Best products from r/TinyWhoop

Welcome to Whooping! :)

You're going with the AlienWhoop Zero, right? (If so, AWESOME choice!)

I've used the Wolfwhoop WT07 and WT05 cameras and both are just fine. Yes, they're not quite as good as an FXT900TW (which is the Rolls Royce of Whoop cameras), but they're just fine and they are cheap. You can get a good enough all-in-one camera for less than $20.

Here's a link to the WT05 on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XJMQQ6Y/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

For motors, BETAFPV has plenty of decent and inexpensive motors. Awesome Sauce motors are indeed awesome, but those high KV motors tend not to last as long. For freestyle, I like to use 7x16 motors, but you need a frame that supports them.

Here is a good deal on some BETAFPV motors - 3 sets for just over $20. They're just about as good as the Awesome Sauce motors, IMHO, but a little cheaper. Brushed motors have limited lives anyway, so unless you're serious about racing, you're OK with going a little cheaper to start. If you want to compete in Whoop races, then you want to go all-in on really good motors and a better camera.
https://www.amazon.com/BETAFPV-6x15mm-Whoop-Motor-19500KV/dp/B071P99169/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1537887110&sr=8-3&keywords=6x15+motors

Yes, that receiver will work just fine with that transmitter.

Do you have a good soldering iron? You'll have to solder some fairly small connectors, so you definitely want to practice up. I'd also buy some solder wick just in case.

The Alienwhoop Zero comes with an awesome tune right out of the box, so it's pretty much just hook it up and rip.

I'd also recommend the Crazepony 4.35 batteries - those give great power response and they're not expensive. BETAFPV batteries are OK as well, but they don't quite have the same amount of power in my experience.

Don't forget the charger either! You can get a HV charger for less than $20 and either power it from 3S/4S batteries or any 12V power supply.

I want to start by saying I’m not affiliated with Amazon, nor are any of the links affiliate links. I’m just a guy that looks for good bargains and wants to share what I found.

Background:

I live in Austria and I’ve been flying micros, the TinyHawk, Mobula7, M80, and a custom 65mm since the beginning of the year in my apartment. Austria has super strict laws regarding UAV’s and you need an expensive license to fly anything larger than 250 grams. Under 250g’s, you’re free to fly as you please as long as you’re not flying around a populated area. I decided to go with micros for the time being to keep myself under the radar and get my flight time in before I eventually move back to the states in a couple years.

I’m generally a price conscious person and I’ll spend a lot of time looking for good deals, usually through Banggood. I’ll stuff something in my wishlist and wait for it to go on sale, the transmitter I got for 85€, goggles for 40€ etc. So, when I started looking for a backpack to become a bit more portable and fly away from my apartment, I got a bit of sticker shock when I saw the prices on “quad bags”. A buddy of mine suggested the bag he has, the Lowepro Quadguard BP X2, but at 110€ it would be the most expensive piece of my FPV equipment, additionally I needed something that would be able to hold my 15.6” laptop that I need for school, which the BP X2 does not have the space for. I looked at the other big budget backpack that is recommended around Reddit, which is the Realacc Backpack, but again, no space for a laptop.

After digging and digging, I decided the best way to go would be to get a camera bag that has a laptop sleeve. Enter the AmazonBasics DSLR and Laptop Backpack. I want to take a moment to say that there are 3 AmazonBasics bags that have the same description, only their dimensions are different, I’ll link the backpacks at the end. Fortunately, I decided on the backpack a few days before Prime Day and was able to pick it up for 27€. At the time of this writing, it is not on sale and is listed at 34€. I got it in and opened it up and immediately spent the next hour trying to arrange the padded walls to fit everything that I wanted to stuff inside. The timing was perfect because I would be going back to the US for a 3-week trip to visit family in 5 different states and I could run a nice torture test on it.

Items I brought in the bag for the 3 week trip:

15.6" Laptop, 3” Spare Props, QX7 Transmitter, EV800, Diatone R349, Mobula7, TinyHawk, Sunglasses w/ Case, Lipo bag with 16 1s batteries and 2 4s batteries, charger for EV800, 65mm Spare Props, Lipo charger, spare parts, mouse, magazine, school book, 7" tablet, charging wires for tablet and laptop plus adapters, pens, and screwdrivers.

Review:

Pros:

• Price! 27€
  
• The size was just about perfect. I say just about perfect with two caveats that are not enough to make them cons. I would have liked the top of the backpack to not taper in. The base of the bag is deeper than the top of the bag by a few centimeters. Similarly, the top of the bag also curves in on the sides a bit. Not enough to take away points, but enough that it is noticeable.
  
• Zipper feel. It’s a funny item to include, but the zippers feel really good, not overly robust, but incredibly smooth.
  
• Large laptop sleeve, good for up to a 17” laptop.
  
• Straps felt secure, additional straps for across the chest and waist are provided to help distribute weight. I found that I didn’t need the waist strap and there is no way to remove it without cutting them out, I was usually able to fold them over themselves to keep them out of the way, but I would have preferred to not have them. I did use the chest strap, however.
  
• Adjustable interior pads. These were really convenient; they gave a lot of options for configurability. I ended up not using the two longest pads though.
  
• Front pocket held a surprising number of items.
  
• The bag stood upright on its own with it fully loaded.
  
• Fit as a carry-on underneath the seat of every plane I was on, including some small regional jets! (some planes were tighter than others)
  
• Did I mention the price??
  
  Cons:
  
  
• Side pockets are fixed with a Velcro cover. This may not be a con to some people, but I would have rather had a mesh pocket with elastic. That would be much more versatile for my usage, that being said, I was able to stuff my laptop charger into the two pouches. (Main cable in one, and the brick in the other. My brick is pretty small, only 80cm or so YMMV).
  
• No straps on the outside of the front of the backpack to strap a larger quad. You could buy one of those adapters from ebay.
  
• It does have a feeling of being a little cheap, in my travels I didn’t have any fraying, but other reviews I read have reported fraying and seams unraveling after only a few months. I was generally quite mindful of the bag and didn’t throw it around too much.
  
  

  Overall:
  

  
  You can’t beat it for the price. If you’re a budget conscious flyer like me, and lets face it if you stuck around to read all of this than you are, it’s a no brainer just go and buy it.
  
  

  Links:
  

  Amazon.com - AmazonBasics DSLR Camera and Laptop Backpack Bag - 13 x 9 x 18 Inches
  
  Amazon.de - AmazonBasics DSLR Camera and Laptop Backpack Bag - 13 x 9 x 18 Inches
  
  Suggested Buckle Mounts for Backpack

Special thank you to the crew at Tiny Whoop who consistently provide excellent customer and community support even though, someone at fulfillment may be a little colorblind hehehe. Without you guys and /u/JessePFPV this sub probably wouldn't exist!

 

24K Magic

Frame - Cockroach

Canopy - Tiny Whoop Razor skin 1of1 by Ben@TW!

Flight Controller - FuriousFPV AcroWhoop v2 FrSky

Motors - NewBeeDrone BDR Gold Edition 19,700 KV

Props - Rakon Heli Tri Blade

Power - Power Whoop 2.0 JST-PH

VTx- Crazepony 700TVL AIO Camera Detachable

Support Mods - Clear rubberbands to hide motor wires, 3M VHB tape for VTx mounting, dab of hot glue for Camera mounting

 

Dry weight = 19 grams flat

 

4+ minutes of flight time with Crazepony 230mah LiHV batteries and Crazepony 260mah/short LiHV

 

P.S. My kids thank you for all the candy!

 

The Eachine UK65/US65 is better, and about the same price

With pretty much any of these 1S brushless, a cheap improvement worth doing is to replace the stock pigtail with one that has better AWG wire and solid pins - BetaFPV do one

Looks good. Qx7 is the best radio to start with, but it doesn't come with a battery. The FrSky battery sold on Amazon is good, so is this one from HobbyKing. You're gonna need a charger, I like the ISDT q6 Pro.

I’ve been using these with good luck.

1s batteries

I’ve also been abusing them pretty heavily. I’ve charged them to 4.35 instead of 4.2 with the LiHV charger that comes with the tinyhawk and I’ve left them charged for a while longer than I should. They’re cheap enough that if they wear out I’ll just buy more.

On YouTube there are some battery review shootouts where they compare performance but I’ve been more concerned about availablility than tracking down the perfect battery.

Hope this helps!

Tiny whoop ain't cheap. Racedayquads is my favorite source.

Budget charger I use is on Amazon and you'll need the charging cable as well. Perfectly serviceable for 1s batteries.

Charger is listed in the frequently bought together section.

Upgraded 1S LiPo LiHV Charger Board for Blade Inductrix Tiny Whoop Micro JST 1.25 and JST-PH 2.0 1S LiPo Battery with JST and Micro Losi Cable https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07CJ5ZJ1V/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_YCFRDbQDDQTBP

take your time, and if you haven't already, invest in a proper soldering station. Doesn't need to be extravagant but should have the ability to change tips and adjust temp and be rated around 60 watts. This one is a great option for the price. Also get tweezers and a smaller tip for the iron

https://www.amazon.com/Aoyue-Variable-Soldering-Station-Removable/dp/B00MCVCHJM/ref=sr_1_35?keywords=soldering+iron&qid=1572874794&sr=8-35

Emax Baby Hawk (amazon doesn't sell the BNF version):
https://www.emaxmodel.com/babyhawk-85mm-brushless-drone-bnf.html

Taranis Q X7:
https://www.amazon.com/Frsky-Taranis-Transmitter-Racing-Drones/dp/B06XQWQ7C3/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1504715829&sr=8-1&keywords=taranis+qx7

Eachine VR-007 Pro:
https://www.amazon.com/EACHINE-Goggles-Headset-Glasses-1600mAh/dp/B072M8FL3Z/ref=sr_1_2?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1504715875&sr=1-2&keywords=eachine+vr+007

These are far from the best components you can buy, but for the money they're hard to beat. Also, I believe the Babyhawk comes with 1 battery. You'll definitely want a few more, as well as a charger.

A few options. You can actually just solder a wire there. I've done it, but it didn't work as well as a shielded antenna since it's harder to control the length.

You can buy ready to solder antennas These work well enough and come pre-tinned so they're easy to install.

Hard mode!! This is what I've done on my whoops. To save weight over a dipole antenna, I use just a whip antenna I cut off the connection, and excess shielded wire down to the length I want, maybe a little less than an inch. Then you have to strip the outer insulation, separate the signal wire out, and strip a tiny bit of it back, and solder it on. Then cut down the exposed element to 12.922mm (calipers really help here to get as close as possible) Really works about the same as the much heavier (about 0.5g) dipole antennas, and they're cheaper, I had some laying around.

try not to crash lens first into anything i guess. mine have always had fine enough threading where the vibration never made them come loose. right now im using one of these and ive hot glued the camera down low between the front ducts. actually much easier to fly this way and it keeps the center of gravity nice and low for better handling. the added benefit is im more likely to slam the ducts into something than the camera lens

there actually lighter than the stock 450 mah emax packs.. around 14 grams.. i think the emax pack was like 15 grams..

i get about 2 minutes with the 450 mah packs. i can only charge to 4.20v per cell tho i dont have a HV charger..

these are what i got. https://www.amazon.com/Battery-PowerWhoop-Connector-Rechargeable-Inductrix/dp/B07CHMM252/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=tinyhawk+600+mah+battery&qid=1567634624&s=gateway&sr=8-1

you can also see a few of my flights that i posted on here where i get like 2.5 or 3 min of flight time.. when i land at 3.2v and put them on the batter checker they bounce back up to about 3.7 or 3.8 v..

If you fly with 1s batteries a balance charger might not ever be worth it. (You can't balance a 1s battery) I use the IMAX b6ac but I have 2 other quadcopters that run 4s.

It's nice being able to parallel charge 6 batteries at a time, and makes batteries last longer being able to storage charge. Which both likely do. You'd need a paraboard to do more than one Inductrix battery
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01ID6U4LC/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_vpKEybSJESZA6

The charger claims to work with
>Any other RC 3.7V 1S LiPo battery with JST


The batteries are Micro JST 1.25, so not sure if the charger will work. I use this one to charge mine

The batteries you linked are the correct ones, yes.

Do you not want to solder or you dont know how? you can build one with an F3 board so you can add beta flight for a little more (if you have a transmitter already that is)

Alert at 3.0. These batteries will recover back close to 3.8 after resting when I bring them in. The stock batteries did puff almost out of the gate and never were very good quality.

I replaced the battery connector with these https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071ZVQF8J/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_XgY3CbRDNFD2K