A first glimpse of the Eachine 180 Assassin and VR-007

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2015 was a great year for Eachine, they rocketed up their ranks with their 250 Racer, now they are punching again with their Assassin 180. It offers the longest feature lineup yet and also comes as an all in one FPV package, everything down to the transmitter batteries are included. Great for entering the FPV world without having to build it all yourself. Here is our fist look at the GPS NAZE packing Eachine 180.

Eachine Assassin 180 full kit
The whole kit includes everything here.

The Eachine Assassin 180

It’s difficult to image, even just last year, something so light with a GPS, brushless and FPV. Aside from the size to feature ratio, it also has unique rear LED’s that color change depending on your flight direction and transmitter control position, something a bit different…

Eachine-Assassin-180-LED-light
The multi colored flying LED indicators on the back.

Of all the Eachines, it is the more delicate baby and beginners should be flown in lower power modes,  on grass and with plenty of blades in stock.

The Frame

4 layer Assassin 180 board
The 5 layer frame.

It is a really simple clean frame with a great balanced center weight and consists of only 5 main parts.

  1. The plastic base and legs that open to house the battery.
  2. Base board: All integrated with the FPV transmitter lights and ESC’s all on the bottom board, motors are soldered onto this board.
  3. Middle structural board: The core frame and the motors attach to it.
  4. Top Board: That the FC board with USB connecton and the GPS chip.
  5. The final frame has a camera mount for a Mobius or other light camera.

(The receiver slides into the space between the middle and top board.)

Before actually testing I am interested to see how the plastic legs hold up, they’re on the thin side and will likely be the first thing to break in a rough fall.

Eachine Assassin 180 blade spacing
The included blades are standard and have about 2cm separation between the front rotor blade ends, bullnose is possible but a larger blade would likely be too close.

The Port Diagram

Eachine Assassin wiring diagram
The base board port diagram as detailed in the manual.

The Camera

It has an adjustable focus and adjustable angle, it is naked at the front and has stepped beyond the protection frame the racer and falcon had.

The i6 Transmitter

Eachine-Assassin-180-Review-10

The Eachine i6 is almost identical to the FlySky i6 and offer full control over the Assassin 180.

The Eachine smart battery

Eachine are using their own proprietary battery in the Assassin, I’m all for using standard easily swappable batteries so this is not in my favor, the benefit is tho, now they have a battery meter and a more accurate battery life. The standard Eachine battery is 11.1V and 1000mAh and has 8 pins.

Eachine Assassin 180 battery compartment
The bottom of the frame is plastic and opens up to slide the battery in.

The Eachine VR-007

The 007 glasses are packaged together as part of the package,  you can get these separately too. They are bigger than the likes of fatsharks and have a larger/heavier screen but they are still comfortable and light compared to other VR glasses of similar size.

The resolution is not HD which is something we will be hoping for in their next release, the pixelation is visible but the sharpness and adjustable contrast, brightness and saturation settings allow you to optimize clarity to match the video feed. The end result is an image that is sharp and clear, detailed enough for flying but not at a high resolution so you lack precise details, given this is included in an affordable package it is more then acceptable and sufficient for flying.

Eachine-Assasin-180-Review-29

It also is not susceptible to the dreaded blue screen flash so is great if you jump out of decent transmission distances or hit interference. The standard antennae is not polarized and uses the common connector so can be changed to a mushroom to match your TX.

Eachine VR 007 FPV glasses

To keep the goggles light, the Eachine 7.4 V 800mAh batteries slide into the side of the strap. You can charge them via a USB connection just like your phone.

Eachine 800mah FPV battery
The 9V size battery.

It uses the same connection as a 9V battery but am not sure if you could plug a standard battery in as the voltage could be too high. They also have a side LED battery meter, a plus when charging and using.

Adjutsing the VR-007

Eachine 007 FPV VR goggles
You can easily make picture adjustments to tweak clarity of the video.

Operation is simple and straightforward, 3 buttons on the side are used to set and choose,

  • Brightness;
  • Contrast;
  • Saturation;
  • Alternate between 16:9 and 4:3 aspect ratio.
  • Channel scanning is done with a single button just near the receiver antennae.
Eachine Assassin 180 Scorpion Tail
The scoprion tailed  video transmitter antennae of the Eachine Assassin 180.

Pricing

Like the racer, the 180 taps in at the bargain end of the market, offering great value if you consider the full kit in this article is currently $339.99.

We will be taking it for a flight next week,

and we have one now permanently in the office so if you want to know anything let me know ill check it out.

See the Eachine Assassin page for full options.