The final time I posted a Tiny Whoop DIY construct information was eight years in the past! Since then, the FPV world has seen spectacular developments, and now you don’t essentially must construct your personal Tiny Whoop. Bind and Fly (BNF) fashions carry out brilliantly out of the field and are sometimes cheaper than constructing your personal. Nonetheless, constructing a Tiny Whoop from scratch continues to be a improbable strategy to study the fundamentals of FPV drones, perceive how every part connects, and it may be a enjoyable mission. On this tutorial, I’ll information you thru an reasonably priced, extraordinarily excessive efficiency Tiny Whoop construct. We’ll go over the important parts, meeting course of, and a few helpful tricks to make your first construct successful.
Why Construct a Tiny Whoop?
If you happen to’re enthusiastic about studying the right way to construct a Tiny Whoop and dive into the world of FPV drones, Tiny Whoops are a superb start line. Constructing a light-weight Tiny Whoop is enjoyable, rewarding, and lots much less intimidating for freshmen—particularly in the event you’re new to FPV drone flying.
These micro drones are reasonably priced, compact, and light-weight, making them a lot safer to fly than bigger drones like a 5-inch quad. Since they’re designed to face up to crashes with out inflicting harm, they’re splendid for brand new pilots who wish to observe flying with out worry.
This construct minimizes soldering, retaining it easy for freshmen. For this Tiny Whoop, you’ll solely must solder the motors to the flight controller—simply three pads per motor. The remaining is plug-and-play, making it an ideal mission in the event you’re new to soldering or wish to hold issues simple.
Elements
The purpose for this Tiny Whoop construct is to maintain the overall weight underneath 17 grams, leading to a robust and nimble micro drone. Reaching that is no straightforward feat—the lightest Tiny Whoop in the marketplace is simply over 17g, so staying underneath this weight requires cautious planning and exact execution.
For comparability, the Mobula6 2024 (proper) weighs 17.7g, the Air65 (center) weighs 17.2g, and my customized construct (left) solely weighs 16.8g.
The parts chosen are cutting-edge, providing efficiency that you just gained’t discover in an off-the-shelf whoop. Right here’s what you’ll must construct a Tiny Whoop for round $130:
- FC / VTX / RX / 4in1 ESC: BetaFPV Air 5-in-1 AIO FC ($50)
- Motors: 4x BetaFPV 0702 30000KV ($49)
- FPV digital camera: BetaFPV CO3 digital camera ($20)
- Body: NewBeeDrone Cockroach LiteAF ($5)
- Cover: BetaFPV Micro Air Cover ($3)
- Propellers: HQ Ultralight Triblade ($2.5)
Constructing your personal tiny whoop will likely be costlier than a pre-built mannequin, and also you’ll must assemble it your self. If you happen to’re searching for a ready-to-fly expertise, the BNF mannequin is a superb selection. However in the event you’re after the satisfaction of constructing your personal drone with top-notch efficiency, this information is ideal for you.
BetaFPV Air 5in1 AIO Board
The star of this construct is the BetaFPV Air 5in1 AIO board, which is an absolute game-changer. Weighing solely 4.9g, this board integrates the flight controller, ESC, OSD, VTX, and ExpressLRS receiver into one light-weight unit. This setup not solely simplifies the construct but additionally reduces weight considerably. A 4in1 model with out a receiver can be obtainable, however I like to recommend the 5in1 model until you propose to make use of a unique receiver just like the TBS Crossfire Nano.
Get it right here:
BetaFPV 0702 30000KV
For this construct, I selected BetaFPV’s newest 0702 30,000KV motors. These high-KV motors shine in ultra-light builds, providing unimaginable responsiveness and pace. Decrease-KV variations, like 27000KV or 23000KV, can provide higher flight time, however in ultra-light builds, they have an inclination to really feel much less highly effective – this was significantly noticeable once I was testing them again to again. The upper-KV motors additionally provide extra flexibility, as you may alter motor output or scale down throttle in Betaflight in the event you favor a slower, extra managed flight expertise. I’ve a tutorial explaining the right way to scale down throttle right here: https://oscarliang.com/reduce-power-throttle-taranis-betaflight/.
Get it right here:
NewBeeDrone Cockroach LiteAF Body
The NewBeeDrone LiteAF body, weighing solely 2.4g, is presently the lightest body in the marketplace.
Get it right here:
The BetaFPV Meteor65 Air body is a superb various, used within the Air65 mannequin, and weighs barely extra at 2.8g with barely larger sturdiness. Get it from BetaFPV: https://oscarliang.com/product-d2cs
BetaFPV Air Cover
I selected the BetaFPV Air Cover for its compatibility with the digital camera we’re going to use. It’s easy, efficient, and light-weight, matching effectively with the remainder of the parts on this construct.
Get it right here:
BetaFPV CO3
For video, I opted for the BetaFPV CO3 analog digital camera, which offers an excellent stability between picture element and discipline of view. It comes with a connector, which you’ll plug straight into the BetaFPV AIO board with none soldering, making meeting simple.
Get it right here:
HQ Ultralight Triblade
These HQ Ultralight Triblade props are perfect for high-KV 0702 motors (just like the 30000KV we’re utilizing) as a result of their light-weight design (about 0.5g per 4 props). They require much less torque to spin, offering an excellent stability between efficiency and sturdiness. One other fashionable choice is the Gemfan 1219S (about 0.8g per 4 props), which is barely extra sturdy however a bit heavier. Each are glorious selections for a 65mm Tiny Whoop construct.
Get it right here:
Different Elements
To fly this Tiny Whoop, you’ll want a number of extra elements and items of apparatus.
Listed below are my suggestions:
For extra Tiny Whoop-related equipment, try this put up: https://oscarliang.com/best-tiny-whoop/
The Construct Course of
Making ready the FC
Solder the BT2.0 battery result in the facility pads on the flight controller (FC), paying cautious consideration to polarity—the blue wire is + (optimistic), and the white wire is – (detrimental).
Making ready the Motors
In case your motors include connectors, you’ll want to chop them off, leaving about 28-29mm of wire from the motor base. Dry-fit the motor and FC to double-check the required wire size.
Be conscious to not reduce off an excessive amount of wire, as this might put extra stress on the solder joints afterward. Ideally, go away a little bit of slack. If there’s an excessive amount of slack, you may twist the wires to forestall them from dangling or interfering with the spinning propellers.
Some whoop FC comes with motor connectors, you may simply plug the motors in with out soldering. Nonetheless these add weight and introduce extra electrical resistance than direct soldering. For optimum efficiency, direct soldering is most well-liked.
Strip a little bit of insulation from the ends of the wires and tin them with contemporary solder.
Soldering the Motors
Tin the motor pads on the flight controller and apply a small quantity of solder flux to those pads, able to be soldered.
Solder the motor wires to the motor pads on the board. These pads are small, so a gradual hand and endurance are wanted, particularly in the event you’re new to soldering. Work shortly to keep away from overheating the pads, as this might trigger them to carry and completely broken.
The precise order of the wires doesn’t matter, as you may alter motor rotation path later in software program.
New to soldering? Try this primary information: https://oscarliang.com/soldering-guide/
Mounting the FC
Insert the rubber grommets within the 4 nook holes of the FC.
Drop the FC into the body, making certain the right orientation—normally indicated by an arrow pointing ahead, with the battery connection on the again.
Mounting the Motors
Set up the motors on the body with the offered screws. They arrive with two sorts, steel and plastic screws. I selected to make use of the plastic ones as they’re lighter. Nonetheless they’re a bit bit too lengthy, you possibly can trim them to about 1.5mm thread size utilizing a nail clipper.
If the motor wires have slack, twist them barely earlier than set up to maintain them tidy and keep away from stress on the solder joints.
Putting in the Digicam and Antenna
Set up the FPV digital camera and VTX antenna within the cover.
Plug the digital camera into the FC.
Putting in the Cover
I observed that the cover interfered with the UFL antenna connector, and this has been a identified situation within the Air65 as some customers report that crashes may cause the connector to pop off.
To keep away from this, trim the cover barely to permit area for the connector. Think about including a dab of E6000 glue too to the UFL connector to assist safe it throughout crashes.
Mounting the Propellers
Put the props on, relying on whether or not you wish to run “props in” or “props out”. In my instance I’m working “props out”.
And that’s it—your Tiny Whoop meeting is full!
Betaflight Configuration
As soon as your Tiny Whoop is assembled, it’s time to configure it in Betaflight. New to Betaflight? Try my newbie’s information: https://oscarliang.com/betaflight-firmware-setup/
Join the USB adapter to the flight controller (FC) and plug the USB cable into your laptop.
Listed below are some tips about optimzing your tiny whoop configurations: https://oscarliang.com/best-tinywhoop-settings/
Under are screenshots of my Betaflight Configurator settings for this construct. If you happen to’re utilizing the identical setup, you may simply replicate my configuration by copying and pasting my CLI file right here.
ESC Configuration
The BetaFPV AIO FC comes preloaded with Bluejay 0.19 firmware at 96KHz. I like to recommend flashing the newest model—Bluejay 0.21 at 48KHz—for optimized efficiency. You possibly can discover ways to flash Bluejay firmware right here: https://oscarliang.com/bluejay-blheli-s/
Flight Efficiency
I efficiently achieved my goal of a sub-17g construct, and the primary flight exceeded my expectations.
With a 1S 300mAh battery, I achieved a flight time of round 3:quarter-hour when flying aggressively—about 10-15 seconds lower than with the 27000KV motors. Nonetheless, the enhance in flight efficiency is effectively value it, in my view. It’s much like shifting up from 23000KV to 27000KV; the construct felt considerably extra highly effective, agile, and nimble, nearly like flying a whoop with a lot much less weight.
Remaining Ideas
That is how one can construct a Tiny Whoop with distinctive flight efficiency for simply $130.
This construct gives one of many best methods to start out assembling FPV drones from scratch and achieve a strong understanding of them. It’s reasonably priced, protected, and offers a hands-on introduction to assembling, configuring, and flying an FPV drone. You’ll additionally develop primary soldering expertise with minimal threat, as solely the motors require soldering.
Whether or not you’re training indoors or flying in tight areas, this Tinywhoop gives a enjoyable and academic expertise that may construct your confidence earlier than shifting on to bigger drones.
