Insanely cheap 5' FPV quadcopter! DARWIN240 JOHNNY5 REVIEW

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Buy the DarwinFPV 240 Johnny5 at:

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00:00:00 - A really good 5" for under $200?
00:01:41 - Who is DarwinFPV
00:03:35 - Frame Design
00:05:21 - The Flight Controller and ESC
00:09:02 - Video Transmitter
00:09:45 - vTX output power test
00:12:01 - Motors
00:14:00 - Have I earned your support today
00:14:53 - Flight Test
00:15:44 - Camera FOV is ridiculously narrow
00:16:18 - Can you "unstretch" the camera in menu?
00:17:32 - Flight test with new camera
00:19:13 - Is it worth the money?

[wearemany]

I’m sad for “JB in the past” struggling on with his black and white camera, good for him. 👍😊 I would fly one of these with no problem at all, it looks great.

[mark]

I still fly my tyro 119. I only use it to fly around in the country, but I love it. I became a Patreon because of this quad and JBs tutorial. Please keep up the great work.

[VernStarr]

A friend of mine that's new to the hobby picked up the Walksnail version recently - I was pretty impressed for what it cost! One thing that struck me as really odd was that the FC isn't actually mounted on gummies, it is sandwiched between blue silicone spacers (which is close but not quite the same). I helped him redo the stack with proper gummies and metal locknuts on the very bottom and top of the stack screws. We also updated the ESCs to BlueJay and turned on RPM filtering and dynamic idle and loaded the SupaFly 5" preset. I also gave him a set of HQ V2S props. Between all that it got rid of most of the chugging/grinding noise it randomly makes, and flies great. The Walksnail VTX is in the way back section, and of course has a completely different camera than yours had. Oh, and I did have to laugh a bit when I saw the ELRS receiver was zip-tied to the big ESC capacitor. All in all a really good starter/basher.

[heliharris]

Never had a bad product from Darwin... In fact for the money.. they are damn good value.

[BooToob]

Haha perfect timing considering I asked a question about this quad yesterday on stream. My Darwin 240 has been great!

Edit: Ended up updating mine with betaflight 4.4, swapped the props for PB&J's, and swapped the vtx/camera with a caddx vista. It only comes in 4s that's why I was asking about 6s on 2400kv via motor limit yesterday.

[blackjungle]

Dangit JB. I rewatched 12:00 about 3 times, thinking my discord was pinging. :D

[funkynerd_com]

DarwinFPV make some good stuff. I've got custom build 5" race drones, big 12" cinelifters, micros, etc, but one of my favourites to just rip about is my DarwinFPV Baby Ape V2. Even with just the 2S on it, but throw a 3S on it and it is insane.

[sriparthreddyreddyrguktian]

He was roasting the company all the way in the video 😂 i just felt it

[sunshynff]

I don't have a bind n fly, but I've been very happy with their electronic hardware. Also, I LOVE those connectors they send where you have to insert your own wires!! Yeah, sometimes you have to solder them to other wires from another connector, but I'm often mixing and matching hardware. When it comes to which order they're in, especially ESC-FC ...cur/nc/1234/vcc/gnd....are rarely in the same order, but if you buy just an FC or ESC from Darwin they send you several of those connectors, 3/4/ and 5 pin, and a whole bunch of individual wires, so you can make your own customized harness.

[SugalimeD_FPV]

You can use 4S or 6S LIPOS on this with pretty the same performance... From what I've read from comments on Youtube, it is possible to set Betaflight so that if the FC detects a 6S battery, the FC will open the throttle up to 67%, if the FC detects a 4S battery, the FC open the throttle up to 100%. I would suggest you buy small 4S batteries for a 3.5 to 4 inch, and 6S batteries for the J5. You can use both on the J5 until one motor breaks down. Then buy 6S motors.

[pbshooter]

I have a Tyro129 7" that I purchased back in the day. I also have a Tyro 79. The Tyro's were sold by Eachine. The frame design of the Dawin240 is not exactly the same as my 129 but it is very similar in a lot of respects. The flight stack looks to me to be identical. The camera that came with the 129 kit was total junk, the same that you have found to be true with the Darwin. I replaced my with one from Caddx. I did get RPM filtering /Bidirectional Dshot working by installing bluejay firmware and as you indicated I had to change the gyro rate from 8K to 4K to get it all to work. So while the Darwin240 may not be an exact copy of the Tyro's of the past it seems to be pretty darn close.

[CrawlersCampRc]

Now this is awesome!!! Thank you for reviewing this!! My type of stuff here honestly excited seeing it💯

[otzlixr]

I think no one does the sliding scale of price vs value than Mr Bardwell. Of course I don’t go with his opinion all the time, but he explains his reasoning well enough I can easily apply my own values.

Some of these channels appear to ignore that people do not actually have to pay for these products. Some channels (mostly fixed wing) value a lower price over everything.

[srundo]

hey joshua! just wanna say that I really look up to you dude and thanks for all these great informing vids!!!

[hyperx]

It cool but on the website you cant offer thing from the frame like only a arm you only can offer the hole frame etc. Why i can not buy thing like the under plate etc. ????

[tyler]

I bought one a couple months ago. I cannot complain. All it’s needs is. DJI vtx

[HollywoodFPV]

Good to see ya putting out affordable stuff 💪😁💪

[gmivisualsjason]

Thats the best vtx ever!!!! Especially for those of us in EU

[incognegro_fpv]

I actually ended up losing the 1st one i got. i then got a 2nd with elrs and i love em. flies well for a beginner 5in. ive made some decent footage and it flies good for the price. im going to purchase the 7in next. i also have the cineape25. the babyape is what got me started.

[Loochy]

I have a couple of old Tyros that i still fly regularly. Both a 79 and a 99. I bought this so fast.