Home Forums Everything about everything else V4 vs Mini vs Baby tri?

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  • #33037
    ME-tan
    Participant

    Hello!

    I am planning on building one of these tricopters but don’t know enough to understand the diffeences, apart from physical size. As far as I can tell they run the same motors, and the smaller ones should be more acrobatic, and fit through smaller gaps, but are there advantages to the full size V4 that I’ve not considered? Does the larger size make it less twitchy and provides more stable video, for example? Any advice would be appreciated

    #33042
    wynnsquad
    Participant

    All three have the same ESCs, but only the mini and the baby share the same motors. The V4 has its own custom motors. I believe that you are right–the smaller ones are more aerobatic although the V4 is exceptionally aerobatic for a copter its size. I like to think about the 3 copters like this:
    -The V4 is a luxury cruiser
    -The mini is a sports car
    -The baby is a go-cart with a sports car engine 🙂

    As far as which to build, it depends on what you want and how you intend to fly. If you want smooth and beautiful FPV, go with the V4. If you want fast snappy action, go with the mini. If you want ridiculousness get the baby. Also it depends on if you want to fly LOS or FPV. The V4 will be much easier to fly LOS due to its size (which enables better visibility). Are you interested in racing? If so then you would want the mini or the baby.

    #33043
    ME-tan
    Participant

    I was planning on a V4 for FPV and recording video, and it sounds like that was the right move. I do have a craving for something insane though so I might build the baby later if the V4 works out for me. If not maybe something like a doinker. Racing doesn’t really interest me but sometimes I just want to dance in the sky.

    So far I’ve been learning to fly on a tinywhoop but I managed to lose it attempting to fly in a park the other day, so I’m stepping up my plans for something bigger and better.

    #33062
    swissfreek
    Participant

    The only tricopter I would advise flying LOS is the V4. The other two get really small really fast, especially the baby. Something else to consider with the baby is that the build is basically as physically small as it can possibly be. There is no extra space anywhere. It’s fairly simple, but the compactness of everything can make it a challenging build for those who are not very comfortable soldering all their connections and making the build “permanent”. For example, getting pin headers and servo connectors in there would be very difficult, maybe impossible. I don’t think I would recommend it for a first build.

    The mini on the other hand, has more room to breathe in the layout, but once you get it flying, its small size and desire to go fast can also be daunting.

    I think if you are just starting out, I would definitely recommend the V4, especially if your intent at first is to capture aerial footage. It is pretty large, and you won’t be shooting any gaps with those wide arms. It is naturally fairly docile but those motors are beasts and it has pretty impressive power when you put the heel to it. It can be quite acrobatic, you just obviously need more room to maneuver. I’m willing to bet it’s not much heavier than the mini; the motors are much larger but that cage on the mini isn’t light. I also believe it is the most forgiving as far as configuration goes. The smaller the frame gets, the more sensitive they are to variation if you decide to swap out motors or whatever. My first multirotor was a V2.5 from several years ago and the V4 is still one of my all-time favorite aircraft. It can lift, it can move, it will fly for a very long time with a large battery, it’s really just about a jack of all trades.

    #33203
    ME-tan
    Participant

    It sounds like the V4 is the right move. I’ll start planning it for the next month or two. As far as I can tell, all I should need are the frame kit, the electronics kit, a dsm2 receiver that outputs the right protocol, a prop balancer, and some 4s lipos/a charger (which i’ll probably get first, to get it out of the way). Anything I’m forgetting?

    In the meantime, gonna build another whoop to keep me going, since I have most of the parts already.

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