Diatone’s latest Mamba F7 stacks look awesome! I am seriously considering them as now one of the best FC and 4in1 ESC combos on the market. There are two versions, the Mini stack (20x20mm) and Super stack (30.5×30.5mm).

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Both stacks are 6S capable, but I’d personally prefer the mini stack for 4S builds, while using the more beefy Super stack on 6S. The Mini stack are rated for 30A which is enough for most 4S builds including ultra-light racing drones as well as freestyle quads.

Learn more about racing drone flight controllers, and speed controllers (ESC).

Mamba F7 Mini Stack

I am really liking the 20x20mm form factor of the Mamba F7 Mini stack, it’s also a lot lighter than 30x30mm stacks, saving over 10 grams of weight (flight controller + 4in1 ESC only weighs in 10g).

Where to Buy?

• Banggood: http://bit.ly/2LsAUdr
• Amazon: https://amzn.to/2Y5tzX9
• GetFPV: http://bit.ly/2YZ9oax

In the box, there are:

• a bag of spare o-rings
• 18AWG silicon wires (10cm)
• spare ribbon cable (3cm)
• short steel screws (15mm)
• long steel screws (20mm)
• 470uF 35V Panasonic capacitor

But there is no XT60 or XT30 connectors in the package.

Closer Look at the Mamba F7 Mini FC

The FC is an F7 with MPU6000 gyro, which is known to have less problem with noise and oscillations. But it doesn’t really matter nowadays as the latest Betaflight firmware has stopped supporting 32KHz mode.

Here are the specifications of the F7 Mini flight controller:

• MCU: STM32F722RET6
• IMU: MPU6000
• Supports Betaflight OSD
• Blackbox: 16MB Flash Memory
• 6 UART’s
• RSSI Pad: Yes
• Buzzer Pad: Yes
• Input voltage: 2S – 6S Lipo (8.4~25V)
• BEC: 5V 2A (Max 3A)
• FC Dimension: 27×30mm
• Mounting holes: M2
• Mounting pattern: 20x20mm

The flight controller is soft-mounted on top of the 4in1 ESC with a bunch of rubber o-rings instead of the traditional nylon standoffs.

It comes with a PCB that shows all the FC solder points, saving you time from looking it up on the internet. You can use it as an FC protector as well: install it on top of the FC, you can then mount anything you want on it with double-sided foam tape, like a radio receiver or VTX.

There are 6 UART’s in total (serial ports), UART1 is reserved for SBUS, while UART2 is for ESC Telemetry, the rest are vacant.

The FC has a nice solder pad layout, all the UART’s are assigned a 5V and ground pin for clean/simple wiring.

Next to the bootloader button, there are two large tantalum capacitors for filtering the power to the gyro and OSD chip. This minimizes noise in the gyro data and FPV feed.

The FC has a plastic header connector for connecting to a 4in1 ESC with a ribbon cable. The pins are also broken out to solder pads in case you want to “direct solder”, this is especially useful for connecting to single ESC’s.

Flip the FC over, we see a flash memory chip (16MB) for blackbox logs since there isn’t any room for an SD card reader. The 5V voltage regulator is located on top of the image, while the 3.3V regulators is on the right.

Although there is a 3.3V regulator on the FC, it’s not broken out to a solder pad. If you are using a 3.3V powered radio receiver like the Spektrum ones, you will need an external 3.3V voltage regulator. I guess they don’t want you to “contaminate” (introduce noise to) 3.3V as this is the power to the MCU and Gyro.

At the bottom, there is a TVS diode for suppressing voltage spikes coming from the power to minimize damage. Overall this flight controller appears to be very well designed and well thought-out.

The Mamba F7 Mini stack is powerful enough for a 5″ quad, and yet’s it’s in such a compact form factor you can even use it in smaller 3″ or 4″ quads.

Some powerful VTX requires voltage directly from LiPo to function properly, you can do so with this FC as it has VCC pad, which is the unregulated voltage from LiPo. However the VCC pad is no where near the VTX signal pad, which means you would have to run an extra long wire to power your VTX if you are using VCC.

Closer Look at the Mamba Mini 4in1 ESC

ESC Specs:

• ESC Current: 30A, Burst 35A (each ESC)
• Supports 2S to 6S input
• BLHeli_32 Firmware
• Supports Dshot1200
• ESC Telemetry
• Current Sensor
• Dimension: 27×35×6.4mm
• Mounting holes: M2
• Mounting Pattern: 20x20mm

There aren’t many capacitors on the ESC board due to limited space, so make sure you solder the provided 470uF capacitor to the power pads. I really think this is necessary even though you are just running 4S.

While there is a header connector to connect your FC, the pins are also broken out, so you can solder to any FC you want if it’s easier.

The bottom side of the ESC is conformal coated, despite the top side isn’t. I guess it’s just for protection against wet grass.

I wish it’s a bit cheaper, but mind you the build quality and the attention to detail justify the price.

Frame doesn’t support 20x20mm stacks? 30A isn’t powerful enough? Check out the F7 Super Stack below if size isn’t a concern. It’s great for high power 4S builds, or 6S builds, and it can handle abuses better too.

Mamba F722S (Super) Stack

Not just being more beefy, the F722S FC has a built-in Bluetooth module!

This means you can configure Betaflight settings through your smartphone using the Speedybee App at the field, without the need for a bluetooth dongle. The Mini Mamba stack unfortunately does not have this due to the limited space.

Where to Buy?

• Banggood: http://bit.ly/2GgO6xO
• Amazon: https://amzn.to/30yczq2
• GetFPV: http://bit.ly/2xWtGFy

Here is the BT antenna. Don’t worry about interference, I was told, Betaflight turns off Bluetooth when you arm the quad.

The Mamba F7 Super Stack comes with the following accessories:

• A bag of rubber o-rings
• 470uF 35V Panasonic capacitor
• Male XT60 connector
• 10cm 12AWG Silicon wires
• Spare FC to ESC ribbon cable

The specs of the FC is quite similar to the Mini FC:

• MCU: STM32F722RET6
• IMU: MPU6000
• No Baro
• Betaflight OSD
• 16M Flash Memory for Blackbox
• Integrated Bluetooth
• 6 UART’s
• RSSI: Yes
• Buzzer pads: Yes
• Input: 3~6S Lipo (12.6~25V)
• BEC: 5V 2A & 9V 2A (Max 3A)
• ESC Firmware: BLHeli_32
• ESC Protocols: Dshot300/600/1200
• ESC Current: 50A, Burst 55A (each ESC)
• Dimension: 38×46.5×6.4mm
• Mounting Holes: M3
• Mounting Pattern: 30.5×30.5mm
• Weight: 18g

There are 6 UARTs, UART1 is used for SBUS, UART4 for Bluetooth, and UART6 for ESC Telemetry. The rest are vacant.

Very nice build quality and well thought-out layout.