TEST: Eachine Lizard 95

[Drone News]

INTRODUCTION

The Eachine Lizard 95 is the last Eachine micro brushless racer under the 100mm category. This model comes after the excellent but fragile Eachine Aurora 100. For the Lezard 95, they improved a lot of small details. First of all, now the machine is powered by a 3S LiPo, the frame structure is also reforced to handle crash efficiently and the AIO camera offer now s a switchable output power. The other electronic conpounds remain the same, a powerfull F3 omnibus, a 4-in-1 10A BLHeli_S/Dshot600 ESC. For the motors, in order to be compatible with 3S configuration, are only 1104/6000Kv. The Lizard 95 is proposed in three BNF receiver configurations: FrSKy D8, FlySky AFHDS-2A and Spektrum DSM2/DSMX. Let’s discover this new racer.

BOX CONTENT

+ 1 x Eachine Lizard 95
+ 1 x 3S 550mAh LiPo with XT30
+ 1 x USB to microJST connector
+ 1 x MicroJST to microUSB adaptor
+ 6 x Rubber bands
+ 4 x Spare props (2 CW, 2 CCW)
+ 1 x Screwdriver
+ 1 x M2 Allen key
+ 2 x Velcro bands
+ 1 x Instruction manual (English)

A polished packaging with a high quality color printed instruction manual. Among the spare elements, some M2x4mm screws for the 1104 motors and up to six rubber band attaching the FPV camera to the pink aluminium camera mount.

OVERVIEW

The full specification of the machine…. It’s impressive all this Advanced technology integrated into a 95mm thanks mainly to the Eachine Minicube, a 2 PCB boards where the lower one is the 4-in-1 ESC board while the upper welcome the F3 omnibus and the 2.4G receiver.

The design is a classic X lower carbon structure where is installed on top a mini hub/tower camera section jailed into a carbon structure.

A direct comparaison with the Auroa 68 (left) and the Aurora 100 (right). Clearly the Lizard 95 represents an Advanced Aurora 100 model fixing important détails of this latter. The Lizard 95 inspires a strong confidence for its durability.

A 95mm machine

Good news, the lower frame welcoming arms is strong and 2.5mm large !!!! No problem to handle massive crash far better than the original Aurora 100

The latteral carbon structure is only 1.5mm.

-FRONT VIEW

The machine comes with 50mm pentablade props less flexible than the racerstar 2035 coming with the Aurora 100. These new props look more durable to crash.

With the battery installed beneath. No specifc landing skid. If you install the velcro bands on the bottom side and the battery, the machine will seat a little bit more better horizontally.

-SIDE VIEW

No microUSB port but a miniJST 4pin connector instead. You can use directly the provided cable or microUSB adaptor. No problem to insert the connector, no prop to remove for example. ESC’s wires are directly connected on the main FC. Maybe add some liquid electrical tape to secure/waterproof this part.

The camera can be uptilted about 20-25 degrees ..The machine comes with the max uptilt preset so ready for fast races

-REAR VIEW
Out of the box, with BF 3.1, the LED bar is correctly programmed with a larson scanner effect and turns/throttle indications.

The bar is connected via a plug. You can disable the lighting via a switch in BF if you want.

-UPPER VIEW
As you can see, the cloverleaf antenna is not fully protected by the antenna guad, a fraction of it is still not protected on the left side and on the top.

A buzzer is here well protected by the carbon structure.

The bind button of the FrSky D8 receiver can be found installed and partially hidden in the front left, just below the Vfreq/Vband lights. You will need to use a thin and long tip to press on it.

-BOTTOM VIEW
Motors are locks with four M2x4mm screws…

One of the velcro band should be tapped beneath to fully secure the battery installation. As you can see, the battery strap is not super large.

-WEIGHT

110.4g in total, so more heavy than the Aurora 100 for sure (15g more) but the difference comes mainly the different type of LiPo between the two models.

Motors and props

For a 95mm machine, it’s normal to find some 1104 motors. For the Lizard 95, proposed Kv is limited to 6000 to be sure to be 3S compliant… so far from the 8000kv for the Aurora 100.

We can probably boost even more performances with 7000 or 7500Kv…. Sound amazing.

Some tiny M2x4mm screws attache the 1104 Motors. It’s advise to secure their installation with a bit of glue (cyano/lockit)

Props are 50mm… pentablades now with an indicator written on top, no more doubt how to install them.

The hub section is partually empty below

LiPo

As promoted, a 3S LiPo is now included, a 550mAh model with 40C of discharge rate. Good news, bye bye the JST connector, we have here a XT30 strong enough to handle the 40C juice of the LiPo

Camera module

The AIO camera includes a basic 600TVL CMOS 1/4″ sensor. The lens is in M7 format and offers a relatively large FOV, at minimum of 120 degrees but not above 150 degrees. The associated VTX is a 48CH and a nice extra option associated with this model is the possibility to set the output power between 25mW or 100mW. You will need to press both buttons during 2s to cycle between these two powers. The rear button selects the Vfreq when shortly pressed and the Vband when pressed more than 3s. The front one selects the NTSC or PAL system. By default it’s the PAL preselected.

The distance between the two latteral side is 15mm.

A raw video sample in good but a bit cloudy wether

The colors are not super vivid like the other AIO modules used in general by Eachine. The white color dominates a bit and the light sensitivity a little bit poorest… Maybe I have to find the weakest element, it would be the camera part of the AIO module.

UNBOXING, ANALYSIS, BINDING, CONFIGURATION AND DEMO FLIGHT

The machine comes with BF 3.1 flashed where everything except maybe the layout of the OSD have been set for the Lizard 95. The PIDs are the default one of BF 3.1. The buzzer is associated with the AUX3 while the arming is done with the AUX1. Be aware, the flight mode controlled with AUX 2 selects by default the acro mode.

I installed directly the last BF 3.1.7 firmware to enjoy anti-gravity mode to minimize the risk to meet some Flip of Death (FoD). I kept the defaut PID settings of BF 3.1.7. I just increased the pitch & roll rates to 800 deg/s

Ok first take off in 6-axis stabilized mode ….and no real drift observed Humm sounds good …. Ok let’s “envoyer du lourd” with punchout …. and whaooohhhhhhh the machine is a beast !!!!!!!!!!! OMG … Take the aurora 100, add 20% or 30% and you will have the Lizard 95… Some little vibrations can heard from the motors but not big dramatic consequences for the FPV signal. By default, the 25mW offers already a good FPV link, I was afraid that the signal will be partially blocked by the surrounding carbon structure… It’s not the case. The signal is really solid over 100m without problem . Unfortunatly, some little Jello is present in the FPV feedback.. no miracle with these props. I would say the good news is about the robustness of the machine. I had many heavy frontal crashes… Nothing broke!!!! nothing even a prop, just one bent. For sure these pentablade props are much more stronger than the Racerstar 2035. It’s impressive how strong is this machine, you can recover in a fraction of second from any freestyle acro figures. Ok maybe, 800 deg/s is not fast as usual… and rates must be increased a bit. Flight time are also excellent, bye bye the frustrating 3min … now it’s over 4min30, even 5min….

CONCLUSIONS

Ok I will be short, the Eachine Lizard 95 is finally for me the (almost) perfect micro brushless BNF FPV machine in the market. It’s strong, powerfull, fast, with a F3+OSD, 3S compatible, builtin Buzzer and with a switchable power AIO FPV module !!! No FoD or midflight uptilt situations !!!! I will give my SeByDocKy’s award for this machine (The last input was the XK X251).

PROS

+ GREAT MACHINE
+ NO FoD (until now)
+ F3 Omnibus w/ OSD
+ Strong 2.5mm frame structure
+ FrSky D8 w/ RSSI
+ Switchable VTX power (25mW/100mW)
+ Tunable uptilt angle for the AIO camera
+ XT30 connector
+ Robust props
+ Good flight time (> 4min 30)

CONS

– Small amount of Jello
– Light sensitivity of the FPV camera below average

EL95_dump_BF_3_1

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 137USD at https://www.banggood.com/Eachine-Lizard95-95mm-F3-FPV-Racer-BNF-4-in-1-10A-ESC-OSD-5_8G-48CH-25MW100MW-VTX-600TVL-Camera-3S-p-1141589.html

Cet article TEST: Eachine Lizard 95 est apparu en premier sur Drone-Maniac !!!!!!!.

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[matt897]

Hey, 

Would you kindly share which betaflight firmware you flashed? I tried to upgrade mine but it isn't taking the Betaflight F3 firmware and I can't tell if it's the firmware version I'm using or if the board itself is wonky. 

Any help appreciated!

Thanks,

Matt