Review: BetaFPV F4 1S VTX AIO flight controller

BetaFPV has released the third generation of their F4 1S VTX AIO whoop flight controller. This version of the F4 1S VTX AIO has 5 integrated parts into one board: F411 MCU, OSD, 4in1 ESC, SPI RX and VTX. 

Lets take the detailed look at this flight controller.

Specification of F4 1S AIO FC(SPI Rx)

• Item: F4 1S AIO FC(Frsky/Futaba Rx)
• Weight: 3.92g(without antenna and BT2.0 connector)
• VTX Power: 25mW
• CPU: STM32F411CEU6 (100MHZ )
• Six-Axis: MPU6000 (SPI connection)
• Firmware version: betaflight_4.2.0_STM32F411
• Receiver: Support Frsky Receiver/ Futaba Receiver
• Motor Pin Connecter: 1.25mm Header Pins
• Mounting hole size: 29mm x 29mm / suitable for almost all kind of whoop frame

Specification of F4 1S AIO FC(No Rx)

• Item: F4 1S AIO FC(No Rx)
• Weight: 3.83g (without antenna and BT2.0 connector)
• VTX Power: 25mW
• CPU: STM32F411CEU6 (100MHZ )
• Six-Axis: MPU6000 (SPI connection)
• Firmware version: betaflight_4.2.0_STM32F411
• Receiver: Support External Receiver, SPI Receiver, including Frsky XM/XM+ receiver, Futaba receiver, Crossfire receiver and DSMX receiver
• Motor Pin Connecter: 1.25mm Header Pins
• Mounting hole size: 29mm x 29mm / suitable for almost all kind of whoop frame

Specification of ESC

• Built-in ESC with 5A continuous and peak 6A current
• Input voltage: 1S Lipo
• ESC firmware: O_L_5_REV16_8.HEX 
• OSD: Built-in BetaFlight OSD (STM32 controls OSD chip over SPI in DMA mode)
• Signal support: D-shot150, D- shot300, D-shot600, Oneshot125, Multishot, PWM
• 4 Indicators: Receiver indicator (Blue)/Flight control status indicator (Green)/Flight control power indicator (Red)/VTX indicator (Pink)

Package contents

You will get the F4 1S AIO VTX flight controller with BT2.0 pigtail and linear VTX antenna preinstalled. Also a bunch of the screws and silicone rubber grommets.

BetFPV F4 1S VTX AIO

You can find the RTC6705 VTX, CC2500 SPI Receiver and OSD chips on the board. There is simple wire receiver antenna and the IPX (u.fl) antenna connector. There are only 3 solder pads for the camera (+5V, GND, CAM) on the top side of the board. This shows the plug and play nature of this FC. 

On the bottom side, near the top of the board, you can find the SE2431L chip. It is Low Noise Amplifier (LNA) by Skyworks, and is responsible for amplifying the receiving control signal. This means the built in receiver range is better than for instance on Happymodel CrazybeeF4. 

The board comes with already pre-soldered BT2.0 battery pigtail and the u.fl VTX linear antenna. 

Flight controller has socket for plugging the camera with JST0.8 connector. The compatible cameras with the preinstalled JST0.8 connectors are Co1 and C01 Pro cameras. 

There is also a 6 pin header on the flight controller for connecting the BETAFPV Nano HD Camera (a tiny whoop variant of the Caddx Baby Turtle).

This makes the FPV camera and HD FPV cameras plug and play compatible with this flight controller. No need for soldering! 

This board allows to build the whoop without the need of any soldering. All you need to build a whoop/toothpick is already on the board – just plug in the motors and C01  or C01 Pro camera. An you are done!

The weight of the flight controller with BT2.0 pigtail and the VTX antenna is 5.4 g.

Comparison with the Happymodel CrazybeeF4 FR V3.0 board.

BetaFPV F4 1S FR VTX AIO flight controller with integrated SPI Frsky receiver pinout:

 

There is a BetaFPV F4 1S VTX AIO flight controller without integrated receiver. 

 

It has additional solder pads for external receiver and the additional socket for direct plug and play BetaFPV FR SPI receiver module.

 Pinout of the BetaFPV F4 1S VTX AIO flight controller without integrated receiver:

 

Connection diagram with the Frsky XM+, FS-RX2A and Futaba-X-BOSS AC900 external receiver. 

Here is the connection diagram with the TBS Crossfire receiver.

Here is the connection diagram with DSMX FullSpeed receiver.

 

Binding 

In order to bind the SPI receiver you can use any of these three methods:

• Power the flight controller and then press the BIND/Boot button. The binding process will start.
• Connect the flight controller to the Betaflight Configurator, select the Receiver tab and press the [Bind Receiver] button. The binding process will start.
• Connect the flight controller to the Betaflight Configurator, select the CLI tab, in the command line write the bind_rx command. The binding process will start.

 

Available @ BetaFPV: https://betafpv.com/products/f4-1s-aio-brushless-flight-controller