Twisted wire lengths, 22pF filters, a fully isolated bench setup, a grounded foil wrap and power taken from different pads. None of it moved the satellite count. So I unsoldered everything and put a GEPRC Taker G4 35A in instead, which fixed the GPS, unlocked 4S, and left me wondering whether the result is still a Pavo20.

Craft name Snake. It started life as a Meteor75 Pro, and it is now a Meteor75 Pro II — frame and canopy ordered off AliExpress, everything expensive carried straight over. Same Matrix 1S 3-in-1 FC. Same narrow-FOV DJI O4 air unit. New shell, old guts, and by the time I was done, 169 flights and 15,574 seconds of logs …

The Pavo20 Pro II is a capable 2.5" whoop — compact, powerful, with a good camera and a surprisingly solid video link even on linear whip antennas. I wanted it as a mountain trip quad: something that fits in a jacket pocket, dives canyons, and has GPS Rescue as a genuine safety net. GPS is not included; I added a …

For years my drones travelled with me. A DJI Air first, then a Mini 3 — camera platforms that rode along on every trip, packed next to the rest of the gear. They were good at exactly one thing: hovering somewhere legal and taking a clean photo. That was the problem. Hovering at the permitted altitude, framing a …