I lately bought my arms on the BetaFPV Meteor75 Professional O4, and I’m excited to share my expertise. This evaluate covers how I put in the O4, set it up, and my flight expertise.
Additional Studying:
The place to Purchase
Get the Meteor75 Professional O4 whoop from:
It is available in two variations:
- DJI O4 Model: Priced at round $199.99.
- PNP Model (With out DJI O4): Priced at $79.99, however you’ll want to purchase your personal DJI O4 Air Unit.
To be trustworthy, in the event you don’t thoughts additional work assembling the drone, it is perhaps value getting the PNP model. The DJI O4 is just $109, which suggests it can save you $11 by constructing it your self.
Unboxing
I’m reviewing the PNP model, which doesn’t embody the O4 Air Unit. It comes with all the required equipment, together with a substitute antenna and an O4-to-FC cable, so that you’re prepared to put in the O4 within the Meteor75 Professional proper out of the field—no additional components or instruments required.
The quad weighs 37.2g (together with the DJI O4) or 51.4g together with a 1S 550mAh battery.
Cover
The brand new cover options a big cutout, permitting for a large angle adjustment for the O4 digital camera.
I’m fairly impressed by the digital camera’s delicate mounting mechanism that BetaFPV has developed—it’s maybe one of many first “correct” delicate mounting options for the DJI O4 to date, which is crucial to attain jello-free footage with the demanding O4 digital camera.
The mount encompasses a two-piece design—a again piece with two mounting screws on the edges (19mm width, micro FPV digital camera measurement) and a entrance clamp that secures the digital camera. The 2 items are linked by 4 vibration-dampening “balls,” which cut back the vibrations reaching the digital camera.
Flight Controller
Other than the brand new cover and digital camera delicate mounting design, the Meteor75 Professional has additionally acquired an improve to the flight controller—the Matrix 3-in-1 FC.
It’s designed particularly for the DJI O4 Air Unit (Lite), that includes a connector that plugs instantly into the O4 Air Unit with out soldering. It’s a 1S board, and as we all know, the O4 doesn’t carry out nicely with voltages under 3.7V. Due to this fact, BetaFPV has added a 5V BEC to this FC, offering sufficient energy for the O4 even at most RF energy.
There’s 16MB of reminiscence for the blackbox and a complete of 4 UARTs out there, though solely 2 are used.
Similar to any BetaFPV tiny whoop, to maintain the burden down, there’s no USB port on the FC; to entry Betaflight, you’ll want to make use of BetaFPV’s devoted dongle.
Motors and Propellers
The Meteor75 Professional O4 is just not strictly a 75mm whoop—the diagonal motor distance is definitely over 80mm, so it ought to actually be referred to as the Meteor80. The rise in measurement accommodates bigger propellers—these are 45mm tri-blade props, not the 40mm props utilized in typical 75mm tiny whoops. Because of the additional weight of the DJI O4, bigger propellers make sense, as they supply extra energy and effectivity. To spin these bigger props, BetaFPV makes use of bigger 1102 22000KV motors.
Sturdiness
There have been combined studies from the neighborhood concerning sturdiness, primarily as a result of DJI O4 Air Unit, not the Meteor75 itself. Some customers have skilled malfunctions or harm to the board after a couple of arduous crashes. Whereas I haven’t encountered any main points but—since I’ve been flying gently as a result of that is the one DJI O4 I’ve—I’d warning towards treating the O4 whoop the identical manner you’d an affordable analog whoop.
Putting in DJI O4 Air Unit
Putting in your personal O4 may sound difficult, particularly given the fiddly components concerned within the delicate mounting. Nevertheless, it turned out to be fairly simple—so long as you have got regular arms. It solely took me about half-hour to finish the construct.
Professional Tip: The O4 digital camera cable is sort of stiff as a result of protecting tape used, and it could actually switch vibration from the body/cover to the digital camera. To unravel this, I eliminated the tape close to the digital camera connector, which exposes the versatile a part of the wires. Be extraordinarily cautious in the event you resolve to do that, and don’t harm the wires within the course of.
Nevertheless, I do have issues in regards to the threaded tubes on the body that holds the FC in place. They solely lengthen to the highest of the FC silicone grommets (aka gummies) and don’t really present any help for the O4 Air Unit when it’s mounted on high of the FC. The O4 gummies are pressed towards the FC gummies utilizing longer screws. Whereas this methodology form of works, it has its flaws. If the screws aren’t tight sufficient, the O4 may need wiggle room—particularly throughout flips and rolls. Alternatively, if the screws are too tight, they may press too arduous on the FC gummies, which isn’t supreme for delicate mounting. The body is injection-molded, and it’s costly to create a brand new mould only for a small design change, so I perceive why BetaFPV opted for this workaround.
Battery and Flight Time
BetaFPV recommends their LAVA 1S 550mAh LiHV batteries. You too can use the lighter, smaller 450mAh batteries, however flight time is significantly shorter. I get round 5 minutes of flight time when flying indoors with the 550mAh battery, and round 3.5 minutes with the 450mAh.
Get some 1S 550mah batteries right here:
Flight Efficiency
I’ve seen a number of movies of the Meteor75 Professional with O4 from when it was first launched, and so they all appear to have fairly dangerous jello. I’m not certain if BetaFPV has made enhancements to the design as a result of I haven’t observed any jello or vibration throughout my indoor testing (I acquired mine simply final week). Additionally, the way in which I put in the O4 may need contributed to the improved picture high quality.
The inventory tune labored fairly nicely. I made a number of adjustments to the settings to swimsuit my flying model, however general, the quad was fairly responsive and steady out of the field.
I haven’t flown this quad open air that a lot as a result of it’s been raining and appears like it should proceed for a couple of extra days (and it’s near 0°C). Nevertheless, this whoop is designed primarily for indoor flying. In my expertise, a tiny whoop at this light-weight simply will get pushed round by the breeze except you have got completely windless circumstances. For out of doors flying, bigger and extra highly effective fashions are higher suited. If you’d like a whoop to fly predominantly outdoors, I believe the BetaFPV Femto is perhaps a better option, which I’m nonetheless testing and can publish a evaluate within the subsequent few days evaluating it to the Meteor75 Professional.
How you can Setup
The FC goal is BETAFPVG473, and it got here loaded with Betaflight 4.5.1. The unique CLI diff will be discovered right here.
- Bind ELRS Receiver: For some cause, the ELRS receiver gained’t go into WiFi mode after ready a few minutes, so I needed to bind the receiver utilizing one other methodology. I merely clicked the “bind receiver” possibility within the receiver tab in Betaflight. Then, on my radio, I went into the ExpressLRS Lua script and chosen the Bind possibility. And binding was achieved.
- Pair O4 to Goggles 3:
- Modes tab in Betaflight Configurator: Configure the switches for arming, angle mode, and turtle mode.
- Energy tab in Betaflight Configurator: Set the minimal cell voltage to three.2V and the warning to three.4V (land earlier than 3.2V).
- PID Tuning tab in Betaflight Configurator:
- Dynamic Idle: Set it to 75 (it was set to 30 for some cause, which is just too low; 30 is for five″ quads).
- Charges: disable Throttle expo by setting it to 0
Listed here are my charges and the right way to arrange fee choice based mostly in your flight mode.
Specs
- Wheelbase: 80.8mm
- Motors: 1102 22000KV
- Body: Meteor75 Professional
- Propellers: Gemfan 45mm 3-Blade Propellers
- Digital camera/VTX: DJI O4 Air Unit (Lite)
- Cover: Cover for O4 Air Unit
- FC: Matrix 1S 3IN1 HD FC
- Receiver: ELRS 2.4G
- Beneficial Battery: LAVA 1S 550mAh Battery
- Weight: 37.2g
Closing Ideas
In terms of flying round the home, my general impression of the BetaFPV Meteor75 Professional O4 is optimistic, although it does include some quirks:
Execs:
- Compact and modern design—from the cover and delicate mounting to the flight controller.
- Good indoor efficiency with potential for stable out of doors flights in calm circumstances.
- Though my evaluate unit works positive with stabilization, I’ve heard combined outcomes from different folks, particularly open air. BetaFPV may need mounted this situation in later batches, just like the one I reviewed. We’d like extra confirmations from different pilots.
Cons:
- DJI O4 sturdiness issues have been reported by some customers, significantly with frequent crashes.
- Nice picture high quality, however flight efficiency is definitely not corresponding to lighter, analog tiny whoops.
The place to Purchase the Meteor75 Professional O4 Whoop
For fans seeking to discover the world of FPV in HD, the Meteor75 Professional O4 is an attention-grabbing possibility with its mix of recent options and compact design. If you happen to’re keen to spend just a little time fine-tuning your setup, it may develop into a dependable software in your FPV arsenal.