Quadrysteria Mini Mamba Review

Mini Mamba (Final Version)

A while back, I bought a 250 racer style kit from Quadrysteria called the Mini Mamba.  It is high quality in general, with Sunnysky motors, true carbon fiber frame, SimonK ESCs, etc.  The kit included the frame, motors, ESC, integrated BEC/power distribution card, and instructions.

I initially elected to use a Mobius FPV system, spare mini-APM controller, and Lemon DSMX receiver to complete the build.  I started trying to use the instructions, which are well written, but not very useful.  Unfortunately, there are no pictures and you are left wondering which plate is the top, what is the front, exactly what standoff is required etc.  Fortunately, there are video instructions here, and they show you exactly what to do.

In the initial build, I ran into a few problems, some of my own making.

1. The mini APM may have been defective, it did not consistently stabilize the unit.
2. The integrated power board from the kit was defective.  It did not supply proper 5V for the receiver and APM.  I had to replace it with a power distribution board and use one of the ESC BECs.
3. The wiring for the mini-APM and rest of the electronics was not reliable, probably due to the crummy wiring supplied with the mini APM.  The ESC BEC was probably not the best choice as well.

The Mamba flew, but not well, I did crash it badly enough that I had to repair it.  One of the advantages of the Mamba is that will usually just break the props and/or the nylon bolts that hold the motor mounts to the carbon fiber arms, and this is easy to repair.  Previous quads tended to break arms, props, and frame plates, necessitating major repairs that takes hours and hours.

Based on this experience,  I stripped it down and rebuilt it with an Orange receiver that I had used before, a separate BEC, and a Hobbyking mini APM and Hobbyking GPS.  The wiring was much more straightforward as the Hobbyking units came with better cables and I was using a separate BEC. It takes some work to figure out where to stick the ESCs, cabling, BEC between the top and bottom plates.

Side view

Performance is much better but there is still a lot of tuning required as it is very sensitive to pitch and roll, but very insensitive to throttle.  Some other pictures are shown below.

Arm assembly which is set up for easy repair after crashes

Mobius FPV setup with integrated mount and transmitter.  This will be reviewed in future.

Quanum FPVplus Wide-Angle 1080P HD FPV Camera with 5.8GHz Transmitter Review

I recently purchased this camera from Hobbyking with the intent of using it for video recording on my quadcopter and perhaps FPV operation.  The camera takes still photos, videos, and real time video and incorporates a transmitter so you can use it for FPV flying.  It is an integrated alternative to using an FPV camera and separate 5.8 GHz transmitter and it follows the GoPro form factor to a large extent.

After some use, here are my views on this product.

Positives

1. It uses the Gopro form factor, so it can use Gopro accessories.  It is lightweight.
2. You need to do some work to adapt this to your quadcopter:
1. You have to adapt the supplied cable to provide a 12V supply to the camera.  It has no internal battery so it is useless without power.
2. It has no included mount or tripod threaded hole so you need to adapt a Gopro mount to your purpose.  This can be done with the usual hobby tools.
3. The video is of acceptable quality, quite good in fact, see the video sample below.  This was taken with no gimbal, a shock absorbing mount, and reasonably balanced props, so it still has some shake.
4. Construction seems rugged.
5. With the included transmitter and antenna, it is easy to set up for FPV operation.  I was able to connect the camera to my RX LCD5802 7 inch monitor in about 5 seconds - truly easy.
6. Downloading the videos to a Mac or PC is easy using the microSD card.  Note that the camera will not work without a card.  Also note that the developers seem to have used Huawei phone software as the base for this product - you will see some directories and files that are unusual for a standard digital camera.
7. I recommend always connecting the antenna when the camera is powered up.  Some RF transmitters can burn out if they have no load like an antenna.  Don't know if that is the case here, but better safe than sorry.

Negatives

1. It is difficult to know what mode the camera is in as there is no LCD display and only one LED to provide status.  Spend some time with the very brief instructions on your workbench to familiarize yourself with operation before flying.  Otherwise, you may take off with the camera turned off.
2. The MicroSD card sticks out and can be easily ejected.  You may want to put some tape over it temporarily so you don't eject it at an inopportune time.  You also need to consider this when you adapt the camera to a Gopro accessory.
3. You cannot adapt an onscreen display (OSD) to show quadcopter telemetry on your ground screen as the video to transmitter inteface is within the camera and cannot be accessed to insert an OSD card between camera and transmitter.

In summary, I recommend this camera as a simple to set up FPV camera and transmitter system for quadcopters and other UAV.  It is easy to set up, provides good video, and is rugged.

Rear View

Side View with antenna removed

Side view with MicroSD slot, mode switch, connector

Gopro mount modified to accomodate antenna, cable, switch, etc.