Baby Tooth, 1S 3"

The Baby Tooth setups delivers a jaw dropping ‘big quad’ experience in a small, nearly silent package.  The goal of this quad is maximum performance in a small, safe, simple and hassle free package.



We’ve been absolutely fascinated with the 1S high performance setups for quite some time now.  The following may seem simple and obvious but it reflects years of research, testing, refinement and custom designed components for the task.  Unfortunately this is also a cookbook for other brands to rip off our work but we’re more concerned about sharing the joy of all this.  The only way we exist is with your support.  Without you, there is no us and we are immensely grateful for that support.

This is how the BabyTooth platform started around 2016.  4in1 ESC's had recently entered the market and this is an attempt at baking all four ESC's with the flight controller into one PC board which doubles as the frame.  This was a total disaster back then but we've come a very long way since.

Today:

Baby Tooth 1S Deluxe Build:
Baby Tooth frame in 2mm thickness
1202.5 11,500kv motors
Gemfan 3018 props
FPVCycle 1S AIO
Ant Lite 4:3 FPVCycle edition
Bee Brain V2 camera mount
PandaRC Nano Vtx
600mah 1S battery
These large rubber bands
Optional MiniMortal T V2 if using crossfire

A variant on this build is to use the 1.5mm Baby Tooth frame which is a gram lighter (1.8% lighter) but a warning for the inexperienced.  While the full gram weight savings is very nice, the 2mm frame will almost never break but the 1.5mm can if you get into a particularly bad crash.  For those that are experienced, this will improve performance enough for you to notice however even we use the 2mm frame most of the time ourselves because ain’t nobody got time for that.  We like reliable things with less fuss.

AIO Vtx/Camera
The Ant lite 4:3 is a beautiful camera for it's weight however if you're looking for the absolute maximum performance, you can sacrifise image quality and signal strength to save a gram by going with the AIO Vtx/Camera.

Baby Tooth 3S Super: (this is not really in the same category)
Baby Tooth frame in 3mm thickness
1303 5000kv motors
Gemfan 3018 props or Gemfan 3016 props
AIO Toothpick board
Ant Lite 4:3 FPVCycle edition
Bee Brain V2 camera mount
PandaRC Nano Vtx
450mah 3S battery
These large rubber bands
Add your choice of receiver

This is the Toothpick 3 drivetrain built on the 3mm thick Baby Tooth frame which will make it surprisingly powerful and quite fast.  The 3mm frame is NOT recommended for 1S builds.  The reason the 3mm variation of this frame exists is for those that prefer a unibody design over the Toothpick 3 design.  This design is called the ‘Baby Tooth’ not because it’s smaller than the TP3, but because it supports 1S better and is simpler than the TP3.  The 3S build on the Baby Tooth frame is beyond the scope of this article.  It’s just added here for those that were wondering.

About the build:

We’ve found that your ideal target all up weight (including battery) is below 60g.  This is a very easy target to hit and the reason that is the limit is because beyond about 60g, the nature of how the 3018 prop works in the air starts to change.  You no longer have the same smooth control feel or ability to pull out of dives with ease.  In general, any of the 1S build variations above will be under ~58g.  Dropping your all up weight below 50g begins to give you significant performance benefits but is more involving.  As a general rule of thumb, 55-60g is great and will perform well.

AIO Board is still under development for now.  Should be available around the end of the year.

The tune:

We recommend not changing the firmware on the FPVCycle 1S AIO board.  It already comes with the latest Betaflight and 48k ESC firmware.  You can update things as you wish but we're not responsible for burnt ESC's due to user errors with updates.

The following PID tune is a general starting point.  It flies really well with these numbers but if you’re a tuning wiz you can improve it further.  You may notice that throttle boost is turned off.  That setting is a personal choice.  It tends to feel a little artificial to us so we turn it off.

Rates are a personal setting however with the battery swung under, it tends to exaggerate the expo so a little less expo than you’re typically used to and a little higher RC rate may feel better.

Filters are all at default



Lastly, pay attention to the voltage alarms.  You must reduce the warning and minimum voltage alarm or it will constantly be alarming you.  1S batteries can usually operate fine down to about 3.0v in flight under load.  Below that it starts to get pretty sketchy with respect to battery cycle endurance.  Normally you do not want your lipo going below 3.3v in flight under load however in this case, it’s hard to pull enough amps out of such a small battery to cause significant battery degradation from cycle to cycle when running below 3.3v.  This goes for all 1S quads.  You can set your numbers to whatever you like, these are just our recommendations.  We personally use an alarm warning of 3.10v but 3.22v gives you more time to safely land.



Other general build options:

3016x3 props and 1S

With these, you will have an even quieter quad but it will also be a little slower and have less flight time.  The control, grip and punch performance will improve very very slightly.

XT30 vs other connectors

The typical 1S battery connector is the PH2.  This connector is absolutely awful for conductivity.  Switching to a better connector will almost double your flight time AND performance at the same time on any given whoop.  For this 3” 1S class of quad, the BT2 and GNB 27 connectors also suffer a bit with conductivity.  The best option is the XT30.  If you have an extra low weight build like Mr. Shutterbug, you can get away with the GNB27 or even BT2.  The GNB27 connector weighs slightly more than the BT2 but also has slightly better conductivity.

Battery

You can really use anything from a 350mah to 700mah or even bigger 1S cell.  The best cell for high performance will be the 450mah 1S 80C.  The best cell we've found for a balance of cruising flight time and performance is the 600mah 1S 50C cell.  We currently stock the 600mah 50C 1S packs but will also stock the 450mah 1S packs when GNB gets more stock of them in.

The following video is for entertainment.  If you're planning on doing any battery mods, the best tip we have for you is: DO NOT pull the cells apart quickly, let them separate slowly and DO NOT cut ANY power tabs off the cells or you will not be able to solder to them anymore.  Be gentle and pay attention to the +/- polarity.  If you are not comfortable managing sparks and a possible small fire, DO NOT ATTEMPT this.



HV vs Non-HV Batteries

We don't like HV cells.  They do not perform any better, do not last as many charge cycles and cost more.  Their advertised ratings are inaccurate at best and blatant misleading lies at worst.  Even GNB isn't perfect in this area all the time.  The GNB 520mah HV cell is actually 445mah when you use and charge it to 4.35v.  The cell performs almost as good as the 450mah 80C cell but will not even remotely hold up to the same number of charge cycles.  If you'd like more details about our testing, the description on THIS page presents it.

Camera

There are two primary options here.  The lightest option is the AIO camera/vtx but this is just a whoop cam.  It's just 25mw and has a super wide angle lens.  The overall best FPV picture per unit of weight is the Ant Lite 4:3 FPVCycle edition which is what I'm flying in the video above.  It weighs 1.7g but you still need an external Vtx.  The AIO cam/vtx is the lowest weight and will provide the best performance but the worst FPV view.  Soooo do you want slightly better performance or a better view?  Your choice.

Press fit props Vs Prop screws

There’s ongoing debates about press fit vs screwed on props however test results don’t lie.  Eliminating the screw drops about 2-3g of weight where it counts most while increasing thrust and motor response.  This was recognized with the original Toothpick years ago and ever since, we recommended press fit props.  Back then the prop shafts were only 1.5mm thick and would sometimes break in a hard hit.  We developed the 2mm press fit which is now standard today and haven’t had any shafts broken since.  Overall, press fit has been very reliable unless you somehow get slick oil on the shaft or something, then you might throw a blade in flight.  Just wipe the shaft if this happens.  Our motors have both the 2mm press fit and the prop screws so if you’d like, you can always add the screws.  The 2mm press fit is extremely convenient to use as well.

AIO board options

We've been working on making a reliable 1S AIO for TWO YEARS!  This is the most robust board we've made yet and there's nothing out there that holds a candle to it.

1103 motor option

The original Toothpick formula included 1103 7500kv motors and 2S with the extra low load KK 65mm props.  As the Toothpick platform development progressed, we ditched the 2.5” props size because 3” is not much bigger, has considerably more disk area and is much better at carrying the components we wanted to carry.  While 1103 and 1202.5 work fine on 3” props, the 13mm motor we've developed is just about the same weight as the 1202.5 and much better feeling in the air with respect to control and throttle performance.  There isn’t currently an 1103 we recommend for the 3” build but 1103 will manage the 65mm prop options well.  1202.5 is the minimum recommended motor size for light 3" props on any voltage.

The Mr. Shutterbug build

If you’re at all interested in these sorts of builds and don’t know Mr. Shutterbug, you’re about to be impressed.  Mr. Shutterbug is a master of this field and his builds are nothing short of a work of art.  He takes every possible consideration to drop weight off the build.  Extra light mounting screws for the FC, titanium screws for the motors, 1.5mm frame, the smallest possible camera and a host of other weight saving measures.  The end result is something that is sometimes a full ten grams lighter!  That’s more than 20% weight hacked off!  His quads perform significantly better however they are not designed to take damage and are very carefully put together.  If you really want to get into this stuff hardcore, his methods of improving performance are far more meaningful than bigger motors or more powerful props.  Let him tell you more about it here: