Hi.

I just ordered my walksnail Avatar HD X googles and now I am looking for a drone. I have some whoops, but my fav was the UK65, since I'm flying 50% indoors and 50% outdoors.

I googled a lot and found 4 drones to pick from. Here in comparison to my UK65:



The Meteor 75 Pro with 2s would be perfect, since I've read, that walksnail will be off below 3.2V and 2s will give me more voltage stability AND more punch.
But a 12 cm drone (Meteor 85 / Mobula 8) is quite big for indoor. I think that is too large coming from a 8 cm UK65.

I didn't even get the difference between the Meteor 75 pro and the Meteor 85. Looks like the same idea, but bigger + larger props, "same" thrust (half the KV), and higher weight+batteries. Maybe the only point here is stabilization outdoors during its size and maybe more punch due to 2s?!?

I think the Moblite 7 falls a little short in comparison with its smaller motors, smaller props and higher price.

Long monologue: Any suggestions?

PS: still can't fly acro and don't like soldering around :-)
PSS: have a 15% code for betafpv shop, so prices will be 180 €. Wish me luck with their wheel of furtune to get the 25% :-)

Mobula 7 or Meteor 75, e.t.c. with analog video to learn to fly and it wasn’t so bad. As soon as you have flying experience, you will understand what you want next. Moreover, goggles X can handle analog video.

short answer, hd is bad for whoops, they fly worse from the higher weight; weight is everything for whoop performance.

you just need to accept the worse fly dynamics. therefor compensation with 2s. 2s whoops arent as good as 1s whoops indoor, but higher weight with higher voltage comes close to a well performing analog whoop.

i dont like the proprietary stuff from betafpv, there comes allways downsides for future in my eyes.

i would suggest the moblite for indoors, less weight will corner with less force...
the mobula 8 might have no power issues in any situation but will need to be forced araound thight cornes, it night crash (more and) harder.

you cant go wrong in truth, both are nice little nimble things , good pilots can fly the mob 8 everywhere - for indoors less weight will be a bit ahead for pleasure

I'd second lyoha and expand. Buy an 85mm for outdoors and a cheap analogue 65mm to fly inside. Why castrate yourself with something unsuitable to both?

Another possibility. Get the newish Pavo Pico, but get the DJI O3 quad and pair it with the Walksnail system. That way you get a 3S whoop that runs Walksnail. More than enough power for most flying. Downside is it uses the ICM42688 gyro which is pile of steaming poo, so make sure you have a good cap on your power lead.

Basically you don't want to crash with a £150 vtx onboard. If you break it, it's a lot of money to replace it. So keep the Walksnail for outside where you hopefully have less chance of mangling it. Use a cheaper analogue inside, because as you probably already know, analogue vtx, cameras and goggles are pocket change in comparison to digital.

So i have a Meteor85 that I have flown indoors and it's bloody hard to fly inside on 2S, even if you put a throttle limit on it. I also have a Meteor75 and several Meteor65's. The 75 is better inside, but the 65's are best. They don't carry the weight, so when you impact an object they tend to bounce off. But you will break stuff, it's inevitable. So make sure you have a good soldering iron and solder available too.

As for proprietary, the only proprietary thing from BetaFPV i've ever seen was on a Literadio 2 and the Cetus FC. My Meteor85 had pretty much mainstream parts on it and I ran it on some dev version of Betaflight. They only really run propietary software on the Literadio 2 and 3. The Literadio 3 Pro, can AFAIK take a default EdgeTX install. The proprietary software was for the radios without LCD's. They also used a custom firmware for the brushed Cetus, but from what i see they offered the same firmware back before brushless, so maybe helped develop it back then, I don't know. But if you buy a mainstream Meteor, you don't get proprietary things on it, from what i've seen, no more than any other manufacturer that sells hardware. My one comes with a mainstream FC you can buy in any quad shop, an analogue VTX, a caddx ant nano, a set of motors that may be proprietary but use standard mounts and a mainstream frame. but you can take the parts and put them on a Mob 8 frame or any frame that has whoop fc mounts, you can replace the motors with other manufacturer motors, etc. The only proprietary things are the ones that use BetaFPV-configurator. The radios and the quads with auto levelling, that only new pilots would have any use for. The rest of us probably fly our Meteors on some random version of Betaflight or Quicksilver.

The extra weight of the digital will make it less nimble in tight spaces, more prone to crashing/damage, as well as significantly reduce flight times. 2S setups will have better battery life and better performance in open spaces/outdoors, but 2S is quite hard to fly in tight spaces and even for very good pilots I haven't heard any that enjoy flying it indoors. If you just want to do a slow cruise around the house, 2S is ok, but anything more probably is not much fun unless you enjoy bashing into things. A 2S 85 WS is quite capable and a lot of fun outdoors though, I have a DIY one similar to the ones you listed and even took it out to my first bando. It performed well inside (factory building) and outside (not a windy day).

If indoor flying in tight spaces is more important, I would say go for the Moblite 1S the lightest option. For the brownout issue, you can add a stepup voltage regulator (Pololu has one less than 1g) but will need a little soldering. But I think that is only useful if you want to take it outdoors, if indoors you can probably live with the brownouts. I have the Meteor75Pro analog version and like that lot and was thinking to put a Walksnail on it, but am thinking the weight will dampen the performance and flight times too much. I'm keeping it analog for now. Unfortunately I am no longer allowed to fly in the house, so can't comment on its indoor performance.

If you check out Nick Burns youtube channel, he has probably reviewed every single one of these and takes them on both indoor and outdoor flights, although he does fly quite fast.

pair a dji o3 with walksnail x, that doesnt work?!?

Not what I meant.

When you buy the Pavo Pico, you choose the quad based on the video system, it doesn't come with either video system integrated. So if you pick the quad designed for the O3, you get the one with the 20A AIO that is 3S capable (presumably because the O3 weighs as much as a small house brick and needs 3S to get it off the ground). But what video you put in the HD Bracket is up to you. It's designed to carry O3 or Walksnail. So you pick the more powerful quad (the version designed to carry the O3), but pair it with the lighter Walksnail VTX. Giving you a 3S capable Walksnail Pavo Pico.

Does that make more sense?

(09-Nov-2023, 12:13 AM)Pathfinder075 Wrote: Not what I meant.  

When you buy the Pavo Pico, you choose the quad based on the video system, it doesn't come with either video system integrated.  So if you pick the quad designed for the O3, you get the one with the 20A AIO that is 3S capable (presumably because the O3 weighs as much as a small house brick and needs 3S to get it off the ground).  But what video you put in the HD Bracket is up to you.  It's designed to carry O3 or Walksnail.  So you pick the more powerful quad (the version designed to carry the O3), but pair it with the lighter Walksnail VTX.  Giving you a 3S capable Walksnail Pavo Pico.

Does that make more sense?

The Pavo Pico guts are nice and reasonable priced for $99, plus you get a free 2S 450 battery too. However the Pico cage is not great for the WS Lite VTX, I had jello that I couldn't get rid of, maybe the heavier WS VTX and larger camera like the Nano V3 might work better as that is closer to the O3 size/weight. And for indoors, 2S 45mm hmmm... wonder how that will fly, think it will still be too clumsy, and 3S would be even scarier I imagine, but might be interesting outdoors..

Yeah i wouldn't run the Pico inside, unless you are some sort of savage (and definitely not on 3S unless you like fixing holes in the ceiling). Saying that. the Cine8 I originally had before it became Flea, was 3S and I could fly that in my house, but it was a typical heavy cinewhoop. That came with a 3S Tattu 450 and it flew ok with it, but it was bloody loud. On HQ 2.5x2x3 it flies ok on 2S 660 as well, you just need to be a bit more aware of the weight and the fact it will not pull out of a sharp dive.

I recently got a Meteor75 Pro WS and it flies fine for me. I don't have to compete to others, its lighter than 2s and good for indoor.
Outdoors it lacks power, but that was not my use case. I just wanted smth for indoor without suffering eye damage from analog video :-D
Yes, flight times are a bit short (2-3m)
So for me its a nice craft and I didnt have to hand solder a whoop :-) Of course I cant compare it side by side to a moblite7 WS

(09-Nov-2023, 12:13 AM)Pathfinder075 Wrote: Not what I meant.

When you buy the Pavo Pico, you choose the quad based on the video system, it doesn't come with either video system integrated. So if you pick the quad designed for the O3, you get the one with the 20A AIO that is 3S capable (presumably because the O3 weighs as much as a small house brick and needs 3S to get it off the ground). But what video you put in the HD Bracket is up to you. It's designed to carry O3 or Walksnail. So you pick the more powerful quad (the version designed to carry the O3), but pair it with the lighter Walksnail VTX. Giving you a 3S capable Walksnail Pavo Pico.

Does that make more sense?

aah - strange things xD
i believe its the same on the mob8, the board on the analog version is different than the one on the hd versions, but it comes with video gear. choices are worse there

I have the Mobula 8 Walksnail and its been pretty good so far.

Had to put a ton of expo on the throttle to tame it down for indoors--it puts out alot of thrust. Maybe a bit better as a backyard flier.

I turned the vtx all the way down to 25mw to try to keep the heat down. Video is crystal clear flying around the other side of the house at around 75 feet so I've kept it there.

I'm a bit baffled with all DJI 03 BNF's out there...the DVR quality on Walksnail is outstanding. I know there's a crowd that wants the absolute best video, I just strongly question whether its really that much better.

Would love to see a 2.5-3" toothpick BNF Walksnail.