TEST: Eachine Racer 250 Pro

[Drone News]

INTRODUCTION

The Eachine Racer 250 was probably the first brushless machine from Eachine…. and since this date, they released so many other models… some were real success stories, some were completly crap. Close to two years later, here is the Eachine Racer 250 Pro edition. In the menu, the same mixed carbon/nylon chassis but all the electronic and motors have been upgraded. Now we have a strong SPF3 board, 20A BLheli_S/Dshot600 ESC, 2205/2300Kv and 1000TVL CMOS FPV camera coupled with a 600mW 40CH VTX w/OSD. Byebye also the 3S setup, this machine comes directly in 4S configuration. Two variants are offered: i) a BNF and ii) a RTH with a FlySky AFHDS-2A solution. Let’s have a look to this new product.

BOX CONTENT

+ 1 x Eachine Racer 250 Pro (with a 4S 1199mAh LiPo with XT60 connector)
+ 1 x Transmitter (using 4xAA batteries included)
+ 1 x Charger
+ 1 x Charger power unit
+ 1 x 5.8G RHCP cloverleaf antenna
+ 4 x 2200mAh Ni-Mh AA batteries
+ 1 x Wrench prop remover too
+ 1 x Velcro band
+ 4 x Spare props (2 CW, 2 CCW)
+ 1 x Instruction manual (English)

OVERVIEW

The same chassis from the original Racer 250 with two upper and lower carbon plates mixed with nylon arms. It’s a 250mm machine so look now super large versus last introduced/produced racers. The thickness of the carbon element is a bit poor: 1.25mm for both… The big open question is how robust will be these nylon arms … Their design IMHO have been engeenered to be light but strong too. In practice, they are flexible and probably it’s a good thing for absorbing the kinetic energy. Would carbon be a better solution ? probably yes but I guess they wanted to reuse the same chassis as for the ER250. Is-it a catastrophic solution ? In practice …. not at all, I was surprize but thanks to this flexibility … no arm broke.

The lower plate is covered with a thin foam to protect it from hard landings.

-FRONT VIEW

With the strong white LED’s light turned on. By default they are turned off. You will need to trigger them thanks to the tiny switch installed on the front left side.

The light are strong enough for night flights

-SIDE VIEW

On front, a tiny button can turn on/off the front light. Be sure also to push insde all remaining connectors coming from the main receiver cable… It can block a prop mid-flight if not.

The left side shows the microUSB connector and the full PWM wiring associated with the non iBUS FlySly AFHDS-2A receiver.

The battery is strapped on top but for a better fixing, the velcro band should be installed to secure the installation.

By default the two 2.4G are trapped into the upper camera mount .. in contact with the carbon structure… not a very good choice the 2.4G range

-REAR VIEW
3 LEDs are present in the rear section… They are not programmable via Cleanflight or Betaflight but thanls to a 3 position DIP switch, you can select one of seven colors. The rear lights can be turned off too.

The bottom rear side welcomes the 600mW VTX, the XT60 main lead connector and the 3 non-programmable LED’s lights

First in term of robustness, since this rear part is not linked with the upper carbon plate, I strongly fear that a bad crash will probably break it just front the VTX. Definitvely some aluminimum linkers would increase a lot the robustness of the rear part. My second concern is about the VTX RP-SMA connector …. in case of crash, this connector will be broken/unsoldered via the 5.8G antenna … and few second later, the VTX will burn since no more 50ohms load to spread the power. … It’s real design problem …. and no obvious way to shield this part… Maybe to install the RP-SMA more horizontally could be the trick to do.

The VTX offers one unique button. If shortly pressed on it, you will be able the shift down the OSD informations displayed, at least for 5 différents position. If you long press on it, you will cycle between the 40CH Vfreq…. It can be a bit long to select your favorute Vfreq since no direct VBand selection can be done first. At least a good news, a mic is installed and the shound is broadcasted.

-UPPER VIEW

Good news we have individual ESC … simply zip-tied

If you break an arms, you will need to resolder associated wires on the lower carbon plate.

-BOTTOM VIEW

-WEIGHT

A total of 472.7g so clearly more than 30g saved versus the original Racer 250 (in 3S !!!)

Motors and props

2205 motors … 2300Kv … No specific mark on them …

In practice, they are lifting the machine in a beasty way … Imagine it hover from 35-40% of throttle …

5mm of shaft section

Super pitchy triblade props 5048.

In practice, they perform great IMHO… more the machine is relatively silent with … Anyway, balancing must be check/done probably to remove part of the jello

LiPo

Exactly the same 4S LiPo as for the Eachine Racer 180, a strong 30C 1100 mAh model. No swag has been reported. Offer a solide 5min of usage.

Camera module

A 1000TVL CMOS Camera sensor working with both NTSC and PAL (default) systems.

Now it’s possible to ajust the uptilt angle but red aluminium front plate limits the max angle to 25 degrees. Above, the video signal will present some occlusions. The best mod is to saw the metal upper rounded element to free the vision

A raw video sample from the FPV camera

As you can see … some jello is here …. in practice the jello amount dépends also of the uptilt angle. Install some piece of foam latterally to remove it. The light sensitivity is correct, relatively crips thanks to the 1000TVL resolution and the sound recorded…

Transmitter

A classic FlySky i6 rebranded by Eachine. By default, you can’t enter into the menu directly. You will need to press inner both horizontal trim buttons .while powerfing the radio. It’s a 6-channel model working with the AFHDS-2A protocol (a good news for the failsafe behaviour). We have three 2-way switches and one unique three-way (for the flight mode selection for example).

WIth the AFHDS-2A and the diversity receiver, no problem to achieve long range flight (> 400m without problem). Notice no D/R and radio failsafe are set by default.

UNBOXING, ANALYSIS, CONFIGURATION AND DEMO FLIGHT

The machine comes with a super outdated cleanflight firmware installed (1.13) … and from now last CF configurator build can’t even open settings. You can find attached the dump of factory settings. I strongly advise to install immediatly betaflight. Thanks to it, the failsafe behaviour is much safer (motors stop after 2s) vs Cleanflight. The flashing is direct… and I kept the default PIDs settings. I just increased to 800deg/s pitch and rolls rates.

First take off…. and from 35-40% the machine is hovering…. you can feel a lot of power, the throttle a little bit touchy. The machine is silent too at least at low RPM…. It’s a good news…. Ok first pouchout …..and whooooooaaaahhhhhhhhhh it’s a rocket !!!!! impressive despite 473g.

With Betaflight, the machine flies just great !!! so smooth…. no bouncing, no oscillation. Just great. HD camera recordings are less impacted by the jello …. but I don’t know if the poor thickness of the structure favorize vibrations or the poor balancing of the prosps but not a super accaptable result. As you can see, after the “monster” crash, arms resist well …. and only the VTX connector was bent

A bit lucky on this one I can admit … but in practice I crashed several time and finally the flexibility of the arm must absorbe without breaking the kinetic energy free during impacts

Flight time are also pretty good, more than 5min with the 1100mAh LiPo not bad

CONCLUSIONS

In practice the ER250 Pro is a great and powerfull machine as soon as betaflight is installed. Punchout are impressive. It fiies fast and the ER250 Pro is a super acro machine with a good flight time. The FPV rig is also good, with a strong VTX including a basic OSD module. My main concern is about the chassis … probably too thin to resist to a hard rear crash, to remove completly jello in the FPV signal and let the VTX RP-SMA connector vulnarable.

PROS

+ Monster of power !!!
+ Super stable machine
+ SPF3 board
+ 20A ESC BLheli_S/Dshot 600
+ Relatively silent machine
+ Good flight duration (> 5min)
+ Lighter than the original Eachine Racer 250
+ Strong front lights
+ Good 1000TVL camera
+ Strong FPV signal
+ Basic OSD informations
+ Buzzer
+ Relatively silent

CONS

– Bad & Weak VTX’s connector location
– Fragile rear lower plate part
– Jello in FPV signal
– FOV occlusion when uptilt angle > 25 degrees
– Outdated Cleanflight firmware (=> need to be flashed with BF)
– No advanced betaflight OSD chip

dump_CF_1_13

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 220USD at https://www.banggood.com/Eachine-Racer-250-PRO-FPV-Drone-Blheli_S-20A-F3-1000TVL-CCD-Camera-VTX-OSD-w-I6-Remote-Control-RTF-p-1142642.html

Cet article TEST: Eachine Racer 250 Pro est apparu en premier sur Drone-Maniac !!!!!!!.

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