INTRODUCTION
The Eachine racer 250 was probably the first very popular cheap chinese model introduced . Here with the Floureon Racer 250 (Gearbest oem brand), we will find almost the same ingredients except they also upgrade the FC for a Naze32, install some stronger 20A ESC and a 1000TVL FPC cam
BOX CONTENT
+ 1 x Floureon Racer 250 (with a 3S 1599mAh LiPo with XT60 connector)
+ 1 x Transmitter (using 4xAA batteries not included)
+ 1 x Charger (2S & 3S via balancer plug)
+ 1 x Battery velcro strap
+ 1 x 7″ FPV monitor
+ 1 x 5.8G linear antenna
+ 1 x 5.8G Cloverleaf antenna
+ 4 x Spare props (2 CW, 2 CCW)
OVERVIEW
Clearly it’s exactly the same look, general design.Of course it’s still a 250mm racer. Same nylon arms, same 3K upper plate and same glass fiber lower plate welcoming a piece of foam. We have the same red aluminium front camera support and same type of lights.
-FRONT VIEW
It’s hard from an external point of view to see the visual difference with the Eachine model.
with the strong front light turned on
-SIDE VIEW
The same nylon arm.. One can regret the absence of 3K arm but the seems relatively robust. They should handle easily moderate crash. Don’t expect miracle at full speed. Good news, 4 hexscrews to remove and 3 soldering jobs to swap a new complete arm. Arm maintenance is not a big drama.
Nearby the FlySky I6 receiver, a tiny button to turn on/off the Lights
From the right side, we can access to the Naez32 microUSB port. The battery is blocked by the FC support.
The upper plate is 1.5mm 3K carbon based.
-REAR VIEW
Like the Eachine, a huge ultra bright LEDs bar is here. Extremely visible ….
Still a lot of free room available to welcome a longer LiPo, main probabably up to a 2200mAh model
-UPPER VIEW
Just below the camera clean plate, a tiny button allows to turn on/off the builtin OSD and to select on of the 6 different horizontal offset.
-BOTTOM VIEW
Covering the 1.5mm fiber glass plate, a piece of foam protect all the bottom part.
Below each arm, individual ESC, assumed to be flashed with BLHeli firmware and be 18A. In practice, they are not seen in BLheli suite, so probably a vey old firmware is installed. Unfortunatly, they are not supporting the oneshot 125 feature and 4S voltage.
Basic ATMEGA8 chip as ESC’s MCU
-WEIGHT
526g in total … not so light in practice
Motors
2204 type announced to turn at 2300KV
LiPo
A classic 3S 1500mAh with 30C for discharge rate …
The way I strapped the battery…
Camera module
The lens is well protected by the alluminium frame
Announced to be 1000TVL and sending signal in NTSC format. No switch to turn in into PAL format. In any case, the OSD firmware should be also be turned into NTSC.
I found in practice, the light adaptation a little bit slow … and FPV signal a little dark. I don’t think this CMOS sensor have an excellent light sensitivity. IT would have been better to have a lower TVL cam but a better light sensivity Lux than the inverse.
Video transmitter
This tiny button when pressed fast turn off or shift vertically the 3 OSD informations. When pressed long, you are cycling between the 32CH Vfreq. The race band is not supported if I am not wrong. The default frequency is the A1 = 5865Mhz.
FPV monitor
The 7″ FPV monitor is flashed with a FPV friendly firmware. I really like this monitor. Good brightness even if no sunshade is provided. Some basic informations are displayed. Be aware, no power unit is provided to recharge it. Just a basic JST to DC cable to recharge the builtin LiPo with a 3S model for example. Anyway, you use most of your existing DC power unit without problem.
A lot of inputs/outputs are available but no diversity or builtin DVR. It’s possible to plug a small DVR in the AVout.
First of all all, the FPV monitor mount is tricky to assemble especially without instruction
The largest hexscrew must be inserted here
Disassembling
Be aware with the SMA connector. It can be seriously damaged during a crash and I observed that potentially the FPV range can be impacted by contacts between the SMA connector and the interior part hole of the 3K carbon plate.
A real/genuine Naze32 board is installed. FlySky receiver connected in PWM way. No builtin buzzer but you can directly plug one. A free aux channel is availabe to turn on eventually.
The FlySky iA6 receiver with diversity system. To bind this receiver connect the bind plug into free available port, then press the TX’s bind button while turning on the radio.
Transmitter
A basic FlySky i6 radio but offering excellent range (>500m) especially thanks to the receiver diversity system. Be aware, the failsafe is not set out of the box. You will need to tune it in both the radio and in Cleanflight (see videos)
The Switch C selects one of the three flight modes: i) beginner mode with 6-axis stabilization, ii) horizon/rattitude and iii) full acro mode.
FIRST USAGE
Pretty strong machine. Punch out are good … and already pretty stable with default CF 1.13 settings. Lights are super strong, maybe too strange. Good news they can be turned off. The FPV monitor is large and it’s confortable to fly with. As mentioned previously, the FPV cam don’t handle super well the light transitions between strong and dark zones. Except that, the addition of the Naze32 is a big plus for sure.
CONCLUSIONS
With the Flonreon racer 250 bundle you have one the cheapest complete FPV racer solution. Everything is here and ‘Almost” plug & fly (failsafe settings must be done). This machine is sporty, powerfull with an excellent control & FPV range. The main drawbacks are probably the robustness of nylon arms in hard crash case and eventually the problem that have the FPV cam to handle super well different light conditions.
UNBOXING
PROS
+ Naze32 board
+ Super stable and fast machine
+ Powerful machine from 3S
+ Little builtin OSD
+ Good 7″ FPV monitor
+ 600mW VTX
+ 6-7 min of flight time
+ Relatively cheap full RTF racer solution with FPV monitor
+ Most spare parts already available
CONS
– No 3K arm
– FPV cam light sensitivity
– Poor max tilting angle (http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2710381
This quadcopter have been courtesy provided by Gearbest 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 270USD at http://www.gearbest.com/rc-quadcopters/pp_367074.html
Cet article TEST: Floureon Racer 250, a cheap complete 250mm brushless FPV racer est apparu en premier sur Drone-Maniac !!!!!!!.