Walkera 320 tilt-motor racer

Walkera is back with a sexy little new speedster, with a claimed top speed of 120kmph. (about 80mph)
The new 320 size racer is build around a cool new trick,  articulated motors, which rotate forward as you give the quad more stick,  the result is that the quad body stay level and aerodynamic instead of leaning 45 deg like they normally do.  this trick reduce drag and make for faster acceleration.
Click through for a closer look at the new quad, and thoughts about what works and what don't.

NOTE.. I'm still editing and adding images to this post,  :-) more to come.
Also the full unbox-review video will be posted on this page as soon as its ready.

At first look, the new 320 quad have a striking profile,  arched over and around the battery bay, the main structure is the two 2mm CF side boards.  the ESC's are located in the panels on the side of the quad body, with easy accessible motor wires.   camera is in the narrow nose.    Up on the back you find the VTX antenna and the two folding control-link antennas.

The arms are CF tubes, sitting in a round receiver that permit the arms to rotate.  there is a servo inside the body that literally rotate the arms forward-backward as you move the pitch stick forward and backwards.  it sounds convoluted, however in flight its virtually transparent and you don't even realize the arms are rotating..   what you DO realize is that the video image in your goggles stay level even if you give hard rear stick to brake for a turn.   it feels almost like you are flying a quad with a pitch-stabilized camera.

 

First look, just a couple shots of the moving arm feature and the battery install. 

For starters this is a completely clean-sheet design for Walkera,  and borrows virtually no concepts from their previous success the RUNNER 250,   with that move, Walkera may have solved some of the 250's inherent issues,  one important such redesign, on the 320 the power-distribution-board is no longer a structural member, making for a more crash resistant airframe.

The full system ready to fly with 4S battery, weigh in just slightly north of 1kg

OSD
The runner 250 was the first Walkera product with a On Screen Display also known as OSD, for the Furious 320 Walkera have revisited the refined the OSD a bit,  it seems more responsive,  in the top right is the flight timer, the timer starts when you arm the copter and the throttle moves partially up.   In the bottom left you find the other key information.. the battery voltage.  
For some reason Walkera chose to include the Roll and Pitch degrees as a read-out, frankly nobody read that while flying, and the artificial horizon in the center of the screen is far more useful.  I will post a little video showing how the horizon moves in flight.

Flight CAMERA
The CC3D version of the Furious 320 use the excellent 800tvl camera we got used to on the RUNNER 250,  ironically, when it come to flight cameras, Walkera ship a much better camera than what you find on a stock VORTEX.

While talking about Flight cameras,  its worth noticing the front numbers,  the CF boards protrude in front of the camera, and have been given a rubber covering, this create a effective "bumper" for the camera, I don't imagine I will manage to destroy the 320's camera.

Some of the 320's will ship with a 1080p recording camera.  capable of capturing 1080p video and or still images.  unfortunately there is a bit of lag in recording cameras, so if you intend to fly low-level proximity, I would suggest picking the 320 with the 800tvl flight camera and instead stick a Mobius on top of the body.  however if you are planning to fly up higher and never really close under benches... then the recording flight camera may be a really cool feature.

RADIO
The RTF (ready to fly) kit come with the Walkera Devo 10,  which is one of walkeras older 10 channel radios,  while its not sexy, it is a well tested system and works well.  
The RTF radio is pre-programmed from the factory, however there is a easy to follow programming guide in the back of the manual.
Aside from the 4 control channels Throttle-Yaw & Pitch-Roll,  the Furious 320 use the MIX key, the FMOD, and AUX4.    
MIX is used for flight mode selection,  the 3 modes being "Stabilize"   "RATE no roll"   "Full RATE"
FMOD lets you select if you want the motors to stop when throttle is moved to the bottom position.  if you intend to roll the quad, make sure the motors keep running when you jam the throttle down while upside-down.
AUX4 is the channel that controls the motor-arm rotation.  its a very simple setup, and AUX4 is simple linked to the pitch stick.  full pitch = full arm rotation.

The motor-roll function appears to be simply a straight hard-link to the pitch-stick, its simple and seems to work great,  the flight controller simply don't care and simply continue to manage the flight and balance if you are in stability mode.

 
Interestingly Walkera have chosen to use a gearing rather than a straight leverage arm for the rotation of the arms,  I suspect the reason is to have linear deflection for the entire motion, but wonder if the added mechanical complexity is wroth the incremental improvement over the sinus curve deflection of a straight servo-horn on the roll arms?   
In all fairness, Walkera have chosen the high route here with keeping this a new tech quad.

POWER system
The unit is powered by a 4S 2600mah battery, and along with the battery, Walkera is introducing their new 4S charger,  its a straight balance-charger,  you literally plug in the battery's balance plug and wait for the light to turn green,  unlike the daft charger that shipped with the Runner 250,  the new charger is  3.3 amp job that actually manages to charge the battery in a appropriate amount of time.
Personally I would have liked the charger to have a two-position switch for selecting between CHARGE and STORAGE voltage. however, the new 4S charger is the best walkera charger we have seen in a while.

The motors are a new 1700KV motor,  with right and left hand thread option, for the self locking props.   One slick little feature on the motors, Walkera milled a flat part on the sides of the top of the motor-bell,  this permit you to use the included open-ended wrench on the motors to help release sticky props, nice detail.

Important detail is the battery compartment dimensions wide 42mm x high 37mm x long 125mm  BUT remember, that long dimension NEED to include the power-leads.
The stock 4S 2600mah battery block is 115mm x 34mm x 33mm and that battery is a fairly tight fit length wise, so I would recommend not buying batteries longer than 115mm.

Remove the body panels on the side of the Furious 320, and you see the ESC's mounted on the CF side board.

The flight controls,  from the left you se the 5.8ghz VTX,  next to to it the radio receiver with dual antennas for diversity,  OVER the RX you see the lipo alarm, which goes off at 14.2 volts giving you a audible notice that its time to land.   To the right of the RX, you see the flight controller, with the 320c labeling, the C being for CC3D,  and finally to the far right you see the OSD box.   Walkera really do a very nice job of laying out components in their systems.  

This shot shows the servo to the right driving the motor arm spindle. you can also see clearly how the camera is mounted inside the body.

SO.. is it a RACER?
lets be clear on one thing,  the Furious 320 is really FAST, and its FUN to fly.
But, its not a hard-core racer,  sorry nope, its not.  its simply too heavy, to complex and with too many parts to break.   Racers are using single sheet quads, super light, made to go blistering fast for 3-4 minutes. 
The high weight (1100grams flying weight) along slows this down, and when I tried flying it between some trees, I feel the weight right away, it takes more work to whip it around and aim it right.  also it don't punch-out the way a mini-quad racer do.

Having said that.  what is it then?    
Its kinda a lot like a 944 or a Cadillac sports-car,  beautiful, sexy, full of trick technology, powered by gold anodized motors, with cool tail lights, able to go blistering fast, but too heavy to really take home the first-price on a racetrack,  those cars are still awesome cars,  great fun sunday afternoon along the coast, and good for some fast quarter-mile runs among friends.
So thats where the Furious 320 is at,  its a great fun and fast ride,  you can't help grinning when you give it full power, and its simply fun to fly.  your fiends are going to talking about the cool rotating arms. and how it stays level while if fly.  
If you are looking for a sports-car to make doughnuts and burnouts with fiends.. this could be your next quad.  

More details?   Click to download the Manual for the CC3D edition here
 

Comments

[Bo Lorentzen]

Kyle, read the manual :-) flip back the fmod then follow the instructions to DISARM the quad
;-)

[kyle]

i have recently purchased a 320 love it fun flyer my only harps are the devo 10 and there quick start guide because i can setup the TX but for the love of god i cannot get the fmod switch to shut off my motors once there armed there on and ive gotta try not to lose a finger unplugging the battery just to shut it down and cant find any info anywhere as to how to make the fmod function as it should and on top of that aux for doesnt work and i cant get it to adjust the tilt any help would be appriciated

[Texas RC Cars And Trucks]

That was a very good review, thanks

[brian]

Walkera QR Y100 is what i have,Please FPV guy will you share the wisdom you have on this drone and tell me exactly what you would buy to make this the best it can be.I will buy everything you list on ebay so please list things so i can locate them by the name on ebay..You are awesome.Im very interested in electronics and cool gadgets..

[Bo Lorentzen]

Hey gutek, buy a new ESC ;-)

[gutek]

Hi.
I broke connector between ESC and power board in my Furious. Could You guide me how to disassemble ESC so I can switch it diagonally and check if problem is in power board or in ESC? I find it a bit hard to access after taking a first look.
Rgards

[Bo Lorentzen]

Hey Michael, not a bad question at all. I don't remember the ones I got, I want to say they were nanotech's 4S matching mahs
Here is what you need to know to order batteries, look for matching S and mah.. then pick for the 320 something like 30-40C or better average, stay away from stuff that say 20C
Finally, don't match the battery dimensions, instead simply measure the battery-bay and make sure the battery you buy fit in the bay. (meaning it must be smaller than the aircraft)
I would get nanotech batteries, they are cheaper than the walkera originals and generally have better spect. no matter what you do, the batteries are NOT going to live forever if you fly often and hard. ;-)

[Michael Ohlsson]

Some stupid questions, I just got the Furious 320 today, had it out for a test drive and i felt good.

Questions is: Where can i get hold of batteri packs that are similiar to the one that is in the box with the furious 320? I havent found any that have the same messurements and stuff, and 1 pack just dosent cut it for me:) I wanna fly Moar!

I live in sweden and i dont have problem with ordering from an international source, but Where!? from who!? What modellis the correct one, i suck at the battery stuff thats why i am asking.

Thanks in advance.

[Bo Lorentzen]

Hey Boots, setup your Devo 10 from scratch, simply create a new profile. 99% sure your settings have been edited. ;-)

[Boots]

Hey Bo I can't seem to get the GPS mode working on my F320. I bought it used and I'm thinking the owner before me has changed something. Is their a way to reset to factory settings?

[Bo Lorentzen]

Hey Chris, both the 320 and the 210 require a left-hand circular polarized antenna on the goggles. if the video from the 320 is not showing up, you probably just need to adjust the video transmitter from the 320 to match the 210.. then either should show up when you use it.

[Chris Barrowclough]

Hey just got my new 320 gps rtf with the 1080 p camera and absolutely love it. Just one problem, I'm unable to connect my eachine vr 007 goggles to it. I'm using the standard ariel which is fine with my walkera f210. Does the 320 need a cloverleaf ariel to connect? Any advice would be greatfully appreciated.Christian Barrowclough

[Grant]

Oops well I better learn quick because it will be here tonight haha. Thats ok I will take it nice and easy :-). So goggles how do they work will any 5.8ghz set do? I like the Headplay HD goggles but can't find any compatibility suggestions. I wish there was a lot more info to get people into the hobby. Wanted to build my own but there just wasn't enough out there to make me confident in finding compatible parts and tuning them, thats why I opted for this as its RTF and seems I won't outgrow it to fast.

[Bo Lorentzen]

Hey Grant,
If you are NEW to FPV, stay away from the 320, you are not skilled enough to fly it ;-)
Get a Walkera F210 instead

Bo

[Grant]

New to the drone scene and this looks like a good start up drone. Have flown smaller ones previously. Never fpv how do I get the video signal from the quad to a monitor? What do i need to purchase is it 5.8ghz video transmission?

[Bo Lorentzen]

Hey Philkys, the GPS version still require some balancing on the way up, enough that the lights come on frequently, however once in the air you can flip it into GPS mode and it will hover. but it don't have a auto-start situation.
ALSO make sure the quad is sitting on perfectly level ground when you power it up, let it sit for at least 2+ minutes to get solid GPS lock, and do not move it from the power up location. when you got solid GPS, wait a bit then fly, you still need to fly it manually, then flip to GPS when in the air you should have hover.

[Philkys]

Thx Bo ,
I have the GPS version and I had it countered with the trim so far that the turn signal was on and still really didn't work.

[Bo Lorentzen]

Hey Philkys,
If you are flying the no-gps quad, then you do need to balance it when you lift-off. do a couple tests over grass, power up gently and see what way it leans, then counter with the stick.

[Philkys]

Hey I have the furious 320 and it won't take off straight. In fact it destroyed 2 props because on side seams stronger than the other. I didn't make any adjustments , followed the setup to a "T" .. What should do?

[Bo Lorentzen]

Good Morning Khairol - you need a video screen with 5.8ghz reception to see the video from the camera. remember to get a left-hand-circular-polarized antenna.

[Khairol]

Hi guys,
Plz help me.
Can we connect the camera from walkera 320 to phone? Or need other device to see the live view?

[Bo Lorentzen]

Hey Marco, I have just stated using the "LaForge" receiver with the FatShark's HD. works perfect.

[Marco]

Hi Bo,
I have the F320, and men it gives me an adrenaline boost ;-)
But still in doubt to get the fatshark hdv2 as next level to enter the fpv world.
But what is your advice on raceband/antenna to go with the goggles of fatshark to get the best signal/image..
Many thanks in advance,
Marco

[Bo Lorentzen]

S'tan, you can't FPV with a tablet, you need to use a live screen without the delay. :-)

[S'tan]

Hey Bo

I've actively started working on a crazy dream I've had a while ago and it's slowly becoming a reality but I'd really appreciate your input on a few things, mostly revolving around setting up FPV on my tablet. Do you have any more convenient ways of conversing then here? I'd really appreciate an email or some other contact.

Cheers, S