RushFPV Blade F722 V2 digital flight stack

On the lookout for a flexible and easy-to-use flight controller stack to your subsequent digital FPV drone? Take a look at the RushFPV F722 V2 + 5A ESC Stack which has simply been launched and appears a dependable possibility. The most important benefit of this flight stack is that it requires minimal soldering as a result of onboard connectors. This modular design can also be nice for testing numerous equipment corresponding to GPS, RX, and VTXs.

A flight controller (FC) is actually the mind of the FPV drone. It’s liable for deciphering the stick inputs from the pilot and controlling the plane’s actions accordingly. It does this by utilizing a mixture of onboard sensors, corresponding to accelerometers, gyroscopes, and magnetometers, to find out the drone’s orientation and place in area.

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One other essential part of a racing drone is the digital velocity controller (ESC). It regulates the facility move from the LIPO battery to the brushless motors, controlling the drone’s velocity and maneuverability upon the FC’s instructions which, in flip, controls its altitude, pitch, and yaw.

Rush F722 FC & Rush BLADE 50A SPORT F4 ESC assessment

Disclosure: I acquired this digital flight stack as a part of a product assessment collaboration with RushFPV. Though the electronics have been supplied without cost, all opinions on this article stay my very own, and the sponsor by no means influenced me.

RushFPV is a comparatively new participant within the FPV market, specializing in making VTXs. They declare to have turn out to be one of the crucial in style analog VTX manufacturers in lower than a yr. Now, their product vary contains flight controllers, ESCs, motors, frames, and even ready-to-fly FPV drones. RushFPV has two stack sizes, 30.5*30.5mm and 20*20mm (named Mini), for smaller builds. Each adopts modular design with connectors and can be found for analog and digital FPV programs.

Each the F722 flight controller and 50A ESC board are packaged in the identical pink plastic field. On the again of the case is an inventory of the included equipment and a few technical specs. The cool factor is that the bins will be stacked (connected to one another like LEGO blocks) and re-used for storing screws and different small components.

1. RUSH BLADE F722 V2 flight controller for digital FPV (DJI Air Unit O3 and extra)

The BLADE F722 V2 flight controller is filled with many cables (together with DJI Air Unit O3), two units of rubber grommets (5 and 8mm), a consumer guide, and bonus RushFPV silver stickers for the model’s followers. For broad compatibility, RushFPV contains an ESC cable with two totally different connectors. The board measures 36.5*37*5.2mm and can be utilized in 30.5×30.5mm stacks.

I at all times wished a flight controller with I/O connectors for simple swapping and testing FPV drone components. The RUSHFPV F722 V2 has a detachable protecting plastic cowl that shields the wise components. The enclosure protects the digital parts from coming into mud and grass clippings. Even the USB Sort-C has a rubber cap for a similar objective.

Along with the ESC connectors (with UART3), it has UART5, HD VTX (UART2 and UART4), UART1, and LED output. The one lacking factor is a Buzzer connector. If you wish to use one, you will have to solder it on the again of the FC board. Really, all of the I/O ports (together with USB) are additionally obtainable on the again of the FC for soldering in the event you want a safer connection.

As its identify suggests, this FC relies on a high-performance STM32 F722 MCU. It adopts an ICM42688P gyroscope and BMP280 barometer. It has 5 UART and eight PWM ports for exterior equipment (RX, VTX, GPS, LEDs, and extra).

Out of the field, the board runs on BetaFlight 4.3.1. Upgrading the firmware to the newest 4.4.1 model (05 April 2023) went easily. You may choose auto-detect or go for Blade F7 goal.

Key options

• Excessive-performance STM32 F722 MCU with speeds as much as 216MHz
• ICM42688P gyroscope, unbiased low-noise energy provide
• Designed for digital FPV (DJI Air Unit and Air Unit O3 cables included)
• Constructed-in analog video OSD, 16M black field, 5xUART ports, 8PWM output ports, 2ADC ports, 1 I2C port
• Twin high-power synchronous rectifier BEC helps as much as 36V enter and offers steady 5V/10V 3A output
• A modular cable design with a dependable locking construction will be put in shortly whereas retaining full-featured pads on the again, offering extra enlargement help
• Single-side format, decrease mounting peak, 6-layer PCB, remoted ESC interference
• PC case is affect resistant and simple to disassemble, remoted from mud and grass clippings

Technical parameters

2. RUSH BLADE 50A SPORT F4 ESC

The SPORT F4 50A ESC is filled with two varieties of ESC cables. One is meant for RUSH flight controllers, and the second will be custom-made for different branded FCs. A 35v/450μF LOW ESR capacitor is included, however not an XT60 battery cable. I noticed on RUSH’s web site that they’ve a devoted energy filter board appropriate with this ESC. The module has two 35v/330μF capacitors and three high-power TVS diodes on board, which might minimize voltage peaks at nano-seconds speeds and soak up high-voltage surges brought on by collisions of the propeller throughout a crash in time to guard the field-effect tube and different parts from the surge.

The board measures 45*36.5*7.5mm and weighs roughly 17 grams. It has a metallic warmth sink on either side. It has giant motor pads however comparatively small energy tabs. The motors are labeled so as to match them simply within the BetaFlight configurator. The ESC includes a Cortex M4 core 32-bit microprocessor and runs on BLHeIi_32 firmware.

Key options

• Cortex M4 core 32-bit microprocessor for glorious efficiency.
• As much as 128KHz PWM drive frequency, dynamically adjustable in keeping with RPM.
  Impartial excessive precision voltage comparator with correct sampling towards desync.
• Double-sided light-weight aluminum alloy armor for optimum safety.
• Twin PCB design with separate energy and sign circuits.
• BLHeIi 32 firmware is the third era of BLHeli firmware, following base BLHeli and BLHeli-S.
• All codes use damped gentle mode. Damped gentle does regenerative braking, inflicting very quick motor retardation and inherently additionally inflicting lively freewheeling.
• Helps common 1-2ms pulse width enter, in addition to Oneshot125 (125-250us), Oneshot42 (41.7-83.3us), and Multishot (5-25us).
• Dshot signaling is supported at any price as much as at the least Dshotl 200. The enter sign is mechanically detected by the ESC upon power-up. No want for throttle calibration.
• Helps beacon performance, the place the ESC will begin beeping after a given time of zero throttles. This may be very helpful for locating a misplaced drone.

Technical parameters

Pricing, availability, and different choices

The BLADE F722 Digital FC will be ordered from the producer’s web site for $63.99, and the BLADE 50A SPORT F4 ESC for $62.99. For those who want a 20x20mm mounting sample, RushFPV additionally has a “Mini” model of their F722 flight controller. For 20x20m ESC, you could go for the RACING V1.2 60A. Most RushFPV components and equipment are additionally obtainable on AliExpress and plenty of in style RC retailers.

What’s subsequent?

I plan to construct with this F722 flight stack a 6″ long-range digital FPV drone. I simply positioned an order for a FlyFish Volador II VD6 body equipment and a set of Flash 2506 motors. I’m additionally ready for the O3 Air Unit and the remainder of the components (RX, GPS module, Buzzer, and props) to be delivered.

Earlier than ordering the body, you must double-check to just accept 30.5×30.5 stacks as a result of some new fashions are appropriate solely with 20×20 mounting patterns. Keep in mind additionally to order an XT60 battery cable, because the ESC comes with out one.