FuriBee DarkMax: A Ready-to-go Racer

Furibee recently released the well-equipped and angry-looking DarkMax FPV racing drone – we were lucking enough to get our hands on one. The Furibee DarkMax is a low-cost prebuilt racer. It looks mean and it can rip 7.4-volt 2S batteries all the way up to whopping 22.2-volt 6S LiPos. All that power on a drone weighing under 300 grams and you should expect it to be quick. At just $170 you will be hard-pressed to buy or build anything that can perform the way this racer can for less money.

The frame is solid and the 4 mm carbon fiber arms look and feel the part. The OMNIBUS F4 flight controller is tucked inside as is the 4-in-1 BLHeli 30 amp ESC. The power is supplied by four DYS SR2205 2250KV brushless motors. The Racer Edition motors push some mean-looking Gemfan 5152 tri-blade propellers. I am a fan of how clean everything looks on this quad. The blacked out look suits it well.

With the DarkMax you will also get an easy-to-access OSD menu, a wide 135-degree field of view camera, and 48 channels on an adjustable power transmitter that boasts a range of up to 600 meters. Furibee even put a beeper on this quad to make it easier to find should it get out of sight. Losing track of the drone can be done in the blink of an eye – some pilots are reporting speeds over 100 mph. The Darkmax comes running Betaflight 3.1.7 as a nice little touch.

Stock PIDs on the DarkMax are pretty solid. You can take this thing out of the box and get it going. No, it may not be a high-end racer, but this low-cost quad can certainly kick some butt.

Power…

We thrust test our drones and I was licking my chops to test this bad boy. I ran two tests. 3S and 4S. Yes, it can push all the way up to a 6S battery and that is ridiculous. Here is how it faired. On the 3S it pushed an impressive 4.2 power to weight ratio. On 4S it peaked at a solid 5.6 power to weight ratio. In comparison, our previous favorite the DYS XDR220 ran 3.7 on 3S and 5.2 on 4S. This is one baaad machine. We’ll get back with the 6S results later. If you want to read more about our testing check it out here.

Furibee DarkMax Specs:

Brushless motor: DYS SR2205 2550KV
Propeller: Gemfan 5152 four-blade ( 2 sets )
Flight controller: OMNIBUS F4 with OSD, VTX
FPV camera: 960H, with Micron 1/2.7 inch CCD sensor
Effective image transmission range: 600 m
LED board: with four RGB color WS2812 LED lights
Power supply: 2 – 6S LiPo ( not included )

Carbon Fiber Frame
Wheelbase: 220 mm
Configuration: true X
Bottom plate thickness: 4 mm
Arm width: 15 mm
Lateral plate thickness: 2 mm
Distance between lateral board: 28 mm
Top plate thickness: 1.5 mm
Integrated sports camera mount: yes, 30-degree angle

ARTOWER F4 PLUS Flight Control System
Processor: STM32F405 MCU
IMU: MPU6000
Firmware: BetaFlight 3.2 OMNIBUSF4SD
BEC output: 5V 3A
Built-in current and voltage sensor: yes
Integrated buzzer: for low voltage / fail-safe alarm, UAV tracking
Supported micro SD card: up to 32GB, for black box flight data logging
Integrated video transmitter: 5.8G 48CH 25 mW / 100 mW / 200 mW
Brushless ESC: 4-in-1 BLHeli – S 30A

960H FPV Camera
Resolution: 960 x 576 ( PAL ); 960 x 480 ( NTSC )
Image sensor: 1/2.7 inch CCD
Lens: 2.5mm 135-degree FOV
On-board 5D-OSD menu: yes
OSD function: PAL / NTSC switch, exposure, backlight compensation, white balance, day/night mode, contrast ratio, saturation, DNR, D-WDR
Language: Chinese, English, German, Italian, Russian
Mounting hole spacing: 28mm

 

Cons

This is a nice machine, but it could be better. First, even for experienced flyers, an instruction manual would be nice. Knowing how to change VTX channels and power without having to mess around would be nice. The antenna for the VTX is terrible. I was expecting a much better FPV signal and the bad antenna is the culprit. Having Betaflight 3.2 preloaded would have been nice, but certainly not a dealbreaker. Why not include a battery? This is supposed to be a ready-made racer, right?

Should You Get a DarkMax?

If you are looking for a ready-to-go racer then take a look at the DarkMax. It may not be the whole package that the DYS XDR220 Force1 Racer is, but it is a heck of a deal under $200.

Order a FuriBee DarkMax

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