TEST: EACHINE CHASER88 (88mm, 93g 2S brushless, 1103/10000, F3 mini, 800TVL AIO 25mW)

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INTRODUCTION

“Smaller and smaller, brushless racers will be …” can be the leitmotiv of 2017 especially with all weight restrictions/new laws concerning our favorite hobby spreading around the world. Here with the Eachine Chaser 88 with we have a 2s brushless racer under 100g equiped of a compact F3 mini board, 1103 motors and a 800TVL AIO 5.8G 25mW FPV cam. Actually only the ARF version is sold. You will need to feed it with your RX&TX solution (PPM/SBUS/IBUS connexions supported). Let’s discover this candidate.

BOX CONTENT

+ 1 x Eachine Chaser 88 (with a 2S 450mAh LiPo with XT30)
+ 1 x USB charging cable
+ 4 x Spare props (2 CW, 2 CCW)
+ 1 x Rubber band

For the ARF version, the strict minimum is given…No dedicaced packaging and even no instruction at all….

OVERVIEW

A 88mm brushless racer with 1103 motors /10 000 KV with a general X-design. Clearly FPV racing is targetting….. No propguard is present in the bundle. Even if IMHO, the Chaser88 is too heavy for indoors applications, I regret the absence of the propguard. Good news at least, the protection is now sold separatly: http://www.banggood.com/Eachine-Chaser88-FPV-Racer-Upgrade-Spare-Part-1_0mm-Protection-Circle-cover-p-1123790.html
In term of FC, we have a compact F3 board with betaflight 3.0.1 pre-installed. One of the main positive element is the presence of the 4-in-1 6A ESC board compatible with Dshot600 protocol representing the last ESC’s technology.

A unique lower carbon frame with 2mm of thickness covered bottom of 1mm of foam

Compared to the Eachine X73S (73mm), the Chaser88 is bigger for sure but not so so much more

but in practice twice more heavier

-FRONT VIEW

A large metal antenna guard is protecting relatively well the cloverleaf antenna of the AIO cam. Beware, the metal can be bent during a crash and be in contact with the CL antenna droping drastically the FPV range and creating RF interférences.

With the battery installed below… as you can see the battery will play the role of landing gear and will be sadly potentially impacted during a crash at full speed.

With a microreceiver installed laterally

-SIDE VIEW

Lead cable ends with a XT30 connector, a much better choice IMHO to handle high current.

The receiver connector is a 4 pads 1mm model, in practice directly compatible with the FlySky FS-A8S: http://www.banggood.com/Flysky-FS-A8S-2_4G-8CH-Mini-Receiver-with-PPM-i-BUS-SBUS-Output-p-1092861.html

Can be directly installed on the left side

The FPV camera is installed on a 3D printed mount. The camera have no uptilt angle and to apply one, you can install a small spacer.

No large prop clearance so no hope to install a longer prop model

-REAR VIEW

As a lot of recent eachine model (EX120, QX105 QX95, etc…), you have a light bar with 6 LEDs and installed centrally a small buzzer !!! great

A microUSB port located rear no difficulty to plug your cable

-UPPER VIEW

-BOTTOM VIEW

With the battery attached via the strong rubber band

-WEIGHT

With the FS-A8S installed, the total weight is 93.2g

Some weight can be saved by installing a Eachine TX02/TX03, probably around 3-4g.

Motors

1103 motors announced to be 10000KV

Two M2 hexscrews tp lock each quadriblade props

2030 props

LiPo

A 450mAh 2S LiPo with XT30 connector. The discharge rate is announced to be equal of 45C. I doubt about this value since the LiPo is strictly identical to the Eachine EX120 model

Camera module

A 40CH 25mW AIO 800TVL FPV camera with DFOV of 170. The model is well seatled in the camera mount by a strong rubber band.

A unique button when shortly pressed select the current Vfreq (among 8), the current Vband (among 5) when longly pressed. Two small lights indicate the current Vfreq and Vband.

As you can see bottom both the selection button and the power connector are limiting the maximum uptilt angle.

A raw video of the FPV camera. The video in proximity flight is rather sharp and precize with a relatively good light sensitivity

Beyond 30-40m, a lot of statics start to emerge….

Clearly far to reach the performances of the best AIO 25mW FPV. If you want to obtain better FPV range and save some little grams, you can for example install
a Eachine TX02/TX03: http://www.banggood.com/Eachine-TX03-PAL-Super-Mini-025mW50mW200mW-Switchable-AIO-5_8G-72CH-VTX-600TVL-FPV-Camera-p-1122363.html

But be aware with such FPV camera model, you will need to invert wires on the camera’s plug to invert polarity if you don’t want to cook your FPV cam.

UNBOXING, ANALYSIS, CONFIGURATION AND TESTING

First warning, the default flight mode selected is the acro mode, so be aware if you are a beginner. The middle position of a 3-way switch represents the angle 6-axis stabilization flight mode.

Out of the box, the default betaflight PIDs settings are simply pretty bad, the machine is full of wobbles, almost inflyable especially in angle/horizon. In acro, the situation is slightly better but no real pleasure to fly with this machine …. Ok after increasing D terms to 50, the situation is improved a lot !!!! wobbles are almost no more here … much more enjoyable. Be aware with high D values, in general it’s stressing much more brushless motors and by consequence warming much more. Punch out for a 2S/93g machine are good, at least compatible with acro applications. The FPV camera don’t offer super great range A lot of statics come beyond 30m …… The buzzer start to ring after a couple of seconds. Clearly under load, the battery performances is considerably impacted and some voltage thresholds ajustement must be done too. Flight durations are in average around 3min-3min30, clearly not enough.

Ok here are my last settings:

It’s not yet perfect but now the Chaser88 is much more fun to fly with especially in acro. The machine is strong and durable, I crashed it many time…. nothing broke.

CONCLUSIONS

Well out of the box, the chaser88 requires some important ajustements in term of flight mode and PIDs settings, a must to check before the first flight. After this important check, the chaser88 is a pleasant acro machine more adapted for acro outdoors flights in tiny spaces. The FPV camera is probably the weakest point with a poor range despite being sharp and precize. Anyway this machine is strong and durable, the antenna guard would help a lot so I regret its absence in the original bundle.

PROS

+ 88mm brushless machine
+ Strong machine
+ Dshot600 supported
+ SPF3 board
+ Buzzer
+ Programmable lights
+ Antenna’guard
+ Sharp FPV video
+ Plug & Play with FlySky FS-A8S receiver

CONS

– Bad default PID settings
– Default Acro flight selected (not adapted for beginners)
– 3min-3min30 of flying duration
– Poor FPV range
– Buzzer not very lound
– No prop guard

This quadcopter have been courtesy provided by Banggood in order to make a fair and not biased review. I would like to thank them for this attitude.
You can find it actually for 121USD at http://www.banggood.com/Eachine-Chaser88-F3-FPV-Racer-ARF-with-4-In-1-6A-ESC-5_8G-40CH-VTX-800TVL-13-Cmos-Camera-2-3S-p-1120343.html

Cet article TEST: EACHINE CHASER88 (88mm, 93g 2S brushless, 1103/10000, F3 mini, 800TVL AIO 25mW) est apparu en premier sur Drone-Maniac !!!!!!!.

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