Testing and Tuning the NEW BETAFPV Air65

Summary

In this video, the presenter reviews the BetaFPV A65, a tiny yet feature-packed drone, highlighting its lightweight design, all-in-one flight controller with a 16MB blackbox, and the option of 260mAh or 300mAh batteries for different flight times. The camera's performance and VTX output power are tested, and a custom Betaflight tune is provided to enhance the drone's responsiveness. The A65 is recommended for beginners and experienced pilots alike, offering an easy entry into FPV drone flying with a robust feature set.

Q & A

What is the main topic of the video?

The main topic of the video is a review of the new BetaFPV A65 drone, covering its features, components, flight performance, and Betaflight configuration.

What are the key features of the BetaFPV A65 drone?

Key features include an injection-molded plastic frame, a lightweight canopy with camera tilt adjustment, an all-in-one flight controller with a G4 processor, bidirectional DShot, and a built-in 400mW video transmitter.

What is the significance of the BetaFPV A65's new canopy design?

The new canopy is smaller and lighter than the Meteor 65 canopy, featuring a hole for the VTX whip antenna and four holes for camera angle adjustment, which helps in reducing the overall weight of the drone.

What type of motor does the BetaFPV A65 drone use?

The A65 uses 0702 23,000KV motors, which are tiny and have a modest KV rating, contributing to the drone's lightweight design.

What is the role of the ELRS receiver in the BetaFPV A65 drone?

The ELRS receiver is used for the drone's control signal, and it is a separate component taped on top of the flight controller board due to the lack of a built-in receiver.

How does the BetaFPV A65 drone's power connection system work?

The drone uses a BetaFPV BT 2.0 connector that supports both BT 2.0 batteries and any G&B A30 connector due to the same pin diameter and plug shape.

What is the purpose of the 16-megabyte blackbox chip on the BetaFPV A65's flight controller?

The 16-megabyte blackbox chip provides onboard blackbox storage for flight data logging, allowing pilots to analyze and tune their drone's performance without needing an external logging system.

What are the flight times for the BetaFPV A65 drone with different battery sizes?

With the 260mAh battery, the flight time is about 4 minutes in angle mode, and with the 300mAh battery, it increases to about 5 minutes in angle mode.

How does the BetaFPV A65 drone perform in terms of camera quality?

The camera on the A65 is the BetaFPV C3 micro camera with 1200 TV lines and 4:3 aspect ratio, capable of switching between PAL and NTSC. It handles changing light levels well and provides a good image quality for its size.

What are the main improvements made to the BetaFPV A65 drone's Betaflight configuration in the video?

The main improvements include raising the gyro low pass 2 cut off to 1000 Hz for anti-aliasing, adjusting the PID gains for better response, and setting a dynamic idle to help with prop wash in Acro mode.

What is the VTX output power variation like on the BetaFPV A65 drone across different racebands?

The VTX output power varies significantly across different racebands, with over 600 mW on raceband 1 at 400 mW setting and around 270 mW on raceband 8 at the same setting.

Who would be the ideal user for the BetaFPV A65 drone?

The ideal user for the BetaFPV A65 drone would be a beginner looking for an affordable and easy-to-fly FPV drone or an experienced pilot seeking a ready-to-fly tiny whoop with all the necessary features.

Outlines

00:00

🤖 Introduction to the Beta FPV A65 Tiny Drone

The script introduces the Beta FPV A65, a tiny drone that's likely the cutest in its category. The narrator plans to showcase its features, components, and flight capabilities. The drone has an injection-molded plastic frame and prop guards similar to the Meteor 65 but with a lighter canopy. It features the new Air G4 4-in-1 flight controller from Beta FPV, which includes a G4 processor, blue J on the ESC for bidirectional DShot, and a built-in 400m video transmitter. The script mentions the absence of a built-in receiver and the use of an ELRS receiver instead. The drone also has a Beta FPV BT 2.0 connector for power and a USB adapter for weight-saving. A key feature highlighted is the 16-megabyte blackbox chip for flight data logging, something new for Beta FPV controllers.

05:01

🛠️ Beta FPV A65 Configuration and Flight Experience

This paragraph delves into the Betaflight configuration of the A65, discussing the custom settings and the flight experience. The narrator mentions the use of Betaflight 4.5 with a G4 processor, enabling features like 8K and 4K pit loop frequency. The drone is armed at a 180° angle, and the script details the custom board alignment, D-gain and P&I-gain settings, and the lack of feedforward in the tune. The narrator suggests adjustments to the tune for improved responsiveness, including increasing the master multiplier and setting a dynamic idle. The script also covers the receiver setup for ExpressLRS, the motor and ESC configuration, and the blackbox storage capacity. The narrator shares their flight experience with different battery sizes, noting differences in responsiveness and control.

10:02

📊 Fine-Tuning the Beta FPV A65 with Betaflight

The narrator provides a detailed explanation of how to fine-tune the Beta FPV A65 using Betaflight. They suggest changes to the filter settings, including raising the gyro low pass 2 cutoff to 1000 Hz and adjusting the RPM filter to a single notch. A dynamic notch filter is introduced to address frame resonance. The PID profile settings are also discussed, with recommendations to increase P&I gains and pitch tracking. The narrator offers a preset tune for the A65, which can be applied directly through Betaflight configurator, and shares their testing results for both the 260mAh and 300mAh battery options, noting improved response and no oscillation with the suggested tune.

15:03

📡 VTX Output Power Testing of the Beta FPV A65

This section focuses on testing the VTX output power of the new Air G4 all-in-one flight controller. The narrator connects the VTX output to a true RMS power meter to measure conducted output power at various settings. They find a significant variation in output power between raceband 1 and raceband 8, with the maximum power delivered at over 600 mW on raceband 1. The script highlights the importance of considering VTX settings for optimal performance and the need for calibration to ensure accurate power output.

20:03

🚀 Review and Recommendations for the Beta FPV A65

The narrator wraps up the script with a comprehensive review of the Beta FPV A65, highlighting its suitability for beginners and experienced pilots alike. They praise the lightweight frame, durable construction, and the performance of the 0702 motors and props. The canopy's reduced weight and the flight controller's feature set, including the onboard blackbox, are also commended. The script addresses the drone's performance with different batteries and the VTX's output power. The camera quality and the whip antenna's lightweight design are noted as positives. The narrator suggests integrating the ELRS receiver into the flight controller board for a more streamlined design and concludes by recommending the drone for its ease of use, performance, and value.

🛒 Closing Remarks and Purchase Information for the Beta FPV A65

In the final paragraph, the narrator provides purchase information for the Beta FPV A65, encouraging viewers to use affiliate links in the video description to support the channel at no additional cost to themselves. They reiterate the drone's features and express gratitude for the viewers' support, promising more content in the future.

Highlights

Introduction of the Beta FPV A65, a tiny drone with a focus on its features and components.

The A65 shares a similar frame and prop guards with the Meteor 65 but features a lighter canopy with camera adjustment options.

Inclusion of the new all-in-one flight controller from Beta FPV, the AIR G4 4in1, with an integrated 400mW video transmitter.

No built-in receiver on the flight controller board, requiring a separate receiver like the ELRS receiver.

The Beta FPV BT 2.0 connector supports both BT 2.0 and G&B A30 batteries due to shared pin diameter and plug shape.

Introduction of a USB adapter for the S65, saving weight and allowing USB connection without interfering with propellers.

The A65 features a 16MB blackbox chip, a significant addition for Beta FPV flight controllers.

The 0702 23,000 KV motors are small but provide adequate performance for the lightweight drone.

The Beta FPV C3 micro camera offers 1200 TV lines and a 43 aspect ratio, switchable between PAL and NTSC.

Weight measurements for the drone with different battery options, emphasizing the lightweight design.

Betaflight configuration insights, including custom settings for the A65 drone.

Pit tuning adjustments for improved drone responsiveness and flight dynamics.

Testing the drone with both 260mAh and 300mAh Beta FPV Lava 1S batteries, noting differences in flight characteristics.

Camera performance evaluation, including its ability to handle changing light levels and maintain image quality.

VTX output power testing, revealing variations in power output across different racebands.

Final thoughts on the Beta FPV A65, covering its suitability for beginners and experienced pilots alike.

Suggestions for future improvements, such as integrating the ELRS receiver into the flight controller board.

Affiliate links provided for those interested in purchasing the Beta FPV A65 drone.

Transcripts

oh he's so tiny hi there everyone today

we are going to be taking a look at

probably the cutest little drone that

ever did drone the brand new beta fpv

a65 in this video I'm going to be taking

you through all of the features and

components of this little drone on the

bench we're going to be taking it for a

fly and I'm going to be giving you my

thoughts and recommendations on the

betaflight tune and on the Drone overall

it's a lot to cover one video so let's

not waste any more time let's dive right

into it if at any point during this

video you want to check out the pricing

and availability of this little guy then

all the links you need are down in the

video description and if you control

click on them you can listen to me

finish this review while you check out

all that information if you love all

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And subscribe to the channel because I'm

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all right let's start by taking a look

at this little guy on the bench and the

a65 shares the same injection molded

plastic frame and prop guards as the

meteor 65 but it does have a different

canopy the a65 has this smaller lighter

weight canopy it's got a little hole for

the VTX whip antenna and it's got these

four holes here to adjust the camera up

tilt so if you move this screw forward

that'll pull the canopy back and you can

get higher up tilt the a65 has a new

all-in-one flight controller from BET to

fpv this is their air G4 4 in1 and it's

got everything you would expect it's got

a G4 processor it's got um blue J on the

ESC so you can use bidirectional dshot

and it's got a built-in 400 m video

transmitter on the board as far as I can

tell there's no builtin receiver on this

board so you're going to use a separate

receiver and here I've got the elrs

receiver so this is an little serial

elrs receiver with a chip style antenna

and it's just taped on top of the board

there in terms of power connection we've

got the uh beta fpv BT 2.0 connector

here and that obviously supports both BT

2.0 batteries from beta fpv but also

anything with the g&b a30 connector will

also fit because they have the same pin

diameter and the same plug shape so yeah

bt2.0 or gnb a30 on the bottom of the

board we have this little jst plug here

and the S65 comes with this little USB

adapter which is really neat and helps

save a little bit of weight you can just

plug that in whenever you need to

connect via USB to the flight controller

and then you have this little USBC

breakout board and it's super convenient

cuz you can actually have the Drone sat

flat on the bench and the USB cable is

nowhere near the props which means that

you know if you need to test the motors

or whatever um stick a finger on top of

the Drone you can test the motors it's

nice and safe and you're not going to

get anything caught in the uh in the USB

cable so that's nice one of the really

neat features on this board which we're

going to talk about a bit later is that

it has a 16 megabyte blackbox chip on it

so beta fpv in the past have often not

included blackbox on their flight

controllers it's really nice to see that

this air G4 has that

included the motors are

0702 23,000 KV so these are really tiny

Motors and a modest KV but we'll see how

it performs in the flight test but

certainly um these aren't the largest

Motors that you would fit on something

like a 65 mm but also this drone is very

very light so keeping that motor size

down also helps keep the weight down the

camera on the S65 is the beta fpv C3

micro camera and this has 1200 TV lines

43 aspect ratio and it's switchable from

pal to ntsc depending on what you prefer

to use in your goggles speaking of

Weights let's get some for this little

guy so just the drone on its own comes

in at 17.2 G if we add the 260 Mah lava

pack that brings it up to 24.3 or you

can run the slightly larger 300 Mah lava

pack and that brings it up to 25.5 G so

here's the beta flight configuration for

the S65 we're going to start in the

configuration tab and just have a look

and see what beta fpv have done with the

custom config on this drone we're

running betaf flight 4.5 which is great

so we're on the latest version of

betaflight and we are running a G4

processor so we should have 8K and 4K

pit Loop frequency yep accelerometer is

active obviously for angle mode and we

have air mode permanently enabled OSD

enabled that's all fine and normal

arming angle is set to 180° so the Drone

is always going to be able to arm that's

good to see and we've got a custom board

alignment that's obviously for the uh G4

a AO FC that's on this drone if we go

down we've got dshop Beacon

configuration Beacon tone I always like

to set that to three I think it's easier

to hear and then we have all the other

beep set correctly so we will save and

reboot that jumping now into the pit

tuning tab

and so we got a custom pigum which is

nice to see so theyve put some effort in

there um D gains and p&i gains are both

set to

1.15 that doesn't make much sense when

you've also moved the master multiplier

so um what we can do is just increase

the master multiplier by about 15% or so

and that will be effectively exactly the

same set those back to

one state response is on zero so we got

no feed forward I would suggest that we

want a bit of feed forward to reduce the

delay in the pit controller Dynamic

damping off that's fine and Pitch

tracking 1.1 so okay so we need a little

bit more gain on the pitch axis than

roll which makes sense because the

battery is orientated lengthways on this

drone feed forward

settings these all look

sensible and dynamic damping I mean

these set settings are wrong but we're

not using Dynamic damping anyway we

always set advance to zero because we

don't ever want any advance on Dynamic

damping um we have no Dynamic idle set I

would definitely want to set a dynamic

idle for any small drone it does help

with prop wash particularly if you're

flying fast in Acro mode so I'm going to

set that to 50 to begin with and we'll

see how that

goes for these really tiny drones

sometimes you need more Dynamic idle but

should be absolutely fine to begin

with and everything else looks totally

sensible which is really nice to see

okay jumping into the receiver tab

that's obviously all set up for Express

lrs and is correct and

working we don't have any Telemetry

coming back from the from the Drone so

we should probably enable that so that

we can get battery voltage back from the

Drone to the radio we jump into modes

um these are just my custom modes and

Motors we have bidirectional dshot

enabled fantastic and dynamic idle

obviously is now set and 12 poles on our

Motors black

box thank you beta fpv 16 megabytes of

onboard blackbox storage that's just

fantastic that means we can tune the

Drone get it working just perfectly we

don't have to use an open log or

anything like that it's all built

in two for too long beta fpv flight

controllers have not had blackbox and

I'm really glad to see that they do now

so that's really really great and 16 Meg

is a lot as well for a tiny whoop

normally you only get 8 Meg so 16 Meg is

great to see and I think that pretty

much covers all of the bef flight

configuration so I've just got back from

flying the a65 around the flat as you

can probably tell from the goggle marks

on my face and I flew it with the 260

Mah and the 300 Mah beta fpv lava 1s

batteries I got about 4 minutes of

flight time cruising angle mode with the

260 Mah and that went up to 5 minutes of

flight time cruising in angle mode with

the 300

Mah in terms of how the Drone felt to

fly the tune was really good I didn't

notice any strangenesses with um how the

Drone was behaving and it flew really

well both in angle and Acro mode with

the 300 Milah pack the Drone was a

little bit calmer a little bit more

sedate a bit easier to control flying

through tight gaps but when I switched

to the 260 Mah pack I noticed that the

Drone was no noticeably quicker to

respond faster to accelerate faster to

change direction because that battery is

just that much lighter and I also found

actually it was a little bit more

difficult to control the Drone flying

under objects and flying through tight

gaps because it was more responsive and

I think I might benefit from a little

bit of throttle Expo when I'm using that

lighter 260 milliamp power pack so that

I have a bit more low throttle control I

didn't need that at all with the 300

mamp in terms of the camera the camera

picture from the Drone is really nice

the camera copes with changing light

levels reasonably well um it doesn't

stay Overexposed for too long it it

changes its exposure nice and quickly

and I didn't have any trouble flying

from darker areas of the flat into

lighter areas of the flat with uh the

camera kind of compensating for that

change in light level the Drone was set

to 25 M output power on the VTX and that

was absolutely fine I didn't notice any

dropouts or anything I think going up to

200 or even 400 Ms output power is only

really necessary if you're flying longer

distances you want to fly behind walls

or fly outdoors I saw a little bit of

occasional white Flash from Wi-Fi but it

was totally fine totally flyable and the

picture from the camera was lovely now

let's take a look at the configuration

in betaflight the tune on the Drone and

see if there is anything we can do to

improve it even further now I know that

beta fpv have put a custom pit tune on

this drone but their tune isn't perfect

it's a little conservative in some areas

so I wanted to give give you my tune for

the a65 and I'm also going to upload

this as a preset so that you can apply

this directly from Bight configurator in

the presets tab looking first at the

filters the main change that I made here

is just to raise the cut off for gyro

low pass 2 up to 1,000 HZ so we want

just gyro low pass 2 enabled because

we're running a 4K pit Loop so we need

an anti-aliasing filter and gy low pass

2 is that filter so we're going to raise

that to a cut off of ,000 Herz and a pt1

filter type for the RPM filters because

these motors are spinning so so fast you

don't need three notches for this little

drone just a single RPM filter is going

to do everything that you need it to do

so just go ahead and set that to one and

then we are going to need the Dynam

Dynamic Notch filter because there is a

nasty frame resonance at about 200 HZ

that we need to take care of and so we

just need a single Notch here with a 500

Q factor and between 120 and 500 HZ for

the frequencies that all works perfectly

fine once you've got all those set you

don't need to change the dterm low pass

filtering that's fine and the your low

pass filter is also fine to leave

enabled once you've got all that set you

can hit save and then we'll move on to

the pids so the PID profile settings are

in this tab and the main changes that

we're going to make here is we're going

to set damping gains to one and slightly

increase the p&i gains to 1.3 to get a

bit of a faster snappier response

because the Drone was a little bit

undertuned with the p&i gains down at

1.15 stick response gains I've moved up

to one just so we get a little bit of

feed forward to improve the

responsiveness of the Drone Dynamic

damping I left at zero that's fine and

then the pitch tracking I found I needed

to increase that because the Drone is

quite a lot heavier quite a lot more

inertia on the pitch axis than the roll

axis because of the orientation of that

battery so I up that to 1.2 the master

multiplier fine to leave at 1.3 of

course as with all of my presets all of

my Tunes you can always nudge that

Master multiplier up a little bit more

to get a faster snappier response and

just make sure to check blackbox logs

because it's really hard to hear

oscillations on little tiny drones like

this so just check the blackbox logs to

make sure you're not getting any P or D

term oscillation but you can try

increasing that Master multiply if you

want but honestly the Drone flies

brilliantly with 1.3 so I just left it

at that

once you're happy with all of this you

can just hit save and that's the pit

chune applied of course you don't need

to go and make these changes manually

you can always just apply my preset and

you'll find that in the presets tab

it'll be called AOS 65 mm or something

along those lines I've checked out this

tune both for the 260 mAh battery and

the 300 mAh battery and the tune is the

same for both of those packs there's not

enough difference in weight to need to

change the tune and it does fly in my

opinion ever are slightly better than

the stock tune particularly when looking

at logs the delay and the speed with

which the Drone responds to inputs is

definitely improved a little bit with

that slightly higher P term and we're

not getting any overshoot or anything

like that so it's all looking pretty

good I also want to test out the output

power of the VTX on this new air G4

all-in-one flight controller so let's

head over to the bench I'm going to hook

the VTX output up to my true RMS power

meter and we're going to see how it

perform forms in the various different

modes that you can set it to Okay so

we've got everything set up on the bench

the Drone is powered over USB 5 Vols now

I have checked that the VTX results are

exactly the same if you power it from a

battery or over USB USB is just easier

because the battery won't go flat the

VTX output is connected through a 30db

attenuator into my ADL 5902 true RMS

power meter and that's going to give us

a very accurate measure of the conducted

output power from the VTX and it's

independent of frequency so we're

starting off with the Drone set to 25 M

of output power on raceband 1 and what

you can see is that the VTX is

outputting just about 200 Ms of output

power so that's eight times the setting

so we've set it to 25 M it's outputting

200 now let me change to raceband 8 so

you can see what happens to the power

okay this is race band 8 now and you can

see that the power has dropped right

down and now we're at just about

20 28 mow something like that there is a

huge variation in output power with this

VTX between race Band 1 and race band 8

and that is um not unexpected often most

btxs will output their maximum power at

the lower frequency but it is important

to bear in mind that you're nowhere near

25 M of conducted output power on

raceband 1 and you're still above 25 M

of conducted output power on Race band 8

now let's change to the 400 m settings

so this is the maximum output power that

the VTX can deliver okay so this is 400

m on raceband 8 and you can see that 400

m on Race band 8 is giving us just about

270 M of conducted output power now let

me change it back to race Band 1 and you

can see kind of what the maximum

conducted output power of this VTX can

deliver okay so this is set now to race

Band 1 and you can see we are getting

over 600 M of conducted output power on

raceband one so it does make a huge

difference what you have the VTX set to

as to the amount of output power that

you get out of it all right so based on

all this testing what have I got to say

about the new beta fpv S65 well let's

start with all the things that I like

about it I really like the frame the

metor 65 Frame has always been a really

good frame for 65 mm tiny whoops it's

lightweight and nice and durable I like

the motors 0702 they're lightweight

Motors 23,000 KV was plenty of

performance for me but they are also

doing a 27,000 KV version for racing

which will give even more performance um

the props seemed really nice and I had

plenty of responsiveness and performance

out of the motors and the props can't

complain there in terms of the canopy

the new canopy for the air um it has all

the same functionality and features as

the meteor 65 canopy at less weight and

weight is so important for tiny whoops

that I'm really pleased they've gone

with this even lighter weight canopy

that's a definite Improvement in terms

of the new um air G4 flight controller

allinone I really like the feature set

of this little flight controller it's

got a new micro custom OSD chip to save

some space and some weight it's got 16

megabytes of onboard blackbox storage

which is huge for a tiny whoop it's got

a G4 processor which is perfectly good

enough to run 4K with all the bells and

whistles on and the custom config and

tune that they put on the flight

controller for this little a65 was

actually pretty good um we've improved

it a little bit in this video but the

outof boox experience was absolutely

fine the Drone flies really nicely with

either the 260 or the 300 Mah beta fpv

lava 1s batteries and the express lrs

receiver I would have liked to have seen

this included on the light controller

board rather than as a separate

component kind of stuck on um that would

have helped save a little bit of weight

and made the whole drone a little bit

more simple and compact but you know it

is what it is the VTX has plenty of

output power it has a big range of

output power sometimes a little bit

different from what the setting is but

okay it's not calibrated or trimmed or

anything like that but it's it's

performing okay and you're getting heaps

of output power on raceband 1 and

overall the output power is very

acceptable in terms of the camera the C3

beta fpv camera is really nice it's got

a nice image the colors are okay and um

its ability to compensate for changing

light levels is Pretty good overall the

image from the camera is pretty nice

it's pretty respectable given that it's

a nanosiz camera and Tiny cameras do

often struggle to get quite the same

Clarity and definition that you get from

a larger camera but this is really good

for Nano camera I'm I'm totally happy

with it and the little whip antenna for

the VTX nice and lightweight it's really

good so yeah there's there's not really

much to fault about this this drone

who's it going to be right for well it's

going to be right for a first drone for

someone never flown fpv before want to

get into fpv want something small

lightweight cheap not too intimidating

this fits the bill it flies really

nicely you can fly Acro with it as well

as angle um and it's got all of the

features on there that you're going to

want to learn how to use like blackbox

and logging and all of that stuff so you

can get into fpv very easily with this

little drone for not too much money it's

also going to be perfect for someone as

just a fire and forget tiny whoop you're

an experienced pilot you could build

your own or maybe you just buy something

that works really nicely out of the box

this is that drone it works beautifully

out of the box and it's got all of the

features that you're going to expect to

see based on your experience with larger

drones so yeah it's really pretty close

to a slam dunk from B to fpv the only

thing that I can find to say is let's

get the

elrs receiver on the board next time

just to get that weight down even more

and make it even more kind of Monolithic

and integrated but I mean if that's the

only thing that I can find oh and if you

don't fly elrs you can buy plug and play

and put your own receiver on there I

mean that that is a benefit so I can't

knock them for it really lovely little

drone everything you need if you want to

pick this drone Up Is Down in the video

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thank you so much much for watching hope

you love the video and I'll see you in

the next one happy fly

[Music]