85mm whoop is the candy spot for the DJI O4 — it’s highly effective sufficient to hold the additional weight of the air unit whereas not being too large or noisy for flying in parks. The Happymodel Mobula8 is sort of an previous design, however Happymodel has up to date it with a brand new cover to help the O4. I’m extra involved in Happymodel’s O4 Broad Angle Lens answer (they name it the FOV extender). It will increase the digital camera’s subject of view (FOV), making the flight expertise extra satisfying and stabilized footage extra usable — just like how the Flywoo wide-angle lens works. Will probably be attention-grabbing to seek out out which wide-angle lens performs higher.
In search of micro quads with DJI O4? Try this round-up and my suggestions: https://oscarliang.com/micro-drone-dji-o4-lite-comparison/
The place to Purchase
You will get the Mobula8 O4 HD Whoop from:
What’s within the Field
- Stickers
- UV filter
- ND8 filter (pre-installed)
- ND16 filter
- Spare digital camera cover
- Two additional units of propellers
- HQ 2x2x3
- Gemfan 2023R triblade
- Screwdriver and prop remover
Specs
- Wheelbase: 85mm
- Flight Controller: CrazyF405HD ELRS AIO FC
- ESC: 12A 4-in-1 (Bluejay firmware)
- Receiver: Constructed-in ExpressLRS 2.4GHz
- FPV Setup: DJI O4 Air Unit + Broad Angle FOV Adapter
- Battery: 2S (XT30 connector)
- Motors: EX1103 11000KV
- Propellers: Gemfan Hurricane 2023 tri-blade (1.5mm shaft gap)
- Dimension: 120mm × 120mm × 53mm
- Weight:
- With out battery: 52.6g
- With 2S 550mAh: 82.2g
For an HD whoop, that’s impressively gentle — solely 82g together with battery.
Mobula8 Construct & Design
The Mobula8 is a 2-year-old design, and they’re principally utilizing the identical {hardware}. Nevertheless, on this new model, Happymodel up to date the cover, designing it particularly across the DJI O4 Lite Air Unit. Additionally they created a wide-angle lens for it, which improves recording high quality and general flight expertise.
Digital camera Mount & Cover
The O4 digital camera is hard-mounted inside the cover — there’s no delicate mounting.
The O4 Lite antenna dangles out the again with none help, which may very well be a weak level. It could actually get near the props or snag throughout crashes. I want Happymodel had mounted the antenna extra securely.
An ND8 filter comes pre-installed out of the field. If you happen to plan to fly indoors the place there’s not lots of lighting, you could need to take away it first. ND16 and a clear UV filter are additionally included. You positively need both an ND or UV filter put in as a result of the digital camera may be very uncovered — these filters present some safety to the lens throughout crashes.
Happymodel O4 Broad Angle Lens
The spotlight of the Mobula8 O4 is the wide-angle lens.
If you happen to’ve flown the O4 Lite in inventory type, you’ll know the FOV is sort of slim — all the things feels nearer than it really is. The wide-angle lens dramatically improves the flight really feel.
Nevertheless, you might even see corners and edges in 4:3 mode. It additionally provides a bit of additional weight to the quad.
Set up is comparatively easy — simply clip the wide-angle lens onto the O4 digital camera. It’s secured by two tabs on the again. That is just like Flywoo’s older design however feels safer. Nevertheless, it shares related points with lens glare and inside reflections because of the additional glass. Flywoo’s new extensive angle lens answer is healthier in that regard as a result of it replaces the unique O4 housing and lens fully.
The lens weighs simply over 3g, about 2g lighter than Flywoo’s new answer.
The mount width is 18mm. The lens itself is way wider than 18mm and stands proud fairly a bit. It additionally will get in the best way of the entrance cover screws — accessing them requires bending the cover to maneuver the digital camera out of the best way.
The ND filter is held in place by two tabs and may be very tight — putting in or eradicating it isn’t straightforward.
Picture High quality
The FOV is wider than Flywoo’s — you see extra of the environment — however the fisheye impact can also be extra noticeable when evaluating Happymodel and Flywoo facet by facet. That stated, I don’t discover the fisheye impact problematic. It feels tremendous in flight and is completely flyable.
You possibly can see the lens housing within the corners contained in the goggles. It’s much more noticeable within the air unit’s onboard recording — it seems such as you’re wanting by means of a tunnel.
Stabilization works properly in Gyroflow. Processing the HD footage crops out many of the vignette, and you’ll eradicate practically all of it by setting the FOV under 1.0. I set mine to 0.97, and virtually all the things disappears.
I additionally observed barely decreased sharpness across the edges, however that’s anticipated with any wide-angle lens.
Flight Efficiency
The quad hovers at round 21% throttle. Flight efficiency is surprisingly clean and steady — higher than anticipated, particularly given the weird PID tune. The filters and PIDs are set conservatively, so there’s positively room for enchancment.
It’s additionally value noting that it’s not utilizing bidirectional DShot, so the tune isn’t absolutely optimized.
For a 2S micro quad, it’s fairly highly effective and feels agile. Nevertheless, there may be noticeable prop wash and a few instability when recovering from dives and split-S maneuvers. You could possibly strive reversing motor course and working “props out” — that will assist cut back yaw washout.
It’s additionally surprisingly quiet — from about 100 meters away, you’ll be able to barely hear it.
The truth is, it feels extra like a small 2S toothpick than a standard whoop. This is perhaps one of many best-flying O4 Lite tiny whoops I’ve examined up to now.
That stated, there’s positively room for enchancment within the tune. As you’ll be able to see, filtering isn’t fairly ample and the quad sounds a bit noisy. I additionally assume the PID values may very well be refined additional.
With a 2S 550mAh LiHV battery, I’m getting round 5 minutes of freestyle flying. That’s fairly environment friendly and a strong flight time for this setup.
Methods to Set It Up
I don’t assume Happymodel put a lot effort into configuring Betaflight. Even the craft identify is unsuitable — it’s labeled “Mobula7”.
The DJI O4 isn’t activated out of the field. You’ll want to attach it to DJI Assistant 2 (Client Drone Sequence) by way of USB to activate it. The Air Unit should be powered throughout activation, so be certain a LiPo battery is plugged into the drone.
To bind ExpressLRS, use the WiFi methodology. The receiver is a Happymodel EP1/EP2 2.4GHz RX working ELRS firmware 3.0.1, linked to UART2.
Listed below are the Betaflight modifications I like to recommend:
- Allow DShot Beacon
- Change channel map to “Default”
- Allow Telemetry within the Receiver tab
- Pitch channel has slight jitter — set RC deadband to 2
- Arrange your arm change and beeper in Modes
- Within the OSD tab:
- It got here with the unsuitable format chosen (despite the fact that HD was proven).
- Choose “Auto”, save, then change again to “HD”.
- Allow and place the OSD parts you need.
- Disable “Core Temperature” — it’s not helpful.
Handbook: https://www.happymodel.cn/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Mobula8-O4-Handbook-document.pdf
Last Ideas – Is It Value It?
I used to be initially a bit delay by the “old skool” design. It felt like Happymodel didn’t put a lot effort into updating the Mobula8. However after flying it, I form of perceive their strategy — they’re merely recycling a platform that already works properly.
And actually, the Mobula8 flies properly. It’s clean, agile, quiet, and enjoyable. Paired with the O4 and the wide-angle lens, it turns into a very strong combo. It won’t look flashy, however you received’t be disillusioned by the way it performs within the air.
If you’d like a micro whoop with DJI O4, that is positively among the many higher choices by way of flight efficiency.
Get the Mobula8 O4 from:
The wide-angle lens is a superb addition. Picture high quality isn’t fairly pretty much as good as Flywoo’s newer answer, however Happymodel’s model is lighter and higher for general flight efficiency. Flywoo’s strategy feels extra polished and streamlined, with barely higher picture high quality, whereas Happymodel’s answer feels extra DIY — however nonetheless delivers a widened FOV and strong outcomes with much less weight penalty.
Total, it’s a powerful bundle — particularly if flight really feel issues extra to you than absolute picture perfection.