TEST: SPCMaker 95EP (1S brushless FPV machine w/ 0705 motors)

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INTRODUCTION

The SPCMaker 95EP is a super compact 1S brushless machine equiped of 0705 brushless motors and promised to weight under 50g AUW. For the electronic, classic ingredient, a F3 omnibus with a builtin OSD chip, a 4-in-1 4A BLHeli_S/Dshot600 ESC. For the FPV solution, a classic 600TVL 1/4″ CMOS camera coupled to a 25mW/48CH VTX. The 95EP is proposed in PNP or in BNF with three choices of microreceiver: i)FrSky D8, ii) FlySky AFHDS-2A and iii) Spektrum DSM2/X. Let’s have a look to this new bundle, a direct competitor of the AuroraRC A100.

BOX CONTENT

All the bundle comes into a compact deluxe box. Inside just few elements

+ 1 x SPCMaker 95EP
+ 2 x 500mAh/30C LiPo with JST PH 2.0mm
+ 2 x Rubber bands
+ 4 x Zip ties

Incredible only four props are provided. Zero spare provided…. it’s a real shame, after the first important crash, your machine will be grounded. Even more, no instruction manual…

OVERVIEW

The machine in a first glance looks super light and has an H structure. It’s confirmed to be a 95mm machine.

The main lower structure is only 1.25mm thick… even if carbon based… not sure it will be very durable in case of crash on very hard surfaces. On more soft surfaces, it will be ok.

-FRONT VIEW
The AIO module is fixed with a nominal angle about 25 degrees.. and the lens can be damaged by a direct frontal crash.

The two linear antenneas are installed on top, no big risk to damage them.

-SIDE VIEW

The IMU sensor is softmounted and linked to the main FC via the white ribbon cable.

The right side welcomes the microUSB port. No problem to connect the machine to Betaflight while the props are installed.

A buzzer is installed in the rear section, loud enough to find the machine within a radius of 10m

-REAR VIEW
No rear lights can be found…. Notice the main lead power cable ends with a JST PH 2.0 connector.

-BOTTOM VIEW

Via the large Rubbon band, the battery is well installed on the bottom surface

-WEIGHT

Just a little bit under 49g AUW…. impressive for a brushless machine.

Motors and props

The 0705/15000Kv motors … so in theory more powerfull than the 0703. Unfortunatly they are not 2S compatible… in any case with only 4A, the ESC board also is not 2S compatible.

1mm shaft section

The 0703 and 0705 are know to offer a lot of vibrations… due to bad quality bushings/bearings. No information about the system installed.

Only four 55mm props are given …. no spare.. For a machine without propguard… it’s not good from SPCMaker.

The classic “ladybird” can be used as replacement.

LiPo

A basic 500mAh LiPo announced to be 30C…. No LiHv model. With the PH 2.0, I am afraid to observe some massive voltage drop.

Camera module

A classic basic AIO module is installed. As said previously, no possibility to tune the lens orientation fixed to about 25 degrees. It’s a very simple 1/4″ sensor 600TVL. You can change the TV mode between NTSC (default) and PAL by long pressing the front button. The VTX is a 25mW with 48CH 5.8G model. Short press the rear button to cycle between the eight Vfreq inside the current Vband. Long press on it to cycle between the six supported Vband.

Two rows of lights are present to indicate the current Vfreq,Vband combinaison… Unfortunatly these lights are almost inviible without removing the top carbon plate.

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

The machine comes with Betaflight 3.1.7, a quiet old version from now. And first BAD surprize, the default opened serial port is the UART1 while should be the UART3 to run properly the FrSky D8 receiver. It’s really surprizing to see that. Some other parameters seems to be a bit optimized for example the OSD informations displayed is tuned, but not fantastically IMHO. The flight mode selection is also strange in the sens that the same 3-way switch is used to arm and to select two flight modes….

First take off with the machine and another bad results…. the machine moves super slow !!!!! whatever you apply 1000deg/s, 1200 deg/s for the pitch & roll axis… More, after a couple of seconds the machine drift a lot especially backward and on the right !!!!! In order to minimize a bit these artefact, it’s advanced to keep the machine in 2Khz/2Khz configuration instead of 8Khz/2Khz. The solution to fix that was for me to install a more recent Betaflight OS, i.e. for me the v3.3.1. So as you can see, out of the box, the 95EP requires a lot of work before just to be able to take off. Whatever the dynamic filtering option etc…. the machine continues to drift in stabilized modes…. No miracle with these motors…. vibrated too machine despite the IMU softmounting attempt. You need to apply a minimum of 40-45% to take off…. to make short, it’s not a monster of power we could expect from 0705 motors…. it’s comparable or just slightly better than the brushed QX90C pro for example. I think part of these poor results comes from the JST PH 2.0 connexion. The machine is also noisy …. bearing systems are far to be efficient. The camera performances is also not great… the light sensifivity is not good enough and it can be dark into your favorit FPV mask/goggles. As mentioned earlier, this machine can be flew only in acro….. Puchouts are good but not impressive. It’s possible to flip & roll without problem with at least. Another negative point is about the battery…. Immediatly after take off, the battery alarm is raised….. due to a massive voltage drop about 1V after just a couple of seconds. When the machine is in the air, in acro, the machine’s behaviour is correct. Flight duration are about 3-4min…. Another drawback, the FrSky receiver don’t send any RSSI either to the OSD or the radio via telemetry.

CONCLUSIONS

Out of the box this machine is relatively badly configured and it’s not possible to fly it after a couple of second. If the price is attractive, the general lack of a working configuration is a super negative point of this machine. The performances are correct without being insane. As you already understood, I am not impressed by this machine …. I am not that SPCMaker are on the right track currently.

PROS

+ F3 w/OSD
+ Acro compatible
+ 48.7g AUW

CONS

– SBUS receiver not correctly configured out of the box
– No spare props
– Super slow rates with the original Betaflight 3.1.7
– Important drift after a couple of seconds with 6-axis stabilized flight modes
– Noisy
– FrSky receiver w/o RSSI
– Poor battery performances
– Poor light sensitivity of the camera

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 110USD at https://www.banggood.com/SPC-Maker-95EP-95mm-RC-FPV-Racing-Drone-BNF-With-Omnibus-F3-4in1-BLheli_S-4A-25mW-48CH-600TVL-p-1277109.html

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