The wait is now over if you read the preview of the crusader GT frame over at dronetrest. Diatone have been on a roll with their recent FPV quadcopter kit releases, first the tyrant, followed by the crusader. With each getting better, the tyrant had a great frame design, the crusaded had a great frame design along with some new electronics such as the SP1/SP2 stackable video transmitter. So it is no surprise that the new crusader GT2 includes some great design features and all new electronics. The low profile design of the new crusader GT2 FPV racing quadcopters give you the impression this is a serious FPV racer.
The Good
- Sleek low profile design (to keep COG low for better maneuverability).
- Designed to use as few screws as possible.
- Tight, integrated electronics bay.
- New D-link F3 flight controller with built in PDB.
- New SP3 48CH FPV Transmitter with built in OSD.
- Powerful Motors (made by Sunnysky) (2205 2480KV for 175,200 kits, and 1408 4000KV for 150 kit).
- Includes HS1177 FPV camera (one of the best FPV camera sensors used on runcam swift)
- Uses BLheli-S ESC with impressive burst current ratings.
- Also available as barebone frame if you want to use your own motors/ESC.
The Bad
- Small electronics bay if using third party gear.
- More expensive than previous tyrant/crusader quadcopters.
- Only supports 3S/4S lipos, which is fine for 90% of us.
- Flight controller is F3 based, (not exactly a very bad point, but faster F4 flight controllers are becoming more prevalent.
Why its awesome
The crusader GT2 is does not only use some great electronics and motors, it also uses some innovative and convenient product design to make this a fun FPV racer to fly, and also easy to mod and repair. It is also great to see it using all the latest tech such as BLheli-S ESC, F3 based flight controller with OSD and HS1177 camera! It is for sale now at unmanned tech UK and is available in 150, 175 and 200mm size.
SP3 VTX with built in OSD
The most notable electronic addition to come with the crusader is the new SP3 video transmitter. It is still stackable, but now as 48 channels, a built in OSD and can switch between 0mW, 25mW, 200mW and 600mW. The 0mW featre is particularly usefull when flying with friends as it allows you to power on your quad, and choose a unused frequency channel before transmitting. Before if you turned onto the wrong channel that someone is flying on it could turn ugly real fast as you jam their video feed. Other great features include voltage support up to 6S, along with a built in LC filter.
The built in OSD connects directly to the Dlink flight controller to receive telemetry information for the OSD, a nice and neat install.
Dlink F3 Flight Controller
Its also great to see diatone finnaly start to use an F3 based flight controller as the older tyrant and crusader frames used a naze based flight controller. This is a high quality, and well designed flight controller that uses a gold plated 6 layer PCB. This board is designed to meet the requiredments of a modern FPV pilot, with SBUS and PPM inputs, along with a built in power distribution board for your ESC’s. THe board itself can support up to 6S Lipos, and handle a maximum continuous current of 90A.
BLheli S ESC
The new ESC’s in itself released with the crusader are rather impressive (read why BLheli S is so much better), they utilize the BB2 50Mhz MCU which is known to be the best MCU for BLheli S ESC’s. And the fact that the crusaders use BLheli S will mean you get even more performance out of the motors. The large aluminium heat shield on the ESC mean that athough they are slightly heavier, they have a much higher burst current rating, with the 20A being able to have 40A burst rating, and the 30A ESC capable of 60A burst current!
The crusader GT2 175 will use the 202X 20A ESC whereas the 175 and 200 sizes will use teh 302X 30A ESC.
New Dsilver Motors
It looks like Diatone have sunnysky for the motors which is great as sunnysky do indeed make some decent motors for FPV racing.
The crusader GT2 150 size uses a D-silver 1408 4000Kv motor (shown above on left), and the 175 and 200 crusader kits have a D-silver 2205 2480KV motor (shown above middle and right) which both should make for a highly responsive quadcopter.
The Crusader GT Frame
The frame itself is made from a single 4K carbon fibre plate, and its 5mm thick, so you will need to have a serious crash in order to break this. The electronics cage that doubles as a action camera mount (for something like the Gopro session or SJ M10) The frame itself is built to use as few screws as possible which keeps the frame light and strong. I was also quite impressed with the quality of the carbon fiber machining on this quadcopter which is as good as frames twice the price.
In addition the electronics cage also acts as an adjustable mount for an HS1177 FPV camera which we all have come to know as one of the best FPV cameras out there, so its great to see this comes with the crusader GT2 kits as the cameras on the previous versions, where only average.
Crusader GT Variants and Specs
The crusade GT come in three sizes, each which are shown below, along with the corresponding specs
Crusader GT2 150
- 1 x D-Link F3 Flight Controller
- 4 x 202X BLHeli S ESC (3-4S)
- 1 x HS1177 700TVL Sony Camera
- 1 x SP3 48CH Video Transmitter (3-4S)
- 4 x D-Silver 1408 4000Kv Motor
- 4 x 3 inch propellers
Crusader GT2 175
- 1 x D-Link F3 Flight Controller
- 4 x 302X BLHeli S ESC (3-4S)
- 1 x HS1177 700TVL Sony Camera
- 1 x SP3 48CH Video Transmitter (3-4S)
- 4 x D-Silver 2205 2480Kv Motor
- 4 x 4 inch propellers
Crusader GT2 200
- 1 x D-Link F3 Flight Controller
- 4 x 302X BLHeli S ESC (3-4S)
- 1 x HS1177 700TVL Sony Camera
- 1 x SP3 48CH Video Transmitter (3-4S)
- 4 x D-Silver 2205 2480Kv Motor
- 4 x 5 inch propellers
Overall the crusader GT2 makes for an excellent ready build quadcopter kit that will be hard to beat for the price. The only thing I think that could be better is to use a F4 based flight controller to give faster computation times. Over the next few months we will see loads more F4 flight controllers being introduced into the market. But F3 flight controller are still more than good enough for the time being.
Where to Buy
If you have any comments or questions please feel free to add them and I will get back to you.
