Check the latest revision, the Wizard Killer Mark III

Whether or not you're new to FPV quads, you've probably heard of the Eachine Wizard. While it's a great starter rig it has some shortcomings. This guide provides instructions on how to build a higher quality, comparable quad at nearly the same price. Some improvements include:

F4 flight controller for faster loop times

Dshot compatible 4-in-1 ESC

CCD camera for a wider dynamic range

OSD for real time voltage readings

Blackbox for tuning

A more solid frame and better quality motors

This is a fairly easy starter build as it doesn't require quite as many solder joints as a typical build. The 4-in-1 ESC saves about 16 joints. Also, this is a very roomy frame, so you've got lots of space for your RX as well as an HD camera. So let's get started!

Frame Assembly

I had a few liberties with the kit, so I'll do my best to explain the build process. Most folks will screw the the frame together from the top. Instead, I excluded the red PDB and inserted the screws through the bottom. This offers a much more flush bottom face. To mount the stack I inserted the same screws through the bottom and screwed the standoffs into them as pictured:

Wiring the Motors and ESCs

After securing all of the screws I mounted the motors and fitted the 4-in-1. This particular ESC requires a little finesse around one of the standoffs. If the standoff isn't at the proper orientation it'll bump part of the circuitry under the board. Just be sure it sits flush on top of all of the standoffs. You might want to consider some blue loctite to mount the motors as there's a small chance the motor screws can wiggle free over time. This is debatable, so it's really a suggestion rather than a requirement. Note: The bottom plate is backwards in the next couple pictures, so make sure the ESC FC plug is facing the front of the quad.

The first thing you want to do is replace the power leads. The wires they used were far too thin for a quad of this size. I used 16AWG which isn't ideal for a 4S build (14AWG would be better), but the pads were super tiny. It should be fine. Another problem is the motor wires are too short, so you need to join them to the pre-installed 4-in-1 wires. Ideally the motor wires should solder directly to the 4-in1 to reduce any potential point of failures.

Soo, I decided to get a little fancy with the wires. The paracord is entirely optional, but I've always wanted to give it a try. At the very least you need a little shrink tubing to cover the joints. I cut 3 pieces of paracord to 2.6 inches each and slid them over the wires. Then I cut a couple larger pieces of shrink tube to go over the paracord and 3 tiny pieces to go over each joint. You should tin the wires before adding any of the tubing to avoid melting it pre-maturely.

At this point you can solder the wires, but be careful not to melt the shrink tube before you sleeve the joints. Get in quick and get out quick. Once it's soldered up you can sleeve the joints and melt the tubing. Before you melt the larger tubing over the paracord it's a good idea to take a lighter to the ends to reduce the fraying.

I used a little double-sided tape to keep the wires down and here's how it turned out:

Wiring the Flight Controller

Now for the fun part! Wiring the FC and FPV gear can go really quick if you know where all the wires go. The first thing you need to do is send power to the board. These go to the vbat and ground pads.

Now that your board has power you can work on your FPV/OSD. This flight controller has 5v out but I found that it isn't enough amperage to power either the VTX or the camera, so you'll have to use the 5V BEC listed in the part list. To prepare the BEC remove the shrink wrap and de-wire it. Make sure you've got some shrink tube wide enough to cover it up afterward, or you can just use some electrical tape. I passed the vbat straight from the flight control board to the BEC and then connected both the camera and VTX power leads to the BEC output. It has terminals for two sets of wire on the output end. While this BEC isn't as small as a pololu, it'll get the job done. Make be sure you buy the 5v BEC because 12v is too much for this little VTX.

Finally, solder the camera video to the FC OSD in and the VTX video to the FC OSD out. That's it for the FPV wiring.





Receiver and ESCs

Now for the finishing touches! Depending on what TX/RX you're using the RX wiring will vary. Since I use a DSMX radio, I used a LemonRX diversity satellite. A nice trick to protect your antennas is to wrap zip-ties around the front arms pointed back toward the motors. Then you can use some shrink tube to affix them to the zip-ties where they'll never be affected by prop strikes or upside down "landings". Finally, don't forget to connect your ESC board to the FC. Just use the short cable included in the package.

Configuration

Now you're ready to configure! As always, make sure your motors are in the proper positions and that they're spinning the proper directions. The first thing you need to do is flash to the latest stable release of BetaFlight. Keep in mind that this board uses the Omnibus F4 distribution. If you use the same components listed below you can re-arrange the motors with these CLI commands:

resource MOTOR 1 A03 resource MOTOR 2 A02 resource MOTOR 3 B01 resource MOTOR 4 B00 save

After that you'll want to reverse the motor direction through BLHeli Configurator. In my case I needed to reverse motors 2 and 3. This ESC supports DSHOT300, so be sure to toggle that. And since this is an F4 board you can run both your PID loop and Gyro at 8khz. Now the rest is up to you! You'll want to bind and map your receiver, set your modes (ARM, AIR MODE, HORIZON, etc.), and configure your OSD. One nice thing about dshot is you won't need to calibrate your ESCs.

Camera Settings

One important step that I usually take care of last is adjust the camera settings. You'll need to hook it up to an analog screen using the included wire harness. The power lead is perfect for a Fatshark battery, but if you don't have one you can just use a laptop power supply. Just make sure the voltage and polarity are correct. Here are some optimal FPV camera settings. If you set your camera according to that document you'll be all set!

Final weight with Mobius Mini: 356g