So... yesterday's post brought this enigmatic grey baggie from downtown...
Ahh... Okay. It's my order from Bang-em-good; guess they had to relabel downtown for last-mile delivery. $69 for a 105mm wheelbase Brushless FPV NanoQuad kit, COMPLETE with VTX, camera, and 5 sets of props. All you have to add is a nano receiver to match whatever RC transmitter you're using. What's not to love about this deal...? I added a spare set of hardware and upgrade TPU camera pod as they were only a few dollars each.
Hmmm... VERY iPackaging, replete with QR code.
EACHINE has come a long way since the plain brown boxes and Ziplok baggiezz of a few years ago.
Mhmmm... TPU camera pod is squishy... but not too squishy. I like it.
A bit furry tho. Interesting to see hobbyist-grade 3DP being used for production quantity manufacturing; I wonder how many of these kits BG actually moves in a quarter...?
It will def need a wee bit of touchup.
Well, they're not gonna do a lot of detailing for $4 delivered.
This is what they say it's SUPPOSED TA look like on the quad. A bit nicer than what came in the box.
In Da Box: One TPU camera pod, a little carbon fiber cross frame (sorry... pic of that was fuzzy as hell) and a bunch of boring little crack baggies with the individual parts inside. There's the EACHINE feel we all know & love.
The TPU camera Pod fits a 20mm stack to a nano mountless FPV Cam/VTX as are commonly used on brushed "Tiny Whoop" type ducted-fan quadcopters. These cam kits are typically very light (2-4 grams total) and very cheap ($15-25)
The camera lens will pop into the round slot; the tiny VTX board will go across the flat on the back with the little protrusion supporting the antenna. Typically they mount with uber-sticky foam emblem tape or get glued down with clear silicone RTV sealant.
Here's a quick mock-up so you can see what the general layout is; I was in the middle of another problem with my son and his vidiot games so I had to forego taking pics of each individual part and the usual "ooohing and ahhhing". I may follow up with more pics later.
On the left is a similar 120mm wheelbase build on a custom frame from some friends of mine in the trade; when I got that frame the whole idea of a stack of 20mmx20mm boards was still very new as almost everything was still 30mmx30mm. Now 20mm is "huge" and we have "toothpick" frames based on a 16mmx16mm stack.
In the back is my antique (~2.5 years old) TAROT TL130 FPV MicroQuad; technology has advanced to the point that the only thing I can really use from it is the motors & props, and they're still "fat pigs" by today's standards.
All these tiny quads are a direct result of the crazy 250 gram limitation imposed by the US FAA; they're trying to kill old-school model aviation by requiring full telemetry and transponder and registration on any model aircraft heavier than "two sticks of butter".
Other nations have adopted this limit without any real consideration of how ridiculously small it is.
But there's still a lot of fun to be had with the tinies, and tiny quads means tiny LiPos and motors; this translates into smaller, cheaper everything which reduces cost-of-entry greatly. I'm loving it.
mnem