i am going to be a hater of betafpv, their position in the market, hyped toughtless products. probably im wrong with my interpretation, please share your opinion

what i tried from betafpv was motors, a xknight 4inch pnp, now a 95x whoop frame. a gopro bec.
the motors are pretty okish value for money from my view, as i know betafpv isnt a motor manufacturer, im not sure if i should give any credit to betafpv about this.
regardless the rcinpower 1505, there was the opposide of something nice on the rest. i dont have an opinion about the aio board as the bad framedesngn gave physical damage to the board, destroy an esc  in a tiny crash. vtx is bad or the antenna, probably both. the cam isnt manufactured by betafpv xD

i baught the 95x frame as cinewhoop platform. 
the frame comes without screws for the board/stack, pretty anoying as these are unusual screws for fpv hardware. somehow usual for tinywhoops, but the real tiny ones.
as the betafpv gopro bec us a very unusual conector, seems they dont realy care about costumer intrests, more about addiction. i needed to do an aditional adapter to get it work on various quads...
the frame seems toughtless to me in general, theres a carbon stiffener plate, but supid thing is the board mount is on the plasticpart. 

seems to my there is some hype about betafpv, their marketing suggest they care about costumer suggestions. i see my very very old kingkong/ldarc et125 frame next to it, 3years old?
it seems like the we are going in the opposide direction than improvement :
the kk frame is more durable, less weight, more toughtfull... 

i beleive other brands, should earn more credit, get more hype: happymodel, kingkong/ldarc, eachine...
all produce somehow unfinished products with some mistakes but less than the new giant in the tiny market betafpv. diatone does more finished products, emax...
regardless this all of them did much more innovation for fpv by create or somehow copy sort of builds.
seems beta just pick the cherrys, doesnt let the tree grow...

i guess we has the peak of buildculture. 
diatone did the a 3inch gtm3, there came another the gtr345? the second was hyped for their speed.. but as andyrc messured; the older one was faster. 
the gtm3 has faster topend, is more lightweight... the improvement ofthe gtr isnt for the costumer, less manufacturing costs. older ditones have better value for money.

at the moment i would vote for many old products befor some new ones, this make me sad. where will we go? how will this turn with the jungle of stupid regulations over the world?

as i decided to hide frsky gneraly to use my force as costumer ( xD not so much force) to turn the market more to my needs. i should probably do the same, or care more, with other products/brands.
how focused do you choose brands or products thisway?

I don't own any BetaFPV products but I share some of your views. For some of the RC hobby manufacturers it now all just seems to be about making a profit as quickly as possible and banging out the next product as soon as they can while the hype is still there with no real care for quality. Look at all the whoops that suddenly flooded the market 18 months ago, then all the HD whoops, then all the "toothpicks" (even 4" "toothpicks" ), then all the Cinewhoops. Once the manufacturers have your money, any issues are then "your problem". 

Some of these companies are also so desperate to get a piece of the action before the hype dries up that they just quickly bodge together hardware designs and then slap together half-baked BNF quads which last all of a few flights before they already start showing signs of poor QC. BetaFPV and iFlight seem to be two of the worst offenders for doing this.

i break the plastik-part of the 95x frame xD at four points on the same crash xD
i had to laughter about, i am free to buy from another brand xD
„plastik“ should be out of different material xD

I agree, I have 2 tinywhoops both have had numerous breaks and vtx replacements. I'm currently rebuilding the beta85 with vtx number 3, And I am now in the process of skipping the shoddy products and building my own 2 inch using the china knock off slam nasty frame (at least it's carbon) .Betafpv and Emaxx are on my do not buy list .

I've always been saying it's like Fast Fashion for drones - pump out as many models as you can as quickly as you can and never mind the quality control. By the time customer break it, there will be a new model to buy and an army of youtube marketing affiliates to pimp their miracle tonics. Like Forever 21 sells disposable fashionwear, these guys are hocking disposable drones.

Anecdotally, have you ever complained to betaFPV about a product? No questions asked they send you a replacement part. In my case, it was a beta65 VTX. It was much cheaper to send me the crappily manufactured part for pennies than to waste even a minute trying to troubleshoot my email. That should speak volumes.

And to be clear, it is not just BetaFPV. I'd lump the majority of these new(er) manufacturers into this cohort: iFlight, Diatone, GEPRC, etc.

I dunno mate I reason geprc is a pretty good brand? I don’t have much experience but I bought a frame of there’s and it was well packed and manufactured. Mind you their 16x16 stack did blow up on me but that could of been my soldering.

I had high hopes for betafpv when I first heard of them but in recent months I've been getting the feeling that the quality is so-so. I guess most of these brands throw enough shit at the wall to make a few good products and we have to be careful and try to find them which is a bit annoying.

Take iflight as another example, in general people seem very happy with the motors and some people seem very happy with everything but then you hear some people having quite a bit of trouble with their electronics. As just slightly above noob level I find it difficult to then figure out if you can trust the parts or not. I guess it's a sliding scale of more or less of a gamble where some items from some brands are pretty safe and others items are more likely to fail.

So, as a noob, what brands can I trust if I don't want to build?

(24-Sep-2020, 06:29 AM)ph2t Wrote: I dunno mate I reason geprc is a pretty good brand? I don’t have much experience but I bought a frame of there’s and it was well packed and manufactured. Mind you their 16x16 stack did blow up on me but that could of been my soldering.

Bro. I have seen your builds. They are works of art. It was *not* your soldering LOLLL.

My remarks may have been harsh. I'm sure 1 or 2 products come off the assembly line without flaws now and then lol jk.

(24-Sep-2020, 06:17 PM)Sphere Wrote: So, as a noob, what brands can I trust if I don't want to build?

It is so hit or miss. I actually used to think Diatone was going to break that shenzen-fast-fashion mold. Not so much. I'd even read about them admitting to QC issues. I suspect it is the nature of the highly competitive beast over there. At some point the cost-benefit analysis actually says QC is not worth it.

So to answer your question, sorry but none.

(24-Sep-2020, 03:58 AM)FPV_MOJO Wrote: I agree, I have 2 tinywhoops both have had numerous breaks and vtx replacements. I'm currently rebuilding the beta85 with vtx number 3, And I am now in the process of skipping the shoddy products and building my own 2 inch using the china knock off slam nasty frame (at least it's carbon) .Betafpv and Emaxx are on my do not buy list .

Well, I would like to start by asking what "china knock off slam nasty frame (at least it's carbon)" are you buying? Do you have a link to that product ??

As for BetaFPV...well... I keep hearing a lot about poor quality control, however, I have purchased a lot of BetaFPV products in the past and have not had any issues with them. I will say that these were brushed motor whoop products except for the Meteor 65S which is a 65mm brushless whoop. All of the products have been of the quality that I expected; toy grade. The whoop frames are plastic and have held up quite well as have other BetaFPV items.
Even though I have had NO problems (no complaints), I am a little spooked about buying from them in the future.

I only have one EMAX product, a TinyHawk Freestyle, but have NOT had any issues, it has not been upgraded, nothing has broken, and it still flies; quite well I might add. 

Highly Regarding GEPRC... I believe they make quality products. I have purchased 2 GEPRC Phantoms, several frames, a few sets of different size motors, a couple of 16x16 stacks {one of which is in the Phantom-X and holding up quite well to what ever I throw at it}. The YouTube reviews of GEPRC products that I have watched all indicate that the brand and the products are solid. They also appear to be a mature company. 
For my money, GEPRC is solid and has quality products. 

As for iFlight... the only iFlight products that I have purchased has been flight controller stacks; 16x16 and 20x20. I have not yet used the 20x20 stack, but the 16x16 stack is in the Phantom-i and, so far, I have had NO issues. 
I will likely still buy iFlight products, if they have something that I like, but I will be cautious.

I also like the JHEMCU flight controllers and have them in both the Katana-LR4 and the Katana-LR5x builds.
The products appear to be of good quality and work well. 

But then...that is just me. 

I really like the betaflight hx115 frame this has been my backyard basher all summer with a betafpv fc and emax motors. Bought spare motors and a frame but haven't used any spares. Frame shows no dents, cracks delamination or issues at all.

Last couple years the tinyhawk freestyle has been the basher. On 1s indoors I destroyed a lot of motors, on 2s outdoor the frame continually broke but I had no motor issues flying outdoors.

Both of these have been impressive considering the use and abuse but the betafpv has really surprised me with its durability. I put about 6-12 packs through this everyday after work and many more on weekends. I'd not hesitate to try more products based on this despite all the negative's I've read about.

I have a BetaFPV TwigXL 3”, and it’s a ton of fun to fly. However, the BetaFPV AIO flight controllers keep breaking during situations that they should be perfectly fine. I’m now replacing with a HIFIONRC board I have on my Tiny Trainer, which works well. I’m done with BetaFPV FCs.

I have an iFlight Titan XL5 on 6S and that thing has been a tank. It has taken some serious abuse but keeps going. The only part that sucks is the iFlight GPS module. Reception is poor on the original and replacement they sent me, even after relocating to the top plate of the quad. I also have a Titan H3 HD and it’s been pretty rock solid so far as well. Between these 3 builds, the iFlights feel noticeably better built and quality than the BetaFPV, but they are a bit heavy so you pay for it in weight.

I have a HIFIONRC F7 2-4s 25A ESC AIO (26x26 whoop style) that I am using in the Phantom-4X build.
We will see how it works out and how it performs. Feature wise, this board is very similar to the JHEMCU GHF405.

As a NOOB, the BetaFPV Whoop Racing Advanced Kit V2 with VR01 goggles, LiteRadio2 transmitter, Meteor 75 Lite quad, two BT2.0 batteries, a charger, and case for it all ...

Has been serious joy grade.

1) Everything worked, worked well, and has continued to work well for over 60 five minute flights so far (5 hours total flying time)
2) The $200 everything included price bought a lot of fun so far, and a surprising amount of technology. 
3) BetaFPV support has been responsive to every question and suggestion I have made.
4) The fact that the transmitter runs OpenTX and can be configured with OpenTX Companion (even from a Mac) allowed serious learning - definitely not toy grade.
5) The Meteor 75 Lite quad on 1S 450 batteries has great power to save dropping from the ceiling, and yet allows five minute flights.
6) The fact that I can wear readers inside the goggles, is real joy.  If that had not been possible it would have made the kit "kill joy grade"

Could BetaFPV have delivered the kit with better rates and throttle curve for total noobs?  That would have made me rate the kit a five out of five, instead of just four out of five.

I love my BetaFPV Whoop Racing Advanced Kit V2 (Frsky), but that "Advanced Kit" nomer is certainly applicable.  No toy here.

the meteor 65 acro I have has been nothing but .........joygrade. the only thing I've had to do is charge batteries, put props on it, oil the motors, and clean the camera lens. And tweak some settings in BF for personal preference. I was shocked how well it flew out of the box.