I like micro quads, and the WalleFPV Lightning V3 is a kind of quads that genuinely will get me excited. The Lightning V3 is just not a whole redesign. It’s an up to date model of the older Lightning2, with adjustments to the body format, antenna design, prop choices, and total refinement, whereas retaining the identical core thought intact: a quiet, environment friendly, enjoyable, and light-weight park ripper. On this overview, we are going to check out the {hardware}, flight efficiency, and whether or not it is best to get it.
The place to Purchase
Get the WalleFPV Lightning V3 from:
It comes with these equipment:
- 2 units of HQ T2.2×1.6×3 props (8 in complete)
- 1 × M1.5 screwdriver
- 1 × Phillips screwdriver
- spare screws
- 2 × 3D-printed battery holders
Specs
- FC: JHEMCU G4 AIO
- Motors: 1003 10000KV brushless motors
- Receiver (elective): ELRS 2.4GHz, TBS Nano RX, PNP, TBS Nano RX (SE)
- VTX (elective): 250mW analog VTX, Walksnail Mini 1S Equipment, Walksnail Ascent Lite, HDZero Whoop V2 Bundle, DJI O4 Air Unit
- FPV Digicam (analog model): Caddx Child Ratel 2
- Battery Connector: XT30
- Really helpful Batteries: GNB 2S 550mAh or 2S 720mAh
- Really helpful Propellers: HQ T2.2×1.6×3 or GEMFAN 2023-3
- Onboard buzzer
- Weight:
- With out battery: 50.9g
- With 2S 550mAh LiHV: 79.3g
- With 2S 720mAh LiHV: 85.3g
Helps Each Analog and Digital FPV Methods
The Lightning V3 body is designed to help a variety of FPV methods, together with:
- Walksnail Mini 1S
- HDZero Whoop V2
- Walksnail Ascent Lite
- DJI O4 Lite Air Unit
- Analog
Nevertheless, WalleFPV recommends the analog model for the bottom weight and finest flight efficiency. It is usually the most affordable possibility, in fact.
And that’s the model I’m reviewing right here.
I needed to suit the DJI O4 on this body, however sadly I discovered that the Flywoo wide-angle lens wouldn’t match contained in the digital camera cage correctly. It is just too massive. That looks like a missed alternative, as a result of a light-weight sub-100g analog-style body that additionally labored completely with the wide-angle O4 Lite could be very compelling.
Design and Construct High quality
The WalleFPV Lightning3 is an incremental improve over the Lightning 2, which already had a repute as a clean, quiet micro quad that flies nicely. So the aim right here appears to have been to enhance the components moderately than substitute it.
One of many largest bodily adjustments from the older mannequin is the transfer to a real X body, which ought to provide higher freestyle dealing with and simpler PID tuning. The arms are additionally barely longer, permitting it to suit bigger 2.2-inch propellers. Which may not sound like a lot, nevertheless it really will increase prop disc space considerably by over 20%, which ought to enhance effectivity and total flight really feel.
The longer arms add just a little weight, so WalleFPV compensates by utilizing barely thinner carbon fiber plates. The unibody body makes use of 2.5mm carbon fiber, in comparison with the 3mm carbon on the earlier model, nevertheless it nonetheless feels fairly stiff.
The general body design stays very minimalist and streamlined. The physique makes use of CNC-machined aluminum alloy, and it’s mounted to the body with solely 4 screws, making it simple to take away for upkeep or restore.
The digital camera is nicely protected by the steel digital camera cage, so there is no such thing as a longer a protruding lens protruding.
The XT30 connector is fastened in place on the rear, which helps stop cable motion throughout flight and reduces the prospect of vibration reaching the gyro.
In addition they upgraded the VTX antenna from a easy dipole to a correct circularly polarized antenna. This provides a few further grams, however in trade you get higher video efficiency and higher vary. In my testing it has proven this quad is able to 500m+ vary with out problem.
It’s also possible to purchase the body package and construct your personal quad from scratch. The body package itself weighs solely 12.4g.
Elements Shut Look
Be aware that the body solely helps motors with a 3-screw mounting sample. That’s okay as a result of many 1003-size motors these days provide each 3-screw and 4-screw mounting choices.
The motors are 1003 10000KV. Based on WalleFPV, they consider these are the optimum selection for two.2-inch propellers, providing stability between energy and flight time on 2S. If you’d like extra energy and responsiveness, you possibly can improve to 1203 or 1204 motors, however that may come at the price of elevated weight, increased present draw, and shorter flight time.
The Lightning3 comes with HQ T2.2×1.6×3 propellers. These are an amazing selection if you happen to prioritize effectivity, low noise, and smoothness. In case you want extra energy, you possibly can attempt the Gemfan 2023-3, which has a bigger blade floor space and can be extra sturdy in crashes. Nevertheless, the tiny 1003 motors are already combating the lighter HQ props, so I’m not certain it will be a good suggestion to make use of the heavier Gemfan props.
The props are press-fit and held on by friction. It’s a very tight match, which is an efficient factor as a result of they’re unlikely to return off throughout flight, nevertheless it additionally makes them a bit difficult to take away if you need to substitute them. I like to recommend utilizing a correct prop elimination software to keep away from damaging the motor: https://oscarliang.com/tiny-whoop-propeller-removal-tool/. In case you drive them off repeatedly, the motor shaft might finally slip contained in the motor bell (the shaft is barely glued to the bell).
There’s additionally an RGB LED board on the rear, which makes the quad stand out visually at night time. Out of the field, it shows purple when disarmed and blue when armed. The LEDs will be configured in Betaflight for various show modes.
The Lightning3 additionally comes outfitted with a buzzer, which makes it a lot simpler to seek out if you crash in grass.
One draw back is that the FC nonetheless makes use of micro USB as a substitute of USB-C. It’s not a deal breaker, however on a brand new launch it positively feels dated.
Battery Decisions
Batteries will not be included, so you have to to get your personal.
WalleFPV recommends 2S 550mAh and 2S 720mAh LiHV packs, and each appear to work nicely.
Weight
- 50.9g dry
- 79.3g with a GNB 2S 550mAh
- 85.3g with a GNB 2S 720mAh
Even with the bigger battery, the Lightning V3 stays comfortably beneath 100g, which is a giant promoting level in at this time’s regulatory surroundings.
Personally, I want the 2S 720mAh. Not solely does it give longer flight time, it additionally suffers much less from voltage sag. The 2S 550mAh packs are lighter, and you’ll positively really feel the distinction within the air — the quad feels extra nimble. However the voltage sag will get fairly unhealthy within the final third of the pack, so I used to be always getting low-voltage warnings within the OSD and from the beeper, and it didn’t have a lot punch left both. If that’s the battery you resolve to make use of, be certain that to decrease the low-voltage alarm in Betaflight.
Be aware that you just want totally different 3D-printed TPU battery holders for these batteries, which I discover barely much less handy than utilizing easy LiPo straps if you wish to change between totally different battery sizes. And you’re additionally compelled to make use of batteries of those particular sizes too.
- 2S 550mAh: 17.7mm x 11.8mm (width x peak)
- 2S 720mAh: 17.7mm x 14.7mm (width x peak)
One other factor to be aware of is that, when inserting the battery, the screws on the underside of the body press barely towards it. I want WalleFPV had included some foam tape for the underside of the body to assist stop the screws from puncturing the battery in a crash or laborious touchdown.
Flight Efficiency
The quad hovers at round 30% throttle.
It doesn’t have GPS, so I can solely estimate the highest velocity, which I might say is round 100-110km/h (60-70mph).
With a 2S 550mAh LiHV battery, you get round 4 minutes of flight time, whereas a 2S 720mAh offers round 5 to six minutes.
My first impression was that the Lightning3 feels fairly floaty. Flips and rolls really feel a bit comfortable and fewer snappy than I anticipated. There’s additionally fairly a little bit of prop wash when doing sharp turns or recovering from dives. I feel the primary motive is that the motors are only a tad small for two.2-inch props. Maybe 1203 or 1204 motors would have been a more sensible choice if the aim was most energy and freestyle efficiency.
With that mentioned, these 1003 motors are completely wonderful for cruising, and nonetheless able to fundamental freestyle, whereas additionally being extra environment friendly. Balanced efficiency appears to be the primary focus of this quad.
To make the flight really feel extra vivid, you too can attempt customary 2-inch props, which provides it a barely totally different character straight away:
- a bit extra agile
- a bit extra responsive and snappier
- however barely much less environment friendly
The drone itself is sort of strong. I had a couple of minor crashes and it held up nicely, other than a couple of bent HQ props. The blades bend fairly simply, however you may often simply bend them again into form.
The buzzer is such a godsend. The grass grows very tall in the summertime the place I fly, and it will have been virtually not possible to seek out the quad after a crash and not using a correct buzzer.
One other necessary consideration is noise. The Lightning3 is de facto quiet — you may barely hear it from 50 meters away. That makes it excellent for flying in an area park. A quiet drone is less complicated to fly in small areas, much less more likely to annoy folks, and customarily feels extra informal and approachable.
Customized PID Tune
The true bottleneck to flight efficiency is the small motor dimension, however in my view the quad may nonetheless profit from a customized tune.
The Lightning 3 comes with a really conservative tune. Filters are largely left at default values, and the PID values are fairly low for a 2-inch quad. There’s positively room for enchancment.
There’s 8MB of flash reminiscence for Blackbox logging, so you may tune it if you would like. Listed below are my tuning tutorials: https://oscarliang.com/pid-filter-tuning-blackbox/
I plan to create a customized tune for this quad, and whereas I’m at it I’ll in all probability additionally replace it to the most recent Betaflight model. I’ll share that on my Patreon later: TBA
Betaflight Setup
Firmware:
- The FC goal is JHEG474, and it got here loaded with Betaflight 4.5.2. The unique CLI diff will be discovered right here.
- ESC firmware is Z-H-30 – Bluejay, 0.18, 48kHz
- Onboard ExpressLRS receiver: JHEMCU 2.4GHz Lite RX (Firmware V3.x.x).
- Propellers mounting: motors are reversed route.
To setup for first flight, I did the next:
- Bind ELRS Receiver: Plug within the USB cable to the flight controller, the onboard ELRS receiver will go into WiFi mode after ready a minute. Be part of the WiFi community “ExpressLRS_RX”, go to 10.0.0.10 in your browser, and enter bind phrase. And binding was accomplished. For extra element: https://oscarliang.com/bind-expresslrs-receivers/#Technique-3-Getting into-Bind-Phrase-in-Internet-UI
- Presets tab: make a backup of the present settings (press the Backup button); Load ExpressLRS preset primarily based in your ELRS packet charges, the best way to do: https://oscarliang.com/rc-link-preset-betaflight/
- Receiver tab: allow Telemetry
- Modes tab in Betaflight Configurator: Configure the switches for arming, angle mode, and beeper. For some motive WalleFPV doesn’t advocate enabling turtle mode (flip over after crash), possibly to forestall burning the motor or ESC.
- OSD tab: choose HD Video Format, and cargo my CLI settings: https://oscarliang.com/betaflight-osd/#Analog-without-GPS.
- PID Tuning tab: set your personal charges, right here’s my charges for reference: https://oscarliang.com/charges/#My-Charges
- Change amperage sensor scale to 410 within the Energy and Battery tab
For reference, right here’s what the UART used for:
- UART1: not used
- UART2: SmartAudio (VTX)
- UART3: Serial RX (ExpressLRS receiver)
Last Verdict: Who Is This For?
If you’d like one thing enjoyable to fly outside, however not so highly effective that it attracts an excessive amount of consideration, then the Lightning V3 seems like a really interesting possibility.
Uncooked energy is just not its largest power — the motors are just a little on the small aspect, and the dealing with feels a bit comfortable. However its largest strengths are that it’s reasonably priced, discreet, quiet, and sufficiently small to fly virtually anyplace outside.
Get the WalleFPV Lightning V3 from:
