Mobula7 HD

[Bad Raven]

I have started this thread to get away from occupying the "did you fly today" one.

Yesterday I said :-

"Well, today the nice girl from DPD brought me a Mobula 7 HD and four extra batteries.

Having flown all five packs through it, I'm sort of wishing she hadn't!

Firstly, its a bloody whiney noisy tinny sounding thing, a penetrating noise that sounds like a straight cut gearbox on a Mini (showing my age !), far noisier than the Tinyhawk Freestyle or Race, for example.  OK, its ducted, but its far noiser than several of my ducted 75-105's. Subjectively the Hawk 5  on Dalprop Folds is far quieter and sounds smoother. NOT good when most use would be garden while not annoying neighbours.

Secondly, the image sent to goggles isn't very good. Yes, I know the HD is only on the onboard recording to SD, but its pretty darn carp, tested on two systems that I know work well usually.  Again, far worse than the TH's.

Its a battery chewer, too, well under 3.5 mins for a 75 on 2S 300mAh HV while just cruising around, which looks the max size that will fit the cage (and that only just!).

Talking batteries, with the Mob 6's being too loose fitting into their frame cage, they have gone the other way and these are over tight. I'm going to leave a battery in the holder to try to relax it.....as long as it does not crush the battery, which it feels capable of.

Its nowhere near as capable of dealing with wind gusts as the TH's unless kept fast

I was flying the TH Race this morning at the field in around 15mph gusty swirly wind and it happily breezed through it all with no sideways swerves or sudden erratic lift/drop, BOTH of which the Mob 7 suffers from in spades (and in lighter more sheltered conditions).

Oh, and the video aerial (grot short piece of insulated wire) was installed tight between frame and PWB sticking into the bay so blocking the battery, and a devil of a job to re-route elsewhere without dismantling the boards from frame, risking ripping it off its PWB.

As long as its kept well on the move its nice enough to fly but after the two Mob 6's, one of each kV, which are both very good, its a pretty big let down so far.

NOT recommended at ALL. "

All further comment will be here.

[Bad Raven]

OK, so have early this morning used the HD recording with a SD for the first time.

AND........ it was initially carp!

While it didn't notice much on goggles yesterday with its lower res, the lens appeared to be badly focussed. Checking showed the lens was possibly coated with an even layer of something. Removing this was more than a wipe, it needed a slightly damp alcohol fine rag.  Now considerably better.

Question.........  Why do you have to have a bloody great flashing "REC" in a box central top AS WELL as a red incrementing red time of the recording?  Its not needed, distracting, and occupies screen real estate.

Question.......... Why do they consistently put the SD card slot in such god awful places, then compound that with a canopy that isn't easily moved and REALLY gets in the way. The ONLY way for me to the card to get in and out (something you'll be doing a lot of) is with tweezers. There is no sprung retaining flap (like the BetaFPV HX115) but the card does seem to be latched positively with a strong spring action. I can forsee ejected cards flying everywhere to be lost if not done in a manner they get caught.

The sheer motor whine from the thing prevented me from flying outdoors as early as I was trying so I will post the quick conservatory test flight I have done here very soon. Wind rising fast so looks to be heading for too much by the time I can fly it outside

[Bad Raven]

Duplicate Post Removed!   

[Bad Raven]

Here's the first Video clip, straight as it came from the quad (though of course YouTube has somewhat mangled it so the original is markedly better).

You will see I have deliberately flown from darker lounge to brighter though still shaded conservatory with view out to bright sunny garden.

Notice the jello, worse as usual when a brighter exposure needed.  Rest is not too bad.

I left the sound unaltered, yes, it IS that annoying, why should you not suffer, too!

[Bad Raven]

AND............... another post!!   

Up to now have been flying on 300mAh 3S 30/60C HV as provided (1  of) and bought (Gaoneng HV).

Just tried 2S, a well used and abused MyLiPo.de 333mAh 2S 30/60C.  This is MUCH better in the house as it detunes the action just enough to be more comfortable while still capable of all the moves.

[Ern Stock]

Good info , ta.
Indoor image looks great.
I would be contacting supplier in the hope they would send replacement motors / getting ear defenders out.
Got my uz65 this week , will report on it soon.
 

[whoelseisbored (LiamHowe89)]

Oh my days that can't be right!? Literally couldn't do anything but laugh when I first heard that! Is it really that loud as well?

[Bad Raven]

Oh my days that can't be right!? Literally couldn't do anything but laugh when I first heard that! Is it really that loud as well?

The sound is direct from the quad, no amplification done, just video loaded, clipped, and posted.

Obviously what you normally hear is dampened by distance a little and other ambient noise helps, but like Jet Ski's versus powerboats, its an obnoxious noise that even annoys ME, let alone general public.

I honestly cannot fly it in the garden near neighbours unless one of them is grass mowing or next door have their water jet jacuzzi going.

Makes the TinyHawk Freestyle seems "silent". Maybe I'll buy another and mod it to HD recording!!

Noise is an area that often escapes review, yet one that we in the UK have to take care with, so much having been done by media etc to alienate people to "drones" that they hear one and its instantly a nuisance.  Well, in the case of this quad, it IS a nuisance, as is the Cine Whoop i have made, though at least that one is a deeper bellow and not quite so offfensive.

[badger1]

ye gods - it's like nails on a blackboard.  what KV are the motors?  is it meant to run on 3S?

that reminds me - I must fix my qx65 some time - I got a replacement FC board for it a while ago.  I don't remember it making a racket like that though!

[Bad Raven]

ye gods - it's like nails on a blackboard.  what KV are the motors?  is it meant to run on 3S?

that reminds me - I must fix my qx65 some time - I got a replacement FC board for it a while ago.  I don't remember it making a racket like that though!

Yes, the HD is supplied with 3S. Have run it on 2S and its more or less the same nasty high pitch noise.

The kV is interesting, as the reviewers mostly got 10000kV, but production (inc mine) is 9000.

Some reviewers have set a 50% or 60% Throttle to stop it being quite so powerful, i.e. aggressive to throttle changes.

No, the QX65 (and Mobula6, etc) do not make that noise, in fact very little does!

[sh0wtime]

I've been doing a little googling on the Mobula7 tonight as i'm having trouble with mine.
Couldn't find a solution for me but did read that the early ones had 10,000kv & the later ones 9,000kv motors.
Apparently it saves the ESC's & there was something else about a cap on something.
if i can find it again i'll let you know.

i'd just like to buy something that worked tbh

[Bad Raven]

I've been doing a little googling on the Mobula7 tonight as i'm having trouble with mine.
Couldn't find a solution for me but did read that the early ones had 10,000kv & the later ones 9,000kv motors.
Apparantly it saves the ESC's & there was something else about a cap on something.
if i can find it again i'll let you know.

i'd just like to buy something that worked tbh

You did read about 10,000 then 9,000, its in my previous post! 

It does not appear to have a capacitor across the power rail, though as I'm not getting any significantly poor video on either goggles feed or HD, it does not look like it needs one.

What trouble with yours do you have?


Drifting seemingly off topic, it does seem to be a modern trend to slap capacitors or ring inductors across the power rail. Horizon Hobby Helicopters have been arriving with these splatted everywhere. For example the Fusion 360, provided with an overly tight canopy, has a huge "dongle" on plugs and sockets in the power line, guaranteeing a hell of a job to fit a battery and the tangle it over rigid power wiring inside the canopy. It has another one on the servo feed to the tail brushless. I have found its NOt a good idea to exceed the stated Csupply rating nby much on these as you get sufficient ringback to get severe glitches. Wheter this follows into quads is not proven here, yet!

As my last THREE HH Heli's have had over tight canopies, I consider its a ploy to get you to buy their own oddly shaped (for the capacity) packs. Personally I'd make the designer fit and remove a battery pack 100 times before accepting the design, sort of like school lines.

It's the same here with the supplied 3S, its a ridiculously tight fit and ANY swelling will render it unusable.

[Bad Raven]

Well here's a composite update on the Mobula7 HD.

Fault 1 - fell out of the sky no warning, just flying along level no particular thrust loading, battery good. Would not re-bind at field. Bound in CLI on Betaflight, when it was found that the FC firmware had completely reset to factory default. Not only that but Camera/VTX board had also reset to default. After some considerable hassle all I could find was a "diff all", which didn't help with ports. Eventually got it working again and flying OK in stability indoors (wet outside on Sunday).

Fault 2 - And here's where it gest REALLY WEIRD!!!!

Today flew it LOS briefly outdoors at field, then battery change and flew FPV - Both Successful!

Couple of mins after landing from that loaded new battery, placed on ground, picked up Tx and lowered goggles over eyes.

Screen showing all normal expected image and OSD lines.

Armed - Showed up as armed

Mode - changed to Horizon to pull away from ground before going Acro, showed up as such.

Raised Throttle, motor noises increased, image the same. Jammed? Prop(s) off??  Not Armed??

Disarmed and armed again, raised Throttle, when I suddenly realised the motor noises were getting more distant, BUT screen showing same start position!!!!!!!!!!  WTF!!!!!!!

Cut power by attempting to throttle back for a blind landing (if in air), disarming.

Lift goggles, at that time still showing start position, and its not in sight!!!

Go looking for it and find it on ground inverted props running slowly (remember I'd disarmed!!) 5 metres or so away, obviously landed heavily, broken prop, ducts intact but broken board mountings to frame, FC board and VTX stack twisted forwards and sideways enough for camera wiring to either get into a duct and be severed or be pulled taught and severed, can't tell. FC board may well be fractured at nose end of canopy, looks "bent" at sharp angle.  Effectively, its totalled.

Flew several more quads on same Tx and FPV on Goggles, no issues there, all working well.

How on earth can it freeze the VTX output frame, its like the spy movies when they loop a security camera output footage to monitors while they break in.

It has corrupted all the files on the SD card in it as well, so no footage, even of the setting up flights on Sunday which I knew were good.

I give up, complete waste of money and time.

[sh0wtime]

Sounds pretty crap tbh 

My Mob7 wouldn't bind, i know there is a procedure you do to make it bind but when plugged into betaflight it just lights up but doesn't connect.
latest version of betaflight, updated drivers etc, tried different cables & even bought a new one but still nothing. DOA.

Trouble is i've had it for ages, put it in a drawer when it wouldnt bind & forgot about it. Prob 14-15 months ago. got it out again last week & found it DOA.

Mind you after listening to your vid a few posts up i'm kinda glad it doesn't work

i have to agree, complete waste of money 

[ched]

That's not good BR. My Mob 6 has been great, well apart from a blown FC and the naff spi rx. I do enjoy flying it as it's all I can fly at moment.
I never really got on with the mob7, not sure why, just didn't seem to fly very well.

I assume at least you have the camera and dvr side of the Mob7HD? So not a complete waste? Pity though.

[sh0wtime]

Yeah i'm at a bit of a crossoads with it.
do i buy another one & have spares, do i get it repaired, new board at a guess 
do i just put it back on a shelf forever more 

my Brother in Law has a 3 inch Diatone that seems much more capable for not a lot more money 

[ched]

Yeah i'm at a bit of a crossoads with it.
do i buy another one & have spares, do i get it repaired, new board at a guess 
do i just put it back on a shelf forever more 

my Brother in Law has a 3 inch Diatone that seems much more capable for not a lot more money 

Sort of depends what you want. I have this Diatone 3" it's very quick and quite robust. There is no way I would fly it round the garden though, it's just way too fast. I also have a Mobula6 which is great indoors and out but only if it is very light wind. Anything more than a breeze and it gets blown about a lot.
If you have batteries for the Mob7 then maybe consider getting something that uses the same batteries. Maybe something like a Freestyle 2. It's about £88 and comes with 2 batteries, it can fly on 1s or 2s Well I think the v2 version runs on 1s my v1 does. It is light can be flown round the garden and seems quite robust. The only downside is it's a spi receiver. I added an XM+ to mine.

If it's just the receiver on your Mob7 that's naff then you can add an external rx but you will lose the ability to change vtx channels via OSD as there wasn't a spare uart. There is a way to use softserial but you have to use special FW and it's stuck on Betaflight 4.0.0.

[sh0wtime]

Sort of depends what you want. I have this Diatone 3" it's very quick and quite robust. There is no way I would fly it round the garden though, it's just way too fast. I also have a Mobula6 which is great indoors and out but only if it is very light wind. Anything more than a breeze and it gets blown about a lot.
If you have batteries for the Mob7 then maybe consider getting something that uses the same batteries. Maybe something like a Freestyle 2. It's about £88 and comes with 2 batteries, it can fly on 1s or 2s Well I think the v2 version runs on 1s my v1 does. It is light can be flown round the garden and seems quite robust. The only downside is it's a spi receiver. I added an XM+ to mine.

If it's just the receiver on your Mob7 that's naff then you can add an external rx but you will lose the ability to change vtx channels via OSD as there wasn't a spare uart. There is a way to use softserial but you have to use special FW and it's stuck on Betaflight 4.0.0.

that Freestyle 2 looks great. i think i'm gonna have to try one of those at some point.
i think i'll have to have some kind of indoor "micro" as well.
at the moment all i have ready to fly are some reasonably powerful 5 inch quads & they kinda get away from you a bit 

[sh0wtime]

OK a little update on my Mobula predicament.
i used my newfound confidence with Betaflight to hopefully get it working again.
it was connecting & then stopped. i assumed dead 
So, i tried plugging into betaflight again & also plugging a battery in (something i learned with my Diatone 3 inch. still nothing 
So i thought after being unsucessful with flashing a RXSR i'd try this as well lol.
Powered it up in bootmode & tried writing the latest firmware release.
Which it seemed to take as now the FC loads up on Betaflight & i can see all the parameters 
so now i just need to get it to bind, back to where i started.
Now i'm led to believe that i need D8 mode which by default isn't available on my Taranis but if i install the Open TX firmware direct from Open TX i will get this option 
Does this sound right?
Also if i update the firmware on my Taranis will i lose all my model settings   

i am glad i'm making headway though as there's a lot to learn with this 

[ched]

I think the new Taranis that do access dont do D8 unless you use a multimode module.
I have a Mobula 6 that has a built in spi rx that only does accst and I bound to it with D16. The problem is the range is poor, very poor. My garden is not big and on occasions when I go behind a tree it drops due to loss of rx signal, although it could also be due to wifi/bluetooth signals of passing mobiles and cars as the tree is close to the road.
I seem to remember that I could only bind n D16 FCC mode!! There is a video by Curry Kitten on youtube or his blog post is here: https://www.currykitten.co.uk/using-spi-receivers-with-an-lbt-eu-radio/
One thing he doesn't make clear is that after changing modes FCC/EU LBT you need to power cycle the tx.

The alternative is to add an XM+ rx but that is adding weight which isn't great on such a small craft. Plus the pads to solder are quite small!!

Hope that helps?
PS it was my understanding when I was trying to bind to a Mobula 6 back in about Feb 2020. Things may have changed!!!

[sh0wtime]

TBH an XM+ isnt exactly heavy, i think rather than ****** around that might be my best bet.
I'll see if i can find a decent diagram of the board 

[Bad Raven]

Now i'm led to believe that i need D8 mode which by default isn't available on my Taranis but if i install the Open TX firmware direct from Open TX i will get this option 
Does this sound right?

Yes. 

[sh0wtime]

Yes. 

Hmm this would potentially be easier than soldering an XM+ onto that little board & then trying to find space for it under the canopy 
However if i were to flash the firmware on myTaranis would i then lose all my model setups etc?.
i'm very new to firmware flashing 

[Bad Raven]

However if i were to flash the firmware on my Taranis would I then lose all my model setups etc?.

What exactly is the OS installed now, find the stats page and copy it all here.

How many models do you have?

What are they?

If they are all quads then most of the settings inc trim, rates, etc should be in the Flight Controllers not the Tx, so you are only allocating switches for controlling channels like Mode, Arm, Beeper, etc.

Which is why most dedicated Quad Tx don't even HAVE trim switches!!

Note: People like Bardwell, etc often do not have a model memory per model, but group them like for example .......... 5" Freestyle, or 5" Race. This is because everything is in the quad, rates, expo, trim, etc, and they have a standard layout allocation of switch use because that helps ensure they don't hit the wrong one!

Which is why having a FC "Dump" file of each quad setup is "more then useful", or at minimum a "Diff All".  THAT is your backup.

[sh0wtime]

looks like i'm on quite an old release. 2.1.6 

[Bad Raven]

looks like i'm on quite an old release. 2.1.6 

      


However, I don't follow the herd on updates, my Horus is 2.2.0 and my Taranis is 2.0.13 and works perfectly well thank you !!!

In a crowded urban environment "Listen before Transmit" which "forced" D16 only might be sensible, but the world didn't follow that path, and most RC use is away from other sources and low power, so unlikely to be any issue with anyone.

The vast bulk of the "toy" end of the quad market is D8, even to the extent that some dual D8/D16 stuff is much less robust on D16, not to say downright iffy!

Fact remains, you should not have bind issues if the Tx can output what the quad needs.  I don't.

And from experience, if a Quad Rx offers D8 and D16 modes, its usually more reliable on D8!