The market is flooded with 2-inch cinewhoops in the mean time, so there are many choices to select from. Can the HGLRC Talon 2inch Cinewhoop compete with the remaining? On this evaluate, I’ll study its options, flight efficiency, design compromises, and one main subject it’s best to find out about earlier than shopping for.
Study extra about cinewhoop on this purchaser’s information: https://oscarliang.com/cinewhoop/
The place to Purchase
Get your HGLRC Talon 2inch cinewhoop from AliExpress: https://s.click on.aliexpress.com/e/_c42yCjsf
It doesn’t include spare propellers, so ensure you seize some right here: https://s.click on.aliexpress.com/e/_c3e2ZMkx
Specs
Listed here are the specs supplied by HGLRC:
- Body: Talon Body
- Flight Controller: SPECTER 15A AIO
- MCU: STM32F411
- Gyroscope: MPU6000
- FC Firmware Goal: HGLRC F4EVO
- ESC Steady Present: 15A
- ESC Firmware: Bluejay 0.19
- VTX: DJI O3 Air Unit HD model / ZEUS 800mW VTX analog model
- Motor: SPECTER 1303.5 5500KV
- Propeller: Gemfan 2020-5-D51
- Wheelbase: 106mm
- Dimensions: 150mm × 170mm
- Weight: 136.9g (together with DJI O4 Professional)
Putting in DJI O4 Professional
With regards to FPV digicam and VTX choices, it appears HGLRC is shifting away from DJI. When ordering the Talon 2-inch, the out there variations are analog or the Energy Equipment, which doesn’t embody an FPV system. The body helps the DJI O4 Professional Air Unit, however it’s a must to buy and set up it your self.
I can be utilizing the DJI O4 Professional on this quad for my evaluate.
Sadly, the equipment doesn’t embody any directions, diagrams, or documentation exhibiting the right way to set up the air unit. It took me some time to work out the proper set up methodology, so I’ll exhibit the method right here.
Design and Nearer Look
Your entire body is comprised of injection-moulded plastic, with no carbon fibre used within the quad. This initially raised some issues about sturdiness and flight efficiency as a result of plastic is mostly much less inflexible than carbon fibre. Nevertheless, after flying it, I discovered that body stiffness was not an issue, and the quad nonetheless carried out surprisingly nicely.
There may be an RGB LED strip across the ducts that shows a rainbow sample by default. It appears significantly cool at night time, though it can’t be configured in Betaflight. You may disable it by unplugging the LED energy plugs contained in the quad.
In contrast to the bigger Talon Professional 3-inch cinewhoop, the 2-inch mannequin doesn’t use a modular camera-cage design. Nevertheless, it’s comparatively straightforward to take aside. You solely have to take away 5 screws: 3 beneath the quad (left, proper, and rear), 2 on the edges of the digicam mount.
The digicam lens protrudes fairly a bit from the entrance of the body, so it’s extra uncovered throughout crashes and could also be simpler to scratch.
The digicam angle additionally can’t be adjusted externally – you could take away the cover first. That is barely inconvenient should you often swap between slower indoor flying and sooner out of doors flying, as these conditions often profit from fast digicam angles changes
Flight Controller
The flight controller is an AIO board, that means the FC, ESC, and receiver are built-in right into a single unit: HGLRC SPECTER 15A ELRS 2–4S 4-in-1 AIO FC.
It doesn’t have a devoted BEC for powering the DJI O4 Professional, so the air unit receives battery voltage immediately. This isn’t preferrred as a result of voltage spikes can probably injury the VTX, though it has held up effective all through my testing.
The FC additionally lacks a connector for DJI air items, so you will need to solder the cable your self. HGLRC features a cable with a detachable connector, which is considerate, however I don’t perceive why they didn’t solder it to the board on the manufacturing facility. Doing so would have made the set up a lot simpler.
As a substitute, customers have to search out the wiring diagram and solder the cable manually. The pads are additionally very small, making the job significantly difficult for newcomers.
One other limitation is that the FC solely has two UARTs:
- One is reserved for the onboard ExpressLRS receiver
- The opposite is utilized by the DJI O4 Professional or different digital VTX
This leaves no spare UART for a GPS module or different serial peripherals.
The FC nonetheless makes use of an outdated Micro-USB port. This isn’t a deal-breaker, however USB-C would have been extra fashionable, handy, and sturdy.
Lastly, be aware that the FC is mounted the wrong way up and rotated by 90 levels. This isn’t an issue should you fly the quad with its inventory configuration, nevertheless it may create confusion when updating or reflashing Betaflight as a result of you’ll need to revive the board alignment manually.
The proper board alignment is:
- Roll: 180
- Pitch: 0
- Yaw: -90
This might simply catch newcomers off guard. After flashing Betaflight and the settings get reset, the quad might flip over instantly throughout take-off if the alignment shouldn’t be restored accurately. Keep away from flashing Betaflight except mandatory, and all the time save a backup of the unique configuration first.
Battery and Weight
The Talon helps 4S batteries. HGLRC doesn’t specify a really helpful capability, however from expertise, cinewhoops of this dimension usually use packs between 550mAh and 1000mAh.
Nevertheless, the included battery strap is simply too brief for 850mAh packs and something bigger. The largest battery I may mount securely was a 4S 720mAh LiHV.
My measured weights had been:
- 136.9g with out battery (with the DJI O4 Professional put in)
- 203.2g with a 4S 720mAh LiHV battery
Even with a bigger 4S 850mAh pack weighing round 90–95g, the Talon ought to nonetheless stay comfortably beneath 250g.
Flight Efficiency
The Talon 2-inch hovers at round 35% throttle.
I initially thought the plastic body would possibly lack enough stiffness and negatively have an effect on flight efficiency, nevertheless it flies significantly better than I anticipated.
It feels locked-in, agile, and responsive. It’s a very pleasurable park ripper and is able to performing many freestyle and Acro manoeuvres. The plastic building nonetheless raises issues about long-term sturdiness, although, so I’d keep away from arduous crashes.
The quad shouldn’t be particularly highly effective or quick, however its low weight and excessive efficiency motor/prop combo make it extremely manoeuvrable and enjoyable to fly.
With a 4S 720mAh battery, you may count on round 5 minutes of flight time (mixture of freestyle and cruising).
When it comes to noise, I’d say it’s roughly akin to the BetaFPV Pavo20 Professional.
There is no such thing as a bodily buzzer, and the motors are usually not significantly loud (DShot Beacon), so discovering the quad after crashing in tall grass may be tough.
The PID and filter settings use a customized manufacturing facility tune, and I believe most pilots can be pleased with its efficiency out of the field.
The Essential Challenge: Extraordinarily Poor Vary
The Talon 2-inch flies nicely, however my important grievance is the radio-control sign.
Utilizing my regular ExpressLRS settings (2.4GHz, 250mW output energy, and a 250Hz packet charge), I used to be solely getting round 20 to 30m earlier than the quad failsafed.
I checked the receiver antenna, and the UFL connector was related accurately. This means there could also be a fault with both the onboard receiver or the RX antenna itself.
To complete the evaluate that day, I elevated my transmitter energy to 1W and lowered the packet charge to 50Hz. Collectively, these modifications elevated the usable vary to round 100 metres. Nevertheless, with these settings, ExpressLRS ought to usually present not less than a number of kilometres of vary simply. One thing is clearly mistaken with this explicit quad.
Extra troubleshooting is required to find out the precise trigger, perhaps I’m simply unfortunate and obtained a nasty unit. If the onboard receiver is defective, this highlights one of many main disadvantages of extremely built-in AIO flight controllers: if one part fails, it’s possible you’ll want to switch your entire board, which may be costly.
One may set up an exterior receiver as an alternative, however the FC solely has two UARTs: one is assigned to the onboard receiver, whereas the opposite is required by the DJI air unit or one other digital VTX. That leaves no spare UART for an exterior receiver, so no, I can’t actually do it.
The right way to Setup
Firmware
- The flight controller (FC) board goal is ZEUSF4EVO, and it comes preloaded with Betaflight firmware model 2025.12.2. For inventory CLI Diff, see right here.
- ESC Firmware: Bluejay, 0.21.0, 48kHz (Q-H-50)
- ELRS Receiver Firmware Goal: HGLRC Hermes 2.4GHz RX, firmware 3.2.1
Betaflight Setup
Conclusion
When it comes to pure flight efficiency, I truly desire the HGLRC Talon 2-inch to the bigger Talon Professional 3-inch. The smaller mannequin feels extra agile, responsive, quieter, and pleasurable for freestyle and informal park flying. Regardless of its plastic building, it flies surprisingly nicely and feels properly tuned out of the field.
Nevertheless, the extraordinarily poor ExpressLRS vary on my evaluate unit is a severe concern. A spread of solely 100 metres is clearly unacceptable, and the built-in AIO design makes a defective receiver costlier to switch. Possibly I’m simply unfortunate and acquired a nasty unit.
The Talon Professional 3-inch should be the extra versatile and future-proof possibility for cinematic work. Its bigger and extra highly effective platform ought to present higher stability, significantly in windy environments. And its modular digicam cage might ultimately enable the identical digicam and air unit to be moved between completely different HGLRC BNF, as the corporate has promised.