Over the time that I have owned this quad I have improved and customised this quad to overcome some of the initial shortcomings and improve on what already makes this great. I have written several articles on this and have summarised these here with links to the full article plus any other improvements I've since made. Practically all of these upgrades are relevant for the Eachine Trashcan as well (which I reviewed here) Frame Upgrades
Since then I have found I prefer the V2 mobula frame which is the same design as the V1 but stronger (although not as strong as the V3). This is because I found it was easier to fit my favourite gemfan props and the overall flight characteristics were better, most notably decreased yaw washout compared to the V3. Note: the mobula7 v1 has been discontinued and all new mobulas ship with the V2. Batteries and related upgrades
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The Happymodel Mobula7 uses a F3 based flight controller and since Betaflight 3.4, these boards have not had full functionality of F4 and F7 boards due to smaller memory size for firmware storage. However in this article I will cover how to upgrade to the performance edition of Betaflight 4.04 kindly compiled by UAVTech (his in depth YouTube Channel is here). This special version adds the key performance functions at the cost of typically irrelevant features like servo control, acro trainer, camera control etc. In this article I will show you where to access this firmware and then I'll show you the filters that suit brushless whoops best as well as some good starting PIDs. This is the seventh and likely final article in my series of HappyModel Mobula7 upgrades, many of which can be used for the Trashcan too. Also to come are:
Betaflight 4 Performance edition for F3 boards This is the final version of Betaflight you can use and I strongly recommend you use this version rather than the one on the Betaflight configurator to get full performance functionality otherwise you will miss out on features like:
The Happymodel Mobula7 (reviewed here), Eachine Trashcan (reviewed here) and many other brushless whoops use generic 4 bladed 40mm props that are cheap and readily available but are they the best? Simply put, no. They are from a toy grade mould and we have accepted them because when these brushless whoops were first released there was simply nothing else available. Fast forward to the present day with the growth in popularity of these models there are a lot more options, some readily available internationally, some not so much. In this article I'll give you my experiences on what I found to be my favourite prop and the justification of why (what it is I look for in a propeller). This is the sixth article in my series of HappyModel Mobula7 upgrades, many of which can be used for the Trashcan too. Also to come are:
What props are available? If you're in North America probably the full list of what is below. I'm not in North America though so I was limited to what was locally available and what had low (or no) international shipping cost. Therefore this is not an exhaustive test, my approach was more on of pragmatism.
My Findings I'll compare all my findings back to a baseline result of the stock props for simplicity Gemfan 1636 (4 blade) I used these when I was running the v3/trashcan frame which I blogged about here. These were a direct improvement over the stock props in all aspects but were a little more amp-hungry. Grip and speed was improved and control felt better. Props are well balanced but heavier than stock. They are extremely durable especially when you consider the protection afforded by the ducts. You will achieve hover at very low throttle These props are a good upgrade but not my personal favourite. Note: These are more like 41mm than 40mm and frustratingly don't quite fit in the ducts of of the v3/trashcan frame - the ones you see above were painstakingly sanded down and even then still rubbed every now and then. I hear TBS props have the same issue Both the Happymodel Mobula7 (review) and Eachine Trashcan (review) both come with 4 x 1s batteries that are designed to be used in series 2 at a time with a fiddly ph2.0 series connector. This introduces a lot of resistance in the power circuit and resultant voltage drop under load which shows as battery sag. It is easy to upgrade to a true 2s JST connector as I've shown in this blog or a XT30 if you'd prefer. Although 2s 300mah batteries are not expensive it does feel wasteful just leaving the old batteries to die. This article covers how to convert these or any other 1s cell into a 2s battery and is scaleable up to 6s! This is the fifth article in my series of HappyModel Mobula7 upgrades, many of which can be used for the Trashcan too. Also to come are:
A Word of Warning Lipo batteries - even these tiny ones - have a lot of power. Anytime you modify you run the risk of rapid discharge (shorting) which generates heat and possible worse. Only do this mod if you are confident around electronics. Please wear eye protection at a minimum and work in a well lit space. Just go buy the 2s batteries if you are unsure at any point. Getting prepped As well as having a well lit area and a good soldering iron, solder and flux (see my article on budget tools here) you'll nee the following items:
Reversing the rotation of all of your propellers (known as 'props out') is something you commonly do on larger quads to eliminate debris bring flung into your FPV camera and to push obstacles like branches clear. Obviously these don't apply when the props are gaurded like in a Mobula 7 but there is also a hypothesis out there that it can improve flight characteristics such as note on KababFPV's video here. Some of the beta fpv guys also believe it helps with yaw washout but the evidence appears inconclusive. Typically to do this correctly you need to
This is the fourth article in my series of HappyModel Mobula7 upgrades, many of which can be used for the Trashcan too. Also to come are:
Introduction The crazybee F3 and F4 series of all in one boards that are the heart of the mobula7, m7hd, eachine trashcan, snapper7, ur65, uk/us65 and even beta75pro2 are an amazing piece of technology that incorporates a flight controller, 4xBL_HeliS ESCs and a receiver. Cramming all of this on one board does mean some compromises though and the biggest one for me is the poor receiver range. This brief article will show how to get a minor improvement with zero investment. Note: this mod is relevant for all the models listed above. This is the third article in my series of HappyModel Mobula7 upgrades, many of which can be used for the Trashcan too. Also to come are:
Introduction In order to run 2s, the Mobula 7 comes standard with 2 x PH2.0 connectors that allow you to run 2 x 1s batteries in series. When running in series the strength of the connection is determined by the weakest link in that circuit. The strength of connection determines the maximum current that can pass and the voltage drop that results. Although it works this system has a very low current overhead from a design perspective - 2 x budget PH2.0 connectors with the dreaded 'folded' pin and very lightweight 26AWG wire. All this adds up to a lot of voltage drop when even reasonable current is pulled - something all will be familiar with on the mobula where you see voltage drop to scary levels (6v and below) during punches even when you have a full battery. Although it recovers almost immediately it does mean you don't get access to the battery's full voltage potential. This is the second article in my series of HappyModel Mobula7 upgrades, many of which can be used for the Trashcan too. Also to come are:
Introduction and why I like the Mobula7 better. It's been a few months since I reviewed the HappyModel Mobula 7 (here) and have more recently reviewed the Eachine Trashcan here. Since reviewing the Trashcan I've been flying the Mobula 7 more and find I actually prefer it. Why? Even thought the image quality is better I can't get used to the narrow vertical field of view on the traschan's EOS2 16:9 camera and I find the 0803 motors on the trashcan draw too much power on without delivering a whole lot more speed. The Mobula7's major downside is the frame which breaks easily even though the v2 frame is an improvement and e6000 glue (as tested here) is great for repairs. For this reason I've written an article for newcomers on how to upgrade to the V3 (trashcan) frame which completely addresses the strength issues. This is the first article in my series of HappyModel Mobula7 upgrades, many of which can be used for the Trashcan too. Also to come are:
Instead of just writing about it, please see the steps below with captions. Click on the picture to embiggen
Introduction Recently I've reviewed the Eachine Trashcan and in many ways it is superior to the Mobula7 as I found in my review here. One omission from the trashcan though compared to the Mobula7 is the lack of a physical beeper. On the upside though is that the trashcan (like most other brushless quads) uses Dshot as the ESC protocol meaning you can use the motors as a beeper. This is in fact immediately available on the Trashcan with some simple software changes which I will outline below. |
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