Which DJI O4 5-Inch BNF FPV Drones Ought to I Purchase? A Detailed Comparability

I’m planning to purchase a brand new 5-inch BNF FPV drone with the DJI O4 Professional Air Unit for freestyle, cinematic and probably some lengthy vary flying, so I assumed this may be an ideal alternative to doc my thought course of and clarify how I resolve which mannequin to get.

The DJI O4 Professional was solely launched final month, however there are already just a few strong choices that assist it. Nevertheless, with so many elements to contemplate—efficiency, sturdiness, ease of restore, and worth for cash—selecting the correct one isn’t at all times simple.

On this submit, I’ll evaluate the high BNF drones that come able to fly with the DJI O4 Air Unit, analyzing their specs, design, usability, and long-term reliability based mostly on my expertise.

Let’s break it down.

The Contenders: 5-Inch BNF Drones with DJI O4 Professional Air Unit

Listed below are among the most notable Bind-and-Fly (BNF) 5-inch FPV drones at the moment in the marketplace that assist the DJI O4 Air Unit:

Every of those drones comes pre-built with DJI O4, making them nice selections for pilots who don’t wish to construct their FPV drone from scratch. However how do they evaluate in weight, sturdiness, repairability, and general efficiency?

Let’s dive into the main points.

O4 Professional or O4 Lite?

Personally, I favor the O4 Professional on a 5-inch drone. As talked about in my DJI O4 Professional evaluate, the Professional model is higher in nearly each approach apart from weight and value. So except you’re flying a micro drone, the O4 Professional is the higher alternative for a 5-inch construct, in my view.

Sadly the Axisflying Manta 5 SE solely comes with the O4 Lite, which is a dealbreaker for me. It additionally makes use of the Axisflying aluminum case, which I mentioned in my earlier submit—I don’t suppose it justifies the excessive value. I beforehand reviewed the Manta 5SE and actually just like the body design, and I want it got here with the O4 Professional as a substitute. Hopefully, Axisflying will launch one other model sooner or later with the full O4 Professional system.

Weight – How Heavy Are They?

Weight performs an enormous position in flight efficiency, effectivity, and sturdiness. A lighter quad is extra agile and environment friendly, whereas a heavier quad tends to undergo from shorter flight instances and fly like a tank—nice for stability, however not ideally suited for freestyle agility.

Right here’s a breakdown of the takeoff weight (excluding battery and GoPro) for every mannequin:

Are Aspect Plates Useless Weight?

One factor I actually dislike about a few of these BNF quads is the cumbersome plastic facet plates. Whereas they might look good and supply some safety, in lots of circumstances, they’re simply useless weight that:

• Compromises airflow to the electronics, doubtlessly lowering cooling.
• Makes it more durable to take aside the quad for upkeep and repairs.
• Provides pointless weight, lowering effectivity and agility.

Simply check out the load distinction between the Axisflying Manta 5 SE and the remainder. By not utilizing facet plates, you’ll be able to doubtlessly save as much as 30g, as I additionally demonstrated in my submit “How one can make your FPV drone lighter“.

Fortunately, a few of these quads—just like the Seeker5, Vapor D5, and CineFlow—assist you to take away the facet plates when you favor a lighter, extra accessible construct. Nevertheless, the iFlight Nazgul may show more difficult since the facet plates seem like an integral a part of the body design.

That is the Seeker5:

That is the Vapor D5:

That is the Cineflow:

If weight and ease of restore are priorities for you, think about going for a mannequin with detachable facet plates or a minimalist body design.

Body Design

For freestyle flying (or simply flying usually), the iFlight Afterburner Sport stands out because the least sensible body with regards to upkeep. Simply wanting on the sheer variety of screws and elements, I can already inform it’s going to be a ache to restore or substitute parts.

On its product web page, iFlight claims that the Afterburner Sport is “designed to push the boundaries of velocity, agility, and sturdiness.” However right here’s what confuses me:

• It makes use of the 2207 motors similar to the Nazgul and lots of different BNF drones.
• But, it’s 30g to 50g heavier than comparable fashions.
• If weight is immediately tied to agility and velocity, how does a heavier drone “push boundaries”?
• You’ll, for positive, get props in digital camera’s view. To get any helpful cinematic footage you’ll have to use a GoPro on high which makes it even heavier.

In order for you one thing that appears to be like distinctive, perhaps the Afterburner Sport will attraction to you. However for me, it simply doesn’t make sense, and I’ll possible exclude it from my choices.

Props in view?

Personally, I’d go for a deadcat body design as a result of the DJI O4 Professional has an especially extensive subject of view (FOV). A deadcat-style body is a lot better at holding props out of the digital camera’s view in comparison with a True-X body.

For those who’re new to body configurations, take a look at this information: https://oscarliang.com/fpv-drone-frames/#Configuration

Digicam Safety

A superb DJI O4 setup wants correct digital camera safety and delicate mounting to get clear footage.

• Comfortable-mounted digital camera? – Helps cut back jello and vibrations.
• Digicam safety? – Does the digital camera stick out an excessive amount of? Is the body designed to guard the digital camera in crashes?

All the iFlight BNF quads appear to have the O4 digital camera protruding quite a bit, making it extra weak in crashes.

That is the Nazgul ECO:

That is the Nazgul Evoque:

The GEPRC Vapor D5 supplies first rate digital camera safety, which is a plus. As for the DeepSpace SEEKER5 DC, I couldn’t discover photos of it with an O4 digital camera, however its O3 model, it appears to supply first rate safety as properly.

Ease of Restore

Drones crash and break—that’s simply the fact of FPV. A well-designed body must be simple to take aside for repairs and upgrades.

The DeepSpace SEEKER5 DC has a distinctive cut up top-deck design the place the digital camera cage has its personal high plate. Which means that to entry the FC stack and VTX, you solely must take away six screws of the secondary high plate—an excellent design alternative for simple upkeep.

For the remainder of the quads, you’ll usually must take away your complete high plate to entry the electronics:

• GEPRC Vapor D5 – 10 screws
• iFlight lineup – 8 screws

To be sincere, this isn’t a dealbreaker because you received’t must take the quad aside that steadily. But when simple upkeep is a high precedence, the Seeker5 DC is value contemplating.

Right here’s the Vapor D5:

Right here’s the Nazgul ECO:

Right here’s the Nazgul Evoque:

Right here’s the Cineflow:

Sturdiness

Sturdiness is vital, particularly for freestyle and bando flying. Thicker carbon fibre and a sturdy body design assist quads survive crashes higher. Thicker arms additionally enhance stiffness and cut back vibration which is essential to ease of tuning. Some quads use 6mm thick arms for sturdiness, whereas others go along with 5mm to save lots of weight.

I’ve personally flown the Nazgul ECO (analog model) quite a bit, which has 5mm arms. In my expertise, they provide loads of stiffness and minimal vibrations. Would 6mm arms be extra sturdy? In all probability. However the tradeoff is additional weight. For most individuals, 5mm arms must be high quality except you’re continuously flying in high-risk environments (bando diving, hardcore freestyle, and so on.).

Flight Controller and ESC

By way of FC and gyro, there’s nothing out of the atypical—all these choices ought to work simply high quality. New to FCs? Be taught in regards to the totally different processors and gyros right here: https://oscarliang.com/flight-controller/

Relating to ESCs, all of the choices within the desk ought to work properly, however there’s one necessary factor to notice:

Present BLHeli_32 ESC will proceed to work as they’re, so it’s probably not a dealbreaker, however preserve it in thoughts when you care about futureproofing.

The BEC is principally a voltage regulator on the FC that can be utilized to energy the DJI O4 Air Unit. Whereas the O4 Professional can take direct 6S LiPo voltage, utilizing a BEC continues to be advisable as a result of it acts as an influence filter, defending the air unit from potential voltage spikes and damages.

At 1200mW output energy, the O4 Professional consumes round 10W to 11W, so a BEC with at the very least 9V 2A output is required for steady operation.

Word: The iFlight Evoque F5 V2 and SH CineFlow 5 use the BLITZ Mini F7 FC, which doesn’t have a built-in BEC for the DJI O4 Air Unit—you’ll must energy it immediately from the battery (VBAT), which implies you lose filtering and voltage safety.

Moreover, all these flight controllers embrace onboard Blackbox reminiscence, which is essential for superior PID tuning and filter changes. The Evoque and CineFlow has 8MB of reminiscence (BLITZ Mini F7), the Nazgul ECO has 32MB (iFlight BLITZ ATF435), whereas the remainder have 16MB.

Motor Measurement and KV

All these fashions use 2207 motors. The upper KV can be extra highly effective at the price of being extra energy hungry. I believe it’s changing into a development within the passion to make use of larger KV motors, when you don’t should fly full throttle on a regular basis, having additional energy while you want it’s an enormous benefit. For cruising at average speeds, small KV variations received’t considerably affect flight time—the motor design and general drone weight have a much bigger impact on effectivity. Personally, I favor barely larger KV motors for his or her versatility.

GPS

The following consideration is whether or not the drone comes with GPS. I extremely advocate getting a BNF with GPS, as it may well save your drone at some point when you lose sign—it’d simply fly again to you utilizing Betaflight Rescue Mode.

Additionally, take note of the place the GPS is mounted. The optimum location ensures fast and constant satellite tv for pc lock earlier than and through flight. If it’s mounted too near the VTX antenna (or worse, beneath it), GPS efficiency could undergo as a consequence of interference.

Personally, I like how the Seeker5 DC mounts its GPS—it’s positioned far-off from all antennas (so long as you don’t put a GoPro on it). The CineFlow additionally has first rate placement, because the GPS is above the VTX antennas, avoiding sign blockage. Nevertheless, on most different quads, the GPS is positioned beneath the VTX antennas, which ought to nonetheless work however not optimum.

Worth & General Worth

Lastly, let’s evaluate pricing and see what you’re getting in your cash. These costs embrace GPS, an ExpressLRS 2.4GHz receiver, and the DJI O4 Professional Air Unit.

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I’ve to confess—I’m tempted to get the Axisflying Manta 5 SE, swap out the O4 Lite for the Professional, and both promote the O4 Lite or preserve it for a micro quad. However when you don’t wish to take care of swapping parts and simply wish to fly straight out of the field, the GEPRC Vapor D5 appears to supply the greatest worth on paper. The iFlight Nazgul DC5 ECO can be priced moderately, nevertheless for $34 extra, it provides much less: ESC and BEC are weaker, the motors have decrease KV, and the digital camera has no safety.

I additionally actually just like the design of the DeepSpace Seeker5, and its specs look implausible—however at $574, it’s a bit expensive.

As for the Nazgul Evoque and CineFlow, these are the solely quads over $600, and actually, I believe they’re a bit overpriced based mostly on their specs and design. For that cash, you might get the Vapor D5 AND purchase an additional set of O4 Professional as backup!

Remaining Ideas – Which One I Am Going to Get

After weighing the professionals and cons, I’ve determined to go along with the GEPRC Vapor D5.

When it arrives, I’ll do a full evaluate, together with:

• Tuning its PID and filter settings
• Seeing how a lot efficiency enchancment I can get

For those who additionally wish to get the Vapor D5, right here’s the AliExpress affiliate hyperlink, which is the place I’m ordering mine from: https://s.click on.aliexpress.com/e/_ompjqMI

I’ll replace this submit if I get the possibility to check extra of those quads, however for now—which 5-inch BNF with the DJI O4 Professional Air Unit are you contemplating? Let me know within the feedback!