The Best Tiny Whoops and Accessories | Micro Indoor FPV Drones

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Discover the best Tiny Whoops on the market, these small FPV drones are perfect for indoor FPV flying and racing. In this article, we will provide a comprehensive list of the top Tiny Whoops available, detailing their specs, pros, and cons to help you make an informed decision.

What’s a Tiny Whoop?

A Tiny Whoop is a small indoor FPV drone featuring 31-40mm propellers, protective propeller guards (also known as ducts), and 65mm or 75mm frame wheelbases. They usually operate on 1S or 2S LiPo batteries. Tiny Whoop is a trademark by a US-based company that popularized this type of micro drones, so people in the hobby simply call all these small drones “Tiny Whoops”. These affordable, easy-to-control FPV drones are perfect for indoor flying and can also be flown outdoors in wind-protected areas. Their ducts ensure safety and reduce damage upon crashes.

See this post for the best settings and tips to enhance your Tiny Whoop experience: https://oscarliang.com/best-tinywhoop-settings/

Best 65mm Tiny Whoops

These 65mm Tiny Whoops are small, relatively quiet, and easy to control, making them the best whoops for indoor flying. A few bind and fly models stand out due to their superior performance, durability and value.

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Best 75mm Tiny Whoops

If you are looking for a more powerful whoop, or perhaps something that can be flown outdoor, 75mm whoops are a better choice than 65mm. There are also more options when it comes to HD Digital FPV systems.

Why You Should Fly Tiny Whoops?

Tiny Whoops are among the most popular types of FPV drones for several reasons, especially when considering their versatility, accessibility, and fun factor. First, their small size makes them perfect for flying in tight spaces, both indoors and outdoors. Unlike larger 5-inch drones that require wide-open areas, Tiny Whoops can be flown almost anywhere, including parks and playgrounds. This makes them an excellent choice for practicing tricks and acrobatics without disturbing others or risking significant damage from crashes.

Another advantage is how they are perceived by the public. Tiny Whoops are often seen as toys rather than intimidating machines, which reduces complaints about noise and safety. Instead, people, especially kids, are curious and excited to engage, making the flying experience more enjoyable and social.

In terms of performance, Tiny Whoops have come a long way. Modern models offer impressive agility and power, allowing for freestyle tricks once reserved for larger drones. Their durability also makes them ideal for practicing, as they can withstand crashes that would be costly for bigger quads.

Finally, Tiny Whoops are affordable, with prices under $100, making them accessible for beginners or as an add-on to a more advanced setup. Their ease of use, combined with low maintenance costs, makes them a fantastic entry point or complement to any FPV drone fleet.

Wheelbase: 65mm vs 75mm

Wheelbase refers to the size of the frame, which is the distance between two diagonal motors. For tiny whoops, this typically comes in two sizes: 65mm and 75mm.

The main differences between these two sizes lie in the motors and propellers. The 75mm whoops use larger 40mm propellers, requiring slightly bigger and heavier motors to spin them. On the other hand, 65mm whoops use smaller 31mm propellers and lighter motors, making the overall weight of 65mm whoops lighter than their 75mm counterparts. Typically 65mm whoops weigh around 18g to 20g while 75mm whoops weigh around 20g to 24g (dry weights – not including batteries).

Choosing Between 65mm and 75mm

The choice between 65mm and 75mm comes down to where you plan to fly. If you’re flying indoors, the 65mm whoop is ideal. For outdoor flying (especially in calm weather), the 75mm version is the better choice. While you can fly a 75mm indoors, it’s more challenging due to its increased power, making it less precise and agile compared to the 65mm. Similarly, you may fly a 65mm outdoors, but it won’t handle wind as well and lacks the power for higher speeds. However, the smaller 65mm whoops make it easier to fly through gaps and maneuver in tight spaces.

The 65mm whoop is the classic choice, known for its agility and ease of control, making it the more popular option for indoor flying. In contrast, the 75mm whoop delivers more power thanks to its larger propellers and batteries. While some might find the 75mm harder to control, it offers greater versatility and faster speeds.

Which Should You Choose?

If you’re unsure between the two, here’s a simple breakdown:

• 75mm whoops generally offer better efficiency, longer flight times, faster speeds, and improved stability for outdoor flying.
• 65mm whoops are more agile, ideal for smaller spaces, and often better suited for indoor flying. Some racing events even limit participants to 65mm whoops, so keep that in mind if you’re serious about competing.

Brushed Motors or Brushless Motors

Tiny Whoops utilize two types of motors: brushed and Brushless. In summary:

• Brushless whoop: more powerful, better motor longevity, supports turtle mode, 48kHz, and RPM filter
• Brushed whoop: cheaper, simple, and lightweight

Previously, the decision between motor types for a tiny whoop was more challenging. However, with the introduction of performance features such as RPM filter and 48kHz support in BLHeli_S, brushless motors have become the standard while brushed whoops have become obsolete.

Battery Cell Count: 1S vs 2S

Learn about LiPo cell count in this tutorial: https://oscarliang.com/lipo-battery-guide/#cell-count

Tiny Whoops typically operate on 1S or 2S battery packs, with 1S signifying one cell and 2S representing two cells connected in series to double the voltage. Typically, the higher the cell count, the more powerful the drone.

1S whoops are lighter, quieter, safer, and cause less damage during crashes, making them ideal for casual indoor FPV flying. On the other hand, 2S whoops are more powerful and more suited for outdoor flight in calm weather or for lifting heavier payloads, such as better cameras or FPV systems. However, they might be harder to fly indoor in tighter spaces.

LiPo Battery Connectors

As tested, BT2.0 and A30 connectors are the ideal choices for tiny whoops by providing stronger power and slightly longer flight times. This is due to their lower resistance and less voltage drop under load. While PH2.0 connectors are functional and adequate for everyday flying, you should use BT2.0 or A30 whenever you can and avoid PH2.0.

If your whoop have a PH2.0 connector, you can easily replace it with a BT2.0 connector if you know how to solder. Avoid using a PH2.0 to BT2.0 adapter, as it introduces additional resistance and negates the benefits of the superior BT2.0 connector.

It’s essential to choose a connector type before bulk purchasing LiPo batteries to ensure they have matching connectors.

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Essential Accessories and Parts

Here are some useful accessories and parts for tiny whoops.

Battery Considerations

Voltage: LiHV vs LiPo

Most tiny whoops use LiHV batteries for higher power and capacity at a lower weight, while also being compatible with LiPo batteries. LiHV batteries offers superior performance for micro drones as tested here, and that should be your default option.

Connectors: BT2.0 vs A30 vs PH2.0

Batteries connect to your tiny whoop via a connector. The majority of tiny whoops have a PH2.0 connector, so ensure the batteries you purchase are compatible. Watch out for battery connector, A30/BT2.0 are not compatible with PH2.0.

Note that you can use A30 batteries with BT2.0 connectors on the quad, You might be able to use BT2.0 batteries with A30, but you have to plug it in forcefully which might damage the plastic over time.

Cell Types

If you’re focused on performance, consider opting for ‘folded/square cells’, which outperform traditional ‘rolled/rounded cells’. Folded cells are more efficient and exhibit less voltage sag. As of this writing, to the best of my knowledge, Tattu is the only manufacturer producing folded cells (their 1S 300mAh and 450mAh HV lineup) in 2023, but that could change in the future. Other companies, like WeBleedFPV and TinyWhoop, rebrand their batteries using the same cells. The rest on the market are primarily rolled cells.

Rolled cells deliver decent performance, especially when paired with a quality connector like the BT2.0. However, for the best possible performance, squared cells are preferable.

So why aren’t folded cells used in larger batteries? Beyond a certain capacity threshold, such as 500mAh, the cell size is sufficient for traditional cell types to perform comparably to folded cells. Folded cells are particularly advantageous in compensating for the limitations of very small sizes, like 300mAh and 450mAh.

Performance

If you are looking for flight time at relatively slow speed, you should get a battery with high capacity to weight ratio. However for most of us who fly tiny whoops, we constantly doing acro moves and tricks, power and voltage sags are more important considerations.

Best A30 & BT2.0 Batteries

See my testings here: https://oscarliang.com/whoop-toothpick-lipo-battery/#1S-LiPoLiHV

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Best PH2.0 Batteries

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2S LiPo Batteries for 75mm Whoops

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Best Tiny Whoop Chargers

ViFly Whoop Serial Charging Board

• NewBeeDrone: https://oscarliang.com/product-d3mu
• AliExpress: https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_Dnn0omP
• Amazon: http://bit.ly/3VxGI5d

It’s not a charger, but a charging board. It basically connects all your batteries in series as a single battery. Unlike parallel charging, with series charging, even if the batteries have very different voltage you can still connect them to the board, the charger will balance the voltage during charging. All batteries must be of the same type (LiHV or LiPo). You can learn more about series charging in this tutorial: https://oscarliang.com/serial-charging/

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31mm Propellers for 65mm Whoops

Although most 31mm props are for motors with 1mm shaft, it’s best if you confirm before ordering, sometimes motors could have 1.5mm shafts.

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40mm Propellers for 75mm Whoops

This is some of the best performing props on the market with a great balance between power and efficiency. Make sure to select the right shaft diameter to match the motors.

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Motors

It’s a trend in tiny whoop motors to use higher KV motors (such as 25,000KV to 28,000KV), tri-blade propellers with an ultralight build (around 17g-18g). In a nutshell, higher KV means the motor will spin faster when apply the same voltage. See this post for a more detailed explanation: https://oscarliang.com/motors/#KV

For bi-blade propellers you need high RPM to unleash the desire power, typically pairing them with motors in the 28,000 to 32,000 KV range gives great result.

While experienced pilots can undoubtedly harness the full potential of high KV motors, beginners and intermediate flyers might find them too aggressive. Instead of using low KV motors, I’d recommend starting with a minimum of 26,000 KV motors and then cap the throttle or motor outputs to tame the power if necessary (you can do this either in the radio or Betaflight settings). With this method, even less experienced pilots can gradually build up their skills to flying higher KV motors while having the flexibility to control their power.

For 65mm whoops, 0702 and 0802 are popular motor sizes, choose between 23000KV and 30000KV depends on your propeller choice and flying style. Personally I prefer higher KV (upwards of 28000KV) for its responsiveness and punch, but at the cost of efficiency. 0702 is much lighter than 0802, and it’s the preferred choice for indoor flying. If you want to mainly fly outdoor, the 0802 are better but they are quite a bit heavier, you might as well consider going to 75mm size if flying outdoor is important to you. For 75mm whoops, 1002 is a great motor size for analog builds. For heavier builds with digital VTX’s, consider even bigger 1102 motors.

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Flight Controllers

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FPV Camera

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VTX Antenna

TrueRC Singularity 5.8GHz Antenna with Short U.FL

Most BNF Tiny Whoops come with a simple whip antenna (linear polarized dipole antenna). They are ok, but upgrading to the TrueRC Singularity Antenna offers noticeable performance improvement while only adding half a gram of extra weight. If you are struggling with video signal when flying indoor, you should consider upgrading to a circular polarized antenna. I explained why circular polarized antenna are better for FPV than linear polarized antennas here.

Product pages:

• RDQ: https://oscarliang.com/product-npd0
• Amazon: https://amzn.to/4cOH018
• NBD: https://oscarliang.com/product-93h6

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Spare 65mm Whoop Frames

Both options listed here are some of the most durable frames available. They also come with many colour options. You can’t go wrong with either one.

BetaFPV Air Meteor65 Frame

• BetaFPV: https://oscarliang.com/product-x72q
• RDQ: https://oscarliang.com/product-a6yp
• AliExpress: https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_DEc6hk3

NewBeeDrone V3 Cockroach Frame

• NBD: https://oscarliang.com/product-1rmk
• GetFPV: https://oscarliang.com/product-vf81

NewBeeDrone LiteAF Frame

• NBD: https://oscarliang.com/product-oexn

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ExpressLRS Receivers

ExpressLRS has emerged as the best radio control link for Tiny Whoops for numerous reasons. Firstly, it’s open-source, making it readily available and adaptable. This feature has made it easy for manufacturers to incorporate it into their flight controllers.

Furthermore, ExpressLRS offers excellent range and penetration, outperforming many competitors in the market (such as Frsky D8/D16). Also telemetry is fully supported in ExpressLRS. Admittedly, it can be somewhat tricky to set up initially for some users, but once mastered, its performance and versatility make it worth the learning curve.

Many new tiny whoop flight controllers offer built-in ELRS receiver, but if not you can also hook up an external ELRS receiver if there’s a spare UART. The RX is very lightweight, and the antenna is compact and doesn’t require mounting. Make sure to get the ones with ceramic antenna (or flat antenna) for space saving.

For an updated list of receiver available, check this list: https://oscarliang.com/setup-expresslrs-2-4ghz/#Receivers

Using Throttle Expo for Indoor Flights

To make your drone easier to control when flying indoor, consider using some throttle expo.

Throttle Expo refers to exponential throttle curve adjustments, allowing more precise throttle control in tight spaces, especially when most whoops come with powerful high-KV motors these days.

With high-KV motors, there’s a tendency to lose significant throttle resolution, which can make precise control challenging. But when flying indoors, you’re usually hovering or cruising around 30-35% throttle. Applying 20-30 throttle expo around this throttle value can make control more precise and easier.

Learn more about Throttle Expo here: https://oscarliang.com/throttle-curve/#Adjusting-Throttle-Curve-in-Betaflight

What’s the Best DJI O3 Tiny Whoop?

First and foremost, the DJI O3 Air Unit, while a marvel in FPV technology, introduces significant weight constraints. This is particularly problematic for drones designed to excel in tight indoor spaces.

While there are pilots showcasing their skill with 85mm whoops in cramped quarters, such feats are more the exception than the rule. For the majority, a 65 or 75mm whoop provides the agility and safety needed for indoor flying. However, by the time we scale up to an 85mm drone, the added speed and weight will cause more damage when you crash.

If you insist on flying an DJI O3 drone indoor, I would consider one of the 75mm whoops, such as the BetaFPV Pavo Pico or Flywoo Flylens 75. But I found even these drones are a bit too heavy for flying indoor safely and comfortably.

Walksnail offers light weight 1S VTX that is way more suitable for indoor light weight tiny whoops, but they suffer from premature shutdown when voltage drops below 3.3V which might not be ideal for some people.

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Edit History

• 2018 – Post created
• 2019 – Updated product recommendations
• 2020 – Updated product recommendations
• 2021 – Updated product recommendations
• 2022 – Updated products, added tiny whoop accessories and parts
• 2023 – Updated products
• May 2024 – Tutorial updated
• Sep 2024 – Product updated