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 presumably some lengthy vary flying, so I assumed this is able to be an important alternative to doc my thought course of and clarify how I resolve which mannequin to get.

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The DJI O4 Professional was solely launched final month, however there are already a number of stable choices that assist it. Nonetheless, with so many elements to think about—efficiency, sturdiness, ease of restore, and worth for cash—choosing the right one isn’t all the time easy.

On this submit, I’ll examine the prime 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 here are a few of 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 decisions for pilots who don’t need to construct their FPV drone from scratch. However how do they examine in weight, sturdiness, repairability, and general efficiency?

Let’s dive into the small print.

O4 Professional or O4 Lite?

Personally, I favor the O4 Professional on a 5-inch drone. As talked about in my DJI O4 Professional evaluation, the Professional model is higher in nearly each means apart from weight and worth. So except you’re flying a micro drone, the O4 Professional is the higher selection for a 5-inch construct, for my part.

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 worth. 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 endure from shorter flight occasions and fly like a tank—nice for stability, however not very best for freestyle agility.

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

Are Facet Plates Lifeless Weight?

One factor I actually dislike about a few of these BNF quads is the cumbersome plastic aspect plates. Whereas they could look good and provide some safety, in lots of instances, they’re simply lifeless weight that:

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

Simply check out the load distinction between the Axisflying Manta 5 SE and the remaining. By not utilizing aspect plates, you may doubtlessly save as much as 30g, as I additionally demonstrated in my submit “Learn how to make your FPV drone lighter“.

Fortunately, a few of these quads—just like the Seeker5, Vapor D5, and CineFlow—help you take away the aspect plates in the event you favor a lighter, extra accessible construct. Nonetheless, the iFlight Nazgul may show more difficult since the aspect plates look 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, take into account going for a mannequin with detachable aspect plates or a minimalist body design.

Body Design

For freestyle flying (or simply flying basically), 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 elements.

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 identical to the Nazgul and plenty 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 digicam’s view. To get any helpful cinematic footage you’ll have to use a GoPro on prime which makes it even heavier.

If you’d like one thing that seems to be distinctive, perhaps the Afterburner Sport will attraction to you. However for me, it simply doesn’t make sense, and I’ll doubtless 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 huge subject of view (FOV). A deadcat-style body is significantly better at retaining props out of the digicam’s view in comparison with a True-X body.

In case you’re new to body configurations, try this information: https://oscarliang.com/fpv-drone-frames/#Configuration

Digital camera Safety

An excellent DJI O4 setup wants correct digicam safety and mushy mounting to get clear footage.

• Smooth-mounted digicam? – Helps scale back jello and vibrations.
• Digital camera safety? – Does the digicam stick out an excessive amount of? Is the body designed to guard the digicam in crashes?

The entire iFlight BNF quads appear to have the O4 digicam protruding lots, making it extra susceptible in crashes.

That is the Nazgul ECO:

That is the Nazgul Evoque:

The GEPRC Vapor D5 offers respectable digicam safety, which is a plus. As for the DeepSpace SEEKER5 DC, I couldn’t discover photos of it with an O4 digicam, however taking a look at its O3 model, it appears to supply respectable safety as effectively.

Ease of Restore

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

The DeepSpace SEEKER5 DC has a distinctive cut up top-deck design the place the digicam cage has its personal prime plate. Because of this to entry the FC stack and VTX, you solely have to take away six screws of the secondary prime plate—a superb design selection for simple upkeep.

For the remainder of the quads, you’ll sometimes have to take away the whole prime plate to entry the electronics:

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

To be trustworthy, this isn’t a dealbreaker because you received’t have to take the quad aside that incessantly. But when simple upkeep is a prime precedence, the Seeker5 DC is price 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 essential, particularly for freestyle and bando flying. Thicker carbon fibre and a sturdy body design assist quads survive crashes higher. Thicker arms additionally improve stiffness and scale back vibration which is essential to ease of tuning. Some quads use 6mm thick arms for sturdiness, whereas others go along with 5mm to avoid wasting weight.

I’ve personally flown the Nazgul ECO (analog model) lots, 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 ought to be high quality except you’re continually 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 abnormal—all these choices ought to work simply high quality. New to FCs? Study in regards to the totally different processors and gyros right here: https://oscarliang.com/flight-controller/

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

Current BLHeli_32 ESC will proceed to work as they’re, so it’s probably not a dealbreaker, however preserve it in thoughts in the event 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 remains to be really helpful 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 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 have to energy it immediately from the battery (VBAT), which suggests you lose filtering and voltage safety.

Moreover, all these flight controllers embody onboard Blackbox reminiscence, which is crucial 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 remaining have 16MB.

Motor Measurement and KV

All these fashions use 2207 motors. The upper KV will probably be extra highly effective at the price of being extra energy hungry. I feel it’s turning into a development within the pastime to make use of greater KV motors, whilst you don’t need to fly full throttle on a regular basis, having additional energy if you want it’s an enormous benefit. For cruising at average speeds, small KV variations received’t considerably impression flight time—the motor design and general drone weight have an even bigger impact on effectivity. Personally, I favor barely greater KV motors for his or her versatility.

GPS

The following consideration is whether or not the drone comes with GPS. I extremely suggest getting a BNF with GPS, as it may save your drone in the future in the event you lose sign—it would 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 might endure because 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 respectable placement, because the GPS is above the VTX antennas, avoiding sign blockage. Nonetheless, on most different quads, the GPS is positioned beneath the VTX antennas, which ought to nonetheless work however not optimum.

Worth & Total Worth

Lastly, let’s examine pricing and see what you’re getting to your cash. These costs embody 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 in the event you don’t need to cope with swapping elements and simply need to fly straight out of the field, the GEPRC Vapor D5 appears to supply the finest worth on paper. The iFlight Nazgul DC5 ECO can also be priced moderately, nevertheless for $34 extra, it presents much less: ESC and BEC are weaker, the motors have decrease KV, and the digicam has no safety.

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

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

Closing 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 evaluation, together with:

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

In case you additionally need 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!