Evaluation: DarwinFPV BabyApe III (V3) – My Favorite Funds 3″ Simply Bought an Improve. Is It Higher or Worse?

I completely liked the BabyApe II (V2). It was one among my favorite analog sub-250g freestyle drones, so I used to be very excited to take a look at the brand new BabyApe III (V3). Nonetheless, DarwinFPV has utterly modified the specs—from motors, prop dimension, body design, LiPo cell rely, battery mounting, to weight. This isn’t only a new model, it’s a totally completely different quad. So the true query is: do these modifications make it higher or worse? Let’s discover out on this evaluate.

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Try my evaluate of the BabyApe II (V2) right here: https://oscarliang.com/darwinfpv-babyape-ii/

The place to Purchase

Get your Darwin BabyApe III from:

It comes with:

• 1 set of propellers
• Rubber bands for mounting the battery
• Screws
• Stickers

Specs

New Body Design: Smaller and Lighter

The BabyApe III is a whole redesign—a lot in order that it’s virtually unrecognisable in comparison with the V2, and it’s not what I anticipated. DarwinFPV has made the quad smaller, shifting from the V2’s 3.5-inch props all the way down to a 3-inch setup on the V3.

The body is solely new, with extra arm bracing for assist and crash resistance. The drone is lighter, DarwinFPV additionally has decreased energy from 6S all the way down to 3S. The massive query is whether or not it feels considerably much less highly effective within the air—I’ll cowl that intimately within the Flight Efficiency part.

New Battery Answer: Blended Emotions

Battery Compartment

As an alternative of a standard high plate for mounting a LiPo battery, the BabyApe III now encompasses a battery compartment. The battery is now safer, but it surely additionally restricts battery dimension—you’re restricted to packs with a most width of 16.5 mm.

Battery straps are usually not wanted. As an alternative, DarwinFPV makes use of rubber bands to carry the battery in place. This protects a few grams and really works fairly effectively in apply. That mentioned, rubber bands are simple to lose, so DarwinFPV contains 5 spares within the field.

DarwinFPV’s Personal Battery

DarwinFPV now provides its personal battery designed particularly for the BabyApe III: a 3S 500mAh LiPo (not LiHV).

These batteries don’t have any exterior wires—solely fastened connectors.

To cost them, you possibly can both use the included wire extension:

Or purchase DarwinFPV’s devoted parallel charging board, which lets you plug the batteries immediately into the board and cost as much as 8 without delay:

Battery Mounting Challenges

As a result of the batteries don’t have any wires, they needed to make the battery lead on the drone further lengthy. For some purpose, DarwinFPV selected to make use of comparatively skinny 20AWG wire, which isn’t excellent for energy supply. On most 3-inch quads, 18AWG is extra frequent. I assume this was executed to avoid wasting a little bit of weight.

Truthfully, I don’t totally perceive why DarwinFPV is pushing this “wi-fi” battery idea. The one actual profit I can see is that it retains the battery lead safely away from the propellers. In any other case, it appears like an try and push customers to purchase their proprietary batteries when ordering this drone.

High quality management is one other concern. I solely acquired one battery, so the pattern dimension is small, however the pack I acquired has noticeable bulges on the ends—probably inside wiring. This turns into an actual drawback as a result of the battery compartment is already extraordinarily tight. It’s important to push the battery in with fairly a little bit of power, which made me fear about damaging it.

With these bulges, it’s not possible to seat the battery correctly. I needed to place it barely additional again to keep away from placing strain on the battery, however that shifts the middle of gravity to the rear. It additionally places pressure on the battery lead and solder joints. It’s simply not excellent.

Battery Options

Paradoxically, the DarwinFPV 3S 500mAh LiPo is bodily bigger than each the BetaFPV LAVA 3S 450mAh and 3S 550mAh batteries—and these third social gathering batteries truly match higher on this drone.

The BetaFPV batteries sit barely unfastened within the compartment, however as soon as secured with the rubber band, they’re completely safe. There’s no extreme strain on the battery in any respect. The one draw back is the unfastened battery wires, which you’ll must handle fastidiously to keep away from prop strikes. I merely twist the wires a couple of occasions earlier than plugging them in to scale back slack.

Any third social gathering battery with a width below 16.5mm ought to match positive within the BabyApe III.

FC: Minimal Specs for Low Value

The flight controller could be very restricted by way of options and functionality, but it surely’s enough to get you within the air.

There are solely two UARTs, however surprisingly each can be found. The analog VTX (SmartAudio) is related by way of a SoftSerial, and the ExpressLRS receiver is SPI-based, so it doesn’t take up any UART. This implies you should utilize the accessible UARTs for extra peripherals resembling a GPS module or perhaps a digital FPV system like DJI O4.

That brings me to one of many most important downsides of this flight controller: the SPI-based ELRS receiver. Whereas it really works positive in apply, updating firmware could be extra cumbersome. As a result of SPI receiver firmware is bundled with the FC firmware, it’s important to replace Betaflight itself simply to replace the receiver. That is why UART-based receivers are typically most popular—they’re much more versatile and future proof.

There’s additionally no present sensor and no onboard flash reminiscence for Blackbox logging.

One other odd selection is the firmware. The FC ships with a model of Betaflight that’s a 12 months outdated. It’s not a deal breaker and must be completely positive for informal flying out of the field, but it surely does really feel a bit dated.

I additionally seen a minor QC subject: one of many stack nuts was overtightened, compressing and deforming the rubber grommet beneath. This might probably cut back the effectiveness of sentimental mounting. Fortunately, it’s a simple repair.

Motors: Non-Normal Mounting Screws

The motors have a T-mount type, which means the propeller is mounted to the motor bell utilizing two small screws. Nonetheless, as an alternative of the usual M2 hex screws, these motors use these tiny M1.3 Phillips screws. This caught me off guard. Whereas it technically works, it feels low cost and fewer sturdy, and the small screw are a lot simpler to strip.

I additionally bumped into points when mounting the propellers. There was a 1–2 mm hole between the prop and the highest of the motor bell, and the prop merely wouldn’t seat totally down regardless of how exhausting I pushed. Ultimately, I needed to enlarge the outlet within the prop hub utilizing a 1.5 mm drill bit (the motor shaft is 1.5 mm). It was a bit irritating and could be not possible to resolve with out the suitable instruments.

Flight Efficiency

Straight away, I used to be a bit disillusioned that DarwinFPV decreased each the dimensions and energy of the BabyApe. The V2 was already very light-weight and comfortably below 250g anyway. My guess is that they have been attempting to make the V3 as low cost and minimal as attainable—and it exhibits.

In flight, the BabyApe V3 is noticeably slower than different 3-inch quads I not too long ago reviewed, such because the Seeker3 and RATE S30, despite the fact that these are considerably heavier. That is anticipated: the BabyApe V3 runs on 3S and makes use of a lot smaller motors. The decreased energy and lighter weight additionally imply it struggles extra in windy circumstances. Even in 15mph wind, it was barely shifting in a headwind and always being pushed round.

Flight video, 0:00 – 1st flight with Darwin 3S 500mAh LiPo, 4:27 – 2nd flight with BetaFPV 3S 550mAh LiHV

That mentioned, it’s nonetheless a reasonably agile and nimble quad. It’s nice for fundamental freestyle, proximity flying, or ripping round bushes and obstacles. After all, it’s not as succesful as extra highly effective choices for aggressive freestyle, but it surely’s nonetheless plenty of enjoyable to fly. And due to the decrease energy, it’s comparatively quiet, though the sound is fairly higher-pitched—virtually like a wasp.

Vary is first rate and 1km+ must be achievable in principle. The true bottleneck is the VTX antenna placement. It sits immediately in entrance of the battery, which blocks the sign when flying away, leading to noticeably worse video. As quickly as you flip sideways or head again, the sign improves instantly. This severely limits most vary. On high of that, the drone makes use of a linear-polarized antenna. For those who’re utilizing circularly polarized antennas in your goggles (which most individuals do), you’re mechanically shedding round 50% of sign. With that mentioned, it’s completely flyable at shut vary, however for those who plan to fly past 500m, upgrading to an longer circularly polarized antenna would make an enormous distinction.

Digicam picture high quality isn’t nice, but it surely’s flyable. Readability is suitable, however the picture appears to be like a bit too darkish, even after rising brightness to 100% in my goggles.

The included DarwinFPV 3S 500 mAh LiPo labored positive, however the BetaFPV LAVA 3S 550 mAh was clearly higher by way of each energy supply and flight time. With the Darwin battery, I used to be instantly getting low voltage warning when doing punch out in the beginning, however the BetaFPV battery held up very well.

Flight time with the Darwin 3S 500 mAh battery is round 4–5 minutes. With the BetaFPV 3S 550 mAh, I used to be getting nearer to five–6 minutes.

The BabyApe III ships with a customized PID tune, however the filter settings are largely left at default, so there’s undoubtedly room for enchancment if you wish to fine-tune it. Nonetheless with out reminiscence for blackbox this turns into a difficult process.

Learn how to Setup

• FC Firmware: DARWINF4SX1280HD, Betaflight 4.4.2
• ESC Firmware: Bluejay (BETA), 0.14, 48kHz

Betaflight Setup

• The drone runs “props in” (commonplace motor path)
• Configuration Tab: the drone has no beeper, so make certain to setup DShot Beacon
• PID Tuning tab: Set your individual charges
• Receiver tab: Enter your individual binding phrase
• Modes tab: Setup switches for Arm, Angle mode, Turtle mode and Beeper
• OSD tab: Customise it to your desire (it makes use of NTSC format)

Conclusion

To be utterly sincere, this quad is reasonable—and it feels low cost. The {hardware} and QC aren’t the best, and you may inform DarwinFPV minimize corners wherever attainable. The battery becoming subject can be annoying, and the VTX antenna actually wants an improve. That mentioned, it does fly moderately effectively for a quad that prices solely $145.

Get your Darwin Child Ape 3 from:

Personally, I nonetheless favor the BabyApe II (V2). It’s rather more highly effective and flies brilliantly out of the field. The V2 is roughly the identical value because the V3 and nonetheless below 250g. I feel it’s nonetheless accessible from each AliExpress and DarwinFPV, in order that’s the one I’d advocate as an alternative.

Get the Darwin Child Ape 2 from:

That mentioned, the V2 is louder and considerably sooner as a consequence of its greater energy. For those who favor a quieter, extra tame, and simpler to regulate micro drone, then the BabyApe III (V3) should still be the higher selection for you.