Folds, Under 250g, & 30min Flights? - DarwinFpv FoldApe4 Drone

[@chrisbee5481]

Converted my foldape4 to a freestyle ripper. Analog, took gps off. Replaced for a smaller antenna. 110g dry weight. Changed the props to gemfan 4024. Drilled the props to 2mm hole and made it press fit. Flys so much better.

[@jorge6281955]

You should keep gps, to Rth in case

[@chrisbee5481]

​@@jorge6281955 To be honest you most probably wont really use this for long range. It doesn't have a built in current meter. So you have to estimate how much is left in your battery and find the perfect point of return. No one will long range that. Also the cruising speed is pretty slow. It's not that powerful and has very low pitch props.

[@Goycrow]

Which battery ampere dor freestyle? 650, 850, 1050, 1300?

[@chrisbee5481]

@@Goycrow tattu 3s 750mah rline or similar. The 550mah was too light and too heavy 3S didnt feel good either. 65g lipo is perfect. 130g lipo kills the performance.

[@Goycrow]

@chrisbee5481 how much time flying freestyle with the 750? Im thinking to buy some 850 and one 1300 to do a long calm fly

[@SLPFPV]

actually folds up so nice

[@patrickpendergast898]

What would be better for long range cruising? The flywoo explorer 4, rekon4, rekon35, or this foldape4? In analog of course.

[@ejongiron]

So I just ordered this in analog. Besides my mini, mini 2, and a couple micro rtf fpv this is my next step I feel. I have the binding process down but am a little intimidated with the betaflight process. Any tips or tricks you can give to a newbie? Any changes I or settings I should make as a beginner? Thank you I appreciate your videos.

[@DomsaywuuhFPV]

Love your content brotha. I’ve owned my Foldape4 for a few weeks now and I absolutely love it. The GPS is a bit quirky at first but as long as you’re powering the quad up via micro USB for a few minutes prior to flight, you’ll have SATS locked. Tested GPS rescue and everything. Got about 1.8KM of range fairly easily.

[@GearZenChannel]

In CLI set vtx_low_power_disarm=until_first_arm Sats acquired faster and rescue works great!

[@DomsaywuuhFPV]

@@GearZenChannel Dang, I’ll try this asap. Thanks for sharing !

[@warmachined3472]

I love it it's the exact opposite of what I built. I built mine with 70mm EDF motors, it's six lbs and has a five min flight time.

[@-Nikoli-]

Is that legal?

[@warmachined3472]

@ why wouldn’t it be.

[@tomkoller749]

I think Darwin FPV builds great drones. I already own the babe ape 1 (2 inches) and the babe ape 2 (3.5 inches), but I still have the fold ape and I'm super happy with it. perfect for park freestyle. I love Darwin FPV drones Although I already own the analog version, I also bought one with the Walksnail system. Above all, you have to emphasize how robust the things are built. Mine fell 30 meters from the sky and survived without any damage😊 Thanks for the video 🤟👍

[@jorge6281955]

I'm definitely getting it, Great for the price

[@aksas6428]

Let’s see the go pro on it how did you mount the go pro on it?

[@HuskerTheCat]

can i upgrade the VTX to something better to fly longer range or is the size too restricting?

[@StiloFpv]

Hi. So what is the use of the Gps on the Foldape4? I am confused🤔

[@jorge6281955]

Gps is to save you if you loose video, and to return home if you also loose video if you can regain video.

[@StiloFpv]

@@jorge6281955 Thanx🤠👍🇿🇦

[@gregorydahl]

You get gps speedometer , altimeter , distance to home , gps rescue , return to home , direction home arrow . Lots of stuff . My fold ape just got 29 satelites cold start inside in minutes with battery power only from a usb plugged into my little phone battery using speedy bee betaflight for android . Other gps drones get intermittent satelights 11 or 12

[@epiphany187]

I just got this drone how do u attach the 18650 batteries?

[@Bollibompa]

Velcro

[@TheAerialAddict]

Great review video as always, Justin. You put a lot of time and effort into making these videos, and it is appreciated! This drone ticks a lot of boxes for me and I am hovering over the “Buy” button, but I find it interesting that the internet gets all excited about a tiny foldable drone with a 20 minute flight time (although I have yet to find a video of this drone ACTUALLY doing 20 minutes in the air) for the price point it is being offered at. When compared to say, the DJI Mini II, the DarwinFPV 4 inch FoldApe (who names these drones!!??) is really quite expensive and somewhat underwhelming performance wise. I can fly 22 minutes easily with my Mini II with a little more than 80 battery cycles on it, and it is loaded with (reliable) features that work really well. (Great GPS, downward sensors, ability to do basic mapping in Litchi, just NOT FPV!) Not to mention, it came with a transmitter, a really nice leather case, extra blades and three batteries. I really feel like these FPV drones are overpriced for what they are. I have been really keen to get back into FPV(I was flying FPV before drones were even a thing, really), but getting into the pure part of the hobby is financially daunting considering one needs to buy goggles, a transmitter, batteries, a charging system and then try and find a drone that will be fun to fly for more than 4 to 6 minutes. I actually recently bought the DJI FPV drone, and while I really wanted to build something and make it my own, it was just so much easier to plunk down the cash, and voila. I have goggles, a transmitter and a drone that just works and is actually a blast to fly. And, it flies for about 15 minutes at my lazy flying speeds. Yep, a POTATO that weighs nearly as much as a car, flies for 15 minutes! But it is NOT under 250 grams and that really limits the places one can fly. At least, it does here in Canada. The Darwin FoldApe looks to have a good setup for fairly long flight times and stable, fun to fly flight characteristics. I just wish it wasn’t nearly $600 for the drone and a few batteries. I only paid $650 for my DJI FPV drone (used only a few times) and it came with goggles, a controller and three batteries.

[@dronecamps]

Maybe you can get mine for a good price! “Nice Price”

[@TheAerialAddict]

​@@dronecampsabsolutely! Let me know....😊

[@dronecamps]

Send an email to dronecamps @ gmail

[@timechaser4313]

Darwin just keeps knocking it out of the park! Awesome review Justin! Keep your chin up brother!!

[@Secretagogue]

No buzzer?

[@lamboratorioaive]

If I buy the frame, will it fit a walksnail moonlight VTX and Camera?

[@SteadfastRC]

I want to get one of these and put my own analog vtx and camera in it, would I be able to do this if i order the "no 03 " version that doesn't come with any video gear or is this version a dji specific thing?

[@jorge6281955]

Man I like it, Now I have to decide from the Tern LR40 to this one, Which this one is cheaper.

[@guilhermebjr]

Did I miss the flight time ? Which flight did you get with those batteries?

[@glossyfpv1155]

Love the folding design coming to diy builds. DJI has cornered the market for too long. glad people are still making analog quads and expanding that field instead of just hopping on board digital and everyone switching.

[@Gv-in-2-it]

How can this one fly 30 min. when most of these are 5-6 minutes?

[@edevane-valencia-productions]

Just bought it as my first drone ^_^ Looks very promising. I went on their website and used a 6% discount code, also got the RTF kit + 2 more batteries & propellers

[@collegesynewave]

This one or the baby ape rtf kit?

[@gregorydahl]

I have a 2 Watt tx booster and a walksnail 1s and an frsky rxsr rx that would fit in mine . I'm expecting my fold ape in a few days . I got the analog because i didn't know or sure what 03 no 03 version meant . I think 03 no 03 means no vtx or ant camera . Maybe an 03 vtx plug . Maybe myine has elrs in it ?

[@gregorydahl]

Ps you showed me how to bind my bugs 3 to my tx . Is there a way to get the low rc signal to beep ?

[@wowarmy8154]

No 03 means there is no dji 03 air unit comes with the drone, and the foldape4 comes with ELRS receiver so if you wanna use frsky you gotta solder it yourself

[@gregorydahl]

@@wowarmy8154 i bought an elrs tx to save the uart for walksnail . And the elrs Tx was cheaper than the frsky rx . Maybe elrs2.4ghz can use a 2 watt 2.4ghz booster . I keep hearing elrs transmits magically 1000x power etc. But dont believe everything

[@gregorydahl]

It worked . Jumper elrs nano with the button and screen has elrs v3.3 and binds automatically with the elrs v3 spi fold ape . No bind phrase or buttons or upgrades . But it wont bind spi in packet rate of 100full or 33 . Also elrs arm must be aux 1 in your mixes set up but in betaflight modes tab arm aux channel must be set to auto .

[@LaMakinaFotonika]

great video! Could you recommend a battery for maximum flight time? any 18650? Are 18650s lipo? Do they load the same? thank you

[@dronecamps]

4Sp 3000mah liion

[@LaMakinaFotonika]

@@dronecamps thanks

[@BrandonBennett-c1o]

Great, as always!

[@PatrickBoudreaux-vy8xx]

What radio did you use

[@Leemaw]

Great review.....is the 03 version compatible withe the DJI remoter controller 2..?

[@dronecamps]

It should be. 👍🏻

[@beimanuel942]

both dji fpv comtrollers work, motion controllers do not

[@Taylor-ix6rh]

Yes

[@fusiondecor]

Before I order, I always check if there are spare parts or even frames only are available. I do like this folding frame, but there seem to be no spare parts or frames only available, so this is a no go for me.

[@dronecamps]

There will be frames. They make tons of parts. Give them a little time.

[@Drone_Journey]

why did you put that plastiv stuff around that little white antenna beside the big one? do you have any clues how to improve range?

[@DanialADHOfficial]

how much payloadd weight do you think this drone cana carry?

[@nlluke5207]

1kg i thought but the range is only 30% then.

[@Kyeguy1]

How do you get the fold ape to bind to elrs? It doesn't seem like there is a wifi option like most other receivers. I'm running elrs 2.4 at 50hz. Any tips to get it to bind to my controller?

[@surfnskate3137]

Try to plug and replug the lipo three times (keep it plugged in with the third cicle), then it's in binding mode and it should connect to your remote

[@daffes]

Is anyone else having issues with walksnail VTX overheating on this unit? It's scary to fly now because I never know when the video will suddenly shut down. I tried to minimize the time that the battery is on before taking off, I have enabled low power mode when disarmed and I have tried multiple batteries from 750 to 1250 with multiple discharge rates. I also reduced the VTX power to 200 without success. A few extra details: - I have a cinelog35 v2 also running walksnail that is not suffering from overheating - The bottom of the battery strap touches the VTX, not sure if this is contributing, but it's the default strap sent by them - Florida warm weather - Initially it would only shut down if I took too long to take off, or was hovering slow on the heavy battery, today it turned off even after doing a bunch of acro maneuvers - Usually after a few seconds on the ground it recovers the video signal - For the first few flights, I'd see a VTX warning and VTX temperature, I think the gauge might have died, or it disappeared after I updated betaflight/the vtx, I haven't been able to add it back on the OSD

[@jorge6281955]

Question, Can you put other props on it, I don't like does props. Thanks

[@dronecamps]

Yes you can

[@jorge6281955]

@@dronecamps what do you recommend

[@genefoxgreenmountaindroning]

Looks like a cool little quadcopter for the money are you using analog

[@МаксимВиноградов-ы7б]

Вы летали на нем с камерой GoPro 9? Он выдержал её?

[@Mupshot]

I like it regardless of the foldability. Im not convinced that being able to fold it is worth having multi piece props or having to remove screws to fold it. is there a place to put the screws when its folded so you dont lose them? although I guess having the option is nice, so long as the frame is rigid when you are flying.

[@MrPhilbautista]

The Chinese way is to keep the screws in the plastic baggie they came with. The American way is to buy a tin of mints, throw away the mints, then keep the screws in the tin.

[@jorge6281955]

I just bought this Darwin 4, How do I bind it to the zorro master radio?

[@gregorydahl]

Elrs spi reciever ? Elrs v3 firmware now. Packet rate of 100 full and 33 wont bind . And arm must be aux 1 and arm mode tab must be set to auto aux sellect .

[@cch201992]

Ok that's smaller than I thought pretty cool folds better that the fractal design wingman. I like the wingman it is cool but doesn't really fold that much smaller than when it's open plus like you said those motor wires are a pain to deal with when folding because you need extra loose wire in order for the drone to fold. With all of that said innovation starts somewhere so hopefully they find good solutions for all the issues brought up 🤷🏻‍♂️

[@FlyDreamEcuador]

It's funny but when the caddx ratel broke on my baby croc I changed it to a nano 3. Through the wider fov I absolutely started exploring more. I bet the ant camara has a wide fov! Nice!

[@TheChristou]

Hi. Is it OK to use a 4s battery?

[@dronecamps]

I prob wouldn’t. Might fry it.

[@TheChristou]

@dronecamps ok thanks

[@dronecamps]

Yw.

[@zenlucille]

Dropkick Murphys, awesome band !!

[@Shadow0fd3ath24]

they sell a 3s 1150 battery thats only 71grams...not sure how they do it lol

[@taylorowen7558]

ohh Shit..... DROPKICK MURPHYS!!!!!

[@schtinerbock4570]

dang. Under $200! Thats Emax TinyHawk territory!

[@PDXAv8ter]

Oregon City here!

[@elxero2189]

That proprietary three point motor mounting on this thing is bs and ridiculous

[@deadgoatfpv]

@elxero2189 If you want to replace a motor, just buy a new one frome them, and if you want to change all the motors, drill the frame, make sure to measure twice cut ones though.

[@130lexa]

Extremely bad customer service. I don't recommend it.

[@DJIDroneUser]

Skill issue