Any thoughts on all in one boards ?

[aburn09]

 After watching this build on YouTube
https://youtu.be/gAcJtZoNujU
https://youtu.be/FwuWuiTdriU
After watching the second video I now want to build this but unfortunately banggood haven';t got the 220 gold frames in at the moment
https://m.banggood.com/TransTEC-ZORO-Race-Lite-195mm-220mm-3K-4mm-Carbon-Fiber-FPV-Racing-Frame-p-1134568.html
Anyway back to the board......I loved the neatness of it and the way all esc';';s  are wired up into each corner including the signal wires for each motor
It';s not the cheapest of boards out there at  around £40
https://m.banggood.com/F4-FLAME-Race-Spec-STM32F405-Flight-Control-Built-in-BETAFLIGHT-OSD-5V-BEC-PDB-Current-Sensor-p-1136917.html?utm_source=tradetracker&utm_medium=tradetracker_SE&utm_campaign=tradetracker&utm_content=227736
But interested in anyone';s thoughts over a traditional  board with a separate pdb ?

[Cheredanine]

Several  thoughts -
Firstly AIO is abused frequently, for example kiss are producing an AIO that includes the escs, this one doesn';t, that isn';t really important but it bugs the hell out of me :)

Secondly, and now we get serious - having high current, and particularly rapidly changing high current, running close to sensitive components such as a gyro on the flight acontroller and particularly the video signal line, is not a good idea. i have talked about this with several electronic subject matter experts and they are all sceptical about AIO boards for this reason.  It may be fine but it may not, any issue would be difficult to diagnose and impossible to rectify

Thirdly durability - if you blow something in an aio you are replacing the whole thing, add to this an aio board is very busy, pads are small, it would be easier to lift a pad during soldering.

Finally for, factor of the frame - many frames have built in pdb or don';t really suit things like large pads coming out the back of the flight controller, typical examples would be chameleons, dquad obsessions, tsx off the top of my head. This clearly is applicable to specific frames and specific aio fc

So overall I am sceptical. Especially the second point above. I wouldn';t use one unless I need one, and I don';t need one on any of my quads

[aburn09]

Thanks Cheredanine I had a feeling you';d comment on this thread as you seem to be very well versed in the electrical side of our hobby 😉
All your points are very valid as usual.........So it looks like a separate pdb and flight board are still in order for my next build when Bangood get the zorro 220 frame in then 
The trouble with this hobby is things change so fast and it';s hard to know if the latest gadget or gizmo is as good as the manufacturers claim..........I always spend time on building my quads so that are as neat as they can possibly be as I';m not one for having wires on show if I can hide them somewhere so when there are new parts for quads that require less wires etc it does grab my attention......... which is why I love this forum as before I';m tempted I';ll usually run it passed those in the know on here (mainly Cheredanine  ) who can give me an unbiased view  ........By the way Cheredanine any opinions over the Zorro frame as originally i was thinking of this one
https://m.banggood.com/GEPRC-GEP-LX-Leopard-LX4-LX5-LX6-195mm-220mm-255mm-FPV-Racing-Frame-4mm-Arm-With-PDB-5V-12V-p-1134161.html
A cheaper clone of your Obsession which I still like the look of but the only niggle is the arms are held together with screws so there is a potential for movement where as the Zorro
https://m.banggood.com/TransTEC-ZORO-Race-Lite-195mm-220mm-3K-4mm-Carbon-Fiber-FPV-Racing-Frame-p-1134568.html
is one solid all in one 4mm baseplate so theoretically  solid ?

[Cheredanine]

I should add on the aio other than those frames where it simply not workable, I am clearly in favour on playing it safe on point 2.

Re the frames, not had either, the leopard is very popular, I have no principle objection to either, other than two general observations on cheap Chinese frames:

Screws - tend to be cheap and nasty, easy to rip the thread or the hex - it is simple to fix, I would suggest getting some good screws, ideally steel or titanium, from a reputable supplier and switching out the origional

Carbon - not all carbon is the same. Ignoring the carbon laminates that walkers use, the pure carbon on the cheap Chinese stuff is generally strong enough although not as strong as (admittedly overpriced) non - Chinese frames, however the amount of flex is important as it causes (or rather reinforces) oscillations.

Now, re single plate or seperate arms, in principle I prefer single plate, it is lighter.

But if you get involved or stay abreast of bf development you will be aware there is a known correlation between oscillations that can';t be got rid of without messing with the tune with single plate, I.e. You are less likely to get them with seperate arms.

However I suspect this is due to the aforementioned quality of carbon and flex.
I have, for example, a prototype Tokio-x, the carbon is superb, single plate and I can not make it flex, it has zero oscillations and i DNA get a superb tune on it.

So with that in mind, although I prefer a single plate, particularly if I was choosing between those two frames, I would take the one with seperate arms