Still, I was listening to the Flite Test podcast, and there was an episode about the Tiny Whoop craze and that got me curious about this cheap and exhilarating rc discipline.
It all started with Horizon Hobby selling a micro quadcopter, the inductrix. It is a 1 cell powered indoor quad for beginners, to train at home with an indestructible aircraft which is so light (under 30 grams) that it cannot cause damage to furniture, appliances, people or pets.
Shortly after, a cool dude called Jesse Perkins modified its Inductrix adding a micro FPV camera and transmitter and started FPVing at home and outdoors, performing incredible tricks with this tiny quad. He started then modifying it with bigger batteries and better performing motors and the race was on!
Now millions of Inductrix have been modified and races are happening everywhere in the world. The success of the Tiny Whoop movement was so big and quick that Horizon Hobby marketed an FVP version of the Inductrix, the Inductrix FPV.
Obviously the Chinese market came out with a plethora of clones, which perform more or less flawlessly, and have the double advantage of the cheap price and the possibility of binding to almost every TX you might have, instead of requiring the DSMX protocol.
For the sake of testing all I can I recently purchased a Eachine E010S from Banggood.com and honestly I am starting to appreciate what all the fuss is about!
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| The Eachine E010S Tiny Whoop clone |
This thing is exhilarating! I quickly paired it with my old DX8 radio and my Fatshark goggles and, a bit skeptic, I took off for a run in the apartment where I live. First crash was after 10 seconds, against a wall. I was prepared to pick up the pieces and start ordering replacements, but to my great surprise this thing is indestructible! It is so lightweight that almost nothing can damage it.
Lately I secretly build a race course in the apartment (my girlfriend would not be so happy about transforming the living room in a fpv obstacle course), carefully moving around some objects and creating some little interstices, and I spend every free minute fpving like crazy while grinning like a madman.
Being that I cannot leave things stock I performed a few mods:
- changed the antenna to a whip (you do not really need the performance of a cloverleaf, and a whip is much more resistant to crashes)
- purchased a canopy to protect the camera
- got some different propellers with 3 blades instead of 4, for longer flight times
This is how my clone Tiny Whoop looks like today:
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| My customised Tiny Whoop clone : I modified the antenna, added a protective canopy and changed the propellers to 3 blades for longer flights. It is great! |
I am a complete novice at this discipline, therefore my videos are not that interesting, but I suggest you take a look at Jesse's youtube channel to realise how cool this thing is. Compared to 250 fpv racing these Tiny Whoops are WAY cheaper, WAY safer, WAY more accessible but also WAY less fast and WAY less thrilling.
Having tried both I enjoy the two disciplines, and the thing that I miss in the Tiny Whoop scene is the competition which makes the 250s so much fun. Today, in France, where I live, the scene is pretty small and few are the Tiny Whoop races, whereas the 250s are everywhere.
All in all: totally recommended! For the price, try it, you might be surprised!
