The Eachine Tyro79 Pro is possibly the cheapest 4S 3-inch FPV drone kit you can buy in 2022. It comes with all the components required except the RX and LiPo. It’s a pretty good kit if you want to learn how to build, or just want a cheap drone to practice.
Table of Contents
Where to Buy?
Get the Eachine Tyro79 Pro from: https://oscarliang.com/product-l5xn
Upon arrival, the components are nicely packaged and organized in separate plastic bags in a box.
You will need to buy a radio receiver, I am using ExpressLRS: https://oscarliang.com/setup-expresslrs-2-4ghz/#receivers
LiPo batteries are not included, 4S 650mAh-850mAh are good sizes for this drone (XT30): https://oscarliang.com/product-ruzr
You might also want to grab some spare propellers (3040×3): https://oscarliang.com/product-4hpe
Tyro79 Pro Specifications
What are the dfferences in the old and new Pro version?
The original Tyro79 had two separate FC and ESC boards, ESC was only rated for 20A.
The new Pro version uses an AIO FC with more powerful 35A BLHeli_S ESC integrated, it also makes it easier to build thanks to the single board design. But if something breaks you’d have to replace the ESC and FC all together and it gets more expensive. The new FC is using F411 processor with BMI270 gyro (as the MPU6000 is no longer being made), but performance should be similar to the previous F405 and MPU6000 combo.
The FPV Camera has been upgraded to the Runcam Nano 2, which has better image quality than the previous camera. Frame is also mostly the same with some small changes to the side plates. Eachine also added 3D printed TPU arm protections and receiver mount.
VTX, Motor and props are the same.
You can learn more about the previous Tyro79 (non-pro) in this forum thread from other users: https://intofpv.com/t-tyro-79
Info about the VTX can be found here: https://oscarliang.com/product-3lw4
Specs:
- MINI F4 AIO FC
- MCU: STM32F411
- OSD: AT7456E
- Gyro: BMI270
- Blackbox: NO
- BEC Output: 5V 2A, 9V 2A
- URATS: 2
- ESC Con. Current: 35A
- ESC Firmware: BLHeli_S
- ESC Telemetry: NO
- Supported Input Voltage: 2-4S
- Mounting Hole: 20.5×20.5mm, M3
- Dimension: 41x37mm
- Weight: 11.6g
- 140mm Frame
- Frame armthickness: 3mm
- Upper plate thickness: 1mm
- Side plate thickness: 1mm
- 1607 2800KV Motors
- Racerstar 3040 3-Blade Propellers
- XF5805 5.8G 40CH 25/100/400mW VTX
- Runcam Nano 2 FPV Camera
- Dimension: 126x126x52mm
- Weight:
161.5g175g without Lipo battery, 235g with 4S 650mAh
How to Build Tyro79 Pro
First Time?
If this is the first time you build an FPV drone, you might want to check out my build guide first. They are different size drones, but the steps are quite similar, and I also talk about the tools you might need and what you need to pay attention to during the build. In this article I will only show you the key steps in building the Tyro79.
FC Pinout
To solder the FPV camera, VTX and radio receiver to the flight controller, you can find the pinout and wiring examples in this diagram: http://myosuploads3.banggood.com/products/20220801/202208012054271476.jpg
Screws
There are many screws of different lengths in the same bag. Here are what I use them for:
- FC standoffs screws 6mm
- Attaching Motors to the arms: 7mm
- Attaching Alumnium Cage to the bottom plate – 7mm
- Cage side plates – 4mm
- FPV camera: 5mm
Steps
First thing first, put the battery strap through the slots in the bottom plate. You can’t do this once you install the flight controller so it’s better to do this now.
Install the standoffs for the flight controller.
Install the flight controller, with the arrow sign on the FC pointing forward.
Also put the 3D printed protections on the arms.
Motors are self-locking, meaning two motors have CW threads and the other two have CCW threads. In my opinion this is unnecessary and annoying. It’s confusing when trying to fasten the prop nuts, and harder to get motor/prop nut replacements. I’d rather have the same thread on all 4 motors.
Anyway, before installing the motors, put the prop nuts on so you know which are CW/CCW motors. Then install them following the picture below. Upward is forward in this picture.
Now, cut the motor wires shorter, strip the ends and tin them with a little bit of solder. You don’t need to shorten the motor wires if it’s too much trouble, but it makes it neater, it’s up to you.
Tin the solder pads on the FC to get ready to solder the motor wires. I prefer to cover the FC with marking tapes so I don’t drop solder balls on the FC and damage it.
Solder the motor wires as well as the XT30 power lead.
Also solder the capacitor to the same power pads as the XT30, watch out for positive/negative.
Now remove the tapes and solder the rest of the components: FPV camera, VTX and receiver.
Note that the radio receiver is not included and you have to get your own. I am using Radiomaster RP1 receiver (ExpressLRS).
I made a wiring mistake here which I only realized at the very end. Next to T2, it has an RC pad, which I thought it was R2. Well it is but it’s has a inverter built-in which is intended for Frsky SBUS. To connect to R2, you need to solder the wire all the way to the other side of the board as shown in the below picture. It’s a very tiny pad so be careful and patient.
Correct serial RX wiring:
Here I fixed my ELRS RX wiring.
Put receiver in the TPU mount.
Install VTX on top of the FC with standoffs in between, then put the RX TPU mount on top. No nuts are needed, the RX mount holds the VTX down securely.
Now install the alumnium cage.
Install the VTX antenna mount.
And put the side plates on.
Install the FPV camera.
Install the two small carbon fibre pieces on the top.
Cover the bolts on the bottom with battery pad so they don’t dig into the battery.
Finally, secure the RX antenna on the arm like this.
And it’s done!
The whole build took me about 90 mins.
How to Setup
The Eachine Tyro79 Pro comes with Betaflight 4.3.0 (Dec 24 2021 release). FC target is TCMMF411. You can find the original CLI dump here.
First thing first, check motor rotation and reverse them in BLHeliSuite if required.
Then configure Betaflight, remember to press “Save” at the end of each step:
- Ports tab: Enable serial RX in UART2
- Configuration tab: Enable DShot Beacon (as there’s no physical buzzer on this quad). Disable softserial and LED strip to save some CPU load, as they are not used, Enable OSD and Airmode
- Receiver tab: if you use are using ExpressLRS RX like I am, under Receiver, select Serial (via Uart) as the first option and CRSF as the second option. Enable Telemetry. Set channel map to default (AETR1234)
- Modes tab: Setup switches for Arm, Angle, Beeper and Flip over after crash
- Motors tab: set ESC protocol to DShot600
- OSD tab: enable your preferred OSD elements
I didn’t setup SmartAudio, if you do, you also need to configure VTX table. I just use the button on the VTX to adjust channel and power which is easy enough. Usually you only need to set the channel and power once and you can just forget about it if you only fly alone.
Flight Performance
I get around 2:30-3 minutes of flight time on 4S 650mAh and over 4 minutes on 4S 850mAh (pretty fast flying). I didn’t tune the quad, didn’t change any PID or filter settings, pretty much everything is on default and it already flies really well! Very smooth and no vibration at all, I am quite impressed at this kind of flight performance for the low price.
It hovers around 25% throttle and has more than enough power to carry a GoPro.
Check out the flight yourself:
Do I Recommend It?
The new Tyro79 Pro is not as cheap as the old version, I think it used to be about $90 back in 2019, it’s now $130. But considering everything has gone up in price significantly in recent month and you get more powerful ESC and better FPV camera in the Pro version, it’s still a pretty good deal.
The components are not the best quality, you get what you pay for after all. But when built correctly it does fly really well even on Betaflight default settings.
The Tyro79 Pro is a decent drone kit for two groups of people, beginners who want to learn how to build an FPV drone from scratch, and those who want a cheap drone to practice flying.
3 comments
Are there actually replacement parts for the zll in one esc + controller board? i do not find any except one at 110€.
IMO without this replacement par at the correct price the by is a risk, what do you think?
Hi Oscar. I’m a huge fan of your clear concise instruction.
I’m wondering if you can help me. I’m going to build a Tyro 79 Pro, I’m using fkysky radio, which is of course an ibus system. I also want to add a BN220 type gps. So will I have enough UART connections? As I understand the rx needs to be soldered to gnd, 5v, and an rx connection on the UART. So where then do I connect my GPS.
I really hope this makes sense!
Thanks for your help.
I like it. I build and fly rc planes so this is right up my alley.