One year on, the Mobula6 from Happymodel is still one of the best Tiny Whoops on the market. I broke mine and got myself a brand new one, so I though I should take some pictures and talk about why I like it so much.
See this blog post for other great tiny whoop options.
Table of Contents
Where to Buy?
You can get the Mobula6 from these vendors:
- Banggood: https://oscarliang.com/product-htw5
- GetFPV: https://oscarliang.com/product-489e
- RDQ: https://oscarliang.com/product-skdt
There are two KV options, 19000KV and 25000KV. I recommend the 25000KV version as it’s more “future proof”. If that’s too fast for you, you can always turn the power down by scaling down motor output in the flight controller software (betaflight). If all you care about is efficiency/flight time and not speed, then 19000KV is perfect for you.
It comes with the following items in the box:
- 1 spare set of Gemfan 1219-3 Propellers
- 4 x 1S 300mah 30C LiHV Battery
- 1 x S Lipo/LIHV USB Charger
- 1 x Propeller removable too
Specs and Features
- CRAZYBEE F4 Lite FC
- FPV Camera: Runcam Nano 3
- Motors – SE0802 KV19000 or KV25000
- VTX channel/power can be changed in Betaflight OSD
- Light weight: 19.5g without battery
- Compatible with 1S Lipo (4.2V) and LIHV (4.35V)
- Camera Angle adjustable
- Has a Current Sensor!
Flight controller
- CRAZYBEE F4 Lite
- MPU-6000 Gyro
- Board size: 28.5 * 28.5mm
- Voltage Input: 2.9V-4.35V
- Built-in 4in1 Blheli_S ESC, 5A (each motor), DShot600
- Built-in Betaflight OSD
- Built-in 5.8G 40Ch 25mW VTX
- Built-in radio receiver (Frsky OR Flysky)
- 5V 1A BEC
- Battery Voltage detection
Onboard 4in1 ESC
- MCU upgraded to EFM8BB21
- Power supply: 1S LiPo/LiPo HVCurrent: 5A continuous peak 6A (3 seconds)
- Support BLHeliSuite programmable
- Factory firmware: O_H_5_REV16_7.HEX
- Default protocol: DSHOT600
Why I Like the Mobula6 So Much?
Love flying the Mobula in the house on a rainy day, you can challenge yourself and fly acro mode, but I normally just fly in angle mode. Not doing any flips and rolls next to my TV! :D It’s easy to control and setup, should be great for beginners as well as experienced pilots.
It’s not really suitable for outdoor flying because it gets blown away by the wind easily, and the range isn’t great either due to the low power VTX and SPI radio receiver. But that’s totally okay for flying around in the house.
As a tiny whoop running 1S LiPo, this thing is fast! It hovers at around 45% throttle and yet it’s very agile and has so much control. Default rate is a bit sensitive, so you probably want to adjust it to your liking, but it’s just a ton of fun flying this indoor.
The Mobula6 flies very smoothly out of the box, I didn’t have to change any of the PID or filter settings. And it’s quite efficient as well, I get about 4:30 minutes of flight time using the included 1S 300mAh LiPos. Those batteries definitely aren’t the best quality, but enough to get you started. If you want better 1S LiPo check out my round up.
The Mobula6 is super easy to setup: bind your radio with the quad, assign an arm switch, and you are ready to fly! It took me less than 5 minutes to set everything up.
It’s pretty durable because it’s so light. Like I mentioned, I only broke my last one after a year of flying and constantly hitting the walls (damaged frame), if you are just starting and fly slower, yours probably will last longer LOL.
Camera angle is actually adjustable which I absolutely love, it’s great for different flying environment, and that’s not possible in a lot of tiny whoops.
Everything is integrated into a single board: FC, ESC, radio receiver and VTX. This results in a super clean looking build and it’s easy to troubleshoot. Yes, if one of those things broke you have to replace the whole board and it gets expensive. But I haven’t had a single failed board yet, it’s been pretty reliable so far.
It even comes with a simple USB charger for your LiPos!
How to Setup Mobula6?
The included manual is very detail on explaining how to setup the Mobula6, here are the steps I took to setup mine for first flight.
If you got the Frsky version, here is how to bind it to radio transmitter (mine is the TX16S). First, go to CLI in Betaflight, and enter:
frsky_bind
This puts the Mobula6 in bind mode, then on your radio, select a model profile that uses the Frsky D8 protocol (you can create a new profile if you don’t have one). Scroll down to Internal RF and select “Bind”.
The quad should bind within 5 seconds, then you can just exit Betaflight and remove the USB cable.
There are a few things that I had to change in Betaflight:
- In Receiver Tab, change channel map to default (AETR), and increase RC / YAW deadband from 1 to 3 (this is to reduce stick jitters)
- In Modes Tab, assign a switch for arming. In fact i didn’t have to change anything here as the default was already what I normally use
That’s it :)
15 comments
Hey dude, hope you’re well! Greetings from the UK! So, a few issues I’m having with mine…. Finally got it bound to a BetaFPV RadioLite 2 SE but I can’t seem to adjust the toggle switches on the controller for a start. What flight modes does Mobula6 have? I can only seem to select Air or Angle? Does it only have the 2 modes? Also speed seems set, is there no ‘Slow/Medium/Fast’ option? The final thing is the stick sensitivity, can’t finetune & if throttle goes over 55-60% then they won’t stop accelerating til I disarm!
Drone was a present from a mate cos he lost my BetaFPV Cetus whoop. I’m hoping to use the VR02 goggles, (which work fine actually!) & the LiteRadio 2 SE, so I’m used to the various options I had with the Cetus. Can’t really find anything about the Mobula6 to see if it even has the same settings! Hence reaching out….Thanks in advance!
Yes, there are only two flight modes: Acro (Air) mode and Angle mode (self-stabilization mode). These are the primary modes commonly used in Betaflight, which is typical for drones running this firmware. Most people fly Angle mode with small Tiny Whoop drones.
FPV drones don’t have speed settings. However, you can adjust the tilt angle of the camera, which indirectly influences how fast you tend to fly.
The way the Cetus drone flies is quite different from Betaflight drones. This is why I recommend the Cetus X over other models in the Cetus series—it uses Betaflight, making the transition to other FPV drones much easier.
Keep in mind that you can’t simply leave the throttle at the middle and expect the drone to maintain speed or altitude, Betaflight doesn’t work that way. You’ll need to actively use both throttle and pitch to control your altitude and speed. Spending some time training in an FPV simulator could be very helpful.
Hi, Oscar, mobula6 VS meteor 75 pro. what do you think??
They are not the same size, the Meteor 75 is bigger. Depends on what you are looking for, just for fun flying around the house? the Mobula6 is more nimble and agile. If you want to fly in the garden or larger indoor space, the Meteor75 is probably a better choice.
Man HappyModel needs some serious QC. I got the Mob6 few days ago. They mounted the FC backward. I was like WTF? Press the throttle it goes backward lol. So i flipped over and case solved.
Hi Oscar
Do you say 4:30 minutes flying? how ? I use de stock set up and no more than 2:20~30 minutes flying.
Thanks
Dani
one thing I dont like about mine, which I just got, is the batteries slide around in the plastic holder, every time it lands they shift and have to be recentered. and I am not getting good time at all in the air. maybe 2 minutes.
get a small rubber band and wrap around the battery holder.
Wrap a few layers of masking tape around the middle of the battery. The increased girth gives a more snug fit ;)
For Christmas this past year, I got a Tinyhawk 2 but it broke within the first month of use. (It was my first ever tiny whoop!)
So I want a new one that will be durable but also super fun! Is the one to get you think?
I am afraid that if I get this Mobula6, a new whoop will come out that is exactly what I want. I know the Mobula6 has been out for over a year now. Is that a valid concern? Are there better whoops coming out soon?
Thanks!
Personally I like the Mobula6 better because it’s much lighter and causes less damage when you crash :)
It’s my go-to whoop for living room style flying.
Hi Oscar, it’s now late 2022. Is the Mobula6 still your goto whoop for indoors? Or has another taken the crown?
See my “best whoop” post for updated info :)
At the moment my fav is the Mobula7 btw.
ok, but why not Moblite6? :)
On the way.