TEST: Eachine Wizzard X220S

[Drone News]

INTRODUCTION

The Eachine Wizzard X220S represents the new revision of the famous Wizzard X220. Here with the “S” version, a complete upgrade is proposed for both the electronic and structure elements. First of all, we have now a F4 omnibus flight controller board with a builtin betaflight OSD. The F4 processor doubles the CPU clock and increases the number or UART ports. No problem to run everything @8Khz or even @16Khz. No more individual ESC but a 4-in-1 ESC board with strong 30A Bheli_S/Dshot 600 electronic. Motors also have been upgraded to 2206/2300 KV versus 2205 for the former Wizzard. The FPV section is also improved. Now we have a 800 TVL CCD camera with a FOV of 120 degrees. The VTX now offers up to 72CH divided in 12 bands. The ouput power can switched between 25mW, 200mW and 600mW. Finally the general structure is also improved in term of durability with 4mm arm and latteral carbon plates. Let’s discover this new 250mm racer.

BOX CONTENT

+ 1 x Eachine Wizzard X220S
+ 1 x iRangeX Transmitter (using 4xAA batteries not included)
+ 1 x 1500 mAh 4S 75C LiPo with XT60 connector
+ 1 x Charger using balancer plug
+ 1 x 19V DC powerunit
+ 16 x Spare props (8 CW, 8 CCW)
+ 2 x Prop wrench remover tools
+ 4 x M5 nuts (2 CW, 2 CCW)
+ 4 x Landing foams
+ 1 x 5.8G pagoda antenna
+ 1 x Gopro5/Runcam HD3 camera mount
+ 5 x Zip ties
+ 1 x Instruction manual (English)

They also offers a RHCP Pagoda 5.8G antenna instead of a classic cloverleaf one. Pagoda antenna in theory rejects in a much efficient way the dual polarization (here LHCP).

All the three discs are more or less a bit protected by a three rubber discs.

OVERVIEW

If the general 250mm general frame remain the same, after the first contact we are first positively surprized by the 4mm section of arms.

The lower plate is 2mm

while the upper is just 1.5mm

But after closer inspection, we can notice than theses structure are not 100% 3K carbon built. In fact, only the external side are carbon based and the inner layer just a fiber glass one …. Even if the durability seems pretty good, maybe a simple 3mm real 3K carbon would have been a better choice …

-FRONT VIEW
The violin color is the dominant one. The lens is perfectly protected inside the frame.

-SIDE VIEW

A novoty is the presence of latteral plates. On the left one is visible the connector for ESC control.

The right one shows the microUSB port for betaflight connexion and a microSD slot to record blackbox logs for future PIDs optimization for example.

-REAR VIEW

Two colums of 5 LED lights each are here. They are super bright and programmable through betaflight. Good news, out of the box they are well configured al least to indicate turning and throttle inputs.

By default, the 2.4G antenna is installed horizontally parallel of the lower frame. It’s not a perfect solution and it’s adivised to install it more vertically.

-UPPER VIEW

We can guess the VTX module shielded with a metallic heatsink.

Two battery straps and a rubber bands are here to secure the battery installation.

Unfortunatly the right strap is also blocking the VTX selection button and the led Display. By consequence, you will need to remove to top cover to set your favorite Vfreq and output power.

No real possibility to installer larger prop than 5″.

-BOTTOM VIEW

Green lights on front and red on rear. Be sure to secure with for example some liquid electrical tape light’s pads especially if you are landing onto wet grass.

For the first 500 samples, iRangeX TX-RX solution is provided. On the bottim side, ziptied, the A8S. The bind button is easy to access. The red light indicating the binding status can be guessed on the top right corner. If you keep press the button while powering the quad, you are entering into the binding mode. The light will blink fast. As soon it’s bound the light will be steady solid.

Each arm installation is re-enforced by this X-frame. At least, if you break an arm, it will be relatively fast to replace it without removing everything.

Another good news, a coaxiable cable is here avoiding a potential direct contact of the VTX’s connector with the ground.

-WEIGHT

563g !!! clearly much more heavier than the former edition (483.3g) but in 3S setup.

592g with a mobius mini …. If you plan to carry a gopro5 or the runcam HD3… shifting to a 5S battery represents main probably the best first upgrades to do

Motors and props

Motors also have been upgraded to some 2206/2300 Kv. They offer pretty good performances and more are 5S compatible.

Motors are softmounted …. it will reduce a lot extra vibration and potential drifts in stabilized flight modes

5mm thread

Four M2.5 hexscrews not perfectly tight… so be aware to tight them correctly or even better to install some locite to secure completly the thread

Like the Eachine Racer 250 Pro, some super pitchy 5″ props are offered and good news four extra complete set are also given. To be more precise they are 5051 !!!! IMHO, the pitch value is too important… the tradeoff extra thrust vs amperage is not super interesting. More if you plan to run the setup in 5S, I advise more some triblades 5030.

LiPo

Officially a 4S 1500mAh LiPo with XT60 connector and announced to be 75C. In practice, I doubt it’s really a 75C. Under massive load, the minimum voltage can drop considerably (below 14V) …. A potential receiver brownout can happen in such conditions.

Camera module

Nice new upgrade, a CCD 800TVL camera is now here. Color and light handling should be improved.

The lens offers a FOV of 120 degrees and is in M12 format. So it’s super easy to find compatible lens.

Good news, you have angle indication latteraly to set the uptilt angle of the FPV camera. Very usefull.

The camera runs in PAL system and no switch to turn it into NTSC configuration

Here is a raw video sample

The FPV signal is degraded by motor’s interferences … What’s a pity, the filter section of the PDB is not enough efficient. Notice the presence of a microphone at least.

Video transmitter

To access to the VTX setting, you will have first to remove the top canopy plate… It’s a drawback especially in racing conditions. More be vigilant, when you remove the plate to no break the coaxial connexion hot glued on the VTX. The unique butoon is installed on top. The button if shorly pressed can cycle between the eight frequencies inside the current selected band. If you press on it more than 3S, the current band sign will flash then short press on the button to cycle over the 12 bands !!!!. Finally if you very long press on it, you will be able to cycle between the three output power: 25mW (1 bar = default setting), 200mW (2 bars) and 600mW (3 bars).

12 bands are now here !!!! for a total of 72CH !!!! impressive

Disassembling

The F4 MCU is much larger than a F3 predecessor… Notice the receiver connexion on the top right clearly in SBUS or iBUS configuration.

Transmitter

A Flysky i6 radio rebranded by iRangeX. This model offers three 2-way switches, one 3-way and two pots. What is very surprizing is the default radio settings. Indeed, only 6CH are active and the two AUX are assigned to the two pot. A pretty bad choice…. As show in the main video, you will have to go into settings to turn on all switches and the 10CH. THen you will be able to assign for example the AUX1 to the 3-way switch and AUX2 to one of the three 2-way.

But the more important is not here…. You will have to check in the system=> RF setup about the output settings selected. Please check if iBUS or if SBUS is selected in serial section. You will understand how important is this setting.

UNBOXING, ANALYSIS, BINDING, FIXING, CONFIGURATION AND DEMO FLIGHT

First good news, Betaflight 3.1.7 is already installed and it represents the last one available currently (BF 3.2 should introduce very soon from now). You can find the default setting here: X220S_dump_BF_3_1_7
Anyway first problem will mine came fast. First the radio is not bound the transmitter …. So you have to press the bind button of the A8S while connecting the XT60 plug. The receiver red light will blink slowly. Release the bind button then press and hold the bind button of the radio while powering the transmitter. The “RX binding” msg should appears but the message freeze the screen. Turn off everything and as soon you will reconnect everything, the red light now will be steady solid. Second major problem, no sticks mouvement in betaflight despite the sucessfull bound…. after a couple of try, I found that the problem came from a buggy SBUS default connexion with the F4 omnibus. You have to turn the radio and the receiver with iBUS settings:

1)On the radio, be sure to select the iBUS output in the RFsettings.
2)On the receiver, press and hold the bind button during 3s (when the binding is done) to turn on the module in iBUS. You should see three fast red flash light.
3) In betaflight configuration panel, select iBUS instead of SBUS.

Now you should be able to see stick mouvements in betaflight. You will need to play with subtrim on your radio settings to center CH1, CH2 and CH4 on the 1500 value. For the PIDs, OSD settings, they are identical to the default BF 3.1.7 so no specific optimization have been done. Only the led strip bar has been more or less set correctly. You can improve the situation by turning on the Larson scanner effect for each 10 individual lights. Surprizingly the Vbat monitoring is not turned on also … and the loop frequencies can be easily ajusted to 8Khz even to 16Khz since the gyroscope unit is connected via SPI.

First take off with the machine and the despite to be close to 80g more heavier, the machine thanks to the 4S setup is still very powerfull. The super pitchy props are efficient in term of thust but not so much in term of flight time…. Don’t expect more than 5min even less than 4min with aggresive fights. More tha battery present some “worring” voltage drop under load …. As first main upgrade, I advise to install more some 5030 triblades pros as well as a more efficient LiPo battery. As soon as you push the throttle stick some annoying interfecences appears in the FPV signal …. what a pity that filtering stage of the PDV is not efficient. A small filter must be added so.

With default betaflight settings, the machine is super easy to fly, no so far to be the best PID settings. The machine flips and rolls superbly…. and no problem for acro style flights. But everything is not perfect. First I had several micro top faisafe cut … from 100-120m especially at the end of my flights …. Clearly this range is not enough for a 250mm racer. Maybe the antenna can be installed in a better way less blocked by the frame structure …. or even better, it’s probably a good idea to install a better FlySky receiver why not with diversity. The second remark concerns the video link… To be honest, I am not impressed by this pagoda antenna at least versus a classif cloverleaf RHCP antenna.

CONCLUSIONS

On the paper the X220S is probably the best RTF 250mm brushless racer with completly new advanced electronics: F4+OSD, 30A ESC, 2206 motors, strong frame. But in practice, at least for the first 500 pieces with the iRangeX RX/TX solution, you will need to speed some time in configuration to start this racer. I am pretty sure that the next batch with genuine flysky radio elements will be less problematic. It’s also advised i) to install more some 5030 props, ii) to upgrade the battery with a real/true high discharge capacity and iii) eventually to upgrade the radio receiver. In fact, due to this last remarks I advise more to take more the X220S ARF version without transmitter and install your own, for example a FrSky XM+. With this latter choice you should also enjoy RSSI feedbacks. Finally the X220S is a bit heavy and can’t be a super competitive racer at least in 4S system only. Luckely you run it in 5S and it will be a complete story.

PROS

+ Strong 30A BLheli_S/Dshot 600 ESC
+ Powerful F4 omnibus w/ OSD
+ 5S compatible
+ Powerfull 2206/2300 Kv
+ Strong frame
+ Programmable rear lights
+ Good CCD camera with ajustable tilt angle
+ Last betaflight installed
+ Easy arm maintenance
+ Softmounting

CONS

– iRangeX SBUS connexion buggy
– Bad transmitter default settings
– Short flight (~4min)
– Too pitchy props
– Interferences in FPV signal
– Not real 3K carbon structure
– Micro failsafe top from 100-120m
– Battery discharge rate overated
– Velcro strap blocking the VTX settings.

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 250USD at https://www.banggood.com/Eachine-Wizard-X220S-FPV-Racer-Omnibus-F4-5_8G-72CH-VTX-30A-Dshot600-800TVL-w-iRangeX-iRX-i6X-RTF-p-1153989.html

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