12:08 as a newbie to these type of controllers - I like they have the ports in addition to the pads. Much easier to hookup and not brick your board if you aren’t great at solder.
They are pretty useful. It is a bit of a shame you need the USB board to turn on the WiFi though. A friend of mine lost his in a crash. So now can’t update settings, even though the FC is WiFi capable.
Brilliant overview Darren!!! I'm glad you touched upon the cons of this FC. Hopefully reviews such as this will push SB to refine the next line of FW flight controllers. 🍻
@@MrD 14:39 The barometer is absolutely indifferent to the presence of the SD card next to it. It measures the ambient pressure, not the air flow rate, which the card plate could interfere with. This claim is absolutely unfounded. As for the "extra" connectors on the board - this is done for versatility. You can either solder or use connectors. This is as convenient as possible for different users. I think you can solder off these connectors if you don't need them. And even more clever will be the creation of a printed circuit board by you, where all your comments will be eliminated. I turned it on to find out about the speedy bee setup. I am against putting three wires of different lengths specially for you. I want to avoid using a soldering iron in the field when setting up. I will solder everything in the workshop, and in the field I will use only connectors.I've wasted my time on this review.
@@nikolympiysky you're missing the point with my comment about the SD card over the barometer. I'm saying the problem is that because of the position of the SD card, you can't put open cell foam over the barometer, to help make the readings more consistent. This is a well known fact and technique that pilots have been using for years. Matek flight controllers even have the open cell foam already. It is not unfounded at all, and has been proven and used for years. You're also missing the point of the extra connectors. What I'm referring to here is that there are two connectors both doing the same job. For example the DJI connector and the VTX connector. They could have been consolidated in to a single connector without losing any versatility. Desoldering connectors like that can also be a pain. Most people don't have a hot air station at home, which would be the tool needed to remove these connectors. Using a soldering iron would be a painful process, as you need to heat up multiple pins at once. I find your comment about the different wire lengths hypocritical. In the previous paragraph, you mention the connectors are for versatility. Yet I suggest different length wires for versatility, and that's somehow wrong. I'm not making these suggestions just for me. They are from years of building fixed wing FPV aircraft, and knowing what is needed in different builds. Everything in my reviews is to try and help everyone decide if it is the right product for them. I can always change things for myself. I would feel like a fraud if I saw something that I didn't like or thought could be better and didn't report it. I'm not one of these disingenuous reviewers who will tell you everything is great! At the end of the day, we're all entitled to our opinions. These are my opinions, and I'm not going to sugar coat them to make anyone happy. I will always be honest with my reviews, and hope that people respect that, even if they don't always like what they hear. Sorry you feel like your time was wasted. But at the end of the day, you're in control of your browser's back button. Not me.
However, that's not how most fixed wing pilots build. That is more a quad thing. For fixed wing, soldering to pads is the way most pilots operate. It also doesn't excuse the bad plug layout. There is no need for 2 different VTx plugs. It's just wasted space. The plugs take up 60% more space than pads, so the access around the edge of the flight controller is massively reduced. Which is why we have the terrible positioning of the MicroSD card slot.
@@MrD If you fly iNav. I would argue most fixed wing pilots use traditional radio receivers, stabilizers and telemetry sensors that use plugs, never solder anything and would rather use adapters than change a battery lead. ;p Also, most high end FC designed for Arduplane are plug only. Having a (mostly) plug and play option at that price point is very nice. I do not feel like the wasted space is such a big deal. That FC is clearly not something very compact and/or light weight, but it close to the size of a traditional 8 or 10 pwm receiver, and much smaller than anything like a Pixhawk. Yes, the MicroSD card placement is stupid, but if it is accessible it by wifi or bluetooth it is not the end of the world. I am more saddened by the lack of DroneCAN support.
You can select between speedybee LED control, or FC FW LED control. You just press the boot button for 2 secs to switch between the two functions. I have rgb nav and mode LEDS controlled via inav configurator on my SBF405-wing.
Great review! Purchased 2 from a US dealer as they were cheaper to get and faster as it relates to postage. Hopefully they will listen to your constructive ideas for possible changes in the future Thanks!
Thanks for the Super Thanks JD. I’m glad the review was helpful. Hopefully v2 will see some improvements. But I think this flight controller will still do very well. I’ll certainly be ordering more.
Nice video as always. Though I never understood some folks wanting to use big bulky plugs for their servos, but solder everything else. Personally, I like using the nice compact plugs. Makes it very easy to swap out a VTX or whatever.
Very insightful man thanks! I do think I read that holding the boot button for 3 seconds switches LEDs btwn flight controller and onboard chip control. Fc_led and sb_led modes. Thanks again!
Great video thanks. Big fan of your iNav vids too. I can see what you mean about connectors taking up valuable space. But I'd argue in the other direction - I reckon its the solder pads that need removing along with the need to do any soldering whatsoever. For me the connections should all be plugin - fiddly soldering must put off a lot of potential customers. (I spent most of my working life with software and electronics so I'm no stranger to a soldering iron. But now I'm retired I want the easy life!)
Thanks Steve. I see your point. But to me, soldering is more reassuring. I’ve actually seen a few of these connectors fail recently in crashes. It doesn’t give me much confidence in them.
Thank you for your videos, I am a beginner with INAV and subscribed to learn more...I got two Speedybee F405 wing for a Multiplex Funjet and an Freewing L39 80 EDF jet...had only the maiden with the Funjet and it worked great, I am more shy to do the maiden with the L39, and found two problems: 90A is what I get at full power and perhaps a bit too much for the FC, and no signal on PWM pin 8 to have a pan servo... a lot of servos on this type of jet, so I connected the ESC red wire to the retracting gear and flaps red wires...but on the bench, I get an "overheat" signal in the goggles, hope it will be cooler once in flight!
I get what you are saying about most of the plugs, but I do like having a plug for a HD VTX. Often times, the plug on the VTX can be hard to get to compared to the plug on the FC.
Nice structured video. The other less than ideal feature of this board is that it is difficult to fit a removable ELRS cable where there is not much head room. I have fitted one of these in a Mini Drak, in the normal place behind the main spar. I have fitted the 90 degree server headers, but the vertical ELRS header means that the 4 way connector fouls on the fuselage lid. I had to direct solder cables to the FC in the end and put a connector in-line.
Agree on the vibration isolation. Actually like to add that if anything if will add stress to the conectors inbetween the boards. Does nothing for vibration... there where some quad stacks that did this but stopped becaus of issues. Cant use individual soft mout and connectors... there is a reason ther is wires inbetween esc and fc on a quad... if they fix this and the other points im into v2 of this 😀
Hello Mr. D, one of the pwm outputs can be used to operate a camera that does automatic shooting, this with the intention of using it for some mapping, I thank you in advance for your response
I'm glad I watched this before I order this flight controller so thanks Darren,I like my leds on my inav wings and your saying it's not going to work with this board? Also looks like after soldering the battery and esc wires to board it may not go back together proper. I already have a matek f411-wse in spare bin how would you compare the 2 boards? Thanks again
Honestly, I would pick the SpeedyBee over the F411. The battery and ESC soldering should be absolutely fine. I believe you can actually use INAV to control the LEDs. But you need to only use LED port 1 and set something up using the button on the USB breakout board.
I actually really like having a connector block for VTX. It makes it easier to disconnect the VTX when you are doing something on the bench, so it doesn't overheat, or if you are flying LOS and don't want to transmit video over friends flying FPV. The blocks look designed for Pixhawk style sensors, which I think doesn't make sense for an F405 that can't run full AP. I really don't like that style of board connectors. I am curious if people will have problems with these breaking.
The most commonly used uart, is in the absolutely worst space. The best real estate, is taken up by the 4 ports for led…which I will never use. Still, it is much better than Matek wing v3. The Matek wing v3 has a delicate usb port that breaks off easily. I’m pretty sure my Matek board is garbage after it broke off. I tried to get it back on , but I couldn’t get it back on and get a reliable calibration in inav.
I agree with everything you said about the board. Mostly we have to solder the pins or the wiring I consider a serious mistake. But most of this type of board comes with design flaws
I think it would be impossible to please everyone. It’s a good start. But the silly mistakes should have been avoided. If only fixed wing pilots had been consulted.
Thank you for a comprehensive review, but please don't tell SpeedyBee to skip the blocks. The point is not to avoid soldering in general, but to avoid soldering TO THE BOARD ITSELF and all the risks associated with that. I am fairly certain my soldering skills are above average, and I never ruined a board, but I'm still tired of that constant risk, and would much rather join wires than heat pads. I know the pin headers still have to be soldered, but at least there are fewer points of risk than we're used to. Thank you for the connectors, SpeedyBee, they let us keep our amateur soldering irons clear of your hi-tech!
The thing is, we still need to solder to the board. So its not like the connectors stop that. They’re also around 60% bigger than the pads. And this has caused some bad design decisions on this FC. Not to mention the wasted space due to connection duplication. The pads that they do have on here are pretty large too. Which makes things much easier to solder too. But we’re all different. This is my personal opinion.
@@MrD Yes, we still have to solder to the board, but at fewer points. That said, I agree some of the design decisions are suboptimal, and thank you for shedding light on that. A very informative video!
@@Videolinquency One of the biggest issues with soldering, is the solder wicks up the wire a little way, causes an abrupt end and if the wire flexes at this point, it breaks the wire, often this is inside the wire cover, and can’t be found, this has happened to me a couple of times, so I avoid soldering servo type wire. Soldering pins onto the board is OK for me
@@peterhancox5268 I have heard of that worry, but never experienced the problem, and I've been at it for half a century. I just make sure the shrink tube is a bit longer than the wicked joint to protect it. Prefer that method over crimping connectors, which has given me more failures over the years.
@@Videolinquency Agreed, but the main problem I’ve experienced is joints breaking in the wire where soldered onto a pad on a FC, where is it is near impossible to protect with heat shrink
Just bought 3 from the speedy bee 405 fc from web site. What 411 not good , I agree. I finally loaded the latest Inav as of 8/24/23 so at least I got inav 6. Oh I also bought the HDzero goggles with the analog receiver setup, complete 4 awesome antennas 1w vtx . I was out on another hobby that consumed money and time. I’m wondering what improvements we will get now that AI has exploded on the seen. Great review thanks
I find the SpeedyBee Silkscreen info right on the PCB Excellent. For the Price of the FC... I can easily live with the Pin/Pad layouts... I'm convinced V2 will address your issues Darrin.
Maybe it is not consistent. You can see in the video that on mine, some of it was pretty unreadable. It wasn’t a pre-production board. The big areas of screen printing look fine though.
I know the review did sound harsh Darren but it was fair and just showed what can be done better. I think Runcam will learn something from this video and hopefully they watch it. I am just glad that it is giving Matek a very good run for their Money. I will defo get a few of these boards as well. I just like Runcam though as a company. 👍
You can; though it is very slow. In the CLI, type MSC and press enter. The SD card will then appear as a drive. You just need to reboot the flight controller when you’re done.
@@MrD thanks a lot for this information, I was not able to find it on the inav blackbox documentation, it is perhaps slow ... but at least I don't have to remove all the stuff form the fuselage, then unscrew the FC etc, so it was really faster for accessing logs .... and with very fragile pins to destroy on that board. Thanks a lot !
I guess speedy bee should listen and offer a barebone version , where you only a longer and a shorter remote control cable. Would mean more logistics (2 versions with and without sockets), but they would be able to realize if the wing pilots would go for the sockets and harness / cables or for the barebone version. Also I do not have to pay for all these I would not use. I will get one cause I have bought some speedy be products recently but never from their website cause I hate to drive 50 km to the customs and spend an hour there just to get into discussions about if that is allowed or not and what it is really for. I prefer the service aliexpress offers by paying the customs and vat at checkout which ebay has not even implemented.
Hello Mr.D. Thank you very much for your videos, they are very didactic and very well understood. I have seen your video about the fc speedybee f405 wing and since I liked it a lot, I was curious about this product. I really want to try it, so I bought it. I would like to connect it to a FRSKY R10 Pro receiver but I don't know how to configure the Sbus, Sport/Fport and which one to use. SBUS has an input connector and a different output connector. It is called an inverted signal. How to make connections and configurations of the receiver. I have the FRSKY X20S transmitter thanks to your videos. Greetings
Mine arrived today, had a hell of a job to connect the top and middle boards, with two sets of multiple pin blocks to line up. The best I could measure the pins were misaligned by about .2mm. Darren do you know if the ‘telemetry’ module block will output to FrSky ACCST telemetry, I’m not into FPV.
If you want to use FPort on an F4 flight controller. You will need a receiver with an “Inverted SPort” pad. Hook that up to T1 on this fc, plus power to 4v5 and ground to ground. In INAV, set UART 1 as Serial RX. On the receiver page, set the protocol to FPORT and switch the “inverted compared to default protocol” to on. You’ll also need to make sure that the receiver is flashed with FPORT firmware, or the telemetry type is set to FPORT in the receiver options. Depending on which receiver you’re using.
Darren...cheers bro....was gonna buy this,but I don't like plug n play as I love soldering...and as you say the plugs increase the area of the FC. So... Just bought a Matek F405 V2 from Unmanned Tech for £43,inc his majesty's vat.. so indeedy, a bit more expensive than the Speedybee F405 (by 10 pounds.) As you rightly said.....Speedybee might need a "V2" version to please us wing builders.
Good video...been trying to troubleshoot vtx problem with this fc...any suggestion for irc tramp and smartaudio for this? Seems that both of protocols doesnt work on this fc Speedybee f405 wing Speedybee tx800 vtx Flashed to inav 6.1.1 Any idea, darren?
Both SA and IRC Tramp should work as well as any other FC. It's just communication over a UART. I suspect the issue is the SpeedyBee TX800, which uses IRC Tramp. IRC Tramp is a lot more problematic than other protocols with INAV. Ideally it would need a power table. If the power levels don't match the VTx, it won't work. Looking at the code, I see the issue. IRC Tramp is expected to have 5 power levels (TX800 has 4). With an 800mW VTx, they need to be 25, 100, 200, 500, 800 to work. The TX800 only has 25, 200, 400, 800. So it won't work unfortunately.
inav 7.1 speedybee wing f405,,I can't find a way to get the motors spinning below 7-8% radio throttle which is 1150us in receiver tab- esc calibrated , any suggestion ?
i got my speedybe wing controller installed everything is working surfaces and modes and arming. but cant get my flaps or gear to work in the other pins is there something im missing. added the channels to the radio and also setup the servs in the mixer but still nothing. anything would help thanks
Hello. Tanks for video. -Battery installed inav also appears, but S1-S2 motor does not respond. In addition, the S3 does not respond, although the other servos respond. Why could it be? Thanks.
i am trying to light up the 4 led strip that connect from the FC with no result... i have flagget ledstrip on the setting and configured 4 strips on the osd menu in inav but not getting anything working apart from just one strip... why is so complicated ...
@@MrD actually it is easier than I thought. You just have to plug the speedybee led strips with particular attention to DIN and DO serigraphy (this is how the are marked on the circuits) or they won’t work. Ask me how I know. 🙄
Is designed more for a standard fixed wing. To be honest, I don’t know why they advertise VTOL in the marketing material. There are no special features on this FC for a VTOL. The PDB is not set out for one specifically.
They should work if they can output a serial protocol, which is supported but the firmware. I really don’t know enough about Spektrum to know what their serial protocols are. I know DSMX is what is used over the air. It’s how it connects to the flight controller. This will be the same with any flight controller. It’s not limited to this SpeedyBee FC.
Blackbox recording primarily with INAV. With ArduPilot, that plus terrain data and other things. Access to it is pretty important. As data retrieval via MSC is incredibly slow.
Because you’re flying illegally high 😉 Have you tried covering it with open cell foam? Is there much of a temperature differential between your model being in the car, then launching, then being at that altitude. Also could be pressure related, depending on the airflow through the airframe.
It’s fine as far as FCs go. It depends on which Matek F405. If it’s the new F405-WING V2, I wouldn’t bother. They’re both similar specs. The SpeedyBee has the Bluetooth stuff too.
One major flaw, the board is not very firm and your pins can easily touch your battery terminal. I saw that , realized I couldn’t fix it at this stage, threw the board in the garbage. From my view, any price is too much.
I started skipping forward every time he mentioned soldering. It's repetitive and just not something I'm majorly concerned over, but we keep going back and talking about it again and again.
Don't buy this FC it's crap, I had rx uart problems, servo outputs went bad after five minutes on the bench while testing servos. I moved the servo output to S6 from S4 and got the servo working again but then the motor output on S2 went bad. Believe me, I pulled the servos and ESC all working fine with a servo tester. I even swapped the ESCs on the header pins S1 & S2 the problem just moved from not running the right motor to the left motor. Total Garbage!
oh man... have you read the specs? All pins broken out means no, there couldn't be anything else, because the MCU (not the "flight controller" as you wrongly named it) doesn't provide anything more than is already done. And by god finally an FC that has everything on plugs and you don't have to solder which essentially means this FC will last forever. Weak review on your end, MrD.
Umm, I know the difference between a flight controller and the MCU. If I said flight controller, I meant flight controller. This flight controller could have more features, like PINIO to switch cameras (including having a second camera) and power the VTx on and off. There are plenty of Matek flight controllers that can do this with the same MCU. The wireless stuff is just on a UART. This FC does not have any more UARTs than those Matek boards. I guess the 2 extra PWM outputs could be in place of those extra features. But the real issue are those connectors and the duplication of identical functionality on multiple connectors. Which is just silly. You may think it’s a weak review. You’re entitled to your opinion. I personally think that SpeedyBee’s positioning of the MicroSD card slot is far weaker.
The old style board! Boring! It was better to make a 20x20 board with every electronics inside and a cable linking to another 20x20 board with all connections, pins, plugs, solder,… and a third 20x20 with current sensor and SD card, so we can choose to use or not, we could spread the boards along the model,…
I really see no need for that on a fixed wing. A better solution could be a flight controller board on the top. And a PDB on the bottom. Only you can choose the PDB to suit the type of plane. small and light, standard (with power for P&T), heavy duty for strong servos and high power motors, or VTOL. 20x20 isn’t a good size for fixed wing in general. Only the most crammed, lightweight models would need such a board. And that small size reduces trace size, so less power options.
Not at all for fixed wing. Its an AIO quad flight controller. It doesn’t have half the stuff a good fixed wing FC should have. To me, the F405-WSE size FC (F765-WSE, H743 WLITE) and layout is very nice. Any of those top FC board. But as well as the standard PDB board, which they all shared. Have options for other PDB layouts. For example, allow them to plug in to a PDB like the F405-VTOL. Maybe another PDB like the one on the H743-WING, which can handle higher powers. That would be a much more useful system.
@@MrD I only use F405SE om my fixed wing and it’s absolutely perfect, I only fly tween motors and I use the pdb pads one for each motor, one for Airunity and the other for BEC my current sensor shows the full consumption of the hole gear, have lots of uarts and 9 servo out! I use the matek servo pdb with it! So what extra functions would another FC have that I don’t? It’s compact, simple and 30x30 mounting
The problem is we don’t know what’s happening here. Costs have said to have been high due to chip shortages and increased costs. If so, how have SpeedyBee done this? Are they cutting corners elsewhere? Is this an introductory price? Are they taking a loss to break in to the fixed wing market? Or are other companies taking advantage of the chip shortage? I guess only time will tell.
12:08 as a newbie to these type of controllers - I like they have the ports in addition to the pads. Much easier to hookup and not brick your board if you aren’t great at solder.
Nice review! I got mine mostly due to the wireless conection. Now I can do everything with my Ipad. Very handy.
They are pretty useful. It is a bit of a shame you need the USB board to turn on the WiFi though. A friend of mine lost his in a crash. So now can’t update settings, even though the FC is WiFi capable.
Brilliant overview Darren!!! I'm glad you touched upon the cons of this FC. Hopefully reviews such as this will push SB to refine the next line of FW flight controllers. 🍻
Thanks Shawn. For me there are a few cons. But I still think it will be a good FC regardless. But yeah, I hope a v2 is a bit more thought out.
@@MrD 14:39 The barometer is absolutely indifferent to the presence of the SD card next to it. It measures the ambient pressure, not the air flow rate, which the card plate could interfere with. This claim is absolutely unfounded.
As for the "extra" connectors on the board - this is done for versatility. You can either solder or use connectors. This is as convenient as possible for different users. I think you can solder off these connectors if you don't need them.
And even more clever will be the creation of a printed circuit board by you, where all your comments will be eliminated.
I turned it on to find out about the speedy bee setup. I am against putting three wires of different lengths specially for you. I want to avoid using a soldering iron in the field when setting up. I will solder everything in the workshop, and in the field I will use only connectors.I've wasted my time on this review.
@@nikolympiysky you're missing the point with my comment about the SD card over the barometer. I'm saying the problem is that because of the position of the SD card, you can't put open cell foam over the barometer, to help make the readings more consistent. This is a well known fact and technique that pilots have been using for years. Matek flight controllers even have the open cell foam already. It is not unfounded at all, and has been proven and used for years.
You're also missing the point of the extra connectors. What I'm referring to here is that there are two connectors both doing the same job. For example the DJI connector and the VTX connector. They could have been consolidated in to a single connector without losing any versatility. Desoldering connectors like that can also be a pain. Most people don't have a hot air station at home, which would be the tool needed to remove these connectors. Using a soldering iron would be a painful process, as you need to heat up multiple pins at once.
I find your comment about the different wire lengths hypocritical. In the previous paragraph, you mention the connectors are for versatility. Yet I suggest different length wires for versatility, and that's somehow wrong.
I'm not making these suggestions just for me. They are from years of building fixed wing FPV aircraft, and knowing what is needed in different builds. Everything in my reviews is to try and help everyone decide if it is the right product for them. I can always change things for myself. I would feel like a fraud if I saw something that I didn't like or thought could be better and didn't report it. I'm not one of these disingenuous reviewers who will tell you everything is great!
At the end of the day, we're all entitled to our opinions. These are my opinions, and I'm not going to sugar coat them to make anyone happy. I will always be honest with my reviews, and hope that people respect that, even if they don't always like what they hear. Sorry you feel like your time was wasted. But at the end of the day, you're in control of your browser's back button. Not me.
Clearly that FC has been designed considering you would use the plugs and gave you the pads as a backup, which is nice.
However, that's not how most fixed wing pilots build. That is more a quad thing. For fixed wing, soldering to pads is the way most pilots operate. It also doesn't excuse the bad plug layout. There is no need for 2 different VTx plugs. It's just wasted space. The plugs take up 60% more space than pads, so the access around the edge of the flight controller is massively reduced. Which is why we have the terrible positioning of the MicroSD card slot.
@@MrD If you fly iNav. I would argue most fixed wing pilots use traditional radio receivers, stabilizers and telemetry sensors that use plugs, never solder anything and would rather use adapters than change a battery lead. ;p
Also, most high end FC designed for Arduplane are plug only. Having a (mostly) plug and play option at that price point is very nice.
I do not feel like the wasted space is such a big deal. That FC is clearly not something very compact and/or light weight, but it close to the size of a traditional 8 or 10 pwm receiver, and much smaller than anything like a Pixhawk.
Yes, the MicroSD card placement is stupid, but if it is accessible it by wifi or bluetooth it is not the end of the world. I am more saddened by the lack of DroneCAN support.
You can select between speedybee LED control, or FC FW LED control. You just press the boot button for 2 secs to switch between the two functions. I have rgb nav and mode LEDS controlled via inav configurator on my SBF405-wing.
Great review! Purchased 2 from a US dealer as they were cheaper to get and faster as it relates to postage. Hopefully they will listen to your constructive ideas for possible changes in the future Thanks!
Thanks for the Super Thanks JD. I’m glad the review was helpful. Hopefully v2 will see some improvements. But I think this flight controller will still do very well. I’ll certainly be ordering more.
Brilliant, detailed review as we've come to expect Darren
Thanks Andy 👍🏻
Nice video as always. Though I never understood some folks wanting to use big bulky plugs for their servos, but solder everything else. Personally, I like using the nice compact plugs. Makes it very easy to swap out a VTX or whatever.
Very insightful man thanks! I do think I read that holding the boot button for 3 seconds switches LEDs btwn flight controller and onboard chip control. Fc_led and sb_led modes. Thanks again!
Great video thanks. Big fan of your iNav vids too.
I can see what you mean about connectors taking up valuable space. But I'd argue in the other direction - I reckon its the solder pads that need removing along with the need to do any soldering whatsoever. For me the connections should all be plugin - fiddly soldering must put off a lot of potential customers.
(I spent most of my working life with software and electronics so I'm no stranger to a soldering iron. But now I'm retired I want the easy life!)
Thanks Steve.
I see your point. But to me, soldering is more reassuring. I’ve actually seen a few of these connectors fail recently in crashes. It doesn’t give me much confidence in them.
Thank you for your videos, I am a beginner with INAV and subscribed to learn more...I got two Speedybee F405 wing for a Multiplex Funjet and an Freewing L39 80 EDF jet...had only the maiden with the Funjet and it worked great, I am more shy to do the maiden with the L39, and found two problems: 90A is what I get at full power and perhaps a bit too much for the FC, and no signal on PWM pin 8 to have a pan servo... a lot of servos on this type of jet, so I connected the ESC red wire to the retracting gear and flaps red wires...but on the bench, I get an "overheat" signal in the goggles, hope it will be cooler once in flight!
I get what you are saying about most of the plugs, but I do like having a plug for a HD VTX.
Often times, the plug on the VTX can be hard to get to compared to the plug on the FC.
Nice structured video. The other less than ideal feature of this board is that it is difficult to fit a removable ELRS cable where there is not much head room. I have fitted one of these in a Mini Drak, in the normal place behind the main spar. I have fitted the 90 degree server headers, but the vertical ELRS header means that the 4 way connector fouls on the fuselage lid. I had to direct solder cables to the FC in the end and put a connector in-line.
Got it a few days ago, got the extra sd as well as a 5th pair of gummies and stand off. Looks great, minding the price. Thank you for the review!
I will be getting more. This one is going in my Goblin.
Another great review Mr. D. You get a lot of "Bang for the Buck" for this one. I ordered three.😊
Agree on the vibration isolation. Actually like to add that if anything if will add stress to the conectors inbetween the boards. Does nothing for vibration... there where some quad stacks that did this but stopped becaus of issues. Cant use individual soft mout and connectors... there is a reason ther is wires inbetween esc and fc on a quad... if they fix this and the other points im into v2 of this 😀
Hello Mr. D, one of the pwm outputs can be used to operate a camera that does automatic shooting, this with the intention of using it for some mapping, I thank you in advance for your response
If you can get a PWM switch to operate your camera. It could be done.
I'm glad I watched this before I order this flight controller so thanks Darren,I like my leds on my inav wings and your saying it's not going to work with this board? Also looks like after soldering the battery and esc wires to board it may not go back together proper. I already have a matek f411-wse in spare bin how would you compare the 2 boards? Thanks again
Honestly, I would pick the SpeedyBee over the F411. The battery and ESC soldering should be absolutely fine.
I believe you can actually use INAV to control the LEDs. But you need to only use LED port 1 and set something up using the button on the USB breakout board.
Great video Mr D. Have you been able to connect telemetry via frsky smart port. I have not had success.
I got mine yesterday as well, and was checking to see if the loose SD card was normal. This little $39 FC is quality, if anything else.
Yeah, it does seem nicely made. And it is a bargain.
Very good points.
I've always wondered how you get that XT connector on the marek board without any wires?
It’s just soldered directly to the pads. This FC is just used for videos and development work. So I kept it compact.
I actually really like having a connector block for VTX. It makes it easier to disconnect the VTX when you are doing something on the bench, so it doesn't overheat, or if you are flying LOS and don't want to transmit video over friends flying FPV.
The blocks look designed for Pixhawk style sensors, which I think doesn't make sense for an F405 that can't run full AP.
I really don't like that style of board connectors. I am curious if people will have problems with these breaking.
The most commonly used uart, is in the absolutely worst space. The best real estate, is taken up by the 4 ports for led…which I will never use.
Still, it is much better than Matek wing v3. The Matek wing v3 has a delicate usb port that breaks off easily. I’m pretty sure my Matek board is garbage after it broke off. I tried to get it back on , but I couldn’t get it back on and get a reliable calibration in inav.
Nice video - so I should put some foam over the Baro?
Great review! Thanks Darren! How do those three FCs compare in terms of weight?
I doubt very much difference. To be honest, I don’t worry unless its for a light build. These FCs are usually around 20-25g.
I actually prefer these cables. Why I loved the Furious FPV F-35 lightening boards and still use a few of those boards.
nice review, any concerns with the current sensor?
Not that I can tell. The shunt seems a nice size and the copper traces are nice and large. Only time can really tell on the quality.
Solid review. Thanks Darrin!
Thank you. Glad it was helpful.
I agree with everything you said about the board. Mostly we have to solder the pins or the wiring I consider a serious mistake. But most of this type of board comes with design flaws
I think it would be impossible to please everyone. It’s a good start. But the silly mistakes should have been avoided. If only fixed wing pilots had been consulted.
Mine arrived on friday ! Four fcs and one SD card ;)
Yeah, Shellixyz ordered 2 and got 1 SD card. Good job they’re so easy to swap over 😉
Awesome job, greatly appreciated!! Hope to see a flight soon using this controller
Excellent review, what plane are you testing this on Darren?
I will be putting it in my Strix Goblin. It will be replacing the Vector that is currently in there.
@@MrD oh nice that's a fast one, do you still fly vector? I've got a few but I fly mainly DJI now :)
No, I’m replacing all my Vectors now. The OSD was nice. But it’s very dated now.
Thank you for a comprehensive review, but please don't tell SpeedyBee to skip the blocks. The point is not to avoid soldering in general, but to avoid soldering TO THE BOARD ITSELF and all the risks associated with that. I am fairly certain my soldering skills are above average, and I never ruined a board, but I'm still tired of that constant risk, and would much rather join wires than heat pads. I know the pin headers still have to be soldered, but at least there are fewer points of risk than we're used to. Thank you for the connectors, SpeedyBee, they let us keep our amateur soldering irons clear of your hi-tech!
The thing is, we still need to solder to the board. So its not like the connectors stop that. They’re also around 60% bigger than the pads. And this has caused some bad design decisions on this FC. Not to mention the wasted space due to connection duplication. The pads that they do have on here are pretty large too. Which makes things much easier to solder too.
But we’re all different. This is my personal opinion.
@@MrD Yes, we still have to solder to the board, but at fewer points. That said, I agree some of the design decisions are suboptimal, and thank you for shedding light on that. A very informative video!
@@Videolinquency One of the biggest issues with soldering, is the solder wicks up the wire a little way, causes an abrupt end and if the wire flexes at this point, it breaks the wire, often this is inside the wire cover, and can’t be found, this has happened to me a couple of times, so I avoid soldering servo type wire. Soldering pins onto the board is OK for me
@@peterhancox5268 I have heard of that worry, but never experienced the problem, and I've been at it for half a century. I just make sure the shrink tube is a bit longer than the wicked joint to protect it. Prefer that method over crimping connectors, which has given me more failures over the years.
@@Videolinquency Agreed, but the main problem I’ve experienced is joints breaking in the wire where soldered onto a pad on a FC, where is it is near impossible to protect with heat shrink
Great fc, soldert works perfect no problems at all
Good morning, what Gps module, and what speed sensor are compatible with this controller, what other sensors could be installed? Thank you!
Just bought 3 from the speedy bee 405 fc from web site. What 411 not good , I agree. I finally loaded the latest Inav as of 8/24/23 so at least I got inav 6. Oh I also bought the HDzero goggles with the analog receiver setup, complete 4 awesome antennas 1w vtx . I was out on another hobby that consumed money and time. I’m wondering what improvements we will get now that AI has exploded on the seen. Great review thanks
I find the SpeedyBee Silkscreen info right on the PCB Excellent.
For the Price of the FC... I can easily live with the Pin/Pad layouts... I'm convinced V2 will address your issues Darrin.
Maybe it is not consistent. You can see in the video that on mine, some of it was pretty unreadable. It wasn’t a pre-production board. The big areas of screen printing look fine though.
I know the review did sound harsh Darren but it was fair and just showed what can be done better. I think Runcam will learn something from this video and hopefully they watch it. I am just glad that it is giving Matek a very good run for their Money. I will defo get a few of these boards as well. I just like Runcam though as a company. 👍
Thanks Terry. Oh, giving Matek some competition is awesome. It can only lead to better things for us pilots.
@@MrD definitely 👍
according to the website, if you hold the button for 3 seconds, you can control the leds with inav
Hello Mr.D, How can you get the black box data from the SD without having to remove it?
You can; though it is very slow. In the CLI, type MSC and press enter. The SD card will then appear as a drive. You just need to reboot the flight controller when you’re done.
@@MrD thanks a lot for this information, I was not able to find it on the inav blackbox documentation, it is perhaps slow ... but at least I don't have to remove all the stuff form the fuselage, then unscrew the FC etc, so it was really faster for accessing logs .... and with very fragile pins to destroy on that board. Thanks a lot !
I guess speedy bee should listen and offer a barebone version , where you only a longer and a shorter remote control cable.
Would mean more logistics (2 versions with and without sockets), but they would be able to realize if the wing pilots would go for the sockets and harness / cables or for the barebone version. Also I do not have to pay for all these I would not use.
I will get one cause I have bought some speedy be products recently but never from their website cause I hate to drive 50 km to the customs and spend an hour there just to get into discussions about if that is allowed or not and what it is really for. I prefer the service aliexpress offers by paying the customs and vat at checkout which ebay has not even implemented.
great video , what are your thoughts on flashing inav 6.1 on a furious fpv f35 lightning fc board ?
It shouldn’t be any different to any other F405 flight controller.
@@MrD thanks
Hello Mr.D.
Thank you very much for your videos, they are very didactic and very well understood.
I have seen your video about the fc speedybee f405 wing and since I liked it a lot, I was curious about this product. I really want to try it, so I bought it.
I would like to connect it to a FRSKY R10 Pro receiver but I don't know how to configure the Sbus, Sport/Fport and which one to use.
SBUS has an input connector and a different output connector. It is called an inverted signal. How to make connections and configurations of the receiver. I have the FRSKY X20S transmitter thanks to your videos.
Greetings
Mine arrived today, had a hell of a job to connect the top and middle boards, with two sets of multiple pin blocks to line up. The best I could measure the pins were misaligned by about .2mm. Darren do you know if the ‘telemetry’ module block will output to FrSky ACCST telemetry, I’m not into FPV.
Hi Darren: What about putting one to use on an AtomRC Dolphin... To use as a recipe... 💡
That would be fine. The Dolphin has loads of room. To be honest, it would only not be suitable for small planes, like 250g models.
Hi Darren, please could you suggest the best way of connecting Frsky FPort?
If you want to use FPort on an F4 flight controller. You will need a receiver with an “Inverted SPort” pad. Hook that up to T1 on this fc, plus power to 4v5 and ground to ground. In INAV, set UART 1 as Serial RX. On the receiver page, set the protocol to FPORT and switch the “inverted compared to default protocol” to on.
You’ll also need to make sure that the receiver is flashed with FPORT firmware, or the telemetry type is set to FPORT in the receiver options. Depending on which receiver you’re using.
@@MrD Thank you
Hi Darren are you able to hook up a vifly finder to this FC ??
22:43 preach! 🎉
Damn right! #F411Killer
Darren...cheers bro....was gonna buy this,but I don't like plug n play as I love soldering...and as you say the plugs increase the area of the FC.
So... Just bought a Matek F405 V2 from Unmanned Tech for £43,inc his majesty's vat.. so indeedy, a bit more expensive than the Speedybee F405 (by 10 pounds.)
As you rightly said.....Speedybee might need a "V2" version to please us wing builders.
Good video...been trying to troubleshoot vtx problem with this fc...any suggestion for irc tramp and smartaudio for this? Seems that both of protocols doesnt work on this fc
Speedybee f405 wing
Speedybee tx800 vtx
Flashed to inav 6.1.1
Any idea, darren?
Both SA and IRC Tramp should work as well as any other FC. It's just communication over a UART. I suspect the issue is the SpeedyBee TX800, which uses IRC Tramp. IRC Tramp is a lot more problematic than other protocols with INAV. Ideally it would need a power table. If the power levels don't match the VTx, it won't work.
Looking at the code, I see the issue. IRC Tramp is expected to have 5 power levels (TX800 has 4). With an 800mW VTx, they need to be 25, 100, 200, 500, 800 to work. The TX800 only has 25, 200, 400, 800. So it won't work unfortunately.
inav 7.1 speedybee wing f405,,I can't find a way to get the motors spinning below 7-8% radio throttle which is 1150us in receiver tab- esc calibrated , any suggestion ?
i got my speedybe wing controller installed everything is working surfaces and modes and arming. but cant get my flaps or gear to work in the other pins is there something im missing. added the channels to the radio and also setup the servs in the mixer but still nothing. anything would help thanks
Awesome because I’m getting sick of Matek 411’s
TBH, it’s not just Matek. All F411s have the same limitations.
Nice review.
Thank you 👍🏻
Hello. Tanks for video.
-Battery installed inav also appears, but S1-S2 motor does not respond. In addition, the S3 does not respond, although the other servos respond. Why could it be? Thanks.
Problems like this can’t be diagnosed on TH-cam. There are too many things to check. Please ask on the INAV Fixed Wing Group on Facebook or Discord.
Thank you.☺@@MrD
i am trying to light up the 4 led strip that connect from the FC with no result... i have flagget ledstrip on the setting and configured 4 strips on the osd menu in inav but not getting anything working apart from just one strip... why is so complicated ...
AFAIK, only LED port 1 works when controlled from INAV. You would need to continue the data chain from the end of the first strip.
@@MrD actually it is easier than I thought. You just have to plug the speedybee led strips with particular attention to DIN and DO serigraphy (this is how the are marked on the circuits) or they won’t work. Ask me how I know. 🙄
Can build a drone using this flight controller? or just quadplane
Is designed more for a standard fixed wing. To be honest, I don’t know why they advertise VTOL in the marketing material. There are no special features on this FC for a VTOL. The PDB is not set out for one specifically.
Do you know if this fc is compatible with spectrum Dsmx receivers?
They should work if they can output a serial protocol, which is supported but the firmware. I really don’t know enough about Spektrum to know what their serial protocols are. I know DSMX is what is used over the air. It’s how it connects to the flight controller. This will be the same with any flight controller. It’s not limited to this SpeedyBee FC.
What is the sd card for?
Blackbox recording primarily with INAV. With ArduPilot, that plus terrain data and other things. Access to it is pretty important. As data retrieval via MSC is incredibly slow.
I got mine on AR Wing PRO, but the baro is working reliably only up to 500-700m, higher than that it goes crazy. I don't know why is that.
Because you’re flying illegally high 😉
Have you tried covering it with open cell foam? Is there much of a temperature differential between your model being in the car, then launching, then being at that altitude. Also could be pressure related, depending on the airflow through the airframe.
I just ordered this board. Should I just return it and get the Matek 405 instead???
It’s fine as far as FCs go. It depends on which Matek F405. If it’s the new F405-WING V2, I wouldn’t bother. They’re both similar specs. The SpeedyBee has the Bluetooth stuff too.
Usb ports break easy
For that accessibility on that flight controller Micro SD card you can use Micro SD to Micro SD Card Male to Female Flexible Extenders.
One major flaw, the board is not very firm and your pins can easily touch your battery terminal. I saw that , realized I couldn’t fix it at this stage, threw the board in the garbage. From my view, any price is too much.
I started skipping forward every time he mentioned soldering. It's repetitive and just not something I'm majorly concerned over, but we keep going back and talking about it again and again.
Don't buy this FC it's crap, I had rx uart problems, servo outputs went bad after five minutes on the bench while testing servos. I moved the servo output to S6 from S4 and got the servo working again but then the motor output on S2 went bad. Believe me, I pulled the servos and ESC all working fine with a servo tester. I even swapped the ESCs on the header pins S1 & S2 the problem just moved from not running the right motor to the left motor. Total Garbage!
oh man... have you read the specs? All pins broken out means no, there couldn't be anything else, because the MCU (not the "flight controller" as you wrongly named it) doesn't provide anything more than is already done. And by god finally an FC that has everything on plugs and you don't have to solder which essentially means this FC will last forever. Weak review on your end, MrD.
Umm, I know the difference between a flight controller and the MCU. If I said flight controller, I meant flight controller.
This flight controller could have more features, like PINIO to switch cameras (including having a second camera) and power the VTx on and off. There are plenty of Matek flight controllers that can do this with the same MCU. The wireless stuff is just on a UART. This FC does not have any more UARTs than those Matek boards. I guess the 2 extra PWM outputs could be in place of those extra features. But the real issue are those connectors and the duplication of identical functionality on multiple connectors. Which is just silly.
You may think it’s a weak review. You’re entitled to your opinion. I personally think that SpeedyBee’s positioning of the MicroSD card slot is far weaker.
Do you need all this detailed explanation? You could be short and to the point.
Yes, I like to spend time looking at things and assessing them. Details matter.
The old style board! Boring!
It was better to make a 20x20 board with every electronics inside and a cable linking to another 20x20 board with all connections, pins, plugs, solder,… and a third 20x20 with current sensor and SD card, so we can choose to use or not, we could spread the boards along the model,…
I really see no need for that on a fixed wing. A better solution could be a flight controller board on the top. And a PDB on the bottom. Only you can choose the PDB to suit the type of plane. small and light, standard (with power for P&T), heavy duty for strong servos and high power motors, or VTOL.
20x20 isn’t a good size for fixed wing in general. Only the most crammed, lightweight models would need such a board. And that small size reduces trace size, so less power options.
@@MrD In that case the Matek 405SE is the best ever made
Not at all for fixed wing. Its an AIO quad flight controller. It doesn’t have half the stuff a good fixed wing FC should have. To me, the F405-WSE size FC (F765-WSE, H743 WLITE) and layout is very nice. Any of those top FC board. But as well as the standard PDB board, which they all shared. Have options for other PDB layouts. For example, allow them to plug in to a PDB like the F405-VTOL. Maybe another PDB like the one on the H743-WING, which can handle higher powers. That would be a much more useful system.
@@MrD I only use F405SE om my fixed wing and it’s absolutely perfect, I only fly tween motors and I use the pdb pads one for each motor, one for Airunity and the other for BEC my current sensor shows the full consumption of the hole gear, have lots of uarts and 9 servo out! I use the matek servo pdb with it! So what extra functions would another FC have that I don’t?
It’s compact, simple and 30x30 mounting
The F405-SE doesn’t have any servo outputs. Are you sure you don’t mean the F405-WSE?
I highly doubt china recycles ANYTHING. Lol. JS.
I really hope that all other manufacturers will understand - if you make a product at a low price, you can become a millionaire.
The problem is we don’t know what’s happening here. Costs have said to have been high due to chip shortages and increased costs. If so, how have SpeedyBee done this? Are they cutting corners elsewhere? Is this an introductory price? Are they taking a loss to break in to the fixed wing market? Or are other companies taking advantage of the chip shortage? I guess only time will tell.