HobbyKing(Diatone) 250 Budget Quad

by IflyQuad | September 29, 2014 | (0) Posted in Reviews

With the 250 "mini" quad craze popping up over the last few months I decided that it would be a good time to build one before winter to be able to fly during the colder months and not have to worry about my gopro hauler getting hurt.

The Budget

My budget for the quad was 120 dollars.  My total cost with shipping was 124 dollars considering that I had to order some parts from the HobbyKing international warehouse.

The Build

The build took me around 3 hours.  Started on Friday night and finished and flown on Saturday Morning.  Really easy build with the integrated bullet connectors.  Unfortunately I forgot to order m2 screws and ordered m2.5 screws which made mounting a pain.

The Finished Product 

Absolutely perfect.  One of the best and quietest flying quads I have ever flown.  No trimming required by the radio with the kk 2.1.5. The three bladed props give it a good amount of power to weight ratio and give it a nice jumpy feel and can really power out of dirt and grass.

 

The Motors

I used the Multistar 1704 brushless motors with the HobbyKing 5030 3 bladed props.  They are extremely quiet and give a good power to weight ratio.  The hover is around 63% stick on a dx5e and default settings on the kk2.1.5 board.

  

The packaging came very nice with lots of padding and a really nice glossy box.  One issue with the motors is that the default motor mounts are very weak and broke during normal operation.  DO NOT USE THEM YOU WILL CRASH! Order some m2 motor mount screws.  It will save you time and money!

The ESCs

I am using the Multistar 10 Amp speed controllers.  Pretty standard came pre-soldered and fit into the wiring harness very nicely.  Zip tied them to the frame.  Good power consumption too.

The Frame 

This is the quad in it's normal flying state; mainly because the landing gear keep failing off even with hot glue.  One of the best features of this frame is that it is almost indestructible.  It is all one piece and also has a nice cover for your flight control so that you don't break it when you are doing sick tipple flips trying to pick up girls outside of school on Fridays.

The Flight

Flew great, until the battery went out because I forgot to charge it before I went out.  I'm going to try to do some more large land testing this weekend.

The Conclusion 

I would recommend this as a good second quad because the kk 2 board does take some tweaking to get it to not oscillate during  flight.(video coming soon).  It flies great with no trims and can be tuned to be super fast or a nice smooth ride.  Also HobbyKing offers a long frame upgrade kit for six dollars form the international warehouse.

You can view the whole parts list on my webstie here:  http://multirotorplayground.wordpress.com/2014/09/30/budget-250-quad-from-hobbyking/

 


COMMENTS

Epitaph on October 6, 2014
Nice build! I had my eye on this frame too... what battery are you using on it?
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IflyQuad on October 6, 2014
Thanks,
I am running a 1300 3 cell from hobbyking(I think it was like 7 dollars). The 250 long is also really good if you are looking for fpv because the only gripe I have with the frame is that it does not have enough space for the battery with fpv gear.
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onelesseye on October 3, 2014
I like what you did. But I have 2 questions. What receiver did you use for one thing? Secondly, I'm new to building for now, and in all I have read everybody says you need a computerized radio for a quad. How did you fly this with a dx5e? Not trying to argue, I honestly want to know so that I can choose my next radio. Thanks.
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IflyQuad on October 3, 2014
Currently I am running a ar600x which came with the dx5e. Its not impossible to fly a quad with an analog radio because the 5e has switches to reverse the channels on the bottom. Personally I would go with the 9X(59.99USD) or 9xr(going to cost around 100 becuase you need to use a lipo and get a module) if your are on a larger budget I would request going with the spektrum dx6(199 no receiver) or 6i(135 no receiver 150 w/ reciever)
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IflyQuad on October 3, 2014
Sorry the 9x and 9xr are from turnigy and are sold on hobbyking though there are other places to get them.
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onelesseye on October 4, 2014
I have the 9x already actually. I don't like it much and need to do some mods on it to get it useable. Thanks for the reply, your advice is well received and appreciated. I am going to use your example and start building in the next few months. Wish me luck and again, great build and post.
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IflyQuad on October 4, 2014
Thanks,
If you need any more help just message me, I really enjoy helping people get in the air because I know how hard it is to do it without any help. My first build took me around 10 months.
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J-Rob on October 6, 2014
Hey,
Good article. I recently got one of these myself. I put the multistar 2150 kv motors on it and it has lots of power. I had some problems with the battery though, I ended up running two 1000 mah 3 cell batteries in parallel so it would fly longer. I am impressed with the payload it can carry. Glad to see others using this frame, it seems to work great.
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IflyQuad on October 6, 2014
Strange about the battery issue, what escs are you using? Also, what battery were you running that had the issue?
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J-Rob on October 8, 2014
I am using the Afro 12 amp esc's. I was running a Turnigy 1300 mah 3 cell, the c rating is 20 - 30 C ... but the parallel batteries do seem to allow for some long flights, and it hovers at around 55% throttle.
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HobbyKing(Diatone) 250 Budget Quad