As the designer of the Rekon 4 FR this is super interesting to see! Hoestly, I think having most of the quads survive the abuse of ten total beginners is a VERY good results for a BNF that also flies for 10+ minutes, is sub 250 and fast enough to race. And did I mention that its also cheap? :-D On the other hand I have to admit that it's always really hard to catch all the potential small issues people might have with a quad before releasing it. This is just a hobby / side business for me as well and I have to rely on a few prototypes and production samples I can bash around and troubleshoot. For example I never had any issues with the M2 Screws getting loose . Anyhow, I'll talk to the manufacturing guys to fix that with some loctite and glue the antenna to the TPU. Using M3 is unfortunately not an option since it adds too much weight for a sub 250.
Glade to see you are still active in the hobby! however, I havent been very happy with the QA of hglrc recently, and lack of information on their site. I have had a couple of rekons and getting spare parts which fit the orginals has been a huge issue. looks like I will need to order parts custom made from cncdrones to get my frames back in order. Rekon 6/5 have the center screw changed to m3 and front plates came with missing screw holes for the mounting.
I love mine. I put a little bit bigger motors on and it's kind of a lot to handle. I just use a rubber grommet on the antenna to hold it in place, works well enough. Way fun to fly when I'm looking for something different.
This is my go to quad man, thanks so much for this one. I absolutely love it. I did some mods to make it more to my liking but it’s fairly close to stock and a blast. I added a bit of weight but it’s worth the trade off to have TPU guards and an antenna mount. Thanks again dude!! Love this quad!!
i have the worst luck with hglrc stuff. of all companys fc and escs hglrc stuff has failed me the most. my EMAX hawk 5 (got me in the hobby back in the day) still works. i even raced it for two years. still works.
I have been flying my Rekon 4 FR for about 3 months and I love it. I got the digital version and have an aio board. I did bust a part of the main frame by crashing into a metal object at decent speed but out of all my crashes it has honestly been very durable.
It is good to see that even this Rekon 4 FR uses technology and design that has been around for the last five years. I started getting interested in fpv 4 years ago and made the mistake of getting a Rekon 5 analog which has the same technology in the Rekon 4 FR, so good to see that my Rekon 5 is still future proof as I have upgraded to ELRS aswell. I learn't alot about building analog quads. But still a beginner and realised that a 5" quad was not a beginner quad. Since then I have a Firefly 1s Nano for practicing, built a Geprc CinePro 2.5" from scratch, and customized two Geprc 3" MX and PX quads. Still a beginner, but 2023 I have started gaining interest again. I have bought the Walksnail HD Pro Kit for upgrading my Geprc CinePro and Geprc PX quads and excited to experience the higher quality HD flying experience. Thank you for all your hard work and dedication to this great hobby Joshua. If it were not for your videos, I would not have ventured into the very niche world of fpv.
Great review! I really like 4". They just seem to be snappier, more agile, and more responsive than 5", while being more toss-able for big moves than 3.5"
Hi Josh, Great video and review of the Rekon 4 fr. I have been flying 3.5in and 4in quads for years, and I really like them. Thanks again for the video and information about this quad.
I bought the Rekon4 FR as a newbie for freestyle training, around November 2022. I crashed into trees power looped into the ground often with just propeller damage and throwing rocks to get it out of trees. The video transmitter range sucks, so my first soldering job was installing a vista unit. Thanks for the soldering video and all the others videos JB. I could not get the Immortal T or back mount to work properly. I bought a Customfpv package and flying free ever since. Thanks again JB. PS. It does look like an 80’s picture of you from back in the day. lol
I also have a HGLRC 30x30 stack, 1st flight on a brand new 7", kept throttling on it`s own, thought I might have screwed up somewhere so I swopped it to a 5" and it flew great for about 7 packs....8th pack when I armed it full throttled and hit me in the shoulder luckily, I wont be buying their electronics again any time soon
I have the rekon FR since 1.5 year (it was my first quad) I still fly it regularly my tougth on it -the motor bells pops off I glue them all back it they all flew off -the midle arm screws are a bit short and will rip the threads off the standoff in a crash -the Original AIO was very bad alot of electrical noise -the slots in the cam plates are fragile -the frame is very tough for the weight. other than that very fun quad I fly it with 3.5in props way more fun
Get 16 minutes of similar style flying on my Crux35 with 4s 850 packs, 13+ on 4s 450. After 2 packs it feels weird taking the goggles off and seeing with my own eyes again.
Just a positive note on rekon's support. I had a faulty motor and replaced it very quickly. I also was missing some screws in my kit. They sent me a cap and the missing screws ;)
My rekon 4 LR has been really fun to fly. I did get tired of going to new locations and needing to memorize the terrain so last summer I upgraded to WS. I think the only downside to this frame is the arms are relatively thin and can be easy to break. Anyway, I'm keeping this one and it might even keep a place in my stable this Sept. as a sub 250 so I can fly free.
Ive never flown a bnf 4 inch, but i built one. I built a 3.5 a couple months ago, and i liked it much better, but to be fair it may have been the difference in tuning. The 4 in. felt to floaty, it wouldnt drop fast enough, and i tried several things to fix it. The 3.5 flys a lot like a 5 in imo.
I have had this very same thing time and again mate 👍 I don’t know what it is but I can’t and no one I can either get a 4” to preform well in most scenarios 👍🤝
@@bugsy742 Thanks man, that's good to know, my thoughts are the props for the size, and weight make it hang longer, I think this because I used the exact setup on a lightweight 5", and it was worse than the 4". I just used motors I had that didn't work out on a heavy 3" acrobat, they were 1606/4000kv. I built the five inch because someone bet it would burn out almost instantly, it didn't, and I used 4s, but to make it fly decently I used the 4.8 quad blade props with 2 clipped off. With 5 inch props it flew rough, hard to believe that .2 inch of prop made such a big difference.
@@RCOverKill oh my god mate you are like Doc from back to the future! 😅🤝 That’s an effin brilliant story! I’m definitely going to love your content for sure! ✊ I used 1404’s for my 4” quads but I’m still a noob soooo 😅🙏
@@bugsy742 Thanks, I got you too. I haven't posted for almost 2 years, bit on April 2st I have my 1st drone shoot chasing antique motorcycles race, they don't go very fast, hope I can make a decent video from it, I'll be posting either way after thec1st, thanks again brother. Lol my account started as Papadoc.
recommended for review: iFlight Chimera4 - x frame version with VISTA. The one I fly uses the XING 1404/4600 kva motors, has a GPS module and holder and a self-powered buzzer. I use 4" triblade props and the dry weight without battery is 184 grams. JB reviewed the LR version in October 2020 - perhaps worth a relook!
i think the motors are a bit sub-standard, but not bad. i think i messed up my motors with dumb beginner noodling, but the balance and air gap is very finely balanced and only held with less than solid glue or loctite. i got good support for them, but if you ever manage to bust 2 or more motors, probably switch them out for more durable ones.
I've got the LR, and find it pretty capable, have been wondering about the FR because it's so good, thanks for all the flight footage lately, it looks great..LR came with 1603 2800kv
Could you provide the factory pids and filters? I made some changes to fly in high wind and forgot to backup the original settings... Thank you for the video on this quad!
Josh, I'm sure you've posted this somewhere already, but could you post the approx dimensions of you "cube gate" thing in the field? seems like a good size for proximity work on a assortment of drone sizes. Thanks! keep up the excellent videos.
JB the Antenna mount is meant to sandwich in between the bottom of the front standoffs and the top of the bottom plate. Much more solid and you'll notice the standoffs cup right into the antenna mount. Plus, tunning this guy is a pain. The Supafly 4" preset for this quad is spot on, solves all the little quirks with this quad's flight characteristics. It flies amazingly on that preset! Oh, one more thing. The ESC is set to 96K from the factory. Take it down to 24K for the preset. Give it a try you'll be pleasantly surprised.
@@JoshuaBardwell 100% correct my friend. We both know there is a lot of details missed from the factory in the world of FPV. With a little love this is an amazing quad, that's all.
investigate the bad quad, remove props, enable logs, plug battery, wait for it to happen and you have a new video! This is the 2nd time I hear this behavior in the past 2 weeks or so. I have small 3" quads, i think i'm 'safer' that someome eating a 5" quad
The problem with the motors is basically the thing that happens to all larger t mount style motors. I flew the apex 4 inch for months with 2004 motors and kept going through them like crazy. I'm surprised these 1804s lasted as long as they did but it's probably because like you said they did't get slammed to hard in a grass field enough
I had a rekon 4 and it was a total piece of cr@p. It took me 2 days to get it in the air (I was new and didn't realize how to tell when one of the motors was reversed). For bnf though, you would think they would have tested the motor directions. When I finally did get it in the air, it flew like a butterfly on meth. It taught me a lot about trouble shooting a poorly made drone. Seriously, it turned me off from hglrc / rekon. It also made me an enemy of race day quads for not allowing me to return it.
Hi Joshua Great 👍 video Requesting you to make a video on 10+ students . We all will be interested in the method you discribe the new flyers how to fly the quad for the very first time. The process involved in the learning curve can be explained best by you 🙂. Great Regards
Wow, Joshua, you're making trainings? Do you have online one? I cannot find anything around me (I am from Ukraine staying in Slovakia, maximum I can find is slovak school but unfortunately I do not know slovak language... Other words - online is my only hope) Is it even possible learn fpv online?..
6:40 r so.. ya, REMOVE the rubber band and use minimal cellophane tape.. The antenna factory mount seems to be for range..(?).. so there isn't an auto return?.. (with a controller , that is a defiant fault if a GPS is installed ans even still a raw calculation could be estimated if heading and pressure (alt and forward) is installed and they should be limited to 118mph (ha, ha, ha.. watched tor video on trying to free up the weight limit and discard that 1897 French bullet kills at calculation)
Dave C. designs have been skimpy on the carbon and steel since he moved out of designing racing 5", and arguably before then. He runs it light, and the advantages are there. Nothing is free though, and since he started on long range frames they have looked like they could ONLY survive minor crashes on grass at low speed. I admire the thought that he puts into his designs, but they are consistently uncrashable. If you want to live in the flying realm of "this will be completely devastated by any crash from significant height, or speed. Do not ever crash into steel or concrete", those designs are for you. The payoff is there, if you have the skills, and the preparation. There should be a disclaimer though, ppl shill these things like they can be crashed. You are describing the myriad ways that it's not up to freestyle duty, and i'm glad you have integrity there. He just doesn't design stuff to be bashed, and the idea of it is like drifting a new ferrari. It could only work out if you were INCREDIBLY skilled, coming into it... and even then only with significant maintenance costs from crashes on a regular basis. The hardware just isn't set up for it. Doesn't have the ability to absorb kinetic/ballistic impacts with the frame, saving the electronics. What it DOES have is a good thrust to weight ratio, and agile handling characteristics. Looks like a blast on the sticks.
Great review, I have the older rekon 5” and 4” love them. However I have replace the antenna mounts with my own 3d printed parts. Also I have to say the HGLRC fc are very poor quality and I’ve replaced them.
Great sample size and observations. Thank you for sharing this. Those 1804s with 2mm shafts are not very good for bashing (amazing feeling motor, and great for cruising) BUT 1507-2104 with 3mm shafts fare significantly better for the more destructive flying styles. 😜 Switching to those motors will obviously be out of the question and add 20+ grams, and just like the reason for the small VTX, it is why they didn’t use them in this sub 250 build. They likely hit the best balance with what they have… a durable motor for sub 250 bashing doesn’t really exist… unless you optimize your frame, and use an AIO with 1507s with 3mm shafts… this is the best I have accomplished in the past. But Recon doesn’t make a light 3mm shaft motor, so they did the best they could.
Skip the 1804 and go 2004 size with 3mm shaft motor. Personally I wanted to stay sub250, aber after trying like 10 different builds, I just busted the limit to ~300g AUW on 4". A 2004 or 2005 motor with 2200~2600kv on 6S with 4" is more fun to fly.
Problem is...many guys come from flying DJI video drones, so they are too hung up on flight time. I fly with the lightest lipo I can find, still get great flight times cuz 3 - 4 minutes is my goal, but Power to Weight Ratio is way higher, and therefore performance is increased considerably!
@@chrisbee5481 I 100% agree!!! Sub 500 grams is also one of my favourite to fly. 2004s are pretty good… I do prefer 5mm shaft motors personally and I prefer screws to clips on the motor shaft end… but that’s just a personal thing, as I do a lot of maintenance, and generally flush the grease in the motor bearings every couple of hours, at least. I don’t fly much of 2004 anymore (I use to at one point), recently I am sticking to 1506-1606 in that weight range, but most of the time go up to 2203.5, or more recently 2105.5 for an extra 20 grams of AUW. The RCinpower 2105plus is near and dear to my heart, and I use it a lot of builds.
@@lemonsquareFPV like you, I also prefer the 5mm shaft prop mount. The HQ 4x3x3 or gemfan 4032 are my favourite 4" props and setup. The problem with the 2105 motor is, that they are only available in ~2650kv or
@@KOrnhOliO1 same, I personally tune for 60 seconds on my 5” all out race builds which is generally in the 1200-1400mAh 6S, and 90 seconds for my aggressive freestyle builds… which vary considerably with cell count and prop size, but battery usually falls in the 30-40% of AUW. I’m a bit on the lighter side of average usually. You have to use good batteries though or sag would be too much, this makes the biggest difference, by far. Crappy batteries are heavier and give much less power, that’s the main reason people oversize, they have to, for performance to be bearable. But flying style varies considerably, I know people that fly with sub 30% battery weight (I usually do on optimized micros) and long rangers that fly with a heavier battery than the quad 😜 As always, there is a huge variance in this hobby.
That is kind of lighter-frames fun the AOS LR5 is absolute beast. Not sub250 but with 8+minutes flighttime ripping freestyle or 12+minutes of long range cruise on 1300 6s. Brilliant and performance wise 10:1 to Rekon5
Just imagine how great your quad would fly if you used a lighter lipo to get that power to weight ratio as high as you can. Try a smaller lipo and reap the rewards! Flight time doesn't matter as long as it's over 3 or 4 minutes! Just swap lipos more often. It's performance that matters and a lighter lipo will up the performance significantly! Try it, you'll love it! I fly some quads with a 450mah 4S so it's as light as possible and man does it fly great! Still great flight time too!!! That might be too light for this quad, but you get my point... 😎🤘
@@KOrnhOliO1 the flip-side of this argument is that high TWR and low disc-loading means the quad is super floaty, which not everybody likes. I'd rather have a little heavier pack to make a 3" to 4" quad have similar disc-loading to a 5", than a lighter pack with more TWR.
@@KOrnhOliO1 im ripping the freestyle fun with 4s 650 or 6s 850 and the performance is 10:1 to Rekon frames when pushed really hard on tuning and Dterm. Throw some heavy battery in and you have relaxing cruiser on same build.
@@JoshuaBardwell Yeah, you're right, a lot of guys like that. But, they do tricks, and I'm not that into tricks, but more into great cornering and instantaneous handling. Like Nick Burns flies... Like him, I'm not into 5", no room to fly those where I live in the suburbs. 3.5" and smaller for me. I like to go fast and weave through the trees a different pattern every time through. I really I love the light floating Toothpick like power to weight ratio that makes cornering like you're on rails. Tricks are for Kids - I'm Cuckoo-for-cocoa-puffs! ... ERRRRRRR.... Cuckoo for cornering! LOL Great video, like always, JB!! PS...who mounts a Crossfire antenna in the front? right?! HGLRC - wake up, that's a stupid place for it. We all mount it in back, and not on top, but off the bottom of the stand offs! GEEZ! lol Also, companies need to be more creative with their names for quads and products. Like DJI and the V2 goggles and goggles2...is that the dumbest naming EVER?! But, this Rekon is dumb too, and maybe why you didn't think it was good for these beginners. The old Rekon was that dumb as F single 18650 quad that flew like crap. Easy to get this one confused with that one. HGLRC - It's better to name it REKON spelled backwards than REKON...again! NOKER! Ok, from now on we are calling it the Noker!...or we could add a c and call it the Nocker! Oh well, I just had to! 🥴
This analog quad may have a slightly less sharp image than an HDZero quad does, but when flying your property, I actually like the image quality better than when you flew your space with an HDZero quad because the analog had almost no break up, where the HDZero quad rewarded us with a ton of colored sparklies in the same space! Those colored sparklies coupled with the high quality OLED goggles HDZero has makes for some tough break up for YOUR EYEBALLS to handle! I think the HDZero quad even had a stronger output VTX than this 350mw VTX on this Rekon 4 has.
Maybe compare with something from Avant Quads ... like their Avio4 or Nexa4. At least I know that I'm after 2 years, still very happy with my Ciro4LR (despite LR, flown mostly Freestyle).
Greatings from Ukraine) I have similar problem. I got 9 quads build on SpeedyBee F405 V3 with all different components, but the same problem with all of them. On default PIDs when you touch any of the sticks quad fly to space, only disarm help. I lower PIDs, play with them and its help more or less. But maybe someone can advise me what it can be and why?
I have this quad just got it a few months ago and just was able to take it out because of the weather however mine came with a stack not just the aio and I'm noticing a wobble at the bottom of my punch outs???? Help
@@garretpickens5745 performance is very subjective. My rekon 5 was flying pretty good in freestyle, the handling was sharp. But it failed miserably at flying straight. It was always shaking a bit and that made hd video look crappy. Similar issues come with alot of 7" drones
Where and how do I sign up for JB classes??? I'm a drummer been saving long time for Rock and Roll fantasy camp would rather learn how to fly better!!!
just rebuilt my Rekon 4 FR with a Flywoo AOI and Walksnail 1s nano vtx/cam. Replaced the motors for Xnova 1806 3500kv because they have propnuts instead of those idiot T-Mount bells. Turns out the Xnova's will dent the bell on a light impact with a pole. damnit. The original motors can take a beating! Seriously! but changing props on them sucks.. fck T-Mount. The stock version is very good, tune is great albeit a bit floaty. I went from an rxsr to ELRS and mounted the antenna to an arm. The Walksnail antenna was replaced with a hglrc hammer LHCP and put a zip tie around the antenna hole. Flew the thing on a racetrack and it held up. All screws are done with Locktite. Also put the Flywoo lr4 cam protector on it (had that before and the mounting is the same, just printed it again).
I'd love your opinion between the Rekon 4 FR and the Flywoo Explorer 4. I own 2 Flywoo Explorer's (both upgraded to DJI 03). One with Betaflight that I bash around with 850mah packs and another with Ardupilot, GPS/Compass on a mast and camera on tilt servo that I use for precision DJI style flying. It does seem that the Rekon has more power with those bigger motors, so I'd be curious on thoughts for a motor upgrade on my freestyle version. Would that make it almost the same or am I missing another thought here?
@@carllassalle9401 Due to the DJI 03 Air Unit Camera's wider field, I do see a little of the props now, but only about 5% on each side. It doesn't bother me enough, but you could reduce the field of view (less wide) or make a custom mount to pull the camera forward - but that might introduce more noticeable vibration.
You’ve become a good pilot Bardwell and you probably don’t realise how much you’ve improved over the last couple of years. (That Sbang stuff may be what’s loosened up your style) 🤷♂️
Hglrc antennas with that tube is horrible, the plastic tube is just too brittle, i wish someone would make a better TPU mount that goes up and around the antenna
it woulda been cool to see ten beginners, i've only taught a few people, one was a natural and one was a disaster, like he spun around where he was standing instead of using the sticks hehehe.
Really think 3.5" and 250g is about perfect. 4" as a "long range" makes total sense. think by LR we just mean longer flight time, don't intend to crash them. 3" basher (TT). Ohh we are crashing these.....
as to another option to look into... the Axis Manta 3.5" looks cool. but I have no experience with it. I do have a shocker 4" and that is a lil tank but I think AUW is at 350
Yea, emax babyhawk 3.5" is pretty bulletproof. Flies great, and stands up to bashing. Just needs a ziptie on power wires, a bit of hotglue on motor wires, and it'll last for many many crashes.
Glad you finally tried it, this is one of the best sub250g drones, if you fit 3.5” props to it then it genuinely flies like a 5” and it feels exceptional! I would have no issues replacing my 5”s with it as they feel the same to fly. I’ve had the bolts work loose and lost a few, quite annoying and I’ve already designed a set of Tpu parts for it so I haven’t had any issues with the antenna.
As the designer of the Rekon 4 FR this is super interesting to see! Hoestly, I think having most of the quads survive the abuse of ten total beginners is a VERY good results for a BNF that also flies for 10+ minutes, is sub 250 and fast enough to race. And did I mention that its also cheap? :-D
On the other hand I have to admit that it's always really hard to catch all the potential small issues people might have with a quad before releasing it. This is just a hobby / side business for me as well and I have to rely on a few prototypes and production samples I can bash around and troubleshoot. For example I never had any issues with the M2 Screws getting loose . Anyhow, I'll talk to the manufacturing guys to fix that with some loctite and glue the antenna to the TPU. Using M3 is unfortunately not an option since it adds too much weight for a sub 250.
Please, just keep doing what you do. I love the Flywoo Explorer LR4, it’s beautiful.
Glade to see you are still active in the hobby! however, I havent been very happy with the QA of hglrc recently, and lack of information on their site. I have had a couple of rekons and getting spare parts which fit the orginals has been a huge issue. looks like I will need to order parts custom made from cncdrones to get my frames back in order. Rekon 6/5 have the center screw changed to m3 and front plates came with missing screw holes for the mounting.
I love mine. I put a little bit bigger motors on and it's kind of a lot to handle. I just use a rubber grommet on the antenna to hold it in place, works well enough. Way fun to fly when I'm looking for something different.
Put thin struts between the arms
This is my go to quad man, thanks so much for this one. I absolutely love it. I did some mods to make it more to my liking but it’s fairly close to stock and a blast. I added a bit of weight but it’s worth the trade off to have TPU guards and an antenna mount. Thanks again dude!! Love this quad!!
I have this drone on my bag for when I get out of work ....love it
I have this drone for over 3 months and I love it! Thanks for the vid it’s always nice watch you vids!
I’ve been flying the Rekon 4 FR for a while now and friggin love it. It’s very versatile for me with the right stuff. Glad you did this dude!!
i have the worst luck with hglrc stuff. of all companys fc and escs hglrc stuff has failed me the most. my EMAX hawk 5 (got me in the hobby back in the day) still works. i even raced it for two years. still works.
I have been flying my Rekon 4 FR for about 3 months and I love it. I got the digital version and have an aio board. I did bust a part of the main frame by crashing into a metal object at decent speed but out of all my crashes it has honestly been very durable.
It is good to see that even this Rekon 4 FR uses technology and design that has been around for the last five years. I started getting interested in fpv 4 years ago and made the mistake of getting a Rekon 5 analog which has the same technology in the Rekon 4 FR, so good to see that my Rekon 5 is still future proof as I have upgraded to ELRS aswell. I learn't alot about building analog quads. But still a beginner and realised that a 5" quad was not a beginner quad. Since then I have a Firefly 1s Nano for practicing, built a Geprc CinePro 2.5" from scratch, and customized two Geprc 3" MX and PX quads. Still a beginner, but 2023 I have started gaining interest again. I have bought the Walksnail HD Pro Kit for upgrading my Geprc CinePro and Geprc PX quads and excited to experience the higher quality HD flying experience. Thank you for all your hard work and dedication to this great hobby Joshua. If it were not for your videos, I would not have ventured into the very niche world of fpv.
Love those Ethix K2 props. Good smooth props for 6". They give my kwad more of a V8 sound 😍
Nice flying
2:33
I though that was so funny "turn right sometimes bardwell" because I ALWAYS catch myself doing everything to the left!
Great review! I really like 4". They just seem to be snappier, more agile, and more responsive than 5", while being more toss-able for big moves than 3.5"
Hi Josh, Great video and review of the Rekon 4 fr. I have been flying 3.5in and 4in quads for years, and I really like them. Thanks again for the video and information about this quad.
That must've been fun teaching 10 new people! (And how cool to be able to say you learned with JB!)
I bought the Rekon4 FR as a newbie for freestyle training, around November 2022. I crashed into trees power looped into the ground often with just propeller damage and throwing rocks to get it out of trees. The video transmitter range sucks, so my first soldering job was installing a vista unit. Thanks for the soldering video and all the others videos JB. I could not get the Immortal T or back mount to work properly. I bought a Customfpv package and flying free ever since. Thanks again JB.
PS. It does look like an 80’s picture of you from back in the day. lol
Xnova 1804 5mm shaft is an excellent replacement motor, have been flogging them a lot and haven't broken one yet on my apex micro 4
I also have a HGLRC 30x30 stack, 1st flight on a brand new 7", kept throttling on it`s own, thought I might have screwed up somewhere so I swopped it to a 5" and it flew great for about 7 packs....8th pack when I armed it full throttled and hit me in the shoulder luckily, I wont be buying their electronics again any time soon
I have the rekon FR since 1.5 year (it was my first quad) I still fly it regularly my tougth on it
-the motor bells pops off I glue them all back it they all flew off
-the midle arm screws are a bit short and will rip the threads off the standoff in a crash
-the Original AIO was very bad alot of electrical noise
-the slots in the cam plates are fragile
-the frame is very tough for the weight.
other than that very fun quad I fly it with 3.5in props way more fun
i have the chimera 4 (X version vista and 3800kv motors) (the one 4" i love) and is freestyling very well
Get 16 minutes of similar style flying on my Crux35 with 4s 850 packs, 13+ on 4s 450. After 2 packs it feels weird taking the goggles off and seeing with my own eyes again.
I cut a zip tie and shove it in the hole, then shrink wrap it around the antenna cable. This adds some rigidity.
Fantastic flying, Joshua! 😃
Thanks a bunch for the review and all the info!
Stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊
Just went and watched the Shocker video, and it reminded me of the intro that I had completely forgotten.
A version of the rekon4 was almost my first. there was a package with box goggles and a frsky controler got a little over $400.
Just a positive note on rekon's support. I had a faulty motor and replaced it very quickly. I also was missing some screws in my kit. They sent me a cap and the missing screws ;)
My rekon 4 LR has been really fun to fly. I did get tired of going to new locations and needing to memorize the terrain so last summer I upgraded to WS.
I think the only downside to this frame is the arms are relatively thin and can be easy to break.
Anyway, I'm keeping this one and it might even keep a place in my stable this Sept. as a sub 250 so I can fly free.
same. I have the rekon 4 LR analog and the arms are constantly breaking. I guess it's not meant to crash at all
Ive never flown a bnf 4 inch, but i built one. I built a 3.5 a couple months ago, and i liked it much better, but to be fair it may have been the difference in tuning. The 4 in. felt to floaty, it wouldnt drop fast enough, and i tried several things to fix it. The 3.5 flys a lot like a 5 in imo.
I have had this very same thing time and again mate 👍 I don’t know what it is but I can’t and no one I can either get a 4” to preform well in most scenarios 👍🤝
@@bugsy742 Thanks man, that's good to know, my thoughts are the props for the size, and weight make it hang longer, I think this because I used the exact setup on a lightweight 5", and it was worse than the 4". I just used motors I had that didn't work out on a heavy 3" acrobat, they were 1606/4000kv. I built the five inch because someone bet it would burn out almost instantly, it didn't, and I used 4s, but to make it fly decently I used the 4.8 quad blade props with 2 clipped off. With 5 inch props it flew rough, hard to believe that .2 inch of prop made such a big difference.
@@RCOverKill oh my god mate you are like Doc from back to the future! 😅🤝
That’s an effin brilliant story! I’m definitely going to love your content for sure! ✊ I used 1404’s for my 4” quads but I’m still a noob soooo 😅🙏
@@bugsy742 Thanks, I got you too. I haven't posted for almost 2 years, bit on April 2st I have my 1st drone shoot chasing antique motorcycles race, they don't go very fast, hope I can make a decent video from it, I'll be posting either way after thec1st, thanks again brother. Lol my account started as Papadoc.
@@RCOverKill brilliant mate ✊ best of luck dude 🤝🤝🤝
recommended for review: iFlight Chimera4 - x frame version with VISTA. The one I fly uses the XING 1404/4600 kva motors, has a GPS module and holder and a self-powered buzzer. I use 4" triblade props and the dry weight without battery is 184 grams. JB reviewed the LR version in October 2020 - perhaps worth a relook!
3800kv
Loctitle is helping also with motor bels repair ;) in this case.
i think the motors are a bit sub-standard, but not bad. i think i messed up my motors with dumb beginner noodling, but the balance and air gap is very finely balanced and only held with less than solid glue or loctite. i got good support for them, but if you ever manage to bust 2 or more motors, probably switch them out for more durable ones.
I've got the LR, and find it pretty capable, have been wondering about the FR because it's so good, thanks for all the flight footage lately, it looks great..LR came with 1603 2800kv
Try out a diatone frame. I'm beyond pleased with mine.
I have One and i love It! I wanna pick another One!
I have rekon 5 with the same motors. Yesterday the top of the motor flew away during power loop. I had a lot of problems with hglrc products.
Could you provide the factory pids and filters? I made some changes to fly in high wind and forgot to backup the original settings... Thank you for the video on this quad!
Josh, I'm sure you've posted this somewhere already, but could you post the approx dimensions of you "cube gate" thing in the field? seems like a good size for proximity work on a assortment of drone sizes. Thanks! keep up the excellent videos.
16' tall, 5' square openings, 3' tall dividers.
@@JoshuaBardwell Thank you!
I feel like I'm going to learn something
Damn right you will
You can make any antenna stronger by fully encasing it in a heatshrink tube, and ziptieing the tube to the frame. My antennas last forever.
Unique review with the amount of info you got for this one, thanks!
JB the Antenna mount is meant to sandwich in between the bottom of the front standoffs and the top of the bottom plate. Much more solid and you'll notice the standoffs cup right into the antenna mount. Plus, tunning this guy is a pain. The Supafly 4" preset for this quad is spot on, solves all the little quirks with this quad's flight characteristics. It flies amazingly on that preset! Oh, one more thing. The ESC is set to 96K from the factory. Take it down to 24K for the preset. Give it a try you'll be pleasantly surprised.
If it's intended to go that way, then Rekon should install it that way. What you see is exactly how they ship it.
@@JoshuaBardwell 100% correct my friend. We both know there is a lot of details missed from the factory in the world of FPV. With a little love this is an amazing quad, that's all.
Do a crux35 review, a get 10+ minutes of flight with a 4s 720mah batt ,the quad it self is just a beast !!
Impressive! You made a security camera from a drone :) 5:05
investigate the bad quad, remove props, enable logs, plug battery, wait for it to happen and you have a new video! This is the 2nd time I hear this behavior in the past 2 weeks or so. I have small 3" quads, i think i'm 'safer' that someome eating a 5" quad
It flew away never to be seen again..
@@dustinwilson492 i understood they got it back, at 16:56
The problem with the motors is basically the thing that happens to all larger t mount style motors. I flew the apex 4 inch for months with 2004 motors and kept going through them like crazy. I'm surprised these 1804s lasted as long as they did but it's probably because like you said they did't get slammed to hard in a grass field enough
I had a rekon 4 and it was a total piece of cr@p. It took me 2 days to get it in the air (I was new and didn't realize how to tell when one of the motors was reversed). For bnf though, you would think they would have tested the motor directions. When I finally did get it in the air, it flew like a butterfly on meth. It taught me a lot about trouble shooting a poorly made drone. Seriously, it turned me off from hglrc / rekon. It also made me an enemy of race day quads for not allowing me to return it.
Hi Joshua
Great 👍 video
Requesting you to make a video on 10+ students .
We all will be interested in the method you discribe the new flyers how to fly the quad for the very first time.
The process involved in the learning curve can be explained best by you 🙂.
Great Regards
Wow, Joshua, you're making trainings? Do you have online one? I cannot find anything around me (I am from Ukraine staying in Slovakia, maximum I can find is slovak school but unfortunately I do not know slovak language... Other words - online is my only hope) Is it even possible learn fpv online?..
6:40 r so.. ya, REMOVE the rubber band and use minimal cellophane tape.. The antenna factory mount seems to be for range..(?).. so there isn't an auto return?.. (with a controller , that is a defiant fault if a GPS is installed ans even still a raw calculation could be estimated if heading and pressure (alt and forward) is installed and they should be limited to 118mph (ha, ha, ha.. watched tor video on trying to free up the weight limit and discard that 1897 French bullet kills at calculation)
Aos 3.5 is magical...
Dave C. designs have been skimpy on the carbon and steel since he moved out of designing racing 5", and arguably before then. He runs it light, and the advantages are there. Nothing is free though, and since he started on long range frames they have looked like they could ONLY survive minor crashes on grass at low speed. I admire the thought that he puts into his designs, but they are consistently uncrashable. If you want to live in the flying realm of "this will be completely devastated by any crash from significant height, or speed. Do not ever crash into steel or concrete", those designs are for you. The payoff is there, if you have the skills, and the preparation.
There should be a disclaimer though, ppl shill these things like they can be crashed. You are describing the myriad ways that it's not up to freestyle duty, and i'm glad you have integrity there. He just doesn't design stuff to be bashed, and the idea of it is like drifting a new ferrari. It could only work out if you were INCREDIBLY skilled, coming into it... and even then only with significant maintenance costs from crashes on a regular basis. The hardware just isn't set up for it. Doesn't have the ability to absorb kinetic/ballistic impacts with the frame, saving the electronics. What it DOES have is a good thrust to weight ratio, and agile handling characteristics. Looks like a blast on the sticks.
Great review, I have the older rekon 5” and 4” love them. However I have replace the antenna mounts with my own 3d printed parts. Also I have to say the HGLRC fc are very poor quality and I’ve replaced them.
Great sample size and observations. Thank you for sharing this.
Those 1804s with 2mm shafts are not very good for bashing (amazing feeling motor, and great for cruising)
BUT
1507-2104 with 3mm shafts fare significantly better for the more destructive flying styles. 😜
Switching to those motors will obviously be out of the question and add 20+ grams, and just like the reason for the small VTX, it is why they didn’t use them in this sub 250 build. They likely hit the best balance with what they have… a durable motor for sub 250 bashing doesn’t really exist… unless you optimize your frame, and use an AIO with 1507s with 3mm shafts… this is the best I have accomplished in the past. But Recon doesn’t make a light 3mm shaft motor, so they did the best they could.
Skip the 1804 and go 2004 size with 3mm shaft motor.
Personally I wanted to stay sub250, aber after trying like 10 different builds, I just busted the limit to ~300g AUW on 4".
A 2004 or 2005 motor with 2200~2600kv on 6S with 4" is more fun to fly.
Problem is...many guys come from flying DJI video drones, so they are too hung up on flight time. I fly with the lightest lipo I can find, still get great flight times cuz 3 - 4 minutes is my goal, but Power to Weight Ratio is way higher, and therefore performance is increased considerably!
@@chrisbee5481 I 100% agree!!!
Sub 500 grams is also one of my favourite to fly.
2004s are pretty good… I do prefer 5mm shaft motors personally and I prefer screws to clips on the motor shaft end… but that’s just a personal thing, as I do a lot of maintenance, and generally flush the grease in the motor bearings every couple of hours, at least.
I don’t fly much of 2004 anymore (I use to at one point), recently I am sticking to 1506-1606 in that weight range, but most of the time go up to 2203.5, or more recently 2105.5 for an extra 20 grams of AUW. The RCinpower 2105plus is near and dear to my heart, and I use it a lot of builds.
@@lemonsquareFPV like you, I also prefer the 5mm shaft prop mount. The HQ 4x3x3 or gemfan 4032 are my favourite 4" props and setup.
The problem with the 2105 motor is, that they are only available in ~2650kv or
@@KOrnhOliO1 same, I personally tune for 60 seconds on my 5” all out race builds which is generally in the 1200-1400mAh 6S, and 90 seconds for my aggressive freestyle builds… which vary considerably with cell count and prop size, but battery usually falls in the 30-40% of AUW.
I’m a bit on the lighter side of average usually. You have to use good batteries though or sag would be too much, this makes the biggest difference, by far. Crappy batteries are heavier and give much less power, that’s the main reason people oversize, they have to, for performance to be bearable.
But flying style varies considerably, I know people that fly with sub 30% battery weight (I usually do on optimized micros) and long rangers that fly with a heavier battery than the quad 😜
As always, there is a huge variance in this hobby.
Good morning folks!!
Good evening from germanny
That is kind of lighter-frames fun the AOS LR5 is absolute beast. Not sub250 but with 8+minutes flighttime ripping freestyle or 12+minutes of long range cruise on 1300 6s. Brilliant and performance wise 10:1 to Rekon5
Just imagine how great your quad would fly if you used a lighter lipo to get that power to weight ratio as high as you can. Try a smaller lipo and reap the rewards! Flight time doesn't matter as long as it's over 3 or 4 minutes! Just swap lipos more often. It's performance that matters and a lighter lipo will up the performance significantly! Try it, you'll love it! I fly some quads with a 450mah 4S so it's as light as possible and man does it fly great! Still great flight time too!!! That might be too light for this quad, but you get my point... 😎🤘
@@KOrnhOliO1 the flip-side of this argument is that high TWR and low disc-loading means the quad is super floaty, which not everybody likes. I'd rather have a little heavier pack to make a 3" to 4" quad have similar disc-loading to a 5", than a lighter pack with more TWR.
@@KOrnhOliO1 im ripping the freestyle fun with 4s 650 or 6s 850 and the performance is 10:1 to Rekon frames when pushed really hard on tuning and Dterm. Throw some heavy battery in and you have relaxing cruiser on same build.
Hey Tom! I mentioned our common Rekon5 issue in another comment
@@JoshuaBardwell Yeah, you're right, a lot of guys like that. But, they do tricks, and I'm not that into tricks, but more into great cornering and instantaneous handling. Like Nick Burns flies... Like him, I'm not into 5", no room to fly those where I live in the suburbs. 3.5" and smaller for me. I like to go fast and weave through the trees a different pattern every time through. I really I love the light floating Toothpick like power to weight ratio that makes cornering like you're on rails. Tricks are for Kids - I'm Cuckoo-for-cocoa-puffs! ... ERRRRRRR.... Cuckoo for cornering! LOL Great video, like always, JB!!
PS...who mounts a Crossfire antenna in the front? right?! HGLRC - wake up, that's a stupid place for it. We all mount it in back, and not on top, but off the bottom of the stand offs! GEEZ! lol Also, companies need to be more creative with their names for quads and products. Like DJI and the V2 goggles and goggles2...is that the dumbest naming EVER?! But, this Rekon is dumb too, and maybe why you didn't think it was good for these beginners. The old Rekon was that dumb as F single 18650 quad that flew like crap. Easy to get this one confused with that one. HGLRC - It's better to name it REKON spelled backwards than REKON...again! NOKER! Ok, from now on we are calling it the Noker!...or we could add a c and call it the Nocker! Oh well, I just had to! 🥴
This analog quad may have a slightly less sharp image than an HDZero quad does, but when flying your property, I actually like the image quality better than when you flew your space with an HDZero quad because the analog had almost no break up, where the HDZero quad rewarded us with a ton of colored sparklies in the same space! Those colored sparklies coupled with the high quality OLED goggles HDZero has makes for some tough break up for YOUR EYEBALLS to handle! I think the HDZero quad even had a stronger output VTX than this 350mw VTX on this Rekon 4 has.
I think Bardwell should have 277k patreon subscribers 🎉
their products look like they are priced very well
Is "turn right Bardwell" yaw right? yaw left is awkward to me or yaw inwards.
Maybe compare with something from Avant Quads ... like their Avio4 or Nexa4. At least I know that I'm after 2 years, still very happy with my Ciro4LR (despite LR, flown mostly Freestyle).
The Ciro4 Non-LR is also a great frame.
You got me by 2 seconds. lol
Greatings from Ukraine) I have similar problem. I got 9 quads build on SpeedyBee F405 V3 with all different components, but the same problem with all of them. On default PIDs when you touch any of the sticks quad fly to space, only disarm help. I lower PIDs, play with them and its help more or less. But maybe someone can advise me what it can be and why?
Lol I've told you before take the go pro off a 4's rig and it flies exactly like a 6's with a go pro
What were your initial fpv recommendation for this class if not the HGLRC Rekon FR
i think for the price of $250, the problems with the antennas and screws should be solved
I have this quad just got it a few months ago and just was able to take it out because of the weather however mine came with a stack not just the aio and I'm noticing a wobble at the bottom of my punch outs???? Help
I have the Rekon5 and its frame is exceptionally bad. The resonance frequency is at only 55hz. This will ruin all your footage.
Agree, rekon 5 is very bad
Guess I got lucky with mine, thanks for making me feel special today LOL. On stock tune it performs really well.
@@garretpickens5745 footy queens. They no longer fly for pure enjoyment
@@garretpickens5745 performance is very subjective. My rekon 5 was flying pretty good in freestyle, the handling was sharp. But it failed miserably at flying straight. It was always shaking a bit and that made hd video look crappy. Similar issues come with alot of 7" drones
55hz? You may have your pids too high or, as I just learned, have too much gyro filtering
Where and how do I sign up for JB classes??? I'm a drummer been saving long time for Rock and Roll fantasy camp would rather learn how to fly better!!!
just rebuilt my Rekon 4 FR with a Flywoo AOI and Walksnail 1s nano vtx/cam. Replaced the motors for Xnova 1806 3500kv because they have propnuts instead of those idiot T-Mount bells.
Turns out the Xnova's will dent the bell on a light impact with a pole. damnit. The original motors can take a beating! Seriously! but changing props on them sucks.. fck T-Mount.
The stock version is very good, tune is great albeit a bit floaty.
I went from an rxsr to ELRS and mounted the antenna to an arm.
The Walksnail antenna was replaced with a hglrc hammer LHCP and put a zip tie around the antenna hole.
Flew the thing on a racetrack and it held up.
All screws are done with Locktite.
Also put the Flywoo lr4 cam protector on it (had that before and the mounting is the same, just printed it again).
I just looked and this quad is 300usd in its analog version. I call that an expensive micro :D
hey... thats my quad... i like it...
I'd love your opinion between the Rekon 4 FR and the Flywoo Explorer 4. I own 2 Flywoo Explorer's (both upgraded to DJI 03). One with Betaflight that I bash around with 850mah packs and another with Ardupilot, GPS/Compass on a mast and camera on tilt servo that I use for precision DJI style flying. It does seem that the Rekon has more power with those bigger motors, so I'd be curious on thoughts for a motor upgrade on my freestyle version. Would that make it almost the same or am I missing another thought here?
Have you a solution to have the prop on the video with the 03 ?
@@carllassalle9401 Due to the DJI 03 Air Unit Camera's wider field, I do see a little of the props now, but only about 5% on each side. It doesn't bother me enough, but you could reduce the field of view (less wide) or make a custom mount to pull the camera forward - but that might introduce more noticeable vibration.
How did you convert to the o3 air unit? Flywoo say you need to buy new frame parts
I took off the front tpu and then 3D printed a bracket to keep the air unit perfectly centered. No new frame needed.
That's good to know, thanks
I'm planning to buy the HGlrc Sector X5 analog as my first 5 inch, should I be concerned about the durability?
You’ve become a good pilot Bardwell and you probably don’t realise how much you’ve improved over the last couple of years. (That Sbang stuff may be what’s loosened up your style) 🤷♂️
Hglrc antennas with that tube is horrible, the plastic tube is just too brittle, i wish someone would make a better TPU mount that goes up and around the antenna
Looks good, too bad rekonfpv never answers emails
it woulda been cool to see ten beginners, i've only taught a few people, one was a natural and one was a disaster, like he spun around where he was standing instead of using the sticks hehehe.
You don't have to turn right if you don't want to. lol
Really think 3.5" and 250g is about perfect.
4" as a "long range" makes total sense. think by LR we just mean longer flight time, don't intend to crash them.
3" basher (TT). Ohh we are crashing these.....
as to another option to look into... the Axis Manta 3.5" looks cool.
but I have no experience with it.
I do have a shocker 4" and that is a lil tank but I think AUW is at 350
Yea, emax babyhawk 3.5" is pretty bulletproof. Flies great, and stands up to bashing. Just needs a ziptie on power wires, a bit of hotglue on motor wires, and it'll last for many many crashes.
The dealbreaker for me is not having the 800mw vtx
is it re-caan or wreck-un
Glad you finally tried it, this is one of the best sub250g drones, if you fit 3.5” props to it then it genuinely flies like a 5” and it feels exceptional! I would have no issues replacing my 5”s with it as they feel the same to fly.
I’ve had the bolts work loose and lost a few, quite annoying and I’ve already designed a set of Tpu parts for it so I haven’t had any issues with the antenna.
bro the xtra 2 grams is in the crossfire antenna
L
I want to know the type of company that is spending this kind of money on this training. I want to work for a company like that
Emax babyhawk II.
I have 2004 motors on a 3.5", lol
cut off the back end and save 20g after its way better!
you need to turn right a bit more
👍🏻👍🏻
First!
Hotglue will "HELP" the antenna
The recon 6 is sweet though.