Redpine – A Faster RC Protocol for Your Tiny Whoops

by Oscar
Newbeedrone Acrobee65 Blv3 Tiny Whoop Vtx Heatsink

If your tiny whoop (or any FC which has an integrated SPI receiver) that supports Frsky D8/D16 RC protocol, chances are you might be able to switch over to the faster Redpine protocol for lower latency.

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Related: Still looking for the best Tiny Whoop? Check here.

What’s Redpine

Redpine is an ultra-low latency RC protocol, running at 666Hz. It’s roughly 7 to 10 times faster than Frsky_X (D16) on a Taranis (source of claim).

In order to make this protocol so fast (even faster than ELRS 2.4GHz’s 500Hz), Redpine has to give up certain capability such as range and telemetry, and only allows 2-position switches.

Newbeedrone Acrobee65 Blv3 Tiny Whoop Flight Controller Board

Almost all tiny whoops these days come with a built-in SPI radio receiver that runs Frsky D8/D16 protocols (Frsky_D/Frsky_X). These SPI receivers use a cc2500 chip, which can also run Redpine without any modifications. I will show you how to setup Redpine in this post.

Redpine is not a new RC protocol, it actually came out in 2019.

Pro’s and Con’s of Redpine

Advantages of Redpine over Frsky D8/D16:

  • Much lower latency

Disadvantages:

  • Only allow 2-position switches (your 3-position switches will become 2-pos)
  • No telemetry
  • Slightly less range than Frsky D8, but still might be enough for indoor flying/racing

How to Setup Redpine

You must have a radio or transmitter module that support multi protocols including Redpine. For example, the TX16S has a internal multi-protocol RF module that will support Redpine out of the box.

If you don’t like Redpine you can always switch back to Frsky D8/D16.

Connect your drone to the computer via USB, go to Betaflight Configurator:

  • In the Receiver tab, under “Receiver” => “SPI Bus Receiver Provider“, select “REDPINE”
  • Click Save

On your radio (in this case it’s my TX16S)

  • go to Model Setup (by pressing the MDL button), scroll down to “Internal RF
  • under “Mode“, select “Redpine

Now you just need to bind them:

  • On the same page on the radio, press the “BIND” option
  • In Betaflight Configurator, Receiver tab, press the “Bind Receiver” Button

That’s it!

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1 comment

Sam 24th February 2022 - 11:11 pm

Seems amazing you don’t need to reflash or anything. Along with Speedybee, you could have the best of both worlds, small indoor track, REDPINE, longer one behind walls, just jump in your configurator app and set it to D8/16 (even testing it at the location).

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