Product review: EACHINE QX95 micro FPV racing drone

About

Hmmm multirotors....i haven't been actively flying FPV multirotors/quadcopter seriously for almost a year now because its not my typical chocolate topping for my FPV ambition...not fun at all. Been there done that thing from roaming local places to zooming around between trees, building and obstacles is getting old for me, too much prep work, safety requirement and others thing to consider before flying around those flying chainsaw in the public places. As you all knew i took full season flying my FPV/UAV planes all over the entire land until there nothing left to discover this year. Then one day BANGGOOD.COM decided to cheer me up with their latest new gadget from their manufacturer EACHINE, weeks of waiting i got this cute tiny white box on my door step and opened. Like pirate opening treasure chest with those bright glare of light spewing out of the box i was awe to see this carbon gem unfolds on my hand, it "EACHINE QX95 micro FPV racing drone"...95mm rotor to rotor size, full carbon fiber goodness, equipped with sophisticated electronics, FPV ready, tools, bunch of battery and spares..all i need is just bind and fly. Fiddling those tiny carbon fiber build QX95 reminds me of the same feeling back in year 2001 when i had my eyes on holding micro size over priced yet top notch Japanese tech 1:27 scale KYOSHO MINI-Z cars and ATOMIC MINI-Z....but those tiny R/C cars cost a month salary. Fast forward into present day here i am having the same feeling but with a drone made in China..cheap/affordable. Btw they sent me BNF package which i can bind on my existing TURNIGY 9X radio under FLYSKY (AFHDS) radio protocol. Their market price tag was around USD$74 absolutely cheap considering the fact its a tiny top notch micro FPV racer with everything you need to get it flying in few minutes without buying chargers, tools, spare and etc. Just use my existing radio unit and FPV video goggle and i'm good to go. Staring in front of me this QX95 makes me felt like i have been living in the caves for too long...i guess i've missed a lot of thing since i've been away on wings. After took this little guy for a spin indoor and outdoor i'm really impress...totally i did live in a cave for too long, don't let its size fool you, this tiny little critters is fast and very agile for its size. Handle nicely in slight wind around the park, excellent size to slip around obstacles and tiny enough to hide inside my pocket. Honestly speaking this little guy spark back my interest in FPV drone racing during my free time and ended getting more pack of batteries to keep me staying more time around the park despite getting tanned under the afternoon sun. So let get to know about QX95...



Specification (as describe by vendor/manufacturer)

Brand: EACHINE

Model: QX95 micro FPV racing drone

Frame size: 95mm rotor to rotor.

Chassis build: Lightweight carbon fiber

Model weight without battery: 40g

Flight controller: SP RACING F3 EVO with integrated brushed ESC with Cleanflight 1.13.0

Onboard receiver module: Offering FRSKY (ACCT) or FLYSKY(AFHDS) or SPEKTRUM (DSM2)

Motors: 4x 8520 Coreless brushed motor

Prop size: 55mm

Other mounted accessories: functional/programmable LED Strip

Run time: 5~6 minutes

Charging time: avg. 80 minutes via USB, avg | 75 minutes on computerized charger at 0.5A safe charge rate using TURNIGY ACCUCELL 6/IBMAX B6

Control distance: 50m ~ 100m on TURNIGY 9X (AFHDS protocol)

Battery details: 3.7V 600mah (1s li-po)

FPV video camera/transmitter unit: 520TVL CMOS 1/4 inch camera (NTSC/PAL switchable) integrated with 5.8Ghz 25mw 32channel + 4 lobe antenna





Package included:



1 x QX95 micro racing drone model

1 x USB charger module + Balance Li-po charging cable for 2x lipo connector

2x 3.7v 600mah 1s li-po battery pack

1x Complete set of spare propellers

2x Spare Coreless brush motors

1x Carbon fiber made Propellers remover tool

1x Manual book

Pros: Extremely affordable high grade micro FPV drone racer package comes with all necessity and spare parts.

Out of the box stable flight ready to race. Just bind with your favorite existing radio controller unit and FPV goggle.

Quality high performance tuneable/soft programmable flight controller via Clean Flight.

Micro portable size, perform extremely well both indoor and outdoor, high visibility rear LED lights.

Great online community support, growing number of QX95 user. Cons: If you buy this make sure to restock some more spare props.

FLYSKY type receiver module have very flimsy antenna that may detached easy if tangled by nearby propellers.

Avoid FLYSKY type receiver if necessary because it doesn't have "Fail Safe" once signal lost.



Build, flight performance and review.

This little drone awe me in every way, its cheap around USD$74 and includes everything you need to get out and have fun racing around the circuit or between trees without throwing too much time to setup, throwing some cash for upgrades and spare parts. Everything is inside the box, pull it out and fly to your heart content without looked like a loser. The quadcopter is 95mm in size rotor to rotor, fabricated in race ready grade carbon fiber chassis, fully programmable SP RACING EVO F3 flight controller which you can tuned to your need via computer, 4x fast rotors, bright rear LED lights that functions to indicate flight status, comes with many type of receiver module to bind on your existing radio controller and also already include quality all in one FPV camera + 5.8Ghz 25mw 32 channel video transmitters. Package also include chargers and support 2x charging adapter, prop tools, spare motors and props. Manual also nicely documented. Man how times flies by like rocket after seeing all these nice stuff on QX95....especially those few jargon they speak of when tuning it on Clean Flight. (Sorry i was an APM and MultiWii oldie). Consider this: Lets flash back between 1 or 2 years ago, with USD$74 back then this budget can only get me a lousy toy grade quadcopter with all wanna be HD camera strapped into candy colored plastic chassis and got blown easily by the wind yet no FPV on it.... don't believe me maybe you can check those review i did last year. I need to spend up to USD$150 to get decent FPV experience with extra work/mods on quadcopter toys and it flew slow. If your first drone was a "LADYBIRD" from Walkera and WL-toys then i have bad news for you, you're really as dinosaur as i am. Today 2016, with USD$74~80 you can buy out of the box top notch racer with full FPV and no need mods, modification or anything to tinker around your drone.....that saved your time, money and sweat building one....and it comes with spares and tools! If you're new into this drone racing and getting QX95 for starter i must say you're really damn lucky bastard generation, back in my olds days with that amount of money we have to work hard to make a drone racer on par with today QX95 cost us almost $200 but still haven't reach that level cause of low tech cheap 3 axis gyro static flight controller and heavy camera. Kudos EACHINE! You guys did excellent making all those stuff affordable yet killer competition drone in this era. I guess my old FPV drones around my hangar should move into Museum along with WW1 planes....too old to catch up..even my 1 year old 250 racer look like shit when compare with this tiny gem. Moving on...

Flying the QX95 seems to be easy and nicely leveled both indoor and outdoor thank to stock tuned SP RACING F3 EVO. I went to the park not far from my office and spent a week testing flying around obstacles, slalom around trees, speeding, nibble around the tree branches/leafs and some crashes among foliage of dead leaves...the bright LED did great job beaconing me toward its crash site visible within 10 meters away under bright sunlight, without it its hard to find this carbon camo like appearance among dead leafs or grasses even on grey tarmac. For it size it is indeed fun and race capable little drone, for its size its fast enough to get some thrills between narrow places without worrying hefty crashes and repair bills...way too tiny to cause any problem around the public space. I haven't hit the throttle beyond 80% yet because i care for my QX95...hard feeling to let it run loose cannon balling around. It seems to wobble a bit when hit by some breeze around trees yet still level and in control overall its way easy to fly than my vintage Multistar combo 250 quad racer (Multiwii Pro flight controller) circa 2014 or cheappy DIY FPV drone from WL-toys and other reviewed FPV quads published at this website. Rudder style yaw cornering seems to be slow which drop a bit of altitude after fast acceleration point but if cornering via "bank and yank" style it could maintain speed smoothly without dropping the altitude. I did accidentally push 100% full stick on the aileron and elevator control and the QX95 did some ninja moves flipping around 360 degree what you guys called "free styling" flight stunts...executed and leveled nicely after the event. But if you're new into this don't push your luck, find a big open space, go high then push 100% control to flip out the ninja in you. If you think the handling and flight characteristic doesn't suit you well you can further tune the QX95 using "Clean Flight" software which you can download at http://cleanflight.com by plug the USB connection into the onboard "SP RACING F3 EVO" flight controller USB port that is hidden behind the LED board in the rear. Tune it from (Horizon, Rate and etc) docile, super agility, aggressive, free styling mode or go all ninja around the park all its up to you for decide with a click of a button on your computer or Clean Flight apps on your smartphone. As for me i like the QX95 as it is out of the box is already perfect without the need for any tuning....of course i'm lazy to do so unless if it was an APM FC.

About runtime on stock 1s 600mah li-po; if slow hovering it took about 5 minutes while forward flight around the open space took about 6 minutes before its slows down until the battery power depleted. I did purchase some handful of new pack of 1s 500mah li-po overall

gives me mixed 4~5.1/2 minutes of flight time thus 1x 500mah is way lighter than 600mah so not much weight lifting stress to the rotor. FYI hovering consume more power than forward flight because it keep fighting gravity during hovering which explained such shorter runtime while forward flight have extra wind lifting pressure on the prop blade which give natural extra hovering assist like an airplanes and less stress load to the rotors. I do notice that QX95 is very sensitive to weight changes with additional extra gram of loads, not a good performer carrying anything beyond extra +5 gram of weight which kills extra flight time and hovering performance..it tend to be bouncy with extra weight when i added a heavy JST battery adapter to connect alternative battery that uses different plug. Speaking about improvement via weight reduction you can remove that rear LED board to reduce weight and lowered overall power consumption that was used to blink around in the rear..the Cons is that if you do crash into some grass especially thick foliage of dead leaves on the ground its hard to track down its where about. Throttle sound helps but you'll ruin the props if its upside down, so its your choices to go with or without LEDS.

Talk about the flight distance capability especially the FPV video range coverage on stock 25mw power i must say i'm extremely satisfied with the clean video frequency as seen inside my classic BOSCAM GS920 FPV video goggle. Its clean, less artifact or static behind trees about or approximately about 70~100 meters away from me behind some obstacles as i roam around the park. Some people in the forum QX95 discussion group decided to go for 200mw upgrade for quality video range but based on my experience and opinion i don't think its necessary because the higher MW rating the more its suck out the power from the main battery robbing you around 30~60 seconds of flight time on QX95. 200MW indeed will give you more than 900~1000m video distance range but stop and think about it because the onboard radio receiver have less range than video, control range will quit long before video does and with a quadcopter that tiny you'll lost it in dense vegetation and almost out of reach if you crash it. Not worth it if your pocket is deep and dry. Its a racing drone not a long distance explorer...get a proper drone to do the right job if you want to go outside the comfort zone. Oh btw if you were wondering why my QX95 live recorded FPV video footage on youtube have too many static and craps along the way because i recorded it using low quality/crappy FPV POCKET DVR that exist long before drone racing technology exist, so my bad on that until i get a proper recorder. Trust me the real live footage is super clean, else go find a buddy that owns a QX95 at your local place and try em out.

There are some optional modification and improvement you can do if you do purchase QX95 because after some flight i do notice some fix needed to improve it as listed below:

FPV camera/transmitter unit held by rubber band which is good for dampens frontal impact, however the camera POV always get tilted downwards by accident during flight especially after bumping some twigs, branches, during landing or crashes. If this annoys you it can be fixed permanently in place with a thin zip tie, it won't effect overall performance...just don't crash hard. If you received BNF version with FLSKY radio receiver module (AFHDS protocol) it actually comes with annoying thin hairline copper antenna which 100% will accidentally get detached during flight and will causes your drone to lost some radio range, out of control and fly away because this type of radio receiver module don't have failsafe. I had mine detached during flight, so i replace it with using spare WIFI 2.4ghz antenna trunk and pull out the core wire then cut it at 31mm length then soldered back to the receiver board. You can see the differences on my PART 2 and 3 video where the antenna have been replace on the receiver module thus giving me good range about 90~300m...but i haven't push my luck beyond that distance yet...i think it can fly further more since i use TURNIGY 9X radio transmitter.

About durability issues other than pop off receiver antenna (FLYSKY version) so far i haven't had any serious broken/damaged parts despite it did fall on the park tarmac, hit some trees and branches. The carbon frame held well with parts intact. But yes of course i did torn 1x rear propeller blade after nick around some tree branches after dozen session of flight which is easily replaceable using supplied bag of spare props, installation is easy by hands without using the supplied tools. However don't get too cocky hitting and crashing around because lots of QX95 owner did broke their rotor arm and mended some fix using patch of epoxy, strips of plastic credit card reinforcement, gettho DIY fixes or purchase spare carbon frame online which is why in the video i didn't go beyond 80% throttle or yet full blast because i still love and care my QX95....i'm in tight budget for spares.

To extend the lifespan of QX95's Coreless brushed motor its wise and good practice to leave it cool down for 5 minutes before and after session of flight because the motor will get hot during flight and required to cool down before continue with new pack of battery. Heat is bad for brushed motor and magnet core within which can cause wear and tear the brush contact mechanism within the shiny motor cylinder can. If its a 'brushless' motor then you wouldn't need to. I had many brushed type mini/nano FPV quads that survives 5 years of flight operation yet the motor runs well with no sign of wear and tear nor need any replacement thanks to proper 5 minutes rest between flight to cool off the heat from the motors. Fortunately if you're so unlucky the package already comes with 2x motors to help with the replacements.

Videos/Medias

Here are sample of video of i posted on my Youtube channel contain test review on EACHINE QX95 micro FPV racing drone.

Vendor/seller



Here are list of reputable vendor/seller which i bought from and also verified by community forum discussion groups. Also i've experienced buying from these places that have good support and services:



Seller Banggood.com: Eachine Tiny QX95 95mm Micro FPV LED Racing Quadcopter Based On F3 EVO Brushed Flight Controller (http://bit.ly/2fOEA5f)

Spare parts for EACHINE QX95:





Support group:



Places where you can find help and resources related to this product:

Topic: Rcgroups.com forum - Eachine Tiny QX95

Clean flight software for tuning QX95: http://cleanflight.com

Summary

If you like to start backyard drone racing or getting underground carpark racing without breaking the bank this tiny and yet mighty little drone does the job, serious its fun size to have one. Honestly speaking i would love to have another one if i had a spare cash (...yeah i'm working on it). You all knew that i'm a fixed wing airplane guy who love to fly around the clouds not much into drone racing on 4x rotors but after had opportunity to tryout QX95 a week later i was all hooked up and flew almost daily when i had an opportunity between the timetable. If you do planning purchase QX95 BNF package i highly recommended you get the FRSKY (ACCST radio protocol) version not FLYSKY (AFHDS radio protocol) and stay away from DSM2 (SPEKTRUM radio protocol) if you want failsafe feature and sturdy radio signal especially flying around the neighborhood or WIFI crowded urban area. Originally i suppose to received the FRSKY version but they accidentally sent me FLYSKY version instead. Else if you stuck with wrong BNF package no worries because at BANGGOOD.com or other online places they do sell micro/nano size receiver that matched your radio for under USD$10 for quick fix. Else just go to the RCgroups QX95 discussion threads

To sum up overall review; the EACHINE QX95 is an ideal platform for any FPV drone racer both newbie, starters to Pro level in a way that everyone can "grow" with it without sacrificing money, time, effort and you can fly anywhere without conflicting with local/public regulation due to its size. "Small" means "More" Its already packed everything you need all in the box, what's left is your flying skills that counts. (Oh btw buy proper digital/computerized charger if you wanted proper full charge the battery) . Throughout the years i'm building FPV models and then to UAV shrinking from bigger size to smaller flying platform as years progress forward, portability and limited space to fly is paramount factor for most FPV'er, this QX95 came in the right time and perfect size to keep any FPV pilot to stay active everyday indoor and outdoor...........damn happy to have a tiny rocket racer in my pocket. You'll be seeing more of my video pop-up soon on this tiny racing drone, damn happy i am.