BetaFPV Meteor75 1S Tiny Whoop Walksnail Avatar Edition

The BetaFPV Meteor75 is the first 1S whoop that supports the Walksnail Avatar system! The HD video feed from the Avatar 1S Mini VTX is just mind blowing, it’s game changing!

Some of the links on this page are affiliate links. I receive a commission (at no extra cost to you) if you make a purchase after clicking on one of these affiliate links. This helps support the free content for the community on this website. Please read our Affiliate Link Policy for more information.

Where To Buy?

Apart from the Walksnail Avatar version, they also offer HDZero version and Analog version.

Receiver options are ExpressLRS 2.4GHz (Built into the FC via Serial), Crossfire, Frsky/PNP.

Walksnail Version

• BetaFPV: https://oscarliang.com/product-yeg2
• GetFPV: https://oscarliang.com/product-o1cg
• AliExpress: https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_DdSgfbV

HDZero Version

• BetaFPV: https://oscarliang.com/product-yeg2
• GetFPV: https://oscarliang.com/product-52q6
• AliExpress: https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_DDswB8B

Analog Version

• BetaFPV: https://oscarliang.com/product-3zow
• GetFPV: https://oscarliang.com/product-c42h

Get spare 1S 450mAh batteries here: https://oscarliang.com/product-vd7r

Spare Propellers (Gemfan 1635×3): https://oscarliang.com/product-w6kj

It comes with the following accessories:

• 2x 450mAh 1S 30C LiPo Battery (BT2.0)
• 1x Battery Charger (act as Voltage Checker too)
• 4x Spare Propellers
• 1x Walksnail VTX USB Cable for firmware update
• 1x Type-C USB Cable
• 1x Screwdriver

Specifications

• Meteor75 Micro Brushless Whoop Frame
• BetaFPV F4 1S 5A FC V2
  • F411
  • BMI270 Gyro
  • Firmware target: BETAFPVF411 (ELRS)
  • Built-in Serial ExpressLRS Receiver
  • Onboard BetaFlight OSD
  • 8MB Flash Memory for Blackbox
• Walksnail Avatar Nano Camera
• Walksnail Avatar 1S Mini VTX
• Motors: 1102 18000KV (1.5mm shaft)
• Propellers: Gemfan 1635×3 40mm 3-Blade (1.5mm hole)
• Battery connector BT2.0
• Recommended Battery:1S 450mAh
• Weight: 39.7g (Without Battery), 52.7g (with 1S 450mAh)

The Meteor75 is the same size as the Mobula7.

Closer Look at the Meteor75

BetaFPV no longer uses SPI ELRS receiver on their new whoop boards, the new F4 1S 5A FC V2.0 now uses serial connection which means the RX can be updated/flashed independently and enjoys all the latest features of ExpressLRS. Although the antenna is just a piece of wire, it’s light weight, compact and should provide enough range for flying in the house.

However, the ELRS version of this FC does not support an external receiver. If you wish to wire your own receiver you should get the Frsky version instead.

The new version of this FC also uses the BMI270 gyro. According to BetaFPV you should only use Betaflight firmware 4.3.1 or newer, and you shouldn’t flash this board with an older firmware version. With the 8MB onboard flash memory for Blackbox logging, it’s great for troubleshooting and tuning.

Equipped with 40mm 3-blade props and 1102 18000KV motors.

Although it’s same size as the Mobula7, the Meteor75 is considerably heavier due to the Avatar VTX/Camera setup. It weighs over 10 grams without antenna. VTX output power up to 350mW. Equipped with an LHCP antenna.

Camera tilt angle is adjustable between 0-45°.

The BT2.0 battery connector has lower resistance than PH2.0, which gives the whoop less voltage sag and more punch.

Although it comes with a charger, it’s a very basic one, now only slow, it only charges two batteries at a time. If you want to charge more of those batteries at the same time at a faster rate, I would recommend taking a look at this charger (scroll down to the end).

The battery holder is designed specifically for the BetaFPV 1S 450mAh size, if you are getting batteries of another brand, make sure they have the same width and height: 61x15x7.5mm.

BetaFPV also sent me a selection of canopies for the analog metero75 (blue, black and orange), and an analog camera but it’s missing a VTX, so I can’t put this setup to the test yet :) The analog version is significantly lighter so I am sure it’s faster and more powerful.

How to Setup

The Meteor75 comes with the latest Betaflight 4.3.1. Original CLI dump can be found here.

To set it up, I first had to bind the Avatar VTX to my Fatshark Dominator HD goggles.

Then I flashed the receiver to the latest ExpressLRS V3 (it came with v2.4), you can do it via Betaflight passthrough or WiFi, receiver device is DIY 2400 RX ESP8285 SX1280.

Then in Betaflight configurator, Preset Tab, load the appropriate RC_Link preset based on your choice of ELRS packet rate, in my case it’s 500Hz.

In the Power & Battery tab, set Minimum Cell Voltage to 3.1V, Maximum Voltage to 4.4V, Warning Voltage to 3.3V. Amperage Meter Scale to 850.

I also wanted to flash Bluejay firmware to the ESC so I could use RPM filter, however for some reasons it didn’t recognise/detect the ESC’s, and gave me this error, so I couldn’t’ do it:

Unsupported Firmware
ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ version '255.255' (Layout 255) is not yet supported.

Finally, setup arm switch, and it’s ready for first flight :)

If your VTX firmware is older than the goggles, you will get a warning when you power up the goggles. I have a tutorial on how to update the Walksnail Avatar VTX.

Flight Performance

The Walksnail Avatar HD system makes it so much more immersive and enjoyable to fly! The difference is like day and night, and it’s hard to fly analog again after getting used to the HD video :) I could fly to places where I used to get lots of breakup with analog, now with Avatar it’s just smooth and crystal clear 720p HD video.

Here’s the goggles DVR (what I see in the goggles!)

The BetaFPV Meteor75 hovers at 40-45% throttle, it doesn’t have the punch and power like the Mobula7, despite they are the same size, but that’s to be expected due to the much heavier weight. The Meteor75 flies more like a mobula6 with an empty battery and with more momentum. But it’s still very flyable and controllable. It’s fun exploring the house in HD video. The Avatar video feels very much like DJI image quality if not slightly clearer (probably because the OLED screens). And I can still see quite well even in very dim lighting.

The stock PID tune is really good. I tried to tune PID and filters myself to verify how good the stock tune is, and I have to say it’s pretty spot on and I don’t think you need to touch PID at all.

Flight time on 1s 450mah is about 3:30.

The Voltage/Current sensor scale parameters needed adjusting (see How to Setup section). Note that you can’t fly the battery as low as a typical analog whoop, I found the Avatar video starts to stutter and shows artefacts when voltage drops below 3.1V and it stops working completely (black screen) below 3.0V. So you should land before that (3.1V).

Although the Avatar 1S Mini VTX can only output up to 350mW, it still outperforms my analog whoop with 400mW VTX. However I noticed a pretty big drop in bitrate when there’s a wall between me and the whoop though it’s only a few meters away (from 50Mbps to around 20-30Mbps).

And as you are approaching the limit of the video link, latency starts to climb and much higher than a typical analog whoop. When you get higher latency, you would feel more disconnected and are more likely to crash, so beware and avoid pushing video limit. When your video signal gets weak, you shall see the edges of the screen blinking red inside the Avatar Goggles (or Fatshark Dominator HD), which is a really cool feature in the Avatar system.

And I think the ELRS (at 250mW output) can totally outrange the video link even though the RX antenna is just a piece of wire. I lost video and the RC link was still healthy and not even a “telemetry lost” warning.