranis Plus yet, I would like to shorty clarify why possessing FrSKY radios now is giving much more profit in a long term and why it outperforms almost any other competitors in price:

• First, it is the ACCST very reliable radio protocol that is proven to work at even the worst scenarios by many hobbyists around the world.
• Second, is the well developed accessories ecosystem that provides receivers, telemetry sensors and other products for any kind of a model and for any budget.
• Third, is the excellent OpenTX FW that is supported by all FrSKY radios that provides very flexible possibilities for any user.
• Forth, is the expandability option, thanks to having 1 inbuilt module and 1 external module bay of the JR type. One can have 32 channels in total.
• At last, it is all about the unbeatable ratio of price|quality|functionality that matters to any wise customer.

 Now, when we are done with the essential stuff let’s move forward to Q X7 review:

Technical characteristics:

• Quad Ball Bearing Gimbals with tension and length adjustment. Spring loading for throttle
• FrSKY ACCST XJT internal module + JR type bay for external module
• Up to 32 CH
• Full Telemetry + X, D, V8II receivers support
• Audio Speech Outputs, loudspeaker and headphones jack
• JR Trainer port
• microSD card slot
• miniUSB connector for PC
• possibility to solder SPort to the board
• 3inch 128×64 backlit screen
• 4 3pos switches, 1 momentary switch and 1 2pos switch
• 2 pots (right with center detent, left with no center detent)
• 4 trimmers
• Power of 6 — 15V capable, JST 2S balance plug
• Haptic feedback
• OpenTX 2.2 FW
• 3 color LED under power on/off button
• any many other great features
• W:200mm, H:170mm, D:50mm. Weight: 631g.

In the box:

1 x Taranis Q X7  1 x Neck Strap  1 x Neck Strap Balancer  1 x User Manual 1 x battery tray for AA battery cells

UPDATE: seems that last units are now shipped with the NiMH battery

IMPORTANT: EU LBT version of Taranis Q X7 would support only X and LR receivers. FCC version would support X, LR, D, V8II receivers.

IMPORTANT: soon the new product — M7 — Hall sensor magnetic aluminum gimbals for Taranis Q X7 would be on sale. For now, there are similar M9 gimbals for X9DPlus and X9D already available.

IMPORTANT — INITIAL RADIO & MODEL SETUP GUIDE: HERE

Look and Feel:

Q X7 incorporates a new, modern design comparing to more conservative Taranis Plus look. But this is a matter of how well does this radio handles in overall, right? I do like the newer design and I do like how it feels in hands. So, nothing to complain about here. Although, I would say that I would like this radio to be a bit heavier which can be solved by using some larger capacity battery. Black or white color — they both would be available from the start — is up to the customer. I’ve got white and think that this would help a lot in case if I’d do some shell paint in future.

Rubber grips are handy and do an excellent job here. No slipping out of the hands.

I can reach any switch on the radio with my fingers despite the fact that I am a two-finger pilot. Switches seem to be on par with what we used to in Taranis Plus and knobs with center detents are very tight. I like this — no longer would I accidently move it.

One of the good new additions — power button is now equipped with 3 color LED under it. This is used to inform a user about different radio states and warnings.

Q X7 comes with a neck strap and a balancer. Personally, I don’t use neck straps very often but it seems to be well balanced when used together.

Screen and navigation buttons:

Screen and navigation buttons section are neat and perfectly located. Moreover, I would say that using navigation and control buttons is where Q X7 outperforms its older brother — Taranis Plus. Using rotary encoder with center press for ENTER and 3 control buttons on the left is much quicker and convenient comparing to separate buttons of Plus radio. Someone mentioned that he would lack some button shortcuts, but I’d say that shortcuts are used rarely comparing to other settings and navigation. So, consequently, the total time used to set the model would significantly decrease.

The screen is 3inch and has 128х64 resolution. Brightness and contrast can be adjusted. Backlight is provided by 4 LEDs at the upper part of the screen. LED color is white.  Despite being smaller than the screen of X9DP — it still handles all the necessary information well. Nothing too small or unreadable. Unfortunately, I can still see the vertical line contrast difference in some sub-menus as in Taranis Plus but it is not a concern as long as the contrast is not dialed abnormally.

Loudspeaker and phones:

The loudspeaker seems to be revised to the point that it no longer produce RF interference noise and became a bit more clear and louder. The 3.5mm headphones jack at the top also performs well — it can reach very high volume levels and is not affected by the internal RF module.

There is one more element at the top — JR trainer jack.

The bottom part:

The bottom part has a rubber cover for microSD card slot and microUSB cable connector. (By the way, I’ve found that there is a place on the main board that is unused — for the Smart Port (GND, S.PT, +5V) (named CON400) that would be accessible through the bottom left hole of the case. S.Port on the bottom side (CON400) would not be physically available for early versions of the radio but would be a standard for all later releases (now, as of April 2017 — all radios come with S.PORT).

Large photo HERE.

This radio comes with no SD card, but having it is essential to use OpenTX FW and its external resources.

The back:

The back side has 2 covers: external JR type module and battery compartment. I’ve noticed that external module cover rattles a bit, but this can easily be fixed.

The battery bay has a physical dimensions of  W:92mm x H:57mm x D:15mm so, you can use whatever battery would fit there.

I’ve double checked the battery bay size again:

W: 92mm (remember that you have to fit wires also there) x H: 57mm (would be tight) x D:15-17mm

If you’d have 15-16mm depth battery — it would fit perfectly. You can fit 17-18mm battery but the battery bay cover might rub against the battery and it would be harder to remove it. The bay cover gets easily removed if you’d press it a bit inside to shift it from the holding openings in the shell… That is why 15 (16mm max) is preferred… but, you can even use 17mm battery depth

Example of the battery that should fit inside perfectly.

Keep in mind that this radio can handle from 6 up to 15V of incoming voltage and the battery connector is JST balance 2S plug. No inbuilt charging circuit and no charging port consequently. Q X7 claimed to have 210mAh power drain at most, so, even 1000mAh battery would last about 3 hours of continuous use.

UPDATE: seems that last units are now shipped with the NiMH battery

The sticks:

Sticks seem to be directly deposited from X9D Plus — the same quad bearing design and overall feel with one major change — throttle comes spring-loaded from the factory. Personally, I don’t use spring loaded throttle and had to adjust one screw inside the radio to get rid of that. Sticks tension and length can also be adjusted. There is also a ratchet option for both sticks.

When looking on the insides — stick cables are all neatly tied together with the special plastic lasso. I had to give each cable a bit more length to get the smoothest movements. In overall, I would say that Taranis X9DP and Q X7 are the same in terms of the sticks and how they feel.

The insides:

What is really good in this radio is how easy it is to disassemble. Only 4 screws to unscrew and no longer to loosen upper switches base to open the shell.

From the very first glance we can see that the antenna is no longer soldered to the board — it has a standard connector and can be easily exchanged.

Concerning the rest — everything seems to be assembled neatly and well. No signs of bad soldering or messy wiring. I would say that there is nothing to worry about at all.

This radio features the latest XJT radio module compatible with all X, D and V8II receivers and has full telemetry support. It would also come in FCC and EU LBT FW versions for different regions. I hope that antenna connector would stay after passing FCC and EU certification

The FW:

The radio comes with OpenTX 2.2 (nightly) preinstalled. I believe that when Q X7 would get released the FW would be updated to stable version. There is not much of a difference to Taranis X9D Plus firmware except for the look of the main and subsequent screen when pressing PAGE button. This has to do with the screen size and some information has changed its location. Anyway, everything is perfectly readable and usable. Main system and model menus are the same.

To get the latest FW version and SD card contents, please, check this page (first post): HERE (I always maintain the latest data in that thread)

By the way, I have discovered the new feature that I didn’t mention in the video — whenever we see a horizontal line on the main and subsequent screens with the press of the PAGE button — if we would scroll with the encoder the bottom half of the screen would show the next corresponding values. Example: when we are at channels monitoring screen at the bottom half we see only 8 channels output — scrolling with the encoder would shift to the next 8 channels and so on. At the same time, the horizontal bar in the middle of the screen would also shift the selection to indicate which number of the channels listing we are at currently. Good.

I couldn’t find Lua support in the current FW nightly build, therefore, cannot check how it works and looks but I hope that there are would be no changes except for the adoption of the smaller resolution.

DFU and bootloader mode are present. Either the radio is switched off and goes to DFU when connected to PC or it forwards all the resources to PC when switched on with trim buttons to center. OpenTX Companion latest build already has Taranis X7 profile but is not yet able to handle radio settings and models. Waiting for the final release or the next version update.

The test:

I wated to compare Q X7 and Taranis Plus in terms of radio signal strength. For this, I’ve taken 1 RX8R receiver and used it with both radios one after another. I’ve left the radios on the table and travelled the same distance through 3 floors of my house to find a room where both radios would report RSSI warnings. Both radios lost the signal at the same room — my garage. But, according to the video — you can see that two radios interpret RSSI figures in some different way or|and with different request periods. Sometimes Q X7 shows larger RSSI value while travelling through the house, sometimes Taranis Plus shows a better value. Moreover, Plus has somehow managed to record RSSI = 12 and Q X7 recorded the smallest RSSI = 46 (although there were lower RSSI values on the screen). So, I would say that it is too early to conclude something. To test both radios in the same conditions we have to use the same OpenTX 2.2 FW + it should be stable. The only conclusion so far — both lost the signal at the same room. Seems that both radios should handle signal similarly.

Conclusion:

I really like this new FrSKY product — Taranis Q X7. Its main aim is to satisfy newcomers and tight budgets not compromising the overall functionality. And I think that as long as the price would be reasonable — this little beast would outperform any other competitor in terms of price|quality|functionality ratio. The final word is awaited from the manufacturer’s side — the verdict on price (UPDATE: officially stated price is $105). Hope that it would not be a miss and this radio would be able to attract a whole bunch of new users to the FrSKY worldwide community.

Download User Manual 

IMPORTANT — INITIAL RADIO & MODEL SETUP GUIDE: HERE

UPDATE: done some painting mod:

How this mode was done:

I used locally made NewTone spray paints:

Blue color — fluorescent — 3 layers, no primer
Structure black for plastic — 3 layers, no primer
And matt lacquer over all the paint — 3 layers

I’ve removed screen glass by heating it. I’ve removed FrSKY metallic letters from the top by heating it. And I’ve covered hand grips to protect them. And the rest of the radio was completely disassembled. It is better to protect and not to paint the following shell parts: base for screen glass, base of battery bay cover. If you’d paint those — parts might not fit together well because there would be 3-6 layers of paint.

Fluorescent paint is semi-transparent and requires white color as a primer layer. White radio shell is excellent for this.

Link to the shop of my own preference 

FrSKY Taranis X9D Plus Special Edition is out (M9 gimbals, upgraded switches, new stick ends, detachable antenna, EVA case, new shell designs)

Recently, racing and acrobatic copters became very popular, especially small frames setups. Many events run worldwide, much competition on the market, lot of newcomers to start their r|c hobby in this segment. And if a year ago we would fly different setups and buy different frames and electronics, now most of the things have been brought to some obvious standards — 180-250 class frames, F3|F4 flight controllers, FrSKY Taranis radios, CleanFlight|BetaFlight FW, etc. This also leads to different manufacturers starting to present all-in-one electronic sandwaiches for copters equipped with different options to keep the weight down and maintain the ease of setup.

FrSKY would also jump into this boat and today I would like to introduce their new products — latest SpRacing F3Evo boards with integrated XM+ or XSR receivers:

• FrSKY XMPF3E (F3Evo with integrated XM+, no telemetry, only RSSI to F3Evo, priced $35)
• FrSKY XSRF3E (F3Evo with integrated XSR, full telemetry, priced $42).

These long model names are just the abbreviation of two names — SpRacing F3Evo board and XM+ or XSR FrSKY receivers.

What is good about those products? XM+ or XSR receivers are intergrated to the latest F3Evo board, still keeping most of the additional features of both products.

Of course, SpRacing F3Evo and XSRF3E or XMPF3E boards are not completely the same. A slightly different layout and amount of I|O ports in favor of having built-in receivers. But most of the features are still there for the most of the user demands. It is not a compromise and you would not lack something in comparison to genuine SpRacing board.

Technical Specifications XMPF3E:

• 36×36×6mm (L × W × H) with 30.5mm mounting holes
• STM32F303 CPU (72Mhz inc FPU), MPU9250 (accelerometer/gyro/compass), and BMP280 barometer for F3EVO, CC2510 CPU for XM+ receiver
• 16CH (8CH is RSSI) by SBUS to UART2 Rx of F3EVO
• Voltage Range: 4.0~10V
• Current: 100mA@5V
• Supports: FrSky Taranis X9D/X9E/ Horus X12S/XJT in D16 mode
• Weight: 7g
• 6 PWM outputs from F3Evo
• Separate SBUS output port on the board for XM+ (upgrading and CH output)
• Blackbox microSD card onboard
• Full range receiver
• CleanFilght|BetaFlight ready (comes with Betaflight from the factory)
• Race transponder ready

Technical Specifications XSRF3E:

• Full telemetry downlink to|from UART3 of F3Evo
• 36×36×6mm (L × W × H) with 30.5mm mounting holes
• STM32F303 CPU (72Mhz inc FPU), MPU9250 (accelerometer/gyro/compass), and BMP280 barometer for F3EVO
• 16CH (8CH is RSSI) by SBUS to UART2 Rx of F3EVO
• Voltage Range: 4.0~10V
• Current: 200mA@5V
• Supports: FrSky Taranis X9D/X9E/ Horus X12S/XJT in D16 mode
• Weight: 6g
• 6 PWM outputs from F3Evo
• Separate SPort output port on the board for XSR (upgrading and telemetry output)
• Full range receiver
• CleanFilght|BetaFlight ready (comes with Betaflight from the factory)
• Flight controller PIDs can be configured with LUA scripts from Taranis radios over telemetry and SPort
• Race transponder ready

main differences between 2 boards are in bold letters.

As you can see from the technical description, the main difference between 2 boards is that XSRF3E does support full telemetry + OTA PID configuration over SPort and XMPF3E doesn’t do that (it can only output RSSI value to CH8 of F3Evo). But, at the same time XMPF3E has an additional feature — microSD card slot for blackbox logging. Hard decision, right? Either to go with full telemtry and buy separate blackbox or stick to onboard blackbox and have no telemetry, only optional OSD… It is up to you.

In the box:

XMPF3E comes in the box that includes a short user manual, 5 JST-SH sets of connector pins, JST-SH connector with 6 cables for PWM output and microSD card (1Gb) for blackbox.

XSRF3E comes in the same package but with no microSD card because it doesn’t feature onboard blackbox logger.

Features:

XMPF3E has the following layout that describes all the features it has:

Besides having all the latest accelerometer/gyro/compass/barometer and blackbox logger, it also has additional inputs for:

• LED strip
• Buzzer
• Race transponder
• OSD
• Battery voltage and current monitoring

there are additional unused ports available for a user:

• UART3
• UART1
• SBUS XM+ output + upgrade

So, having everything described above you can make a 100% working setup with optional OSD, optional race transponder, onboard blackbox logging, optional buzzer, optional LED stips and so on. Moreover, you can have 16CH via SBUS output for your external devices and upgrade XM+ receiver with SBUS port.

XSRF3E has a slightly different layout:

It also features the latest accelerometer/gyro/compass/barometer but with no blackbox data logger. And has additional inputs for:

• LED strip
• Buzzer
• Race transponder
• OSD
• Battery voltage and current monitoring

there are additional unused ports available for a user:

• UART1
• SPort XSR for telemetry output and upgrade

So, again, having everything described above you can make a 100% working setup with optional OSD, optional buzzer, optional LED stips, full telemetry link to your radio and so on. But with no SBUS CH output to external devices and with optional blackbox logger. Moreover, you can upgrade XSR receiver through SPort and output telemetry to external devices as well as to use OTA PID tuning from your radio. And the main feature in case of using XSRF3E — having all telemetry values from your F3E board to your radio via SPort telemetry. Which values? All described THERE. Probably, you would be aslo able to connect additional SPort sensors using SPort pins on the board. But this should be yet checked.  

Made a wiring diagram:

It is interesting that XSRF3E uses usual-sized servo pins for SPort output from the receiver on the board. XMPF3E uses smaller pins for SBUS port output.

Frequent question is where to connect ESC grounds to XSRF3E and XMPF3E — you can solder all ground ESC wires together and than to any ground contact of either FC, I prefer to solder it to incoming from PDB to FC voltage GND contact. Or, you can choose any other more convenient soldering GND pad.

FW setup specifics (CleanFlight and BetaFlight):

First, you have to bind your receiver to the radio in order to see channel monitor in the CleanFlight | BetaFlight FW. For this, you have a dedicated bind button on the board and 2 LEDs (red and green) as in any other FrSKY receiver. Press and hold this button while powering your board with microUSB, set your radio to D16 and bind mode, wait until red led on the board would flash and green would be lit, turn eveything of and turn on again. Bind is ready. Now, you can proceed to the CleanFlight | BetaFlight setup using your microUSB cable connected to the board (CleanFlight and BetaFlight GUI are the extention appllications for Chrome and could be found in Chrome Shop).

XMPF3E has the following musts on configuration:

• UART2 has to be confiugured as Serial RX
• Receiver mode should be RX_Serial
• Serial Receiver Provider should be SBUS
• RSSI_ADC Analog RSSI Input should be disabled
• RSSI channel should be 8

XSRF3E has the following musts on configuration:

• UART2 has to be confiugured as Serial RX
• UART3 has to be SmartPort
• Receiver mode should be RX_Serial
• Serial Receiver Provider should be SBUS
• RSSI_ADC Analog RSSI Input should be disabled
• RSSI channel should be 8 (or disabled. RX would still transmit RSSI value to radio without F3Evo board settings for this)

The main difference in this section is that UART3 port in XSRF3E board would be busy with SPort telemetry data coming from XSR receiver. Moreover, it gives you a great advantage — a possibility to tune board PIDs over the telemetry channel. To get this to work you should have BetaFlight 3.1 on your flight controller,  OpenTX 2.2 with Lua support on your Taranis radio, have this script on your SD card in SCRIPTS/TELEMETRY (not more than 6 characters in the file name), set it in MODEL — Telemetry settings (Page 14|14) as one of the 4 dedicated telemetry screens… That is it! Or, in case if it doesn’t work — put it in SCRIPTS folder on your SD, navigate to SD card browser, find the script, execute it and have fun — checked — it’s working.

photo source — flymod.net

XSRF3E telemetry:

The following sensors are transmitted back to the radio (partially taken from here):

• RSSI — seems to be sent directly to radio from receiver. Even with RSSI switched off on the F3Evo board — we still see the value.
• A4 : average cell value. Warning : unlike FLVSS sensors, you do not get actual lowest value of a cell, but an average : (total lipo voltage) / (number of cells)
• Alt : barometer based altitude, init level is zero.
• Vspd : vertical speed, unit is cm/s.
• Hdg : heading, North is 0°, South is 180°.
• AccX,Y,Z : accelerometers values.
• Tmp1 : actual flight mode, sent as 4 digits. Number is sent as (1)1234. Please ignore the leading 1, it is just there to ensure the number as always 5 digits (the 1 + 4 digits of actual data) the numbers are aditives (for example, if first digit after the leading 1 is 6, it means GPS Home and Headfree are both active) : 1 is GPS Hold, 2 is GPS Home, 4 is Headfree, 1 is mag enabled, 2 is baro enabled, 4 is sonar enabled, 1 is angle, 2 is horizon, 4 is passthrough, 1 is ok to arm, 2 is arming is prevented, 4 is armed
• Tmp2 (only of there is GPS sensor available) : GPS lock status, Number is sent as 1234, the numbers are aditives : 1 is GPS Fix, 2 is GPS Home fix, not used, not used, number of sats
• VFAS : actual vbat value.
• GAlt : GPS altitude, sea level is zero.
• GSpd : current speed, calculated by GPS.
• GPS : GPS coordinates.
• Cels : average cell value, vbat divided by cell number. Didn’t find this. Seems to be Vfas or A4.
• RxBAT : voltage of F3E
• Curr : current from main battery if sensor is used, unit in mA
• Fuel : something is provided but cannot figure out that yet

Flight setup and tuning:

I would not focus on this part because all settings, PIDs and configuration is done the same way as you would do it for any other board capable of running CleanFlight | BetaFlight FW. It is better to refer to FW documentation or SpRacing manual in order to understand how eveything works. Besides, I am still waiting for the new 210 frames from KDS Kylin… I would add some information here about my setup as soon as it would arrive and I’d manage to get it into the air. I have XSRF3E & XMPF3E boards from FrSKY and would use it as my next flight controllers (updated — setup is ready, written in the end of this review).

Upgrading receiver FW in XSRF3E and XMPF3E boards:

As usually, built-in receivers in both boards would be available as FCC and EU LBT versions of FW. Whenever you buy the wrong version, you would be able to upload the required FW and upgrade it in future.

In case of XSRF3E it is a straightforward — you have SPort pins (SPort, +5, G) on the board which you can use to upgrade XSR receiver from your Taranis radio or using Upgrade Stick or FUC cable.

In case of XMPF3E it is not so logical but still — you have SBUS pins on the board (SBUS, +5, G) which would act the same as SPort during the upgrade process. You can also use your radio or upgrade stick or FUC cable.

But remember, firmware for the receivers that are a part of F3E board is not the same as the FW for standalone XSR and XM+ receivers. If you’d just try to upload such standalone FW inside the built-in receivers — they wouldn’t work. There would be separate FW for  receivers in XSRF3E and XMPF3E on FrSKY website. 

My current setup using XSRF3E board:

Frame: KDS Kylin 210

Cam: Foxeer 700TVL
VideoTX: 5.8GHz DalRC 600mW
Antenna: clover, Aomway
Flight board: FrSky XSRF3E (F3Evo with built-in XSR)
Power DB: FlyMod.net BEC/ZMR
Motors: KDS Kylin 2204 2300kv
ESC: KDS Kylin 20A OneShot125
LiPO: FlyMod.net 1,300mAh, 4S, 45-90C
Props: 5x4x3
Total weight (everything except LiPO): 300g

Flies great. Yes, I had to use some silicone dampers to mount the flight board, but see no problems with vibes after that.

Conclusion: 

Both flight controller boards from FrSKY have detachable antennas. Whenever you’d kill one or both — you would be able to exchange it. Both have the same physical and mounting size. Therefore, the only decision you should make is about Telemetry + PIDs OTA configuration VS Blackbox. The rest of the features are almost the same.

So, what are the pros and cons of using XMPF3E or XSRF3E instead of SpRacing F3Evo?

Pros:

• built in 16CH SBUS XM+ or XSR receiver
• keeps the weight lower
• keeps the setup easier and smaller
• RSSI on CH8
• 16CH SBUS separate output for XM+
• SPort telemetry output for XSR
• external receiver still can be used
• price is very attractive

Cons:

• UART2 is busy with the receiver in case of XM+
• UART2 and UART3 are busy with the receiver in case of XSR
• 6PWM output instead of 8PWM
• No I2C for external screen or sensors

What are the pros and cons of using XMPF3E instead of XSRF3E?

Pros:

• microSD card slot for blackbox data log
• 16CH SBUS output to external devices

Cons:

• No telemetry
• No OTA PID tuning

What are the pros and cons of using XSRF3E instead of XMPF3E? 

Pros:

• full telemetry to|from UART3 of the F3Evo
• SPort output to external devices
• OTA PID tuning

Cons:

• no onboard blackbox

That is all folks. Make your decision!!

You can buy FrSKY XMPF3E from FrSKY premium dealers

You can buy FrSKY XSRF3E from FrSKY premium dealers

FrSKY XMPF3E in the shop of my own preference

FrSKY XSRF3E in the shop of my own preference

Kylin 210 frame

Stay tuned, more to come…