EMAX BabyHawk: Brushless Micro FPV Fun

The EMax BabyHawk is one of the smallest and most affordable brushless micro FPV quads on the market today. How does it compare to some of the other micros out there? Is it a steal for less than $100? Let’s find out.

BabyHawk Features

The BabyHawk is one of the smaller micros on the market with its 85mm wheelbase. It weighs only 60g, or 68g if you use the durable propeller guards. The camera is a 520 TVL CMOS and the 40-channel transmitter is switchable from 25 mW to 200 MW. The Femto F3 flight controller has a built-in 5 V regulator. The Bullet BLHeli ESCs are rated for a 2S battery, but there are people out there running 3S lipos as well. The 1104 5250 kv motors and 2345 propellers were designed by EMAX.

The BabyHawk is fairly powerful for a little quad and handles quite well. Its plastic design is a tad heavy, especially with the propeller guards when compared to other micros. Other micro quads have better thrust ratios. But the BabyHawk still packs a punch. Its mass is centered and well-balanced and that makes up for the extra weight and lack of thrust to some extent. This little machine is well-suited for indoor and outdoor fun.

The stock PIDs are pretty solid. We made a few quick adjustments. We set the small angle to 180-degrees and set the ESCs to beep if the quad is down/lost for more than one minute.  We also enabled all 40 channels and set the VTX to 200mw. You can get the BabyHawk either with a Frsky receiver or install your own.

Our version was PNP and did not come with a receiver. We added a Frsky XM+ receiver. It was a fairly painless process as the XM+ almost slides into place perfectly. A little solder and some sticky tape and we were ready to fly. We definitely recommend the XM+, bind it and fly it with the Frsky Taranis QX7. It is the best value transmitter on the market right now.

Recommended Improvements

The BabyHawk doesn’t come with a beeper, which should be a requirement for these micro quads. The BabyHawk isn’t underpowered, but after testing some other micro quads we would like it to have more thrust. The $99 version doesn’t ship with a battery, so you’ll have to pick one up.The camera isn’t the best in low-light situations. Finally, we would have liked it to come with a receiver installed with telemetry. None of these are real deal-breaking issues, especially since you can pick one up for under $100. This quad is still a heck of a machine for anyone that wants the fun of flying a brushless micro FPV quad.

Order an EMAX BabyHawk

Other Micro FPV Options

There are a few other solid micro FPV options out there. For the true beginner, we like the DYS Elf. For those that want a little more speed we like the KingKong 90/95GT and if you want to get serious and start flying freestyle the KingKong 110GT is probably our favorite.

The EMAX BabyHawk is just one of the fun brushless micro FPV quadcopters out there.

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