Odds are, you are familiar with drones and are aware of their primary use. While some leverage drones for aerial surveillance or just for recreational use, agricultural proprietors are slowly recognizing the monumental impact unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) could have on land management. Drones are now a part the wave of next-gen farming, a trend also known as smart farming, a holistic, software-centric approach to long-standing growing traditions.

Picking the right flight controller that suits your needs is a daunting task. There are dozens of flight controllers out in the market to choose from, where each is better in their own way. With advancement in technology flight controllers have evolved greatly over the years with faster more powerful and better micro-controllers being used for better optimization of resources and features.

Technology has come a long way since the more popular and widely used KK2 boards. The early KK2 boards and their successors were bulky at 50x50mm as compared to the most modern F7 flight controller that are half the size and have more processing power.

Though there are a lot of parameters to consider before buying a flight controller, this guide tries to help you in selecting the best flight controller for your particular needs and simplify the buying process.

What is a Flight Controller?

Flight controllers (FC in short) are circuit boards that have particular sensors such as gyroscopes (helps to determine the angular orientation) and accelerometers (helps to measure the vibrations of motors) and several other insignificant but useful sensors such as barometer (altitude of the quad can be found), compass (provides orientation in relation to earth’s magnetic field) etc..,

But the functions of the flight controller’s do not end there. One of the major functions of a flight controller includes receiving and processing the input signals from the receiver and executing appropriate commands given by the users. Simply put, flight controllers might be compared to the human brain. The human brain tells us how to walk, in the same way flight controllers are the brains on a quad that tell the quads how to fly.

Flight Controller Processors

F1, F3, F4 and F7 are the most commonly used processors in mini quads. F3 was the successor of F1, F4 was the successor for F3 and F7 was the replacement for F4. All these 4 processors are based on STM32 architecture which uses 32 bit processing rather than the 8 bit on KK2.x boards.

As you can see with advancement in processors, the processing speed got higher. Higher the processing speed faster can it execute the commands. The fastest F7 processor can execute 216 million cycles per second (A cycle is the basic operation such as fetching or accessing memory or writing data).

With developments in Betaflight optimizations taking place constantly, F3 processors are having a hard time keeping up.

Obviously F7 is more future proof and more and more Betalight developments are going to be geared towards optimizing the processing power on an F7 processor.

Firmware

Betaflight, Cleanflight, Raceflight, KISS are some of the major flight control firmware’s widely used in flying a mini quad. Each firmware is optimized for a particular function.

Betaflight

Betaflight is the most popular option with its easy GUI (graphical user interface) and under constant development by its developers. Betaflight is flexible and a powerful flight controller firmware perfect for a beginner which requires little to no coding experience. Another major advantage that Betaflight has is that it supports a large number of flight controllers.

Raceflight

Another flight control firware is Raceflight, focused entirely for acro and racing drones. Raceflight stands out by deleting non essential codes (like GPS). By deleting these codes Raceflight freed up processing power which can be used to do other useful functions like running faster looptimes for example.

If you’re only into racing, Raceflight is the firmware to choose. But beware when selecting, flight controllers such as the Revolt F4 are capable of running Raceflight.

KISS

KISS (keep it simple stupid) is a closed source firmware developed by FlyDuino. KISS products are powerful and up to date with the current trends on the market. Similar to Raceflight, KISS is also closed source and runs on proprietary boards from KISS. If you like Apple products despite its higher price point then KISS is the Apple of the mini quad world.

HARDWARE

Hardware is probably one of the most important aspects to consider when selecting an FC. Hardware of a flight controller decides how well a quad performs because quality components assure accuracy, efficiency and performance.

IMU- Gyroscope & Accelerometer

IMU stands for inertial measurement unit. IMU consists of Gyroscopes (gyro in short) and accelerometers. A single IMU chip contains Gyro’s and Accelerometers. Since most pilots fly acro mode, accelerometers are turned off.

Gyroscope is a sensor placed in FC’s which helps to determine the angular orientation or tilt of the quad.

There are 2 major Gyros used in the world of quadcopters. They are the MPU6000 and ICM20602. F4 FC’s use MPU6000 gyros, while F7 FC’s use ICM20602 and some FC’s have dual gyro setups featuring both the ICM20602 and MPU6000 which can be switched according to the user preferences.

The MPU6000 gyro was launched in 2010 by InvenSense. This is an older gyro which is reliable and more noise resistant than ICM20602 with gyro sampling capability at 8KHz. ICM20602 is a much latest gyro by InvenSense which is much more sensitive and has the capability to sample gyro at 32KHz.

Further reading: Gyroscopes and Accelerometers

The sensitivity of the ICM20602 might be a good thing and an equally bad thing. Technically the ICM series gyro must perform better because of their sensitivity but not necessarily. The mechanical vibrations from the motors require the FC to soft mount the gyro and the electrical noise from motors and ESC’s require the addition of capacitors to counter electrical noise. But when properly setup the ICM20602 can do better than the ICM6000 in every way.

UARTs Availability

Prior to 2014 FC’s used to have up to 20 UARTs on a FC where people need not worry about running out of UART ports. As manufacturers wanted to miniaturize FC’s which they did was at the expense of lesser number of UART’s with 8 being the most number of UART’s found on a modern day F7 FC.

If you plan to run telemetry or smart-port or even GPS for a long range rig and a whole lot of other peripherals that may require UART’s, you are going to have a hard time finding UART ports. You have to prioritize your peripherals and choose accordingly.

As a beginner you probably won’t be running GPS or any other advanced features like telemetry on your first quad. You are just beginning your FPV journey UART must not be that much of a concern.

PID, PID Tuning and PID Analyzers

PID stands for Proportional, Integral and Derivative. PID is a means of correcting an error from the various sensors placed on a FC such as gyroscopes. PID tuning is a very difficult process and is a whole another subject that requires separate guide.

Simply put the input from the users must be interpreted by the FC and executed appropriately. Since we are not on the quad flying it we need assistance from the FC to get the quad to orient as required. The process of orientation is executed by 3 parameters know as PID. These 3 factors govern the handling and the behavior of a quad.
For further reading and in depth knowledge about PID

Further reading: In depth knowledge about PID

PID Analyzers

One of the latest news buzzing around the world of quadcopters is PID analyzers. Most beginners cannot successfully tune a drone such that there is no vibration and most beginners can be seen on the internet asking the pros for help regarding the problems and a suitable solution. This is where PID analyzers come into picture.

If you have black box feature enabled you just feed this data into the PID analyzer which will give users the required settings or the recommended settings for smooth flying. If the FC is capable of black box data logging, PID analyzers are worth a try. 

Further reading: PlasmaTree PID analyzers

ADDITIONAL SENSORS

GPS Integration

GPS stands for global positioning systems. GPS is a satellite based navigation system that provides geolocation for a GPS receiver anywhere in the world. Why use GPS in quads?

Smaller quads are relatively cheap to build and losing them won’t hurt your pocket that much. But as you move bigger in size like 650mm or even a 1000mm cinematography quad frame, the parts alone for the build will cost a couple thousand dollars. Hence GPS are added to avoid mishaps and GPS can be referred to as insurance.

Not only is it useful to identify lost quads, some quads with autonomous features such as Aerial mapping requires GPS. GPS is mostly used for quads that fly beyond VLOS (visual line of sight) and totally unnecessary for close proximity flying as you can just walk over the area you flew and normally find the quad hiding in a bush.

Current Sensors

As the name suggests, a current sensor is used to measure the amount of current your quad draws at various throttle ranges.

Why is it necessary? Because you can monitor your current and be sure that you are not damaging your battery by drawing large amounts of current. Not only measure and monitor current, a current sensor can also give the battery consumption (mAh) used from the battery.

Normally current sensors are placed on PDB’s or on the ESC’s, if not they can be mounted separately or even buy current sensor integrated FC’s.

Barometer

Barometer is a type of sensor that measures the altitude by sensing the atmospheric pressure. As we all know atmospheric pressure decreases as we go up higher in altitude, if you didn’t know prior to this you know it now.

Barometers are used for autonomous navigation where the quad is required to hold a certain altitude throughout its flight path. The F7 flight controllers are so powerful that manufacturers decided to add sensors to utilize the extra processing power.

We normally don’t need Barometer sensor on our quads as we don’t do autonomous flying, but if you do long range quads the Barometer sensor might be helpful.

ADDITIONAL FEATURES

On Screen Display (OSD)

Power Distribution Board

FC manufacturers wanted something unique to sell more of their products and PDB integrated FC’s are the result of this venture. Though integrated PDB’s on FC’s eliminate the need for an external PDB, it also reduces the height of the stack by up to 15mm. FC integrated PDB’s are ideal for frames with tight spaces but they come with their own set of challenges and disadvantages.

Even though these types of FC’s reduce the height of the stack, they are prone to electrical noise interfering with the gyro. As the current flow is very close to the flight control processors and gyros, voltage spikes and electrical and magnetic interference may cause some issues. That being said manufacturers claim that they are well isolated from electrical noise.

Battery Elimination Circuit (BEC)

Apart from supplying power to the motors there are loads of other components on a quad that require power such as camera, vTx, receivers etc… A good flight controller will have a good amount of BEC’s from 3.3V from SBUS receivers, 5V BEC’s for PPM receivers and 12V BEC’s for camera, vTx and LED’s.

If you are going to use individual ESC’s and PDB for powering your motors then the PDB will have BEC’s for every component that requires power. But If you plan to go the 4in1 ESC route, then pay attention to the BEC’s present on the FC’s.

Black Box

Black box helps us to analyze data of every parameter such as voltage draw, current consumption and such so that they can be analyzed later on the ground. If any oscillation or vibrations are noticeable then the black box data can be fed to PID analyzers to identify the necessary corrections and tune your quad.

For getting started with Black box logging

ESC Integration

But all these features come with a penalty. There is only so much you can cram into a 36x36mm board, ESC integrated type of FC’s usually tend to have smaller MOSFETs (MOSFETs are responsible for the current carrying capacity of an ESC, larger the FETs larger the current carrying capacity). They will be fine for micro builds of 3” and under but can’t handle the current draws of larger 2207 or 2306 motors without damaging the FC.

Receiver Compatibility

If you already own a transmitter, then receiver compatibility is one feature that you should definitely check before buying. RC transmitters use different protocols to communicate with the air borne receiver where different radio manufacturers use different protocols. Some of the major RC protocols are PWM, PPM, IBUS, SBUS, DSMX, DSM2, XBUS, CRSF (Crossfire) to name a few.

Although most modern FC’s have all the above mentioned receiver compatibility there are some FC’s that do not support a few protocols (it is probably how they are built). So it is worth taking a look into the FC receiver support list and make sure it supports the protocol used by your particular radio.

Further reading: RC radio protocols

Soft mounting FC’s and Gyro’s

Soft mounting is a must for FC boards that use ICM20602 gyro or they just become unflyable due the sensitiveness of the ICM20602 gyro. Soft mounting definitely help to soften the mechanical noise generated by the motors and wouldn’t hurt to use some sort of soft mounting.

Mounting Patterns

CONCLUSION

Of course there are a lot of things to consider when buying a suitable FC and you may as a beginner feel overwhelmed at first. Even I was a beginner a few years back and once I spent a few weekends trying to learn the basics of quadcopters, I haven’t had the need to look back.

We suggest you to read this article thoroughly if you skipped somewhere when bored and when you have a good knowledge of things you will not feel the need to search the web for articles to learn the part you skipped.

If you are still skeptical and not confident enough in yourself we have a few recommended FC’s below.

I am really looking to receiving the Happymodel Mobula7 “Power Whoop”, The Winter in the UK makes flying FPV quite hard for a number of reasons (not only the cold weather, but also the wind rain and snow), I can’t wait to get more stick time with one of these new micro drones breed of Power Whoops.

This year however instead of their trusty 1s brushed they have had for the last few years, they now have a totally different set of beasts available to them:

2s Brushless Whoops, lovingly called “Power Whoops”.

The Mobula 7 from Happymodel is the a 2s Power Whoop that has taken the FPV community by storm in the Winter of 2018. Given the Poor weather in the northern hemisphere, a lot of people are trying to get their FPV fix from the new range of “Power” Whoops (Brushless Tiny Whoop style Drones that can run on 2S batteries). The Mobula 7 is classed as one of the best in its class.

The Mobula 7 features:

• 75mm frame
• 5 amp ESC able to run Dshot600
• F3 Processor
• 0802 1600kv Motors swinging 40mm props.
• Smart Audio (depending on your receiver)
• Can be run on 1s or 2s.

I am very keen to see how this performs both indoor and outdoor and compare it to my  Betafpv 65s.

Get the Mobula 7 on Banggood, it's currently on discount.

In this Review I will be taking a Mobula 7 through its paces and comparing it to my Betafpv 65x, which is a 10mm smaller in frame size but has a similar spec.

Does this frame stand up to the Hype? Is is Rugid enough for a indoor quad? Is it to powerful? And Most importantly is it fun? Let find out.

What's in the box?

I am reviewing the Mobula 7 Standard with an EU Receiver (Frsky XM+) this is the more premium offering and you get more in the box. There is a Basic Version, which is slightly cheaper has only a USB battery charger.

First impression when opening is the box is very positive, everything is nicely set out and you even get a proper set of instructions that take you through how to bind to your Transmitter (The same cannot be said for other suppliers).

You get a decent 6 channel charger which can either be powered from a Lipo or from a 12-volt power supply. You have 2 options for the C rating you charge at. You can change between charging Standard Lipos or HV (High Voltage Lipos) and you also have 2 different connectors MCPX (PW) and MX.

The LCD Screen gives you the Input voltage (very handy if you are using a Lipo to charge) and the voltage of each of the batteries. Each charge point has an LED, that goes out when the batteries are fully charged.

Also included:

• A spare set of 40mm 3-blade propellers
• Some spare screws
• A screwdriver
• A jumper so you can run on 1s (unlike the Betafpv 65x)

Mobula 7 Features & Specifications

The Mobula 7 is a 75mm (diagonally motor to motor) with 4 brushless SE0802 16000KV motor Happymodel motors. It runs on Betaflight and comes with both a built in Frsky D8 Receiver and in my case an External Frsky XM+ Receiver (I live in the EU).

If you buy the non-Eu version, I understand it also offers Smartaudio (change your VTX setting from the built in OSD). However, this is not available on the EU version because there is not enough UARTS.

The 2 Great features that stand out for me are:

• It can be run happily on 1s - All you need to do is plug in the supplied Jumper and you can “tame” the Mobula 7 and make it nice and easy to fly around your house. This makes it very versatile.
• Adjustable Camera Angle - This seems like a small thing, but my biggest issue with the Betafpv 65x is that you can not change the camera angle. This makes it very hard to fly indoors. However, the Mobula 7 has this covered, because you can simply loosen the screws on the camera and adjust the angle to your liking.

Other little things are that It has a buzzer and also you can wire up LED’s that can be controlled within Betaflight.

Flight Controller & ESC’s

The Flight Controller in the Mobula 7 is a Crazybee F3 Pro FC that is running Betaflight. It is capable of being powered by either 1s or 2s. It has the Betaflight OSD and a built in Receiver.

As I have mentioned before if you are not using an external receiver you can also use Smartaudio.

The Flight controller also includes the 4in1 ESCs. Which are Blheli_s 5Amp Esc’s that run on Dshot 600. There is also a current sensor, so you can keep an eye on your battery’s voltage.

Overall the flight controller is perfectly adequate and the rates and PIDS didn’t feel like they needed changing out of the box.

Frame & Build Quality

Out of the box, I was really impressed with the build quality of the Mobula 7. The wires where nicely braded and everything was fitted nicely within the canopy. This was better than the Betafpv 65x which had the motor wires just hanging out of the bottom.

The frame itself has a 3d printed part that allows you to either run 1 2s 300mah battery (xt30 mod required) or two 1s 300mah (or 260mah) batteries. This is a nice touch.

All this being said, the frame is the weak point of the Mobula 7. It is quite fragile. I have done around 15 flights with it and I have managed to crack the one of the ducts. This is not uncommon, so much so that Happymodel have released a V2 of the frame that should be a little stronger.

Motors

The motors are HappyModel SE0802 16000KV Motors. They have a 1mm shaft and offer plenty of punch on both 1s and 2s. However on 2s you really do get a lot of power which lets you throw the Mobula 7 around like a 5 inch (other than it has very little momentum).

The power draw is pretty aggressive, when I was flying outside I was only getting 2 and a half minutes. That being said, the batteries where not as hot when I had finished as the 65X.

Props

The Mobula 7 comes with 40mm 4-blade propellers. These are fairly strong, offer great control and power. You still get quite a lot of propwash, but that is common in tinywhoops.

In the Box you get a full spare set (2 CW and 2 CCW). Others can be ordered online ether via banggood or a local supplier.

FPV Camera

The camera is an all in 1 Camera and VTX. It has a field of view of 120 degrees and a resolution of 700TVL. It offers a pretty good picture for its size and had no noticeable latency or interference issues.

The video transmitter runs on 5.8Ghz and covers 40 channels including raceband. It can be controlled over Smartaudio (Not on EU or DSMX receiver versions). It outputs at 25mw which is what you would expect from a Tinywhoop. It has a Linear Whip-style antenna which is nice a rugged.

Performance wise, I was quite impressed with A: the Range I could get outdoors and B: the range I could get in my house (which has really bad RF issues). Outside I was able to fly around 700 meters away without issue.

Receivers

The Mobula 7 has 4 options for receivers

On the versions with external receivers, they are fitted under the canopy so are easy to access for binding.

It is a shame that smartaudio is lost on the external receiver models. However, that being said, I run most of my Drones of Raceband 1 and very rarely need to change it with the people I fly with.

Flight Test

So, how does it Fly?

Indoors, it is fun. I had to make some changes to lower the minimum throttle position because it was bouncing around way too much with air mode enabled. If you fly it in either angle or horizon mode, you will have hours of fun (2 to 3 minutes at a time).

It’s a little bit too aggressive to fly in full acro mode indoors unless you have a lot of space. Power wise, on 2s it can be a bit of an animal but it can be tamed quite nicely by simply going to 1s. This really drops the power, but you still have plenty left to have fun flying around your house.

I was really keen to take the Mobula 7 to an indoor race event, but unfortunately, I simply didn’t get time. I strongly believe that this little pocket rocket in a large indoor space like a sports hall would be tons of fun.

Outdoors, I really didn’t expect to have as much fun as I did. You can fly the Mobula 7 like a full Acro Drone, with the added advantage that is bounces off most things that it hits.

Once you get used to the lack of momentum you can pull off power loops and matty flips on gates or anything you find. I felt confident that I could hit any gap and really found it a joy to fly. However, I could suggest it is not one to take out on a windy day.

The shame is that the frame is quite fragile. I don’t quite know when I broke mine, but I was not pushing it too hard and I don’t remember hitting anything more than a glancing blow. That being said, I am lucky, I have seen people split the frame in half.

Conclusion

I have really enjoyed my time with the Mobula 7 even though I have broken the frame. It is very adaptable, and the setup is pretty good out of the box. What you get in the box is a great place to start if this is your first whoop. A decent charger is always handy. The 1s Jumper and a screwdriver really give you everything you need to get going. If you paired this up with a Frsky X-lite and a cheap set of goggles, you would have a awesome starter setup.

It flies so well, and I cannot believe how much I enjoyed flying it outside. I had only planned to do 2 flights and I ended up going through around 16 packs. I had a smile on my face from ear to ear.

You can grab the Mobula 7 on Banggood, currently on discount.

Mobula 7 vs. BetaFPV 65x?

How does it compare to the Betafpv 65x? Well, they both have the same punch, so power wise they are even. The Mobula 7 feels a lot more controllable A: Because you can change the camera angle and B: it just feels more locked in when you are pushing it.

The 65x is always going too fast and when you push it you find it has a lot of prop wash issues. The killer feature for me is the Mobula 7 ability to switch between 1s and 2s. This means you can adapt it to the flying location with ease. The 65x simply cannot do that.

I will admit this is not a totally fair comparison due to the difference in frame size, but you can still draw similarities between the two.

I would strongly recommend the Mobula 7 to anybody. It has a lot of offer whatever level you are flying at. Just make sure you upgrade to the V2 Frame.

Here's my video review including flight footage (also consider Subscribing)

Contibutor:  Paul Rose

Emax is probably best known for their motors, they've released a series of pretty successful mini quads in the past the Nighthawk, then Babyhawk and the Babyhawk-R, both very popular at the moment. Emax Hawk 5 presents an excellent option for both pro racers and new pilots.