Which DJI O4 5-Inch BNF FPV Drones Ought to I Purchase? A Detailed Comparability

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I’m planning to purchase a brand new 5-inch BNF FPV drone with the DJI O4 Professional Air Unit for freestyle, cinematic and probably some lengthy vary flying, so I assumed this may be an important alternative to doc my thought course of and clarify how I determine which mannequin to get.

The DJI O4 Professional was solely launched final month, however there are already just a few stable choices that help it. Nevertheless, with so many elements to contemplate—efficiency, sturdiness, ease of restore, and worth for cash—choosing the right one isn’t all the time easy.

On this put up, I’ll evaluate the high BNF drones that come able to fly with the DJI O4 Air Unit, analyzing their specs, design, usability, and long-term reliability primarily based on my expertise.

Let’s break it down.

The Contenders: 5-Inch BNF Drones with DJI O4 Professional Air Unit

Listed below are among the most notable Bind-and-Fly (BNF) 5-inch FPV drones at the moment available on the market that help the DJI O4 Air Unit:

Every of those drones comes pre-built with DJI O4, making them nice decisions for pilots who don’t wish to construct their FPV drone from scratch. However how do they evaluate in weight, sturdiness, repairability, and total efficiency?

Let’s dive into the main points.

O4 Professional or O4 Lite?

Personally, I favor the O4 Professional on a 5-inch drone. As talked about in my DJI O4 Professional overview, the Professional model is higher in virtually each approach aside from weight and value. So except you’re flying a micro drone, the O4 Professional is the higher selection for a 5-inch construct, for my part.

Sadly the Axisflying Manta 5 SE solely comes with the O4 Lite, which is a dealbreaker for me. It additionally makes use of the Axisflying aluminum case, which I mentioned in my earlier put up—I don’t suppose it justifies the excessive value. I beforehand reviewed the Manta 5SE and actually just like the body design, and I want it got here with the O4 Professional as a substitute. Hopefully, Axisflying will launch one other model sooner or later with the full O4 Professional system.

Weight – How Heavy Are They?

Weight performs an enormous function in flight efficiency, effectivity, and sturdiness. A lighter quad is extra agile and environment friendly, whereas a heavier quad tends to undergo from shorter flight occasions and fly like a tank—nice for stability, however not perfect for freestyle agility.

Right here’s a breakdown of the takeoff weight (excluding battery and GoPro) for every mannequin:

Are Aspect Plates Useless Weight?

One factor I actually dislike about a few of these BNF quads is the cumbersome plastic aspect plates. Whereas they might look good and supply some safety, in lots of circumstances, they’re simply lifeless weight that:

• Compromises airflow to the electronics, doubtlessly lowering cooling.
• Makes it more durable to take aside the quad for upkeep and repairs.
• Provides pointless weight, lowering effectivity and agility.

Simply check out the load distinction between the Axisflying Manta 5 SE and the remainder. By not utilizing aspect plates, you possibly can doubtlessly save as much as 30g, as I additionally demonstrated in my put up “ make your FPV drone lighter“.

Fortunately, a few of these quads—just like the Seeker5, Vapor D5, and CineFlow—assist you to take away the aspect plates should you favor a lighter, extra accessible construct. Nevertheless, the iFlight Nazgul may show tougher since the aspect plates look like an integral a part of the body design.

That is the Seeker5:

That is the Vapor D5:

That is the Cineflow:

If weight and ease of restore are priorities for you, think about going for a mannequin with detachable aspect plates or a minimalist body design.

Body Design

For freestyle flying (or simply flying normally), the iFlight Afterburner Sport stands out because the least sensible body in terms of upkeep. Simply wanting on the sheer variety of screws and elements, I can already inform it’s going to be a ache to restore or change elements.

On its product web page, iFlight claims that the Afterburner Sport is “designed to push the boundaries of pace, agility, and sturdiness.” However right here’s what confuses me:

• It makes use of the 2207 motors similar to the Nazgul and plenty of different BNF drones.
• But, it’s 30g to 50g heavier than comparable fashions.
• If weight is straight tied to agility and pace, how does a heavier drone “push boundaries”?
• You’ll, for certain, get props in digital camera’s view. To get any helpful cinematic footage you’ll have to use a GoPro on high which makes it even heavier.

In order for you one thing that appears distinctive, possibly the Afterburner Sport will attraction to you. However for me, it simply doesn’t make sense, and I’ll seemingly exclude it from my choices.

Props in view?

Personally, I’d go for a deadcat body design as a result of the DJI O4 Professional has an especially vast subject of view (FOV). A deadcat-style body is a lot better at retaining props out of the digital camera’s view in comparison with a True-X body.

If you happen to’re new to body configurations, try this information: https://oscarliang.com/fpv-drone-frames/#Configuration

Digital camera Safety

DJI O4 setup wants correct digital camera safety and tender mounting to get clear footage.

• Gentle-mounted digital camera? – Helps scale back jello and vibrations.
• Digital camera safety? – Does the digital camera stick out an excessive amount of? Is the body designed to guard the digital camera in crashes?

All the iFlight BNF quads appear to have the O4 digital camera protruding lots, making it extra weak in crashes.

That is the Nazgul ECO:

That is the Nazgul Evoque:

The GEPRC Vapor D5 gives first rate digital camera safety, which is a plus. As for the DeepSpace SEEKER5 DC, I couldn’t discover photographs of it with an O4 digital camera, however its O3 model, it appears to supply first rate safety as effectively.

Ease of Restore

Drones crash and break—that’s simply the truth of FPV. A well-designed body must be straightforward to take aside for repairs and upgrades.

The DeepSpace SEEKER5 DC has a distinctive cut up top-deck design the place the digital camera cage has its personal high plate. Which means that to entry the FC stack and VTX, you solely have to take away six screws of the secondary high plate—a superb design selection for straightforward upkeep.

For the remainder of the quads, you’ll sometimes have to take away your complete high plate to entry the electronics:

• GEPRC Vapor D5 – 10 screws
• iFlight lineup – 8 screws

To be trustworthy, this isn’t a dealbreaker because you received’t have to take the quad aside that continuously. But when straightforward upkeep is a high precedence, the Seeker5 DC is value contemplating.

Right here’s the Vapor D5:

Right here’s the Nazgul ECO:

Right here’s the Nazgul Evoque:

Right here’s the Cineflow:

Sturdiness

Sturdiness is essential, particularly for freestyle and bando flying. Thicker carbon fibre and a robust body design assist quads survive crashes higher. Thicker arms additionally enhance stiffness and scale back vibration which is essential to ease of tuning. Some quads use 6mm thick arms for sturdiness, whereas others go along with 5mm to avoid wasting weight.

I’ve personally flown the Nazgul ECO (analog model) lots, which has 5mm arms. In my expertise, they provide loads of stiffness and minimal vibrations. Would 6mm arms be extra sturdy? In all probability. However the tradeoff is further weight. For most individuals, 5mm arms must be nice except you’re consistently flying in high-risk environments (bando diving, hardcore freestyle, and so forth.).

Flight Controller and ESC

When it comes to FC and gyro, there’s nothing out of the peculiar—all these choices ought to work simply nice. New to FCs? Study in regards to the totally different processors and gyros right here: https://oscarliang.com/flight-controller/

With regards to ESCs, all of the choices within the desk ought to work effectively, however there’s one essential factor to notice:

Present BLHeli_32 ESC will proceed to work as they’re, so it’s probably not a dealbreaker, however maintain it in thoughts should you care about futureproofing.

The BEC is mainly a voltage regulator on the FC that can be utilized to energy the DJI O4 Air Unit. Whereas the O4 Professional can take direct 6S LiPo voltage, utilizing a BEC remains to be really helpful as a result of it acts as an influence filter, defending the air unit from potential voltage spikes and damages.

At 1200mW output energy, the O4 Professional consumes round 10W to 11W, so a BEC with at the very least 9V 2A output is required for steady operation.

Notice: The iFlight Evoque F5 V2 and SH CineFlow 5 use the BLITZ Mini F7 FC, which doesn’t have a built-in BEC for the DJI O4 Air Unit—you’ll have to energy it straight from the battery (VBAT), which implies you lose filtering and voltage safety.

Moreover, all these flight controllers embody onboard Blackbox reminiscence, which is important for superior PID tuning and filter changes. The Evoque and CineFlow has 8MB of reminiscence (BLITZ Mini F7), the Nazgul ECO has 32MB (iFlight BLITZ ATF435), whereas the remainder have 16MB.

Motor Dimension and KV

All these fashions use 2207 motors. The upper KV might be extra highly effective at the price of being extra energy hungry. I believe it’s changing into a development within the passion to make use of increased KV motors, whilst you don’t should fly full throttle on a regular basis, having further energy while you want it’s an enormous benefit. For cruising at reasonable speeds, small KV variations received’t considerably impression flight time—the motor design and total drone weight have a much bigger impact on effectivity. Personally, I favor barely increased KV motors for his or her versatility.

GPS

The subsequent consideration is whether or not the drone comes with GPS. I extremely suggest getting a BNF with GPS, as it may possibly save your drone someday should you lose sign—it would simply fly again to you utilizing Betaflight Rescue Mode.

Additionally, take note of the place the GPS is mounted. The optimum location ensures fast and constant satellite tv for pc lock earlier than and through flight. If it’s mounted too near the VTX antenna (or worse, beneath it), GPS efficiency might undergo as a result of interference.

Personally, I like how the Seeker5 DC mounts its GPS—it’s positioned distant from all antennas (so long as you don’t put a GoPro on it). The CineFlow additionally has first rate placement, because the GPS is above the VTX antennas, avoiding sign blockage. Nevertheless, on most different quads, the GPS is positioned beneath the VTX antennas, which ought to nonetheless work however not optimum.

Worth & General Worth

Lastly, let’s evaluate pricing and see what you’re getting to your cash. These costs embody GPS, an ExpressLRS 2.4GHz receiver, and the DJI O4 Professional Air Unit.

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I’ve to confess—I’m tempted to get the Axisflying Manta 5 SE, swap out the O4 Lite for the Professional, and both promote the O4 Lite or maintain it for a micro quad. However should you don’t wish to cope with swapping elements and simply wish to fly straight out of the field, the GEPRC Vapor D5 appears to supply the finest worth on paper. The iFlight Nazgul DC5 ECO can also be priced fairly, nonetheless for $34 extra, it gives much less: ESC and BEC are weaker, the motors have decrease KV, and the digital camera has no safety.

I additionally actually just like the design of the DeepSpace Seeker5, and its specs look implausible—however at $574, it’s a bit dear.

As for the Nazgul Evoque and CineFlow, these are the solely quads over $600, and truthfully, I believe they’re a bit overpriced primarily based on their specs and design. For that cash, you would get the Vapor D5 AND purchase an additional set of O4 Professional as backup!

Closing Ideas – Which One I Am Going to Get

After weighing the professionals and cons, I’ve determined to go along with the GEPRC Vapor D5.

When it arrives, I’ll do a full overview, together with:

• Tuning its PID and filter settings
• Seeing how a lot efficiency enchancment I can get

If you happen to additionally wish to get the Vapor D5, right here’s the AliExpress affiliate hyperlink, which is the place I’m ordering mine from: https://s.click on.aliexpress.com/e/_ompjqMI

I’ll replace this put up if I get the prospect to check extra of those quads, however for now—which 5-inch BNF with the DJI O4 Professional Air Unit are you contemplating? Let me know within the feedback!