I am calling this a Mobula8 "Nut job", as it's 20g heaver than a standard Walksnail Mobula8.

The reasoning be this is to be an ultra smooth cinawhoop style of quad with long flyte time, and have props and hoops out of camera view, as I have notice just how smooth the standard WS edition os the Mobula8 can be and the other must have is blackbox for gyroflow data.

Components:

• DJI 03 lite version of the Mobula8, which I purchased for AU$131  -- That's equivalent to US$86, it's a complete quad but without a VTX
  
• Walksnail V3 Nano Kit with complete full heat sink case -- that comes with 32G on board memory
  
• GPS module for experiments, practice RTH, and have the GPS telemetry back to the  -As Mobula8 comes with a 405 board complete with a Built-in Barometer, I have decided to add a GPS
  
• Self designed 3d printed GPS mount and Camera mount adaptor.
  

I have discovered I could not add the compass component of the GPS as Happymodel AIO didn't have enough UARTs. I would love to have a compass, but it's not that necessary.



I have found this super easy to put together, a bit fiddly as with assembly, and the Walksnail unit just plugged in, which I was a bit surprised as the plug was a bit shorter as with less wires. Another surprise is that the VTX plugin socket is powered by VBAT, but that is good, as it does not power the VTX with just USB plugged unlike the standard Walksnail Mobula8 does. This is good for using a USB powerbank to get GPS lock (should take about 1 minute), once lock has been obtain, then plug in the lipo and fly. Adding the GPS was a bit tight with the soldering.

Something I don't know why, this Mobula8 only had Betaflight 4.3 installed on it from factory, with no "HD" OSD, and no barometer enabled.
I have fixed all that up with Betaflight 4.4.3, another thing that Happymodel does, they have ELRS model match enabled from factory -- This is easily fix by binding the radio and select model match via the ELRS LUA script, then disable model match, and ELRS will operate as expected.

I am super pleased with this one so far, only done  a couple of maiden flights indoors and found it ultra smooth (very happy), done some outside walking GPS tests, and locked 12 Satellites with a USB bank and when the Lipo was plugged in it dropped to 10 Satellites. This will be much higher when flying, this was just a walk around test. It was dark, but I just had to see if the GPS operated as being so close to the Walksnail VTX.

I was eyeing up the possibility of doing something very similar, but without the GPS. Good to see that this has actually been done, and successfully!

Wonder if you could share a few more pics?

I will come back with some photos, issues and fixes later this evening, obtaining a "DJI 03 lite version of the Mobula8", it's a good cheap method of obtaining parts, even for toothpick building, and for building with a Walksnail VTX.

Photo time


This is the latest version with the GPS mount removed -- the GPS was just an experiment, and it did work, but I found that the Walksnail GPS was not a quality unit, it was basically flying with only 5 to 4 GPSs -- A Matek M10 unit I use on my Rekon35 gets about between 18 to 22 Satellites locked



This is how the camera VTX connects to the FC

This had an issue as it pushed the wires upto the proeller hoop and the flight controller, and it was causing massive YAW washout.


I carved a bit out of the hoop, it's very important that there is no contact between flight controller and the quad frame, otherwise vibration will feed back into the controller and this case it was casing yaw washout -- There is some slight yaw washout issues but I may be able to solve that via better tuning and I may run props in configuration 

Some other ideas that I was playing with and that was using an ND filter setup


Comparing to some of my other walksnail Happymodel quads in my Happymodel fleet.


The Bassline is the best flyer by far, but the mod8 are fun.

Nearly forgot I am using Walksnail Avatar HD Nano Kit V3 -- The VTX is slightly different to say the V2 VTX, and weirdly it uses m3 mounting screw threads, so I am just using 2 short m3 screws as m3 is a bit heavy, why Walknail didn't use m2 in the V3 VTX-- I am not sure
Specs as from https://caddxfpv.com/collections/walksna...ano-kit-v3

• 3.1~13V
  
• 500mW
  
• FOV160°
  
• Metal case
  
• 1080P/60fps
  
• 4:3 native sensor
  
• Built-in 32G storage
  
• 18.5g light-weight
  
• Nano Camera 14*14mm
  

Yes the camera I am using has the 4:3 native sensor, which I am finding rather nice.

Thanks for the additional photos and info. Much appreciated! I'm quite tempted to go for this set up when I eventually drop some cash on something.

Interesting note about the bassline being the better flyer - it seems to share the vast majority of components with the Mobula8, with the frame being the main difference I can spot. Am I missing something, or can what essentially amounts to getting rid of the prop guards make such a difference? They certainly look like they would add a fair bit of drag.

(06-Feb-2024, 03:57 PM)Cyberess Wrote: Nearly forgot I am using Walksnail Avatar HD Nano Kit V3 -- The VTX is slightly different to say the V2 VTX, and weirdly it uses m3 mounting screw threads, so I am just using 2 short m3 screws as m3 is a bit heavy, why Walknail didn't use m2 in the V3 VTX-- I am not sure
Specs as from https://caddxfpv.com/collections/walksna...ano-kit-v3

• 3.1~13V
  
• 500mW
  
• FOV160°
  
• Metal case
  
• 1080P/60fps
  
• 4:3 native sensor
  
• Built-in 32G storage
  
• 18.5g light-weight
  
• Nano Camera 14*14mm
  

Yes the camera I am using has the 4:3 native sensor, which I am finding rather nice.

It makes no sense that WS made the 20x20 mounting holes M3, I drilled out the holes on a frame to mount it, but think that was probably a bad decision. It is the exact same VTX board as the 1S Lite VTX, so if you feel you don't need the extra protection you can simply remove the heatsink case and save 10g. You will also have M2 mounting holes, but in 35.5x35.5 size.
With your Mob8 10g lighter, you may like how it flies better, but an open prop will always fly better than a similar spec'd whoop.

(06-Feb-2024, 10:22 PM)Scro Wrote: Thanks for the additional photos and info. Much appreciated! I'm quite tempted to go for this set up when I eventually drop some cash on something.

Interesting note about the bassline being the better flyer - it seems to share the vast majority of components with the Mobula8, with the frame being the main difference I can spot. Am I missing something, or can what essentially amounts to getting rid of the prop guards make such a difference? They certainly look like they would add a fair bit of drag.

Prop guards create weird air and you spend a lot of time faffing with PIDs to try and overcome it.  When you fly open prop, it is so different and so much better.  I fly all my open prop builds on stock settings and haven't bothered tuning them in any way.  They all fly well.  But you can tweak your flying to overcome a lot of the whoop issues on some level.  Like prop wash when coming out of a loop can be negated on some level by applying throttle to punch through it.  Some weird oscillations you get when diving can be negated the same way by turning your dive (with throttle cut) into a dive with about 10-20% throttle.  So from falling (sorry being blown around like a leaf while diving) to actually doing a power dive (propelling yourself down the object).  So whoops weigh very little, so diving buildings is interesting and you are going to get blown around by the weird air currents you find around 4 sided box shapes.  Anyway I'm rambling on a bit.

If you don't own a toothpick or similar quad, build or buy one.  You will understand.

Also the Bassline frame is very interesting.  I want to build one if I can ever find one to buy locally (or maybe I will make one if I ever get the kit to do so).

More tuning for the Mob8 Nutjob, and I have manage to get rid of the yaw washout issue.

I was inspired by this video


I have now reversed the motors and configured  to a propeller in configuration, -- I used ESC Configurator to reverse the motors as Betaflight 4.4.3 can be a bit buggy reversing motors with Betaflight configurator 10.9.0

Done a test flight, and I am super happy, I can now push the Mod8 as hard as like, with dives and hard yaw turns no issue at all, In the process I have updated to ESC configs to 0.19.2 96K just to see if I could squeeze a bit more flight time.

My ESC conf settings


Settings that I have changed

• I have moved the sliders up on "Minimum Startup Power" (boost)
  
• I have moved the sliders up on "Maximum  Startup Power" (Protection)
  
• Increased "Beep Strength" and "Beacon Strength" -- I actually used the Motor Beep to find the Quad tonight, just got a little carried away   durability test done "PASSED"
  
• Fashed All ECSs to 96Khz and reversed all 4 Motors
  

Gone back into Betaflight and deselected "Motor Direction Reverse"

If you need to find a quad that went down, (if upside use turtle), arm it and do a quick throttle up or flick a direction in turtle and disarm. Easier to hear that high pitched whine than the beacon. But those self powered ViFly finders are worth the money if you can fit one.