So here I am... emerging from "noob" to "a little bit of experience and knowledge" and I get what from the reviews looked like an awesome ARF quad... UAVFutures raved about it, other articles made it sound like the best thing since a custom build. I placed my order back in mid April thinking that it would be delivered by the end of the month (the page said it'd be shipped on the 25th)... what I didn't pay attention to was that it was May 25th when it would ship out assumed that I'd get this quad before I had the chance to build my own and if I had then I might have felt very different about it. 

Overall after flying the bumblebee I was underwhelmed and uncomfortable flying the diatone. Both the vortex and the bumblebee sort of "clicked" for me with the vortex making me feel like I could fly better than simulators, and the bumblebee making me feel like I could fly better than the vortex.... the diatone makes it feel like I've stepped back to the vortex only it's much lighter which actually creates a disturbing floaty (unsnappy*) feeling. 

Here are some pictures



Note: before I get started, I would like to point out that I have about 5 months of experience so I am no expert. My review is my opinions and not an expert review. For that go look at everyone else's glowing love fests of the quad :p 

Also I reference my other 2 mini quads the bumblebee (my first build) and the vortex (my first ARF miniquad). I've added links to their threads for reference. 

First: Unboxing
One thing that a lot of the reviews say is so great about this quad is what's in the box, however to me it felt sloppy and excessive. Essentially it's some foam, a bunch of cables that you'll never need, 3 or 4 instructions pages on how to put together a quad that's already put together   and some extra hood parts (camera mount/roll cage thingy)... What I don't like about it is how it's all just thrown in there sloppily. I mean at least put a rubber band around the baggies or something. The other thing that I noticed in mine was that the anti-static bag with the quad in it was already cut open. My guess is this is because you usually recieve the parts unassembled and this version is assembled? I dont really know but it felt lack-luster overall.

Accessories observation continued:

The cables are cables that are already used in the quad and often are duplicates. If they wanted to include multiples in order to give diverse options it would have been much cooler to include cables that would work as plug and play for popular receivers. oh well though. Maybe the connectors will come in handy in the future for other builds or something.

Next: The defect and the camera
Once again I've recieved a quad where I can't be sure if I have a defect or if a crash caused my problem but my camera is damaged. The mount on the right side when looking at the camera has come off of the housing and as a result the camera doesn't hold it's position. I may upload the video of me starting off with one angle and then having to figure out how to land with a 0% or less camera angle.... The props in the frame are distracting for me anyway, but I am learning to get used to it. However, when they start at the bottom of the frame at start and are at the top later... it's very disorienting... not to mention already being tough to fly with unusual angles. 

When I tried to take the camera out the screws aren't coming out so I'll probably have to cut the thing out when I am ready to replace it. 

On top of it being broke the FOV is completely different than the other cameras I've been flying. The fisheye quality is gone... which sure, to some that could be a good thing but I've learned with that view and for it to be gone makes it very tough to fly. 

Next: Noob Friendliness
The one thing that I do like about this quad is that I think it would make a decent first quad for someone with simulator experience... it's tough (I've already crashed it 5 or 6 times with only prop damage and possibly camera issues) and if you aren't used to the fisheye effect from other cameras the view might not be so bad. It's fast but you can lower the camera angle witch helps you keep it slower as you learn. The set up in betaflight is a little more involved than something like the vortex which was really ready right out of the box, but with a little research it's not too tough. In fact my thread Here shows how I had to do more config for the bumblebee. 

I wouldn't recommend it for someone without sim experience... then again in my head I can't imagine anyone starting without sim experience on anything other than toys... it sounds like an exercise in frustration

Finally: Flight characteristics
This quad flys well. It feels kinda floaty (unsnappy*). I'd almost like it to fall faster, and the fact that I didn't feel like I could see right really hampered my ability to put it through the wringer. It may be capable of flying as good as the bumblebee but it didn't feel as intuitive to me. It felt like I had to overthink everything. I think if I give it another 10-15 batteries I'll be able to fly it well but I went home early due to the fact that my day was just being a really bad flying day between the camera troubles on this one and the battery troubles on the bumblebee. After I get the camera going either with a new lens or a new camera entirely I'll give it some more effort  

Summary:
Overall... I give the diatone a frustrated-3 out of 5... I was so excited about this quad and thought it would feel amazing and fast but instead so far it's just been a hassle. Part of the problem may be from having high expectations and I am aware of that. Perhaps with more time I'll get used to it, get the camera right, and fall in love but right now we're just friends :p I will absolutely do a follow-up on this thread as I've had more time to get used to it.

* Note: I have updated this review to reflect the home made word of "unsnappy" based on updated experience and insight from voodoo614. Follow up thread will likely come in a week or so from now. I definitely feel a little better about it (1,2)

Nice, honest, review Carl. Sorry about the camera frustrations. It'll be interesting to see if (and how) it does "grow on you".

Easy to be honest when its you 300 bucks on the line.

We shall see

Nicely done Carl, honest and straight forward....we could use more like this.

Nice write up Carl, I think I know what the problem is though. You did such a good job on the bumblebee build that it's got you spoiled!

(28-May-2017, 03:26 AM)RENOV8R Wrote: Nice write up Carl, I think I know what the problem is though.  You did such a good job on the bumblebee build that it's got you spoiled!

Thanks... and I've considered that maybe I got lucky with it and built a quad that was just-right for me which could make one not just right feel lackluster. but still... this thing was supposed to be special darn it.

Carl, I went back and read your review again and still feel bad for you that you are disappointed. I looked at a couple of other reviews on youtube (including an "unboxing"), and have a couple of thoughts:

1. In the unboxing I watched, the guy mentioned that the package was opened and gone through by customs in Cincinnati - maybe that's what happened to yours.
2. I've been thinking about the "floaty" feeling. I'm curious if that translates as "overly sensitive" to stick input. If so, I'm not surprised. Those higher kV motors on a super light quad (UAVfutures weighed in under 300 grams without straps or antenna), are gonna make this thing very "hot" (imho). I built a quad once that was like that and it was "too hot to handle" until I made some adjustments. (FWIW, that same quad was my first 4S quad - so after being "used to 3S" flying, I all of the sudden had this little 4S pocket rocket.) Anyway, what I did to be able to fly it was to adjust the throttle mid, and to max out the throttle expo in the PID tuning tab of Betaflight. That did help, but it still feels quite a bit different than my other quads. (If you happen to have any 3S batteries, you might try one to see if it makes it "feel" any better.)

(EDIT: I suspect that thing hovers at about 20% throttle on 4S - don't adjust throttle expo without setting throttle mid or it will feel worse!)

Anyway, I apologize if I'm way off the mark here - I just want you to be happy...

No 3s batteries here... I tried them and gave them up very early on.

As far as weight, it weighs pretty much the same as the bumblebee, maybe a few grams lighter. I need to get a scale to know for sure.

One thing I have considered is possibly the motor characteristics and how responsive it is to cutting the throttle and or how it may be responding with air mode specifically. What I am going to do next time is try my 5045 dual blade props to see if it changes the feel some. It made a big difference on the vortex so who knows. I was also grouchy in general yesterday. not only was I having lipo issues, I also was having prius battery issues so I may just need to get back out and try again.

As for stick sensitivity, maybe a little more middle forgiveness/expo on this one would do me good. I have a pretty specific set of rates that I use on everything but perhaps my standard formula won't work on this one.

Definitely don't worry too much for me on this one though guys. It's a good little quad even if it's awkward... and it may need to take the place of my other one while I figure out the battery damaging issue.

That was my thought too. a superlight powerhouse would be extra floaty. I felt that way when I changed to more aggressive props. Lowering my Min_throttle a bit seemed to help the floaty feeling for me. Was able to drop easier when needed afterwards.

Just something to try maybe. Worst case... it will be a gorgeous Shelf Queen

Quick update on "floaty"... I haven't flown it again yet but one thing I have done is reviewed video. The floaty feeling doesn't happen when I look at the video, it seems it was mostly caused by camera angle. I think maybe the floaty feeling wasn't vertical but instead forward moving... but since the thing does have powerful throttle it didn't come across as only forward moving perhaps? I happen to run a very un-agressive camera angle on my FPV camera of usually around 20% or so, and my HD cam is usually around 20% as well... on this one because it tilts the camera angle for me I would guess it's at about 15%... It creates some of the float...

I am going to re-review some DVR footage straight from the FPV cam and see if it confirms my assumption.

I may get the chance to fly again tomorrow or the next day... looking forward to trying out the R-Lines on the bumble and getting this one back in the air even if I have to jimmy rig the camera to point where I want it to point lol...

Then after I confirm that camera angle is the problem I'll order another HS1177 to match what I have on the bumble.

Follow up on this... I was definitely too harsh on the quad but I had good reason.

If you're an experienced pilot this might not be the best quad to go for. There are things that are very specific that might not fit your personal needs. I think what I've experienced is my first ambush of that sort of scenario. I ended up with just enough knowledge of what it's like to fly a custom build and then was let down when this highly hyped quad didn't meet the same awesomeness of a custom build. 

To explain: I recently have had enough experience that I've got expectations these days. These expectations include how the quad is supposed to move, how the video should be displayed in my goggles, what response it should have to the sticks, and how the camera angle should relate to my flight. Because I am not a noob anymore but I am indeed still new I am extra sensitive to this crossover point.

Imagine being 17... and having to drive someone else's car at that age... now take that a step further an imagine that the 17yo has been practicing to be a drift racer... and went from a nissan z car to a corvette... The kid isn't going to be able to convert overnight.

So what I've done to try to get more used to it:
Swapped props: I am using the dual blade BN 4045s. These worked for the vortex and sort of make the diatone feel better too.
Tried on the wider lens: When putting the bumble lens on the Diatone it did make things look a little more like I expected them to. While it still didn't move the way I expected, I was able to take some additional risks that I wasn't willing to take before.
Practiced: about 1/3rd of my batteries today were the diatone... While I am not exactly looking to learn from scratch here I do hope to at least make this quad useful to me. If it turns out that I cant fly it then I'll sell it or something. I want this quad to work but to be honest I've got a touch of "I can build one now" snobbery in me that says maybe I shouldn't bother x.x I feel bad for being a snob but I also don't care too much and really just care about improving my ability to fly
Tune: I am working on the tune... it's not right yet... it chirps in the air... I've never heard anything like it before... rrrr-t-t-t-t-t-sbzzzzzzzz so strange.... the vortex and bumblebee were much easier to tweak pids on. I feel like tuning this one is like what people actually had to go through to tune pids before betaflight became extra awesome at tunes :p
Camera angle: probably the most important thing... I have a piece of the extra foam behind to the camera to assure a certain degree angle. My camera is mounted for crap and I think it was caused by a wreck... I really don't like the way this thing is mounted in there and the Phillips head screws are BS... they don't do anything and none of my tips fit them.

I like your analogy, even though I only got my license a few years ago at 32! But yeah, at 17 switching from drifting a 350z on need for speed, to racing a corvette on Gran Turismo took a few laps to get the thumbs 'in!'

I'm pleased that the Diatone is starting to feel better for you, and considering the hype of it, I'm very impressed at how your DIY Bumblebee turned out in comparison! I'm sure it must inspire pretty mixed emotions... 1st build and made a pretty good quad, fly's nice. Then buy a more expensive, well reviewed, $300 pre-built, and realize that the Bumblebee is better than pretty good!?

(04-Jun-2017, 06:20 AM)Tom BD Bad Wrote: ...I'm pleased that the Diatone is starting to feel better for you, and considering the hype of it, I'm very impressed at how your DIY Bumblebee turned out in comparison! I'm sure it must inspire pretty mixed emotions... 1st build and made a pretty good quad, fly's nice. Then buy a more expensive, well reviewed, $300 pre-built, and realize that the Bumblebee is better than pretty good!?

Mixed emotions is a good way to describe it. Originally I expected that I'd build a quad to get the experience but would likely stick with the "hyped" GT2. Hype being a good way to describe it. I do feel that the positive reviews out there might have been leaving out some comparative details or in some cases made it seem like the GT2 is as good as custom builds. 

What ended up happening is I have 2 backups (the Vortex and the Diatone) that are 100% solid on the technical side. They both have OSD, they're solid builds that I never even think to check solder joints on, I am absolutely not afraid to crash them as they're both super tough, but neither has the flight characteristics of the bumblebee. Then I have my first build which the trade off is amazing flight characteristics that are literally built just for the way I fly but it's fussy, it kills batteries, the wires are messy, I'm always checking on things and adjusting the zip ties on my VTx, etc. 

So the moral to the story: 

ARF quads are technically/physically built way better than a first time builder (or at least me as a first time builder) can do. The right ones are tough and can take a beating. However, a build that is planned based on learning from experienced folks like you all to match personal flight needs will likely fly better. 

To use another car analogy... Sometimes in the driveway you have a dependable sedan and a minivan that never break down... and they're fine cars sometimes... but what you really drive is the sports car that guzzles gas and breaks down all the time because it's more fun to drive.

zoom zoom baby!!!

(BTW. the Vortex is definitely the mini-van lol)

Not that it show much but here's a video of a light duty flight of the diatone. As the notes in the video will point out there was a crash shortly after getting in the air by someone and he had to go out and get his quad. This had me stuck in one corner of the field trying to see him but the FPV camera really wasn't quite clear enough to see him from far away. Anyway The only 2 things you can really tell from the video are:

1. I am flying different. I can't control this quad as well and it doesn't respond the way I want it to sometimes. Part of why the flight is less aggressive is because of the person on the field in the beginning, but then you'll see that I don't get much more aggressive after I can take the field back over.

2. The props are in the action cam shot... grrrr... I am fine with the props being in my FPV camera shot now... it took some getting used to but I am cool with it at this point... but because the action cam sits so low on the little car-hood thing at only one choice of angle the props are right in the shot. For this reason I'll likely stop mounting the action cam on this quad going forward and only use it for un-filmed flight (rather than build a mount to go on top of the mount)

Some nice views from your field, despite the props being in shot
Remember I have no experience with brushless motors at all, but it sounded funny to me, my musical side wants to say "a bit off key!"