Having never flown anything larger than 5", I was intrigued! Thank you for being so thorough, it does look like a beast!!! Somewhat out of my price range right now (have been converting the fleet over to ELRS). Hope your recovery from Covid is swift! Take care, CK!
It's certainly fun to try out other types or sizes of multirotor, everything feels a bit different - but variety is the spice of life! Hope you are enjoying the transition to ELRS :)
Hey CK great review.... Looks like my kind of flying. Finally moved out of the big smoke so tempted to get back into the hobby now I've got more places to fly around.
Hi Wayne. Still enjoying your unbiased reviews and chilled presentation style. Glad you're enjoying it ... even on analog. I'm also a self confessed 'cruiser' as my freestyle skills are not at all honed, probably due to my fear of wrecking my cherished builds ;) Just picked up a newly DIY-built Chimera 7 HD Pro for a bargain price (DJI AU, Mamba F722 App 55A stack, Brother Hobby 2806.5/1300Kv, ViFly 2 & basic BN-180 GPS) so just waiting for a gap in the weather for her maiden. Looking forward to seeing the flight time on my GNB 3000mAH 6S 100-200C. Currently only getting ~6 mins on my heavier AOS7 build on the same BH motors (but only running down to 3.8V/cell). FYI - my Matek M8Q -5883 GPS/Compass locks in fixes pretty quickly on a warm start so I'm sure that your will too (as I believe it's the same component). Cheers, Steve
It is a lovely quad. Right now, I do have an Open.HD config on it, but I've got an issue somewhere in that one and the video is dreadful, so I'm probably going to put my first WalkSnail VTX in it. I must get some better 6S lipos for it though
@@CurryKitten Haven't ventured into Open.HD territory yet, although Walksnail looks pretty good ATM. I just can't justify having 2 HD systems on the go ;) My Chimera 7 maiden went fine although I did accidentally bin my goggles DVR files (mp4/OSD/srt) so I can't analyse my in-flight telem feeds :( Happy hunting for your 6S LiPos!! Cheers.
My sort of Quad and my way to fly it... Nice bit of kit as is the Nazgul 5 Evoque HD i purchased 8wks ago... Will be following your progress with interest as I fancy one myself when funds allow... As usual.. interesting video and a pleasure to watch.
Nice - I still love my old Nazgul, but I'm still not on the HD stuff yet (aside from messing with Open.HD) All I've seen for weeks is speculation about Fatshark and Walksnail, so perhaps the options will grow soon!
@@CurryKitten Yes it will be good to get more Manufacturers on the HD scene.. I'm happy with my DJI HD FPV gear and it's a great system... Having said that.. it's the only DJI product I've purchased.. and likely to remain so...
Me too :) I do really love just cruising around like this. I will have to try and get some larger batteries so I don't have to think about time in the air so much
Excellent video. I’ve had my Chimera 7 for over a year now. I use 2 x 3000 6s Li-ion packs and usually get a good 18 mins. Cruising is my favourite and the low level stuff ☺️
I ended swapping the GPS out with the Matek SAM-M8Q GPS Module. I did some experimenting on the GPS page and figured out the vTX was my issue. Even when turning off the vTX, as soon as I turned it back on, nearly all the sats would drop off. I ended up moving the antenna to the top plate, attached to an antenna mount onto the last standoff/post. I get sats super quick now.
Happy for you that you got a platform for more OpenHD adventures. Strange one with the GPS, my dirt cheap BN-180 usually gets 10+ sats in about 3 minutes (cold start) on a sunny day. I think the motors are actually 2806.5, not 2306.5 but the font on the Xings is hard to read.
They are indeed 2806.5. I don't know if I stumbled over my words here, or I read it wrong :) I mix up words so often during a video. I recall seeing myself call the commando8 "the iflight" and I think I referred to the quad as "expressLRS" at one point. If I spot it at the time I redo it, but usually I only notice this when I'm editing the whole thing together and at that point it's kind of too late. I like to think of it as a slightly quirky style. Yeah, I have no issues normally with bn-220's and cheapo GPS's, but just lately I've had one refuse to work until the wires were covered in grounded copper tape, and this one was the slowest lock I've ever had. I'm fighting problems with my Open.HD wing as well where the wifi adapter is wiping out the GPS signal. Suddenly GPSs hate me!
Hi Wayne, very nice overview. These quads are really nice. My Chimera 7 had the same issue with locking into the sats. I found out it was the GPS module which I changed out and it connected to the sats in about 2 to 3-min.. Before I had the disarm issue and it crashed into the swamp at my farm, I found the 7-inch Bi Blades really gave long flight times on 1800mAh lipo. I Have all new parts to reassemble just need quiet time to do it.
@@CurryKitten Yes, it was the module with compass heading. But the F/C didn’t have the pads for proper utilization. That is why I ordered another one from Race Day Quads which it worked proper until I splashed it in the swamp 🤕
Nice review. 7 inch quads are the ultimate in cruising and oddly relaxing. The GPS problem might just be the M8Q which is a bit ropey. Try INAV for an even smoother experience.
Aren't they - there's something very chill about just cruising around over a field. I'm glad I'm not the only person that thinks so :) I'll be moving over to iNav eventually - but Open.HD first
I believe most of the iFlight F7s have an iNav target. If you look at the board it may appear like there is no SDA/SCL for the compass but one of the UARTs can be set up for it. On the Succex-D F7 I seem to remember it being UART3.
I have the Chimera 7" Pro HD version. With the GoPro 8 and GMB 4200 Mah Battery it weighs 1402g - and that's with the battery at 40% charged. Imagine the weight if the battery was 'full'.... ;-) It is an absolutely brilliant quad to fly, and I fly mine out in the fields as well. I love it.
They are monsters to hold aren't they. Heavy like the quads of 10 years ago, but they fly much nicer :) What sort of flight times do you get on 4200mAh - I'll need to buy some more batteries at some point, deciding which ones
@@CurryKitten I get around 7 to 8 minutes, that's all. I have around 25% to 30% left on. Landing, I prefer that. My gmb 2600 batteries are the best fit for it, still getting around 5 to 6 minutes of decent pretty quick cruising. It eats up the distance real quick. I recommend the GMB 2600 batteries.
Hopefully you didn’t have the “long “ COVID. It took me about a month to feel 100% after I got over it. Great review as always! Cheers from across the pond.
A few underlying health issues do mean I tend to take longer to recover from things than other people. It's improving, it's just so slooooow. However, sitting down and recording some stuff is a step forward so I'm hopeful I'll stop feeling "out of it" soon and can get out and fly some stuff
I've never had a v-tail. IIRC, they were briefly a thing at least 6 years ago. I remember a friend had one and he describes the yaw authority as being somewhere in between a quad and a tri. So I can't help much currently, but should I see a frame knocking around I'll have to pick one up for fun and nostalgias sake
Interesting video Wayne...Get iNAV on it. Flew my 5 inch only yesterday and got 23 Sats... Galileo is available....9600 baud?....nah, that's way too slow...Great camera platform, but rather pricy...🤔🙄😳🇬🇧
You do have the option of Galileo on Betaflight as well - it's just a question of if iNav will fly as nicely. I'm sure I'll be giving it a go at some point, but I like to do things bit by bit. I put iNav on AND move to Open.HD and something goes amiss, then it's slightly harder to pin down the issue.
@@CurryKitten I watched a video yesterday by Limon- Ivan Efimov, one of the betaflight devs and he demonstrated much improved GPS and rth performance coming soon. The quad returned within a few feet of launch and autolanded using only GPS, no compass. It is not yet in an RC, but should be soon. They have a new dev dedicated to working on it and he has completely overhauled the code. Hoping you feel better soon and thanks for the review.
I have ok luck getting gps sat lock with a USB power bank on FC (no lipo until lock) and great luck getting gps if I put vtx in pit mode even with lipo on.tMac has a great video on tricks to get sat lock. Everything to flashing your local coordinates to making a tiny battery for gps.
I;ve got this product called the GPS mate (iirc) which is a little battery independent thing to just power up the GPS until it get a signal so nothing else overheats. I;ll see if that's needed in the future.
Wow Wayne, where do you live? Guernsey? Just checking out the plants in your yard lol. I was conceived there....Guernsey that is, not your yard. I'm just starting my own long range journey. Nearly got the quad built and waiting on parts. Chose a Mark4 frame 7", Emax 2807/1500kv, Mamba F405V2/JHEMCU45A ESC, R9 Slim+ Diversity ELRS flashed receiver, dual immortal T, AKK 1.2W VTX bla bla..... If you haven't already, build out a Mark4 5" frame with some 2207's or equivalent. Something about this style of frame is soooooo smooth it's not funny. It just glides and holds, while still being acro-capable. My rates are set at around 1000 degrees with a fair bit of expo to smooth the curve until the last third, but this thing amplifies that smoothness. It's too easy to fly.
I'm surprised You're having a slow gps lock, I have the exact same quad analog, bought around the same time, same gps and mine works great it's faster than most of my other gps modules except for my HGLRC M80 Pro, it has a massive antenna lol.
That's probably the slowest GPS I've ever had... at least that's then come in and got full lock eventually anyway. Perhaps just unlucky, or perhaps the cold boot needed and awful long time. I'll find out if it improves on subsequent flights
Since i starded shielding the wires and the underside of the GPS unit with coppertape, i have had no problems with getting a GPS lock. Mostly 7-12 satellites within 2-3 minus max. First it was 4-6 satellites within 3-8 minutes…
I did that on another quad which went from zero sats to locking in quickly, so copper tape (albeit I grounded the copper) really can work well. I'll see how this is on follow up flight before I take action though
You were testing GPS rescue in acro mode, I was under the impression that rescue only works in air mode.....Is that true? And you are one hell of a pilot to be landing a 7 inch quad so close! The noise alone would send me into panic mode. Are the Rush VTXs better than TBS's? Can they survive a yanked-out antenna?
I'm in acro mode yes, but air mode is just like a modifier, so you can turn on air mode in acro or angle for example. It just keeps the props spinning - when I do fly, it's in acro + air, but I turn air off for landing. As far as I'm aware though, you can activate rescue mode from any other mode. The noise of that 7" is nothing like the terrifying noise that the cinewhoops make with their ducted 3" props - it's like having a full size helicopter next to you! RushFPV VTX's are definitely the best I've used. I've only had a few TBS ones - but they just don't have the same cleaness of the signal IMO
move that gps from the back to the arms if the compass isn't connected. you'll get lock faster trust me on this, you can just use electrical tape to secure it on there. if you want to use the compass though then maybe make a print and out it on top the camera.
From my point of view, I was flying on analog, so HD recording needs more. The O3 does a very good job, but I tend to like the resulting image from a hypersmoothed GoPro over it.
not sure why all it seems youtubers (not all) are keen on distributing the fact that they got covid like the trend is getting annoying...we gone buddy otherwise the review was great!
Truly is the best drone
Having never flown anything larger than 5", I was intrigued! Thank you for being so thorough, it does look like a beast!!! Somewhat out of my price range right now (have been converting the fleet over to ELRS).
Hope your recovery from Covid is swift! Take care, CK!
It's certainly fun to try out other types or sizes of multirotor, everything feels a bit different - but variety is the spice of life! Hope you are enjoying the transition to ELRS :)
Thanks for the review and impressions and all the experiments! Wishing you a quick recovery!
Thanks - feels like I've turned a bit of a corner in the last day, with the ability to concentrate and focus starting to come back
Great review. Hope you're back to 100% soon .
😎👍
Thanks, me too!
Hey CK great review.... Looks like my kind of flying. Finally moved out of the big smoke so tempted to get back into the hobby now I've got more places to fly around.
That would be awesome. I still enjoy telling a story about leds on a wing that were visible from 10km away. That means LOS doesn't it :D
Hi Wayne. Still enjoying your unbiased reviews and chilled presentation style. Glad you're enjoying it ... even on analog. I'm also a self confessed 'cruiser' as my freestyle skills are not at all honed, probably due to my fear of wrecking my cherished builds ;) Just picked up a newly DIY-built Chimera 7 HD Pro for a bargain price (DJI AU, Mamba F722 App 55A stack, Brother Hobby 2806.5/1300Kv, ViFly 2 & basic BN-180 GPS) so just waiting for a gap in the weather for her maiden. Looking forward to seeing the flight time on my GNB 3000mAH 6S 100-200C. Currently only getting ~6 mins on my heavier AOS7 build on the same BH motors (but only running down to 3.8V/cell). FYI - my Matek M8Q -5883 GPS/Compass locks in fixes pretty quickly on a warm start so I'm sure that your will too (as I believe it's the same component). Cheers, Steve
It is a lovely quad. Right now, I do have an Open.HD config on it, but I've got an issue somewhere in that one and the video is dreadful, so I'm probably going to put my first WalkSnail VTX in it. I must get some better 6S lipos for it though
@@CurryKitten Haven't ventured into Open.HD territory yet, although Walksnail looks pretty good ATM. I just can't justify having 2 HD systems on the go ;) My Chimera 7 maiden went fine although I did accidentally bin my goggles DVR files (mp4/OSD/srt) so I can't analyse my in-flight telem feeds :( Happy hunting for your 6S LiPos!! Cheers.
I will also build Open.hd in a chimera 7 with command 8, I am excited for your video, thanks mate:)
Nice - let's hope it's a decent platform for Open.HD then!
My sort of Quad and my way to fly it... Nice bit of kit as is the Nazgul 5 Evoque HD i purchased 8wks ago... Will be following your progress with interest as I fancy one myself when funds allow...
As usual.. interesting video and a pleasure to watch.
Nice - I still love my old Nazgul, but I'm still not on the HD stuff yet (aside from messing with Open.HD) All I've seen for weeks is speculation about Fatshark and Walksnail, so perhaps the options will grow soon!
@@CurryKitten Yes it will be good to get more Manufacturers on the HD scene.. I'm happy with my DJI HD FPV gear and it's a great system... Having said that.. it's the only DJI product I've purchased.. and likely to remain so...
Nice quad for cruising and I love the sound of those big props.
Me too :) I do really love just cruising around like this. I will have to try and get some larger batteries so I don't have to think about time in the air so much
Thank you. My Chimera is on its way🤙🏻
Exciting - have fun with it!
Excellent video. I’ve had my Chimera 7 for over a year now. I use 2 x 3000 6s Li-ion packs and usually get a good 18 mins.
Cruising is my favourite and the low level stuff ☺️
I feel validated in my choice of flying style now :) I'll have to save up for some big li-ion packs
I ended swapping the GPS out with the Matek SAM-M8Q GPS Module. I did some experimenting on the GPS page and figured out the vTX was my issue. Even when turning off the vTX, as soon as I turned it back on, nearly all the sats would drop off. I ended up moving the antenna to the top plate, attached to an antenna mount onto the last standoff/post. I get sats super quick now.
That looks a really nicely build cruiser. I'm looking forward to the build.
Cheers - hopefully I'll be able to get on with it soon
Happy for you that you got a platform for more OpenHD adventures. Strange one with the GPS, my dirt cheap BN-180 usually gets 10+ sats in about 3 minutes (cold start) on a sunny day. I think the motors are actually 2806.5, not 2306.5 but the font on the Xings is hard to read.
They are indeed 2806.5. I don't know if I stumbled over my words here, or I read it wrong :) I mix up words so often during a video. I recall seeing myself call the commando8 "the iflight" and I think I referred to the quad as "expressLRS" at one point. If I spot it at the time I redo it, but usually I only notice this when I'm editing the whole thing together and at that point it's kind of too late. I like to think of it as a slightly quirky style. Yeah, I have no issues normally with bn-220's and cheapo GPS's, but just lately I've had one refuse to work until the wires were covered in grounded copper tape, and this one was the slowest lock I've ever had. I'm fighting problems with my Open.HD wing as well where the wifi adapter is wiping out the GPS signal. Suddenly GPSs hate me!
Hi Wayne, very nice overview. These quads are really nice. My Chimera 7 had the same issue with locking into the sats. I found out it was the GPS module which I changed out and it connected to the sats in about 2 to 3-min.. Before I had the disarm issue and it crashed into the swamp at my farm, I found the 7-inch Bi Blades really gave long flight times on 1800mAh lipo. I Have all new parts to reassemble just need quiet time to do it.
Did you have the GPS with the compass as well, or a different one? Hope you get your one up and flying again soon
@@CurryKitten Yes, it was the module with compass heading. But the F/C didn’t have the pads for proper utilization. That is why I ordered another one from Race Day Quads which it worked proper until I splashed it in the swamp 🤕
Fantastic flying and review, Wayne! 😃
That's a fantastic quad indeed! Some day I get one... Or build one!
Anyway, stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊
Thanks, you too!
Nice review. 7 inch quads are the ultimate in cruising and oddly relaxing. The GPS problem might just be the M8Q which is a bit ropey. Try INAV for an even smoother experience.
Aren't they - there's something very chill about just cruising around over a field. I'm glad I'm not the only person that thinks so :) I'll be moving over to iNav eventually - but Open.HD first
I believe most of the iFlight F7s have an iNav target. If you look at the board it may appear like there is no SDA/SCL for the compass but one of the UARTs can be set up for it. On the Succex-D F7 I seem to remember it being UART3.
Great Review on the 7 inch Chimera. Interested in getting this quad.
Thanks - It's flown great so far, so I'm sold :)
Nice review for the open hd strip the quad of all non essential bits lose any weight to give an overall nice fly weight
The frame is pretty substantial just in itself! I think the swap outs I need to do will make it slightly heavier, but not by much
Really cool quad great review cheers
Thanks 👍
I have the Chimera 7" Pro HD version. With the GoPro 8 and GMB 4200 Mah Battery it weighs 1402g - and that's with the battery at 40% charged. Imagine the weight if the battery was 'full'.... ;-)
It is an absolutely brilliant quad to fly, and I fly mine out in the fields as well.
I love it.
They are monsters to hold aren't they. Heavy like the quads of 10 years ago, but they fly much nicer :) What sort of flight times do you get on 4200mAh - I'll need to buy some more batteries at some point, deciding which ones
@@CurryKitten I get around 7 to 8 minutes, that's all. I have around 25% to 30% left on. Landing, I prefer that.
My gmb 2600 batteries are the best fit for it, still getting around 5 to 6 minutes of decent pretty quick cruising. It eats up the distance real quick.
I recommend the GMB 2600 batteries.
Hopefully you didn’t have the “long “ COVID. It took me about a month to feel 100% after I got over it. Great review as always! Cheers from across the pond.
A few underlying health issues do mean I tend to take longer to recover from things than other people. It's improving, it's just so slooooow. However, sitting down and recording some stuff is a step forward so I'm hopeful I'll stop feeling "out of it" soon and can get out and fly some stuff
Not a bad tube on that ! Now go long!
Cheers Tony, but I'm slightly confused over "tube" is it a typo for "time"?
@@CurryKitten sorry tune!
Hi Wayne, could you do a video on how to setup betaflight for a v-tail quad? Nobody did that until now. I wonder why. Just an idea...
I've never had a v-tail. IIRC, they were briefly a thing at least 6 years ago. I remember a friend had one and he describes the yaw authority as being somewhere in between a quad and a tri. So I can't help much currently, but should I see a frame knocking around I'll have to pick one up for fun and nostalgias sake
Great, 👍
I have one of these with dji. I fly it with a 6s 2200 and it’s a beast.
Nice - what sort of flight times do you get with a 2200?
@@CurryKitten if I don’t push too hard I can easily achieve 10 mins but if I want to go further 21700 6s packs are the way to go.
Interesting video Wayne...Get iNAV on it. Flew my 5 inch only yesterday and got 23 Sats... Galileo is available....9600 baud?....nah, that's way too slow...Great camera platform, but rather pricy...🤔🙄😳🇬🇧
You do have the option of Galileo on Betaflight as well - it's just a question of if iNav will fly as nicely. I'm sure I'll be giving it a go at some point, but I like to do things bit by bit. I put iNav on AND move to Open.HD and something goes amiss, then it's slightly harder to pin down the issue.
@@CurryKitten Yes, agreed, baby steps....but you won't see 23 Sats with BF, but it will probably fly better and longer....🤔😳🇬🇧
@@CurryKitten I watched a video yesterday by Limon- Ivan Efimov, one of the betaflight devs and he demonstrated much improved GPS and rth performance coming soon. The quad returned within a few feet of launch and autolanded using only GPS, no compass. It is not yet in an RC, but should be soon. They have a new dev dedicated to working on it and he has completely overhauled the code. Hoping you feel better soon and thanks for the review.
I have ok luck getting gps sat lock with a USB power bank on FC (no lipo until lock) and great luck getting gps if I put vtx in pit mode even with lipo on.tMac has a great video on tricks to get sat lock. Everything to flashing your local coordinates to making a tiny battery for gps.
I just use iNAV instead...a lot simpler and Galileo is available...23 Sats in as many seconds...😳😳🇬🇧
@@EnglishTurbines how do you like the freestyle quad flight with iNav?
I;ve got this product called the GPS mate (iirc) which is a little battery independent thing to just power up the GPS until it get a signal so nothing else overheats. I;ll see if that's needed in the future.
@@joshlikessurfing iNAV is on my long range cruisers, works fine...but you're probably right about the tune and flight smoothness...🤔😳🇬🇧
Wow Wayne, where do you live? Guernsey? Just checking out the plants in your yard lol. I was conceived there....Guernsey that is, not your yard. I'm just starting my own long range journey. Nearly got the quad built and waiting on parts. Chose a Mark4 frame 7", Emax 2807/1500kv, Mamba F405V2/JHEMCU45A ESC, R9 Slim+ Diversity ELRS flashed receiver, dual immortal T, AKK 1.2W VTX bla bla.....
If you haven't already, build out a Mark4 5" frame with some 2207's or equivalent. Something about this style of frame is soooooo smooth it's not funny. It just glides and holds, while still being acro-capable. My rates are set at around 1000 degrees with a fair bit of expo to smooth the curve until the last third, but this thing amplifies that smoothness. It's too easy to fly.
That's a nice sounding setup :) I'm not in Guernsey though, I'm down Southampton way on the mainland
I'm surprised You're having a slow gps lock, I have the exact same quad analog, bought around the same time, same gps and mine works great it's faster than most of my other gps modules except for my HGLRC M80 Pro, it has a massive antenna lol.
That's probably the slowest GPS I've ever had... at least that's then come in and got full lock eventually anyway. Perhaps just unlucky, or perhaps the cold boot needed and awful long time. I'll find out if it improves on subsequent flights
Since i starded shielding the wires and the underside of the GPS unit with coppertape, i have had no problems with getting a GPS lock. Mostly 7-12 satellites within 2-3 minus max. First it was 4-6 satellites within 3-8 minutes…
I did that on another quad which went from zero sats to locking in quickly, so copper tape (albeit I grounded the copper) really can work well. I'll see how this is on follow up flight before I take action though
Real nice indeed, we have subscribed 😎🇺🇸
Thanks muchly :)
You were testing GPS rescue in acro mode, I was under the impression that rescue only works in air mode.....Is that true? And you are one hell of a pilot to be landing a 7 inch quad so close! The noise alone would send me into panic mode. Are the Rush VTXs better than TBS's? Can they survive a yanked-out antenna?
I'm in acro mode yes, but air mode is just like a modifier, so you can turn on air mode in acro or angle for example. It just keeps the props spinning - when I do fly, it's in acro + air, but I turn air off for landing. As far as I'm aware though, you can activate rescue mode from any other mode. The noise of that 7" is nothing like the terrifying noise that the cinewhoops make with their ducted 3" props - it's like having a full size helicopter next to you! RushFPV VTX's are definitely the best I've used. I've only had a few TBS ones - but they just don't have the same cleaness of the signal IMO
@@CurryKitten Thanks, as always, and hope you're feeling better
move that gps from the back to the arms if the compass isn't connected. you'll get lock faster trust me on this, you can just use electrical tape to secure it on there. if you want to use the compass though then maybe make a print and out it on top the camera.
I just ordered one. Digital dji version tho
Nice one - I've just put WalkSnail in my one now
There is nothing wrong in liking a bit of cruising around :-)
It's the only way when you get to my age!
My flight style has been validated. Just say no to flippy flappy stuff ;)
Why do people still use GoPro when the new dji 3 cam records ?
From my point of view, I was flying on analog, so HD recording needs more. The O3 does a very good job, but I tend to like the resulting image from a hypersmoothed GoPro over it.
7inch mmmmmm
not sure why all it seems youtubers (not all) are keen on distributing the fact that they got covid like the trend is getting annoying...we gone buddy otherwise the review was great!
It's just an explanation of why more flights weren't done and why there was a delay in getting the video finished