With the growing popularity of 1S brushed micro quadcopters, we are seeing more and more options for components: flight controllers, motors, FPV setup. It would make life a lot easier to have a central place where you can look up most if not all of the possible brushed micro quad parts.

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Last updated 24/03/2016. We will try to keep this list updated regularly, please let me know if there is any missing items.

Make sure you also check out our other parts lists.

• 180 Mini Quad Parts List
• 250 Mini Quad Parts List

Index of Brushed Micro Quad Parts List

• FC – Flight Controllers
• Motors and Propellers
• Frame
• LiPo Battery
• Radio Receiver
• FPV Setup – Camera & VTX

FC – Flight Controllers

Processor and Firmware

The processor basically determines what software you can run on the micro quad.

• 8bit – Multiwii
• 32bit – Cleanflight / Baseflight / Betaflight

It might be Irrelevant to some FC such as the Hubsan board, because they come with their own firmware, and you cannot change settings on them (such as PID and rates).

FET Rating

FET is the ESC (motor speed controller) of a brushed micro quadcopter. Depends on your choice of motors and propellers, you need to make sure the FET’s meet your current draw requirement.

Features to Consider

• Options of 3.3V/5V outputs for RX and VTX?
• Filtered Power for FPV gear? (Lulfro board does a good job at this)
• Extension-capable? (multiFlite Nano provides headers for adding extra features)

Brushed Board with FET adapter board

Image	Brushed Boards	MCU	FET	Weight	Price	Receiver	Note
	AlienWii	ATmega	4.2A	3.4g	$60	External DSM2/DSMX	Only runs Multiwii Integrated FTDI Progrommer Usually out of stock
	Beef’s Brushed Board	STM32	4.2A	4.0g	$60	External Spektrum/SBUS/SUMD or PPM	Runs Cleanflight/Baseflight
	CJMCU	STM32	? (7mm motor)	8.5g	$20	External PWM/PPM	Runs Cleanflight Flight controller integrated into the frame
	Lulfro	STM32	6.3A	?	$60	External Spektrum/SBUS/SUMD or PPM	Doesn’t come with any cables/leads
	Micro MWC	ATmega	2A	1.8g	$35	Integrated 6ch DSM2	Apparently is a pain to program, sometimes come with dead FETs
	Micro Scisky	STM32	5A	2.5g	$33	Integrated 7ch DSM2	New board, no info yet
	MultiFlite Nano	STM32	8A	3g	$65	External Spektrum or PPM	Expansion headers, Runs Cleanflight
	Quanum Pico	STM32	4.3A	2.5g	$33	DSM2/DSMX
	Taulabs Brushed Sparky

As it was pointed out by Blaise in the comment AlienWii is discontinued by the original author, and it’s now been taken on by AlienFlight.

Also note that the Quanum Pico and the Micro SciSky are actually the same board, just rebranded.

Motors and Propellers

Basically there are 2 sizes of brushed motors you can get for micro quad, different by the diameter: 7mm and 8.5mm. They are also sometimes known as 0720 and 0820 motors, the first 2 digits (07, 08) being the diameter class, and the last 2 digits (20) being the height of the motor.

Note that brushed motors are consumables just like props, they generally last around 5 to 10 hours of flight time. That might not sound like a lot, but that’s about 100 flights. As they are wearing out they don’t run as efficient as when new, and gradually giving less thrust and shorter flight time.

From experience, I would recommend the Ladybird props over others for both 7mm and 8mm builds, because of the cheap price and great durability. They take abuse and very hard to break. They also don’t fly off the motors in crashes. Hubsan props disappear every time I crash and often go missing.

For best performance props on 8mm builds you can try some of the Parrot Rolling spider props, they are pretty efficient and generate a lot of thrust (because they are longer). Make sure your FETs support the current draw.

Propellers	Picture	Price $ / unit
LadyBird		0.5
Hubsan		0.5
Parrot Rolling Spider		1.7
Hubsan Triblade		0.5
60mm Micro Prop		0.4

Micro Motor Thrust Testings

Motors show different performance when coupled with different propellers, I try my best to test different combo and here are the data I have gathered so far.

Micro Quad Frame

There are 2 main types of frames for micro quadcopters, Carbon fibre and 3D Printed. CJMCU is the only FC I have seen that is integrated into a silicon frame. But I am personally not a fan of that because of the vibrations can get into the Gyro/ACC sensors easily.

Carbon Fiber frames are lighter yet more rigid and strong, but they tend to be more expensive.

3D printed Micro frames are much cheaper, however with bad design they do break easier than carbon fibre, and even have bending arms that affect flight characteristics.

Frame Name	Image	Price	Material	Weight
Phoenix Racing		$30	Carbon Fiber	4g
Phoenix Micro-H		$20	Carbon Fiber	7g
Quanum WISP		$13	Carbon Fiber	11g
Polycarbonate Frame		$8	Polycarbonate	9g-14g
Oskie V1		$7	3D Printed	6g

LiPo Battery

C Rating

What I found is, for 7mm motor builds, you normally need higher C rating batteries. Low C packs just don’t have the punch and isn’t enough to keep the quad in the air long.
8mm motor builds are a lot more forgiving when it comes to LiPo. Even those cheap, low C rating banggood batteries runs okay (not great, but flyable).

Capacity VS Weight

Weight is critical to a micro quad, you can feel the difference for every gram you save. Larger battery pack doesn’t necessary give you longer light time because of the increase in weight. The extra weight might even make the quad hard to control.

What battery should I get?

For 7mm motors builds, the only battery I would recommend is the 300mAh 45C from Hobbyking. Batteries that are heavier than that might have trouble even taking off.

8mm builds are more forgiving and any batteries in the following list should fly fine, but I recommend the 750mAh 35C for longer flight time, or 300mAh 45C for faster, more agile flying.

Radio Receiver

The following RX in the table are all supported by the Taranis (bind directly, no extra TX module required) and majority of the Frsky TX modules.

	Image	Price	Weight	Voltage	Note
Frsky Micro		$17	0.8g	3.3V	PPM
Frsky VD5M		$11	2g	3.0-7.2V	PWM – 5ch
SRP8 8ch		$19	2g	5V	PPM, Telemetry

Built-in Spektrum RX

Some FC has built-in spektrum RX, many TX allows you to plug a additional TX module on it like the Taranis or Turnigy 9X, so you can get a Orange TX module, and bind with the Spektrum RX.

Frsky Micro RX – PPM

Depends on what radio system you are planning to run, I guess most people would be running Frsky Taranis, or 9X/9XR with a Frsky TX Module. In that case you should get the Frsky Micro RX (PPM), or the VD5M (PWM).

Vendors:

• MultirotorSuperstore
• CanadaQuadcopters

Frsky VD5M

Frsky VD5M Micro RX is an alternative receiver for Frsky users (Taranis), which runs on PWM. Someone left me a comment before saying it’s possible to mod the VD5M to output PPM, but I’ve never looked into that.

SRP8 8ch PPM Radio Receiver

SPR8 receiver is a full feature radio receiver, supports PPM and telemetry. Weights only 2g (1.5g if shorten wires), and about the same size as the Frsky Micro RX. However this RX only accepts 5V power input, so if your micro quad setup doesn’t have a step up voltage regulator from 1S to 5V, then you can’t use this RX.

FPV Setup

For FPV setup on Micro Quads, you have two options, one is to buy a readily made setup (FPV combo), the other option is to buy camera and VTX separately. Usually buying them separately and put them together is a cheaper solution.

Camera

Requirements for FPV cameras that are used on micro quads are:

• As light as possible
• takes 3.3V-5V as input voltage (1S Lipo)

	Camera	Price	Weight	Comment
	Banggood 600TVL Mini Camera	$10	3g	170 Wide Angle, but feels more like 120 degree great for FPV
	1g Camera	$54	1g	No wide angle, not recommend for FPV
	Surveilzone 600TVL Camera	$19	3g	120 degree wide angle

VTX – Video Transmitter

Same requirements apply here for VTX, light weight and takes 3.3V input.

	VTX	Price	Weight	Frequency
	Boscam TX5823 200mW	$11	2.3g	5.8 GHz – Band E
	Boscam TX5826 400mW	$15.5	2.5g	5.8 GHz – Band E
	AltitudeRC Nano VTX 25mW	$50	3g	5.8 GHz – Band F

FPV Combo

Camera + video Transmitter.

	FPV setup	Price	Weight	Frequency
	Pico FPV Combo	$100	8g	5.8 GHz – Band F
	Pico FPV Combo V2	$75	7g	900 MHz & 1.3GHz
	Micro FPV SPMVA1100	$75	4.5g	5.8 GHz – Band F
	DIY BG Camera + TX5823	$25	5.6g	5.8 GHz – Band E
	DIY BG Cam + AltitudeRC VTX	$60	6.5g	5.8 GHz – Band F
	FX798T VTX camera FPV combo	$41	4.5g	5.8Ghz 40ch – ABEFR
	Quanum Elite VTX camera combo	$39	4.5g	5.8Ghz 40ch – ABEFR
	Hyperion Mini FPV combo	$55	4.5g	5.8Ghz 40ch – ABEFR

Example Builds

You might be interested in some of the micro quad build examples I posted before on the blog.

• CJMCU – 7mm
• Lulfro FC – 8mm
• Beef brushed board – 8mm 1
• Beef brushed board – 8mm 2
• Oskie + SRP8 + Lulfro – 8mm

Tiny Whoop

The Tiny Whoop build is basically an Eachine E010 coupled with a VTX/Camera FPV combo. It became very popular and started by the Horizon Inductrix, but it’s much more expensive than the E010.

Check out my build log of the E010 Tiny Whoop.

It’s very easy to build, cheap yet saves you from lots of hassle working out and parts you need as it’s nearly a RTF quad. However it doesn’t have the power like a 8mm motor build, and it handles the wind poorly. If you are looking for a fun indoor quad to fly, you should give it a try :)