Diatone continues to impress and this time it’s with an RC car not a drone. The Q33 is a 1:76 scale RC car is tiny and great fun for cruising around the house or even on desktop. It’s even equipped with FPV camera and video transmitter so you can drive this in first person view.
Table of Contents
Where to Buy?
FPV Version
- Banggood: https://oscarliang.com/product-yjqj
Non FPV Version
In the box it comes with:
- 1x Q33 Karting Car
- 1x USB charger
- 1x Manual
- 1x Q2 car remote control
- 1x Spare car shell
Features and Specs
1:76 Q33 karting car
- Body ratio: 1:76
- Wheelbase: 33mm
- High Chassis
- Range about 50 meters
- Battery Life: under 60min
- Maximum steering angle: 30°
- Drive mode: proportional drive
- Steering mode: proportional steering
- Battery capacity: 3.7v 110mAh
- RC Frequency: 2.4GHz
- Size: 55X40 X 26mm
- Weight: 19g
Diatone Q2 Remote
- RC Frequency: 2.4GHz
- Output power: ≤25mW
- Range about 50 meters
- Battery required: 1.5v AA×2
- Weight: 13g
Closer Look at the Car
These 1:76 RC remote cars are tiny, even smaller than the tiny whoops.
There’s no setting up, they are super straight forward to use. Literally took me 3 minutes to read the manual and start my first drive.
The Diatone Q33 is so tiny you can totally drive it on your desk, but I wish there’s a even slower speed option because this thing is fast :) Even in beginner mode (60% throttle) it was not easy to drive precisely on the desk. But it’s a ton of fun when you drive on the floor with a lot of space.
The only complaint I have is the lack of precision with the throttle control, the car doesn’t really want to move when you give it less than 30% throttle, and once it starts moving it goes forward like a rocket :) With the Turbo Racing Car I just reviewed recently, I was able to control it more precisely.
Update: it turns out the screws on the Q33 canopy were just too tight. By loosening those screws immediately fixed this throttle sensitivity issue I had. Maybe it was just too much pressure on the gearbox and the shaft. Diatone told me, this is a problem with the first batch and it should be addressed in the next batch. Anyway if you had the same problem just try what I did :)
I also love the fact that the Q33 has bigger wheels than the Turbo Racing car, and I can actually drive it on carpet, which was not possible before.
The Diatone Q33 has a much larger battery also than the Turbo Racing, and it offers longer run time. It can go around for 60 minutes which is way more than enough before I get bored :)
The FPV version has an FPV camera and video transmitter mounted on top. You will need an FPV goggles to see the live video from the car, see my FPV goggles recommendation if you haven’t got one yet. It’s good fun driving in the house, but video could be a little shaky if you drive on bumpy surface like carpet or bricks, unlike the smooth videos from a drone.
The non-FPV version is noticeably faster though than the FPV version, because it’s much lighter.
Radio Transmitter
This is a very simple radio, basically just a throttle/brake and steering, and that’s it.
It’s a super simple radio transmitter. There’s no controls for rates or trimming like you have on the Turbo Racing transmitters. It only allows you to switch between beginner mode (60% throttle), and expert mode (100% throttle), and that’s it. In a way it might be more user friendly and less confusing for beginners.
The remote takes 2x AA batteries.
The springs in the battery holder don’t push the battery hard enough and didn’t have good contact the first time I installed the batteries. I had to push/slide the batteries toward the positive side to make it power on, but it was fine after that.
Racing Tracks
Fancy a racing track to drive the Q33 on? Get it from RDQ: https://oscarliang.com/product-df3v
Video Demos
Here are some demonstration footage:
Line of sight:
FPV:
7 comments
Run time is only about 15 minutes when using the car + FPV. 60 minutes is only when using the car without FPV.
Mine broke on the very 1st day. The steering arm is a tiny little plastic piece that can’t be more than 2mm in diameter. The car hit a wall side on and it broke the steering arm (the little hook that is attached to the front wheel). It is super delicate, so be careful. There are no spare parts online to replace it. If it breaks, you throw your money away! Diatone needs to offer aluminum upgrades, or provide the stl file for free so that owners can print parts.
I did mysellf the chassi stl that fit pretty well but the steering part would be a bit harder to fix, maybe you can replace it somehow but I get your point. Now I’m working on different types of chassis like mini trucks and tanks. I think I will post it on thingverse sameday
I did the same thing, super disappointing to find out that parts aren’t available.
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They missed an opportunity to make this work with our radios. Built in frsky or elrs would be awesome.
these should all work with any AFHDS FlySky module or transmitter