TEST: LANCHI Monster 76

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INTRODUCTION

On the paper, the Lanchi Monster 76 offers an amazing concentration of the last technologies into a 76mm towered X-frame. For example in the menu we have: a F4 Omnibus w/OSD flight controller, a strong 4-in-1 10A BLheli_S/Dshot 600 ESC board, 1104/8000Kv motors 48CH 25mW AIO FPV module, buzzer and programmable lights. Three variants are proposed. One PNP without receiver and two BNF with a FrSky D8 and a Flysky AFHDS-2A respectively. The machine is powered in 2S configurtion with a 500mAh LiPo. Let’s discover what can be potential super great machine.

BOX CONTENT

The machine comes into a simple but solid box

+ 1 x Lanchi Monster 76^
+ 1 x 2S 500mAh/20C LiPo with JST connector
+ 1 x USB charging cable
+ 8′ x Spare props (2 CW, 2 CCW)
+ 1 x Instruction manual (English)

The instruction manual … is just so “light”… Miss all important informations, especially about the binding and the VTX setup.

OVERVIEW

The Monster 76 is a X-quadcopter with a elevated tower camera mount welcoming the AIO FPV camera module. At least we can find in the instruction a resume of all the main caracteristics. Notice that ESC can in theory support up to 4S LiPo… Insame. Unfortunatly, motor’s won’t :(…. They are already 8000Kv.

It’s confirmed to be a 76mm machine.

Good news, the main lower X-carbon structure looks strong and solid. The thickness is 2mm and for a such lightweight machine, it’s IMHO strong enought to handle most crashes.

-FRONT VIEW
All the electronic is well protected/integrated.jailed into the central section. No board in direct contact of crash. The lower 3K carbon frame looks very durable and 1104 motors also solidely installed on them.

For the FrSky D8 RX version, the receiver is installed just above the flight controller and below the camera carbon mount. Four pads can be nottced. From left to right: GND, +5V, SBUS, PPM. As you can see, out of the box, the FrSky receiver is configured with PPM connexion with the yellow wire soldered on the fourth pad (on the right).

-SIDE VIEW
The left side welcomes the main PWM connector for ESC.

Notice also how is attached to the main frame the camera tower mount. It’s clipsed latterally via a small carbon element. I am afraid during a big vertical crash directly on the mount that: i) in the best situation, the mount will be unclipsed and ii) in the worst, the carbon pad will break. For me this point is the weakest element of the machine.

Notice also the poor soldering job for all the ESC’s wires. It’s highly recommanded to add some liquid electrical tape to protect/re-inforce this part.

-REAR VIEW
Two programmable lights are bounding the central buzzer. That’s great :). Notice also the microUSB port easy to access for Betaflight connexion.

The FrSky D8 present its binding button on the rear right part. You can access via a small twizzer or by the right button install on the top of the AIO camera module.

-UPPER VIEW
No real possibility to install props larger than 16mm … The remaining clearance is about 1mm with the DYS 1630 props.

-BOTTOM VIEW
A thin battery strap is pre-installed. No other velcro or anti-slip system to secure completly the battery installation.

-WEIGHT

79.5g… so one of the lightest model in the ~80mm category.

Motors and props

Some strong 1104 brushless motors announced to be 8000Kv….. IMHO, I would prefer maybe some 7300-7500Kv to run this beast in 3S setup.

The DYS 1630….. are known to introduce (a lot of) jello in video even I can reckon they are durable. Other props should be installed.

LiPo

No specific mark of this battery offcially being a 500mAh 2S LiPo with 20C of discharge rate. 20C !!! is ridiculous for a racer. It will be confirmed later but the performances of this battery are really with massic voltage drop ending to a receiver brownout at the end of the flight.

Camera module

No possibility to ajust it, but at least the AIO module is tilted about 20 degrees.

The lens offers a Field Of View of 120 degees. Perfect for both indoors/outdoors applications. The lens thread is in M7 format. The camera is basic but in practice good 700TVL CMOS camera. Actually the camera is locked in NTSC system.

One button can be found rear. If you short press on it you will cycle between the eight frequencies Inside the current selected Vband. If you long press on it, the blue light will flash. Then short press on it to cycle between the six supported Vband. As soon as the Vband is selected long press one more time to validate the Vband.

A raw video sample (turn off volume)

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

The F4 onmibus is flashed with betaflight 3.1.5. As exepected according the FrSky receiver connexion, the receiver is configured in PPM mode in betaflight. But first (deep) bad surprize, even if the pairing is correctly done between the TX and the RX (solid blue front light), you can’t observe any stick mouvements in betaflight…. ??? Weird … The solution is already known…. turn the receiver in SBUS mode. You will need to unsolder the yellow signal wire from the fourth pad to the third free pad. It’s a 3min fix as showed in the video… nothing dramatic. Notice, the flysky version works out of the box. I regret the non-presence of the RSSI for both the telemetry and OSD…. For other settings, we have the default BF 3.1.5 ones…. no specific optimization have been done.

First take off and with a < 80g machine, as we could expect the machine is powerfull.... punch out are really good but!!!!! the super bad news comes from the battery.. Just after hovering, the voltage drop s of 1.7v !!!! it's inacceptable !!!! Imagine for a punch out, it's more than 2V. The consequence can be dramatic with a receiver brownout. In practice it happens but at the end of the flight. Definitively, the first thing to change for the Monster is the LiPo and I highly recommend a model with at least 50C of discharge rate. With the current battery, the machine start to buzz after 10s only. Even some local voltrage threshold ajustement won't really help. Anyway, the machine flies great and smooth !!! It's a super fun, nimble and reactive model. Thanks to the F4@8Khz, lightweight. The AIO FPV camera works pretty well. Sharp and precize color, good light handling and good FPV range (~100m). You can notice some jello in the FPV signal associated with each throttle high inputs.... the guilty are the DYS props for sure. Another dispointed element is the flight time: 2min10 in average... far from the 4-6min advertized. At the end of each flight, the battery is super hot, another sign of the weakness/poor quality of the battery. After a crash from 5m high (linked with the receiver brownout associated with voltage drop of the battery), the camera mount has been unclipsed. No problem to re-attach it. I decided to moved to the 1535 quadriblade props from the Auroa68/Revenger 55. As expected the Jello is gone... and the machine is even more power. I installed a simple but light 400mAh/30C. Flight time is now of 2min 30. A guess a 500mAh with 50C... should be the perfect choice. I will probably use the Aurora 100 550mAh LiPo in the future.

CONCLUSIONS

The Lanchi Monster 76 is a super great and powerfull flyer thanks to its lightweight and strong/powerfull ESC/motors & FC. The frame is durable, the AIO module efficient. It’s almost the perfect compact machine but some modifications/improvements must be done: 1) Replace the battery for a 500mAh/50C, 2) replace DYS 1630 for the Racerstar 1535 and 3) for the FrSky version, turn the receiver in SBUS mode. Anyway, it’s one of the best model in this category.

PROS

+ Fun machine
+ F4 Omnibus w/OSD
+ Strong 10A ESC BLheli_S/Dshot600
+ Powerfull machine
+ Good AIO FPV camera module
+ Buzzer
+ Programmable LEDs
+ Strong lower main plate

CONS

– FrSky RX not working in PPM=>need SBUS connexion
– Very bad LiPo battery (warm a lot, huge voltage drop under load)
– Poor flight times (2min10)
– FrSky D8 RX w/o telemetry
– Potentially fragile camera mount clips
– DYS props introducing a bit of jello
– Poor soldering job for ESC’s wires.
– Bad instruction manual

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 117USD (Coupon code: 7993J) at https://www.rcmoment.com/other-products-2002/p-rm7993-3.html

Cet article TEST: LANCHI Monster 76 est apparu en premier sur Drone-Maniac !!!!!!!.

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