Built my first FPV drone?!?!

[Moirae]

We have way more fpv drones than anyone at our skill level should have tbh so I really shouldn't have built one . I really wanted to try building my own and not just buying a bind and fly though so yolo!!

Build: 5 inch, Freestyle/Cinematic Quad


FlyFishRC Volador 2 VD5 Frame
HGLRC SPECTER F722 mini MPU6000 Gyro
HGLRC SPECTER 60A 4in1 ESC 3-6S BL32 128K with Heat Sink
DJI o3 air unit pnp with dji remote controller 2
Xing2 2506 1850kv motors - people typically use 2207 or 2306 motors for 5 inch quad so I definitely went big but thats how I like to do poop! for better or worse.
Flywoo goku GM10 mini v3 gps

Cost me about 600$ to build

Drone is heavy AF by experienced drone pilot/builder standards

My camera was mounted wrong in this pic because I'm a noob but it's fixed now!!

Test flight!! kind of boring as I'm a horribly poop pilot and of course I crashed at the end of the video. It was pretty damn windy too

 

[Bustedaw11]

Bro, your on it. All you need is stick time so the movements become fluid and 2nd nature.

Doin great, looks great

 

[Smilinbri]

Duuuude! Y'all got too much time on your hands. You've got zero other hobbies, huh? Very impressed and mad respect to you. I would have crashed it in the 1st minute. I can't drone worth sh!t. You da man. Keep it up homie!

 

[rotauq]

Those are some beefy motors, they will surely demand a lot from your battery when you really push it.

Some more sticktime would do you good indeed, but i did see a perfect spit S in your video

 

[LicketySplit]

Ya those motors are beefy as hell. Bigger isn’t always better in FPV. More rotating mass to get started/stop. What tune did you go with?

 

[LicketySplit]

We have way more fpv drones than anyone at our skill level should have tbh so I really shouldn't have built one . I really wanted to try building my own and not just buying a bind and fly though so yolo!!

Build: 5 inch, Freestyle/Cinematic Quad


FlyFishRC Volador 2 VD5 Frame
HGLRC SPECTER F722 mini MPU6000 Gyro
HGLRC SPECTER 60A 4in1 ESC 3-6S BL32 128K with Heat Sink
DJI o3 air unit pnp with dji remote controller 2
Xing2 2506 1850kv motors - people typically use 2207 or 2306 motors for 5 inch quad so I definitely went big but thats how I like to do poop! for better or worse.
Flywoo goku GM10 mini v3 gps

Cost me about 600$ to build

Drone is heavy AF by experienced drone pilot/builder standards

View attachment 330733

My camera was mounted wrong in this pic because I'm a noob but it's fixed now!!

Test flight!! kind of boring as I'm a horribly poop pilot and of course I crashed at the end of the video. It was pretty damn windy too

Front props are on backwards.

 

[Moirae]

Bro, your on it. All you need is stick time so the movements become fluid and 2nd nature.

Doin great, looks great

Duuuude! Y'all got too much time on your hands. You've got zero other hobbies, huh? Very impressed and mad respect to you. I would have crashed it in the 1st minute. I can't drone worth sh!t. You da man. Keep it up homie!

Those are some beefy motors, they will surely demand a lot from your battery when you really push it.

Some more sticktime would do you good indeed, but i did see a perfect spit S in your video

Thanks guys! I'm still seriously lacking stick time and now that I've started flying irl the sim feels so weird to me that I don't want to do it so it definitely makes it harder. Those were my first times doing a split s too! It's basically the only thing I know how to do

You definitely aren't wrong about the battery. I didn't expect the quad to be as fast as it is either, I don't know how accurate the gps is but it did 118 mph like it was nothing. Well nothing for everything except the battery because that thing voltage sagged so fast it went down to 3.3v for a split second

Ya those motors are beefy as hell. Bigger isn’t always better in FPV. More rotating mass to get started/stop. What tune did you go with?

Front props are on backwards.

that pic was taken before my first flight. I definitely got the wake up call when I tried to take off freaking props are so confusing to me but I'm sure I'll get it down eventually. I actually did do a little research on my motor choice before I just jumped in haha.

I know the smaller motors are supposed to be more responsive and that combined with weight is the main reason why people tend to go for them. I also came across a lot of people who really loved the way bigger motors felt and apparently it's a whole "thing" with these

https://fpvcycle.com/collections/motors/products/fpvcycle-5-motor-choose-options

Going slightly bigger makes things smooth AF on the low to mid throttle. The first thing I noticed on my first pack with the drone was just how much easier it was for me to fly "slow". I was flying through stuff I would have struggled to even attempt with my mark5. I really struggle to fly slow as a new pilot so that feeling was crazy to me. It was a night and day difference.

Double edge sword though because the drone is heavy and since i'm not used to it it's harder for me to fly lower to the ground, feel like it's attracted to the floor. I actually really like the way it feels overall though and thankfully I'm having no desync problems so far which I know is something else that can happen with larger motors.


I tried both the UAVtech and Supafly presets and the Supafly preset worked out much better for me. I up the anti gravity gain a little and bump up the master slider a little just because I know my drone is heavier and thats what uavtech told me to do in his youtube video . It's funny because I also tried both of those presets on my mark5 after I updated it to bf 4.4 and the uavtech preset was much better for that drone. I really hate how most of these bnf companies act like they can't easily toss out a bf 4.4 profile on their website while continuing to ship em with 4.3.



I actually took those ethix candy cane props off and tried some higher pitch props. I'm about to order some even HIGHER pitched props. I'm thinking my heavier drone would benefit from the high pitch.

 

[LicketySplit]

Thanks guys! I'm still seriously lacking stick time and now that I've started flying irl the sim feels so weird to me that I don't want to do it so it definitely makes it harder. Those were my first times doing a split s too! It's basically the only thing I know how to do

You definitely aren't wrong about the battery. I didn't expect the quad to be as fast as it is either, I don't know how accurate the gps is but it did 118 mph like it was nothing. Well nothing for everything except the battery because that thing voltage sagged so fast it went down to 3.3v for a split second





that pic was taken before my first flight. I definitely got the wake up call when I tried to take off freaking props are so confusing to me but I'm sure I'll get it down eventually. I actually did do a little research on my motor choice before I just jumped in haha.

I know the smaller motors are supposed to be more responsive and that combined with weight is the main reason why people tend to go for them. I also came across a lot of people who really loved the way bigger motors felt and apparently it's a whole "thing" with these

https://fpvcycle.com/collections/motors/products/fpvcycle-5-motor-choose-options

Going slightly bigger makes things smooth AF on the low to mid throttle. The first thing I noticed on my first pack with the drone was just how much easier it was for me to fly "slow". I was flying through stuff I would have struggled to even attempt with my mark5. I really struggle to fly slow as a new pilot so that feeling was crazy to me. It was a night and day difference.

Double edge sword though because the drone is heavy and since i'm not used to it it's harder for me to fly lower to the ground, feel like it's attracted to the floor. I actually really like the way it feels overall though and thankfully I'm having no desync problems so far which I know is something else that can happen with larger motors.


I tried both the UAVtech and Supafly presets and the Supafly preset worked out much better for me. I up the anti gravity gain a little and bump up the master slider a little just because I know my drone is heavier and thats what uavtech told me to do in his youtube video . It's funny because I also tried both of those presets on my mark5 after I updated it to bf 4.4 and the uavtech preset was much better for that drone. I really hate how most of these bnf companies act like they can't easily toss out a bf 4.4 profile on their website while continuing to ship em with 4.3.

Mess with the kv and prop pitch. That'll give you better low/mid throttle resolution. I run 1750kv with Ethix P3 (5.1x3x3) on my Apex and it's butter. Slightly heavier quads get a little more pitch. Those Candy Cane props have a 4" pitch so that's fairly aggressive. I'd bet money you'd fly even better when you get that combo dialed in. I have a whole drawer full of props I won't use now that I bought during my testing phase. lol
This kid tried to flex on my quad. Turned into a little bia real quick.

 

[Moirae]

Mess with the kv and prop pitch. That'll give you better low/mid throttle resolution. I run 1750kv with Ethix P3 (5.1x3x3) on my Apex and it's butter. Slightly heavier quads get a little more pitch. Those Candy Cane props have a 4" pitch so that's fairly aggressive. I'd bet money you'd fly even better when you get that combo dialed in. I have a whole drawer full of props I won't use now that I bought during my testing phase. lol

hahaha oh man I have bags of them in the closet and I haven't even tried most of them yet. I'm thinking I bought waaay too many but they're so cheap and I'm so scared of breaking one that every time I buy props I buy at least 2 packs of the same one for spares. I have a problem!

I was so close to getting apex deadcat frame. The only thing that made me not do it is people complaining about the frame being in the camera view when using wide angle or something like that. There are 3d printed replacements to fix the issue but thats way less durable. I really don't want anything in view of my camera. That frame look so sexy though and I love how they made the deadcat have the motor position symmetrical? really cool.

 

[LicketySplit]

hahaha oh man I have bags of them in the closet and I haven't even tried most of them yet. I'm thinking I bought waaay too many but they're so cheap and I'm so scared of breaking one that every time I buy props I buy at least 2 packs of the same one for spares. I have a problem!

I was so close to getting apex deadcat frame. The only thing that made me not do it is people complaining about the frame being in the camera view when using wide angle or something like that. There are 3d printed replacements to fix the issue but thats way less durable. I really don't want anything in view of my camera. That frame look so sexy though and I love how they made the deadcat have the motor position symmetrical? really cool.

I have the X frame Apex. Only DC I own is a Mark 5. I just like how the X's fly better. Even though I'm running the O3 I still have GoPro's mounted so I don't care about seeing props in view while I fly. I actually like it because it gives me a frame of reference. Either or, the Apex is an amazing frame. Super quiet so I can really bump up the sliders.

 

[Bustedaw11]

I've got 2350kv on 1 and 2450kv on my other qav210.
Seems like folks are going lower kv now days?
I actually just fully stripped my rooster 5" so I can update that to newer equipment. I built all of mine a few years ago and now they are way behind in tech
Gonna have to do some new research and see what all the cool kids are using

 

[LicketySplit]

I've got 2350kv on 1 and 2450kv on my other qav210.
Seems like folks are going lower kv now days?
I actually just fully stripped my rooster 5" so I can update that to newer equipment. I built all of mine a few years ago and now they are way behind in tech
Gonna have to do some new research and see what all the cool kids are using

Everyone is running 6s now hence the lower Kv. Puts less stress on the packs also so people are getting a hell of a lot more life out of them. Just get some new motors and a new stack. I tried the Fettech/KISS stuff and didn’t like it. Just didn’t fly as good as BF.

 

[Bustedaw11]

Everyone is running 6s now hence the lower Kv. Puts less stress on the packs also so people are getting a hell of a lot more life out of them. Just get some new motors and a new stack. I tried the Fettech/KISS stuff and didn’t like it. Just didn’t fly as good as BF.

3s and 4s were most common when I built mine i was running 4s on em. The issues I had is a kept killing esc. Maybe I didn't do my research or missed something. I was never into the tuning of them hardcore because really the info wasn't out there then like it is now. I've been reading up on stuff and its way more involved now
They were lumenier silk bheli 30a's.
I ran both bf and raceflight also. Didn't like raceflight as much.
You can use betaflight right there on your phones now! Things have changed

 

[LicketySplit]

3s and 4s were most common when I built mine i was running 4s on em. The issues I had is a kept killing esc. Maybe I didn't do my research or missed something. I was never into the tuning of them hardcore because really the info wasn't out there then like it is now. I've been reading up on stuff and its way more involved now
They were lumenier silk bheli 30a's.
I ran both bf and raceflight also. Didn't like raceflight as much.
You can use betaflight right there on your phones now! Things have changed

Yup. All my 5” stacks have either Bluetooth or wifi. I’m flying right now making some adjustments on my phone. It’s great.

 

[Moirae]

3s and 4s were most common when I built mine i was running 4s on em. The issues I had is a kept killing esc. Maybe I didn't do my research or missed something. I was never into the tuning of them hardcore because really the info wasn't out there then like it is now. I've been reading up on stuff and its way more involved now
They were lumenier silk bheli 30a's.
I ran both bf and raceflight also. Didn't like raceflight as much.
You can use betaflight right there on your phones now! Things have changed

You can use bheli 32 app on your phone too! some fc's even have bluetooth built in. That was one of the main reasons I picked the FC I did for my build. I had one other drone with BT for betaflight and it was so nice compared to having to hook up the usb cable to the phone/drone every time. Also betaflight has "presets" now so you can find presets for your drone that have tuning from other people and they are great starting points.

 

[Bustedaw11]

You can use bheli 32 app on your phone too! some fc's even have bluetooth built in. That was one of the main reasons I picked the FC I did for my build. I had one other drone with BT for betaflight and it was so nice compared to having to hook up the usb cable to the phone/drone every time. Also betaflight has "presets" now so you can find presets for your drone that have tuning from other people and they are great starting points.

Ah man you guys got it easy now days
I didn't know all that yet. Been away from them a long time!
Gonna have to relearn it all

It was a few months back I learned I could usb cable to the fc from my phone. Had no idea about the Bluetooth!

Taking a look on gerfpv i see a ton of new brands I've never heard of.

Used to be Emax had the rs2205 budget motors that were pretty decent. Anything stand out in a comparison to those as far as cost/quality?


I want to get this 5" flying and up to date a bit but by no means wanna go all out on parts this time. I built 3 in a month the last time all top of the line at the time and narrowly missed the wife killing me over it. don't need to poke the bear again