Sparky2 for about $38 shipped.
« on: August 23, 2016, 10:31:30 pm »
I have flown my $38 (shipped) Sparky2 that I got from http://www.xt-xinte.com/F16821.html

You must be flying "next" or the upcoming release to use a Sparky2 FC.  Some soldering and troubleshooting required.  This is a clone, so caveat emptor.

It has a good voltage regulator, so baro is OK.  I get about +-0.4m baro noise.  One issue is that the shunt (zero ohm resistor) the user is supposed to solder on to choose 3.3v or 5v for RC receiver power is a pre-installed 10k resistor across the 5v position so it is completely worthless.  Another issue is that the RF connector has a solder blob on that must be removed by cutting scraping the extra solder with a knife.  They also replaced the RF SAW filter with a zero ohm resistor (not so bad).

The RC receiver power and the RF connector are some reasons that a non-technical user will have problems with this and may be the reason the one reviewer on xt-xinte called it worthless.

It came with the standard Sparky2 coil spring coax + antenna.  It came with a nice little case.  The servo/ESC connectors are vertical and soldered on.  The RC receiver signal connector is a standard servo/ESC connector (pins) and is soldered on, so to use it you need what is called a male-male servo connector, but it has pin sockets not pins.  It came with 3 cables.  Two are JST-SH to individual 2.54mm connectors and one is a JST-SH to JST-SH.

I have flight tested all sensors and RF telemetry, and I have tested MainPort, FlexiPort, I2CPort, and RcvrPort, but I haven't tested anything else.  It all worked with no additional solder blob removal necessary.  :)  Anyway...  I have flown it and it works.  If you need a Sparky2 for about $38 shipped, this is a good one if you can fix the 5v receiver power selection.  This soldering is very tiny, but reasonable access on the back of the board, and all you need to do is put a small solder blob on it.  I did it at the flying field without magnifying glasses.

I may post a review at xt-xinte in a week or so.  :)