Upgraded Eachine Lizard105S FPV Racing Drone

By daewootech06/28/2019

The Lizard matches or even out-specs many of the features on my 5″ and 7″ quads

A lot of tech in a really small package

The Eachine Lizard105S is a great example of just how far we have gone in just a few years. In just 85g (without battery) and 146g (with battery), the Lizard105S packs in an Omnibus F4 Flight controller sporting a STM32F405RGT6 running a SPI connected MPU6000 floating on a separate damping box flashed with Betaflight 3.2.0. (released 9-28-2017) at the time of testing the latest version of Betaflight was 4.0.3 1-6-2019, however I did not want to update any settings and fly it straight out of the box as someone who would buy a BNF would most likely do. On top of the F4 Flight controller there is also a 4in1 ESC running BLHELI_S 16.5 on a Silabs BB2, 48MHZ Chip with a 28A rating (35A Peak). The ESC controls 4 Eachine branded 1106 KV5200 brushless motors.

There is also a onboard DVR setup similar to the Caddx Turtle and Runcam Split, where the 1/4 inch CMOS FPV camera feeds directly from a ribbon cable into a 1280×720- 60FPS DVR that records to a MicroSD card. The video feeds into an unmarked VTX that transmits on 5.8g frequency with power output of 25MW/200MW Switchable over 48 channels and that is connected via U.FL connector to a UXII antenna. The quad is controlled using a Frsky XM+ Receiver with Telemetry with if both tiny and powerful.

Stock Betaflight Settings

As always I insist on getting a screencap of all the screens in Betaflight for later reference in case I mess up a setting somewhere. Below are those shots.

DIFF output from CLI

# diff

# version
# Betaflight / OMNIBUSF4SD (OBSD) 3.2.0 Sep 28 2017 / 16:38:50 (ceb6f70) MSP API: 1.36

# name
name Lizard105S

# feature
feature MOTOR_STOP
feature LED_STRIP

# map
map TAER1234

# serial
serial 2 64 115200 57600 0 115200

# led
led 0 8,6::CTI:3
led 1 7,6::CTI:3

# mode_color

# aux
aux 0 0 0 1300 2100
aux 1 1 1 1325 1625
aux 2 13 2 1725 2100
aux 3 28 1 1775 2100

# master
set rssi_channel = 16
set serialrx_provider = SBUS
set motor_pwm_protocol = DSHOT600
set pid_process_denom = 1
set osd_rssi_pos = 2083
set osd_tim_1_pos = 54
set osd_tim_2_pos = 33
set osd_flymode_pos = 2424
set osd_throttle_pos = 225
set osd_vtx_channel_pos = 377
set osd_ah_sbar = 200
set osd_ah_pos = 200
set osd_gps_speed_pos = 218
set osd_gps_lon_pos = 82
set osd_gps_lat_pos = 65
set osd_gps_sats_pos = 51
set osd_home_dir_pos = 302
set osd_home_dist_pos = 303
set osd_compass_bar_pos = 266
set osd_altitude_pos = 247
set osd_pid_roll_pos = 423
set osd_pid_pitch_pos = 455
set osd_pid_yaw_pos = 487
set osd_debug_pos = 1
set osd_power_pos = 321
set osd_pidrate_profile_pos = 345
set osd_warnings_pos = 329
set osd_pit_ang_pos = 257
set osd_rol_ang_pos = 289
set osd_battery_usage_pos = 392
set osd_disarmed_pos = 138
set osd_nheading_pos = 311
set osd_nvario_pos = 279
set osd_esc_tmp_pos = 82
set osd_esc_rpm_pos = 83

Test Flight

Test Flight Thoughts

Stock out of the box the Eachine Lizard105S flies pretty darn well for being a really small, really light 2.4″ quad. The stock settings are not perfect, as you can see there a tad bit of oscillation that can be seen in the prop guards vibrating in the video. I think the combination of the Dshot600, the 8kHz frequency and the stock PID setup made flight feel decently peppy. Movements were quick and responsive, especially compared to my 6/7″ quad. You can definitely tell the lightness of the quad in the way it felt flying it. Previous 3″ quads I have flown were over 2x the weight, especially when added the GoPro on top of it you could really feel it in the roll and pitch maneuvers. The Lizard felt really balanced, or at least it was so light none of, if any, imbalances could be felt during flight.

Minor Setback

Before the maiden I noticed a line on the product page stating there was a “Camera & 720P DVR improve brightness Firmware Download ” which i did notice the fpv feed was a tad dark and on the blue side, but i wanted to wait until after so I could compare. After the maiden I replaced the microSD with another SD of which i had installed the Firmware update to and I let it go through the update process, boot up, light flashing, light stop flashing. I gave it another minute and then unplugged the unit. I then removed the microSD with the original one I was recording with but only got a black screen displaying the OSD but no Camera output, the only thing I can assume was somewhere along the line the Firmware update process did not complete and the DVR is now bricked. Major bummer!

What next?

Once I am able to either fix or replace the issue with the DVR/FPV camera, I would definitely upgrade the Betaflight firmware to the latest version. Same with the ESC, I would like to update to the latest version of BLHELI_S. Then the last thing I would do would be to experiment with some other props, I have a nice set of Furious props I was never able to use previously that I would like to try.