TBS Source One 7-inch FPV drone
FPV drones build for 7-inch propellers are something relatively new in a FPV commmunity. It's not that pilots were not flying with 7-inch drones. It's not that. It's rather the fact, that in last year more and more companies started to design and sell frames for 7-inch propellers, good motors and good propellers. The advantages of 7-inchers over 5-inchers are quite obvious:
- More range and more flight time even when the same battery is used
- Much more list capacity
- Say whatever you want, but one of the best features of 7-incher is how they climb!
One of the most popular misconceptions is that you can turn any 5" quadcopter frame into a 7" one just by adding longer arms. Yes, such a quadcopter frame will fit 7-inch propellers, but will not fly great. The reason is quite simple: vibrations. The longer the arms are, the more flexible they get and, as a result, bends more and resonates with a lower frequency. To counteract that effect, arms have to be thicker, and the whole frame more rigid and thought through. On top of that, small, designed to drive 5-inch propellers, motors (2205, 2206, 2306, and even 2207) do not have enough torque to change the rotation speed of much bigger 7-inch propellers quickly. The solution is to use much bigger motors, like 2507 or 2806.
It turned out it was an excellent decision. Stiffer arms and bigger motors greatly improved flight experience, and most of the vibrations and bobbing are gone. Finally, a smooth and efficient flight...
- TBS Source One
- 7-inch arms for TBS Source One
- Brotherhobby 2507 Avenger v2 1500KV
- HQProp 7x4x3 propellers
- Holybro Tekko32 35A BlHeli_32 ESC
- Matek F722-SE flight controller
- Foxeer Toothless 2 FPV Camera
- Matek 5.8GHz HV VTX
- Beitian BN-880 GPS module
- FrSky R9 Slim+
- FrSky R9M2019
- Software: INAV 2.5.2
As a result, this 7-inch long-range drone has some interesting properties:
- it's very stable in the air and allows to take cinematic videos
- long flight time: on a relatively small 1550mAh 4S battery, it is capable of more than 8 minutes of flight and can easily travel 5km or more. It all depends on how gently you drive it!
- has enough lift capacity to fit much bigger batteries, even 4000mAh and still be quite agile in the air
- when required, it still can do a dynamic flight and freestyle maneuvers
3D printed accessoriesfor TBS Source One
TBS Source One Videos
