The Knight-R is the 2nd generation of fpv racing frame from InventorFPV and you have to admit it’s a beauty !

Lets start with the specs.

139g

220mm sized frame suitable for 5″ props

Aerospace grade Carbon Fibre moulding technology

POM molded Light shell & SMA holder combo

Durable POM molded landing pad/battery holder

Sophisticated camera cage design(Angle adjustable from 0.deg ~ 50.deg)

10 degrees motor tilt

Easy Replaceable arms that are 3mm

Let’s get one thing out of the way what I’ve noticed when I posted about this frame in numerous websites/Facebook pages one thing kept popping up and that’s with the similarities it has which one frame,

Some people say this is a direct of the Carbon Hornet 2b and in this stage of the hobby I don’t think we can say this is copying this or that frame . There’s only so much thing we can do with a bit of carbon fibre and frame shape!if this is the case then every company who brings out and X frame is a direct copy of the first ever X frame that came out! So let’s not knit pick on who is copying who. I like to think manufacturers get inspiration from something they liked but could maybe improve, This is molded/pressed carbon fibre which is different to all frames available right now (that I know of) Not only is molded carbon stronger it’s also aesthetically pleasing, It is a Two piece frame which is kept together by 4 stainless M3 screws, there design aspect surrounding this frame was to be minimalistic and beautiful,which can be seen with the photos later on.

There is talks of a newer version coming in the next month or two that is going to be even lighter and less joints which I cannot wait to test.

In a recent review I seen the Carbon Hornet been said it was hard to “push” through the air in flips and rolls because of the very wide top and bottom plate and on how big the arms are don’t help! Well I can safely say the Knight-R is a huge improvement in that front! The top plate is more narrow its has slots in the top which help with airflow well flipping on the pitch axis because of more air been able to pass through and the arms been 3mm but not as wide as the carbon hornet helps.

The weave in the carbon fibre is very tightly woven which is proven to be the best sort of carbon for toughness and looks,All the edges on the frame have a chamfered edge which is a nice touch,makes it feel nice in the hand nearly all the pieces have the SPARROW QUAD logo etched into it which is also a nice touch.

My only gripe about the whole frame is the way the arms are fixed to the main body, And that’s only by 2 screws which you can see below, maybe it’s designed in a way that if it got a bad hit the bolts would shear off instead of breaking a arm.

WHATS IN THE BOX?

In the box you get the frame which is 4 pieces, 2 arms and 2 main body parts.

Hardware kit which consists of the screws and fixtures

1 moulded led housing

Battery protector /landing skid

1 RGB led

Battery strap

Camera pod (which is insanely cool)

2 Arms

XT60 pigtail

THE CAMERA POD.

The camera pod is specifically made for hs1177 fpv camera’s with its mounting holes. This includes all hs1177 variants (runcam swift, foxeer hs1177 , surveilzone hs1177 ,Runcam EAGLE)in this build review I will be using the brand new Runcam EAGLE (thanks to runcam for sending it to me )

It has mouthing holes to allow tilting of the camera all the way to from 0°- 50°

Next is what I will be building mine with

MOTORS: LDpower FR2305 2600kv

ESC:Pocket Rockets by radioC.co.uk running Dshot600

FLIGHT CONTROLLER:CC3D REVO F4

PDB: REALACC hudosd with Stosd8 V3.2

VTX : TBS unify pro HV RACE ED.

ANTENNA: TBS triumph

CAMERA: Runcam eagle 16:9

RADIO: Spektrum dx9 with lemonRX diversity satellite

BATTERY: Gens Ace R-line 1300mah 95c

More information on the products

MOTORS

LDpower was kind enough to send me over there brand new “SWORD SERIES” and at the time I release this review they will be wildly available at https://goo.gl/zGCqED

These are a multiple choice KV motor available in 2300kv, 2400kv and 2600kv

Hollow shaft

STATOR SIZE: 23.5mm

MOTOR SIZE: 28mm – these are curved at the bottom with vent holes.

MAXIMUM SUSTAINED CURRENT:30Amps

MAGNETS: N52H arc magnets

WEIGHT: 29Grams

After testing these on a few different propellers I seem to like them on the HQProp 5x4x3 which make these scream! These are the most powerful motors I’ve personally ever used,im very impressed with the construction and the curved vents to help with cooling,ive flown these very hard and never have the motors even got slightly warm and with this prop combination I’m getting over 1.3kg of thrust per motor which is crazy.

I also have the new EMAX RS2205 S motors on the way which I can’t wait to compare.

I love the PCB board on the motors because on previous motors I’ve had crash’s were the wires get ripped out from the motor rending that motor useless! Let’s see how these hold up. There’s quite a few manufacturers using this PCB style for there motors ,is this something we will see more often? I hope so.

These pull about 31amps on 100% throttle which surprised me for the power they deliver.

Also worth noting is the special little spanner/wrench that comes with it.

This is for when tightening the nyloc nuts so you can get a firm grip on the motor allowing to get a better tightened nut and less likely to loosen up midflight. This is a PATENT PENDING innovation from LDPOWER.

The only thing I’ve seen like this is the Talon wrench from EMAX do their RS series motors but that only worked for 2 balded propellers because anything more than 2 blades gets in the way of it working.

So good job LDPOWER you got a thumbs up from me 👍

I will be doing a full review on these soon.

I will have the brand new 2400kv motors on the way very soon and will update this post once I’ve tested them.

More info on these can be found here https://goo.gl/zGCqED

And can be purchased here https://goo.gl/4A6OXF

Included in the box is:

2x CW motors

2x CWW motors

4x CW nylon locknuts

4x CWW nylon locknuts

1x Spanner/wrench

12x pieces of Pre-tinned silicone wire

16x motor mounting screws





ESC’s

Fabiano over at radioC.co.uk sent me there brand spanking new Pocket Rockets ESC’s which I was one of the first to test them and I can safely say I love them!these can be flashed with the new Dshot Protocol on the new BLHeli Configuration tool you can get Dshothere at https://goo.gl/uPwDFA

Dshot is a digital FC/ESC protocol developed developed by Felix Niessen (Flyduino and Boris B (Betaflight). Compared to OneShot125, OneShot42 and Multishot which are all analog.

ADVANTAGES Of DSHOT

Digital protocol

No need to calibrate ESC’S

2048 steps vs around 1000 for analog

No jitter and much less data errors

No need to use an external buzzer as Dshot uses the motors as the discovery buzzer

(If you do not know what Dshot is check it out here https://goo.gl/d3Xj0u )

2-6s Battery Compatibility

EFM8BB21 MCU @ 50MHz

Multishot and Dshot compatible

30amp sustained, 40amp burst.

6g including wires.

Dimensions: 30x20x5mm

Power Wire: 100mm

Signal wire: 150mm

Mosfet: N-Channel

FLIGHT CONTROLLER



I will be using the newest cc3d F4 Revo board.This board utilises the latest and greatest STM32F405 MCU. Flightcontrollers with a f4 chip can run faster loop time with sophisticated filtering to feel more locked in.I will be using the latest betaflight which can easily deliver 125us or faster loop times on this particular Board.

MPU6000 Gyro with a 6 axis accelerometer

128mb flash

Sbus & PPM outputs

Spektrum satellite port(dsmx/dsm2)

1.5amp build in BEC That can be powered direct from the lipo battery

POWER DISTRIBUTION BOARD (PDB)

The REALACC hubOSD comes in two variations ,One with a side piece to mount a XT60 directly to the board. (See pictures below to see the difference.

PDB 4x35A

Regulated 5v and 12v outputs for vtx and camera.

Current sensor up to 140A

Built in STOSD8,which shows MAH consumption,Flight timer,Pilot name,Highest&lowest Amps drawn, and finally real-time battery voltage.

Physical specs:

2oz copper,4 layers & 1.6mm PCB

1x Battery input,4x Esc outputs 4x becs 2 5v & 2 12v,

Camera and VTX signal and ground pads

1x serial port (Tx,Rx,G) which is used to update the firmware on the board via a FTDI adapter see here for more details http://www.stosd.com

Dimensions 46x36x4mm,weight is 8.5g

Mounting holes are the standard FC size of 30.5 square

VIDEO TRANSMITTER (VTX) & ANTENNA

The VTX I will be using is TEAM BLACK-SHEEP UNIFY PRO HV RACE kindly provided by Steve over at Droneshack.co.uk which are the only shop in Ireland who I seen to stock Team black-sheeo products.

The TBS Unify pro is a special kind of VTX ,Meaning it has features not seen before on other VTX’s at the time of its release.

The TBS UNIFY PRO HV Race is the smaller brother to the Unify Pro HV and boasts some great features including:

PITMODE

Pitmode is a feature that when the quadcopter is turned on the Unify VTX will also come on but it WILL NOT transmit any video signal therefore it will not interfere with anyone else.

So gone are the days of powering up your quadcopter and accidentally ruining your friends video .

It also has a feature called CLEANSWITCH Which is basically a mode within the VTX that allows to to switch channels without interfering with others which is a awesome feature

Specifications

Operating voltage: 4.5v-25v

Supply current: 600mA

Audio carrier frequency: 6.5mhz

Video input impedance: 75 Ohm

Weight: 5g

Antenna connector: RP-SMA female socket with screw mounting holes

Video format: NTSC/PAL With auto switch

Power outputs:13dBm(25mW) ,23dBm(200mW),27dBm(500mW) 29dBm(800mW)

CAMERA

The camera I’ve chosen is the newest rendition from Runcam ,It’s the Runcam EAGLE that comes it 4:3 or 16:9 screen ratio depending on what Fpv goggles you use, Me I use the FATSHARK DOMINATOR V3 which is a 16:9 googles and this was my first 16:9 camera to test out 16:9 and I was impressed by the big difference!

The Runcam EAGLE has a CMOS sensor which most people learned about when first getting into this hobby to avoid ,Well that is all changed as Runcam has changed the way we think about CMOS Fpv cameras. It’s colours on the EAGLE are spot on and in some cases it’s like your looking at HD footage from a GoPro.

It’s roughly the same size as the fan favourite HS1177 and it’s the same weight as the Runcam Swift even though this EAGLE has a Magnesium Alloy case .

The only downfall for me was a bigger connector they have used on this camera compared to the other cameras they have available such as the switch (see pictures below )

People have been saying the latency is too bad for Fpv racing ,well after some testing I found it perfectly fine unless your racing like Sean Taylor aka nytfury

Latency is about 49ms (Official Result from Runcam is 45ms), PZ0420 is only around 10ms – 20ms.

Specifications

Imaging Sensor: 1/18″ 16:9 CMOS

Resolution: 800TVL

Lens FOV: 130 degree

OSD menu for configuration: Yes

Min Illumination: 0.01Lux / 1.2F

WDR: Global WDR

Power Input: 5V-22V (2S – 5S)

Housing material: Magnesium Alloy

Weight: 16g

Dimension: 26mm x 26mm x 31mm





SPECIAL THANKS AND PRODUCT LINKS

Now since the parts list and information about them is out of the way . Time to say the thanks to the people who have helped me and sponsers me and to link the products mentioned above.

So firstly the main man Chi Wai Lam my sponser l who designs and makes this beautiful frame it’s a piece of art! He was once a watchmaker and you can see he’s attention to detail in the INVENTORFPV KNIGHT-R!

Head to http://www.inventorfpv.com or at the TBS store here ==> https://goo.gl/JYZXjh

Secondly big thanks to LDPOWER Who sent me there Newest motors to test and to be in this review. Serious power!!! Check out them over here at https://goo.gl/Ihtc8j

Thanks to Stephan over at http://www.droneshack.co.uk for sending me the TBS VTX and tbs triumph antennas to be apart of this review.



Thanks to Fabiano for these brand spanking new POCKET ROCKETS 30A BLHeli_s ESC’s,these ESC’s are available in 20a,25 and 30amp and I can guarantee you won’t find a cheaper Esc that can get you BLheli_S or Dshot… Check them out over at http://www.radioC.co.uk

Thanks to Runcam for for sending me the newest Fpv camera out on the market the Runcam EAGLE 16:9 these cameras are the best all rounder for dull days,bright days you name it. The colours are the best out there in terms of saturation,colours and contrast. Go to http://shop.runcam.com to buy yours now.





BUILD LOG AND FLIGHT VIDEOS

This section of this blog will be more photos than writing as there wouldn’t be much to talk about 😉 there will be build videos and video review coming soon.

