Ok I need some help here.

I am doing an AOS 3" Toothpick build. The hardware showed today.

This is the flight controller I chose since I can convert the DJI receptacle to output 5V instead of 9V. That way I can use my Walksnail 1S mini setup. I have the V2 board so it is only good to 5V. That's why I chose the flight converter.

https://betafpv.com/products/f4-2-3s-20a-aio-fc-v1

This is an AIO board with a serial receiver built in. No problem with getting the receiver into wi fi mode and I even flashed ExpressLRS firmware version 3.3.2. I added my own bind phrase and bound it to my transmitter no issue. My transmitter recognize the receiver when I use the ExpressLRS lua script. So it is working.

The flight controller is also working since I can see the picture of the quad moving. The OEM BetaFlight configuration is for the Pavo Pico. The FC was flipped apparently so I have to set the roll axis back to 0 degrees. No big deal.

According to the above link the AIO FC uses UART 4 for the digital VTX. I have not even get the VTX hooked up yet. 

The receiver is supposed to be CRSF on UART5. No joy. I set the receiver to CRSF on my transmitter and enable serial Rx on the BetaFlight configuration page on UART 5. Then I page over to the receiver page and made sure I had the receiver set to serial receiver and CRSF as the protocol. 

No joy. Nothing moved. I change the Serial RX to UART6 just in case. No joy there either. The configuration page had UART3 enable as serial RX when I first opened the page. So I went back and enable UART3 for the serial RX. No joy there either.

Is there something I forgot to do?

EDIT: Thank you. Nevermind, it is working. 

I read this note and it confused the heck out of me. I finally set the receiver to UART3 and it is working.

"Note: [i]If you use the F4 2-3S 20A AIO FC V1, the serial port of the SBUS receiver is UART5 while F4 1S 12A AIO Brushless FC V3 is UART6."[/i]


I did pick two presets. I used the ExpressLRS 250 Hz preset and the Ben Lumley digital OSD preset. However those should not impact the working of the receiver.

Oh and the motors all worked. The motors order was off so I reset them and they all spin the correct rotation and the orders are ok now. Heck if I can get the receiver to work I can even fly this thing without FPV camera.

I think it is done. I have not setup the OSD or tested the Walksnail yet. That's tomorrow.

112 grams with a 650 mah 2S pack. I have a couple of 550 mah packs and that will be lighter. I already hovered without the VTX and it hovered fine.

I did have to space the VTX up a bit just to clear the mipi cable and the connection to the FC. Don't want the props hitting them.

The onboard ELRS is on UART3 and not 5, but looks like you figured it out. Often these micro AIOs already come pre-configured so you can pretty much drop it in and everything should be working. Of course you should double-check board orientation, motor order/directions, modes, or other things you like to customize. Betafpv also has decent documentation on their AIOs.

Looks like you are running the RCinpower 1303.2 5000?kv motors. Looks like 2S will be nice for cruising, but 3S should be lots of fun.

(23-Apr-2024, 02:06 PM)mstc Wrote: The onboard ELRS is on UART3 and not 5, but looks like you figured it out. Often these micro AIOs already come pre-configured so you can pretty much drop it in and everything should be working. Of course you should double-check board orientation, motor order/directions, modes, or other things you like to customize. Betafpv also has decent documentation on their AIOs.

Looks like you are running the RCinpower 1303.2 5000?kv motors. Looks like 2S will be nice for cruising, but 3S should be lots of fun.

Yup, TMI confuse me. I second guessing did not help either. I should have just left everything alone and go with how they had it setup OEM. Oh well, live and learn. I hope I got the change from 9V to 5V correctly. That little resistor is very tiny.

Yes board orientation is fine. Motor order/direction is fine. Modes are ok. Test hover is good. I just have to setup the Walksnail and see if I need to update firmware to match the goggles. Then make sure I have OSD from BetaFlight.

Yes 1303 motor 5000 kV. 2 cell is fine for cruising. I chose 5000 kV because I can have the option to go to 3 cells if I get ambitious. However I am not that ambitious yet.

That 5v/9v jumper should just be a 0 ohm resistor, you can just run some solder to bridge the pads if you lose that tiny resistor. The middle pad is what goes to the pin, just check continuity with 5v and none with 9v to confirm your rebridged it correctly.

I suspect you will get longer flight times with 2S, but you might like the authority/punch of 3S even if you're not doing acro stuff. On my light 3" WS pick, I actually like 2S, but its AUW is under 90g. For a heavier pick 3S would be better, but you can always swap packs later and with 5000kv no need for any motor limits.

(23-Apr-2024, 07:09 PM)mstc Wrote: That 5v/9v jumper should just be a 0 ohm resistor, you can just run some solder to bridge the pads if you lose that tiny resistor. The middle pad is what goes to the pin, just check continuity with 5v and none with 9v to confirm your rebridged it correctly.

I suspect you will get longer flight times with 2S, but you might like the authority/punch of 3S even if you're not doing acro stuff. On my light 3" WS pick, I actually like 2S, but its AUW is under 90g. For a heavier pick 3S would be better, but you can always swap packs later and with 5000kv no need for any motor limits.

Yes, I did put an Ohm meter on those pads. I get a bit of values from the resistor but not much to worry about. There was no continuity between the middle pad and the inside pad. 

Walksnail fired up with no issue. Firmware mismatch. The firmware on the VTX was the older version. I do have the new firmware on the computer but I had to read Oscar's page again to find out how to get the firmware on the VTX. I update so many firmware I cannot keep up remembering all the workflow.

So I had to power up the VTX to turn that into an external drive on the computer. I turned on the fan to keep it cool. Then I copied the file and held down the button for 10 seconds. The LED didn't quite flash the way Oscar described. It turned solid real quick. Turned out I had the goggles still powered on. The VTX updated and bound back to the goggles right away. No need to mess with the OSD either. They are all there and perfectly aligned on the goggles screens. 

I did go back in and moved things around to how I like them.

Maiden flight went fine. A bit floaty and did not track as well. That's expected for a light weight quad. Very quiet. I didn't have my hearing aids on and I simply cannot hear anything. The quad did slide out a bit more during a turn. I probably just need to get used to cranking the roll during the turn. I was taking off at 28 percent throttle and flying at 30 percent. So plenty of power still. The screen after disarm said I was using 3 amps. I had lots of juice left after 5 1/2 minutes from the 550 mah non HV R Line pack. So I will get really good flight time with those 650 mah packs I have. 

Overall it is a success. The quad does meet my goal of a quiet cruiser. The icing is that I have some good image quality on top of that. I did get a few OSD flicker and image smear at the troublesome spots in my backyard but nothing bad. Nowhere near as bad as the analog systems. I am flying at 200 mW. I can always crank it up if need be but so far I like to keep the power down. If I can fly at 50 mW I would rather do that.

Nice you got it flying smoothly. Some people have taken the Walksnail out past 20km on 25mw, of course with clear LOS and high gain antennas, but still...

Those 1303.2 must be powerful motors. I have a similar weight pick setup with HGLRC 1303.5-5500 kv motors and also need around 30% throttle to cruise with 3" props, but that is on 3S. Which props you running?
https://intofpv.com/t-sometimes-a-motor-...#pid216675

(23-Apr-2024, 10:21 PM)mstc Wrote: Nice you got it flying smoothly. Some people have taken the Walksnail out past 20km on 25mw, of course with clear LOS and high gain antennas, but still...

Those 1303.2 must be powerful motors. I have a similar weight pick setup with HGLRC 1303.5-5500 kv motors and also need around 30% throttle to cruise with 3" props, but that is on 3S. Which props you running?
https://intofpv.com/t-sometimes-a-motor-...#pid216675

That's a bit too far for me. I am more a 100 yard away kind of flying. I did have some video signal flicker with the OEM Walksnail antenna. I just ordered another True RC. I swapped out the OEM antenna on the Flywoo Fly Lens 85 quad with a True RC antenna and the RF signal is now solid all the way around the yard.

I am using HQ T3X3X3 props. I watched Chris Rosser's prop video and decided to give those a try. Not bad. 

Your build is just a hair heavier. I am more a cruiser. When I swapped to a 650 mah pack my throttle went up to around 35%. So I guess a few grams makes a difference.

Hi SeismicCWave,

Very Nice Build.     Good Job.  

Later, iFly 

(24-Apr-2024, 12:58 AM)iFly4rotors Wrote: Hi SeismicCWave,

Very Nice Build.     Good Job.  

Later, iFly 

Thank you very much. You did say you wanted to see me build this quad. So I did.

Come to think of it I really started around 7 pm last night. Then I was hovering it before 11 pm. That's including trying to figure out which UART to set the serial receiver.

I plugged everything in this morning and bind to the goggles and went to fly it.

So over all it has been pretty simple. A bit of advice and some planning ahead of time paid off.

Now I want to build an indoor light weight 75mm whoop. Then again the Moblite7 HD seems to be such a simple quad to just buy instead.

Hi SeismicCWave,

Yes.  Thank You.  

I am curious about the "gold" color on the frame. Did the frame come
that way or did you apply it?  

Later, iFly  

(24-Apr-2024, 10:02 AM)iFly4rotors Wrote: Hi SeismicCWave,

Yes.  Thank You.  

I am curious about the "gold" color on the frame. Did the frame come
that way or did you apply it?  

Later, iFly  

When I clicked on the webpage they offered the buyer to choose a color.

https://www.cncdrones.com/aos-t3--colored.html

I think they used what some vendors called "carbon ascent panels" to cut the frames.

I think I may want to buy a couple more with different colors just for fun. Maybe I can "ascent" the quad by mixing different color parts like different color front arms and center plate.

Damn! You just gave me an idea. I ordered a couple different color ones so I can swap parts.

Hi SeismicCWave,

Now, we are talking.  I just might have to buy some myself.

If I do place an order, I will also pick up at least one (1) Airblade 
Transformer 4 inch LR frame.

Later, iFly  

(24-Apr-2024, 09:43 PM)iFly4rotors Wrote: Hi SeismicCWave,

Now, we are talking.  I just might have to buy some myself.

If I do place an order, I will also pick up at least one (1) Airblade 
Transformer 4 inch LR frame.

Later, iFly  

Shhhhhhhhh......Airblade Transformer? Are you going to make me look.  

In another thread I was thinking out loud about a quad to fly in the rain. I was thinking about a 4" LR frame and use smaller propellers to clear the frame so I can put a rain coat on the electronics.

Then I ordered 2 more 3" Tooth picks. I also ordered some motors. I have FC, VTX and cameras to build an analog quad. So I guess that will have to come next. 

Transformer 4 is probably one of the lightest 4" LR frames around. It has a single solid base plate with a minimal top plate, most others have separate arms and multi plate sandwich. I picked up one just before Nguyen closed up shop. I thought the geometry was kind of odd, and the frame does get knocked around in winds, but its a great for an explorer setup. My dry weight carrying a Vista is around 130g, compared to my analog Flywoo LR4 setup that is closer to 160g. It gets super long flight times, but not for windy days.
Also it has a superman silhouette