Your First Build
This article will hopefully give you direction and information about what you need to know for your first build. Take everything with a grain of salt. These are the hardware I personally like to run and by no means have I tried all parts available in the market. These are merely suggestions for someone who needs some sort of direction. Let’s get building.
Define Your Goal
Like fitness there are very linear ways to get you to your goal, but first you must know what it is. Ask yourself a few questions. Is this drone for long range? Is it going to be a daily ripper? Am I using it for videos? Is it for racing? Is this just a throwaway drone? Once you define your goal, next is to define your budget. You can expect your drone to be anywhere from $200 up to $800; typically averaging at around $400 (CAD).
Frame
There are a variety of frames and there are no one correct frame. Typically the larger the frame, the more efficient it will be, because of prop size and motors (kv, stater size). 5” is very standard and a great place to start out at. It is the all around drone that is good at just about anything; racing, cinematics, long-range, etc. However, if you want to specialize in long range 7” is the standard (typically pushing 10+ minute flights). Wait Keane why don’t I just geta 7” then? Well with a 7” frame there is a bit of downfall. You will have to use motors with lower KV, which means lower RPM and as a result of that, less thrust. You will also have to find the correct battery but that’s a whole other topic.
As far as brands go, from my experience it doesn’t matter too much. A few things I look for when picking a frame is how sleek does it look, can it carry my size flight controller (30x30 or 20x20 or both), if it can fit my GoPro and is it with in my budget? Typically the more expensive frames are made with better material. Armattan being one of the strongest if you fear breaking your frame, but of course that is if you plan on crashing. Most of these frame can take a good beating before anything breaks. My go-to 5” frame is the iFlight SL5 or XL5.
Flight Controller (FC)
The FC acts as a brain for your FPV. All stick inputs, video transmission, gyro data and everything else you can imagine for a drone to stay up in the air will inevitable pass through the FC. With that being said, that means we need a reliable FC that can process all that information. The most common flight controller microprocessors are STM32 F1, F3, F4, and F7. F3 are older boards while F7 being top of the line boards and the difference, processing power. While in the air your drone filters out a lot of noise and vibration caused by the wind, moisture, and motors. The newer software for these flight controllers are very good at doing those things but unfortunately the older microprocessors cannot run the latest firmware without it be consequently slower than the F4 and F7. F4 is currently a staple and F7 being less budget friendly/on the higher end of flight controllers. Flight controllers comes in different sizes, but for the average 5” your options are 30.5x30.5 (mm) or 20x20. The benefits aren’t too substantial other than sizing (so depending on your frame). As a beginner learning to solder, I recommend the 30.5x30.5 FC as they will give you more real estate to solder without shorting anything. When purchasing FC you’ll typically find 3 options. You can buy just the flight controller, you can buy a stack (fc and esc) or you can buy an AIO (all in one) flight controller. I personally like buying a stack which simplifies the connection from FC to ESC (usually its just a plug). If you buy a single FC board by itself, you’ll need to find a compatible ESC board and solder 4 signal wires, one 5v and one ground wire. AIO FC sounds like it includes everything but it really doesn’t. The power distribution board is on the FC so you will solder the power leads on the FC and you will need to buy 4 individual ESC which will half to be soldered on separately (3 wires each ESC, so a total of 12 wires from just the ESC to the board). A cheap reliable stack I always go with is the Diatone Mamba F405 MK2 stack or the iFlight SucceX-E F4 stack. Both are ridiculously cheaper than most FC on the market and you get an ESC with it.
Electronic Speed Controller (ESC)
The ESC is a very important piece to your drone. If it ever malfunctions, it’s a matter of life or death for your drone depending on how lucky you are and where you are flying. When an ESC breaks, there are no warnings; your quad just plummets out of the sky and you have no control what so ever. You just pray that you aren’t going to land on anything that you can damage so picking a reliable ESC is very crucial. When it comes to ESCs you have two options, 4 in 1 ESC (like the photo to the right) or individual ESCs. The benefit of having a 4 in 1 is that it’s tidy and keeps everything on one board but that also serves as a con as all your eggs are in one basket. If you get individual ESCs that go on the arms of the quad, you’ll be able to swap them out if any of them bug out. Cons of that is you will need to get an all in one FC (FC and PDB) or get a FC with the PDB separate then solder them all together. This method requires a lot of soldering if they ESC’s to FC to PDB aren’t pins. I recommend getting stacks (FC that come with 4in1 ESCs) that way a lot of it is just plug and play. Another thing to keep in mind when buying ESC is the firmware that the ESC comes in. Typically BLHELI32 ESC’s are the way to go because of the additional filtering and tuning you can do in Betaflight to make it fly better. However, BLHELIS (everything else thats not BLHELI32) can be flashed with JESC which can unlock all the features of BLHELI32 but costs extra money ($1/ESC). Right now I am currently rocking the iFlight Succe-x F4 stack and is working fantastic. It doesn’t have BLHELI32 but instead I flashed the JESC firmware on them.
Motors
Motors are interesting. They are definitely one of the more flexible options and just about any motor will work with any build. However, there are still a few things to be aware of,motor stator size and KV. Motor stators refers to the stationary part of a rotary system. This in FPV terms will determine the size of your motors. The number is split into two. The first two being the diameter and the last two being the height; for example, 2206 (diameter 22mm and height 06mm). When picking a size, the taller and thinner motors provide more torque (2208) and the bigger and flatter the more efficient (2806). This goes hand in hand with the KV produced by the motor. The KV determines how much RPM (rotation per minute) your motor has. Lower KV = less rpm there for more efficient (long-range). A great balance motor will give you the best performance so know what the purpose of your build is. For reference, a great day to day motor would be something that sits around 2207 2400KV (I wouldn’t go higher in KV than 2400KV). A good motor for long-range would be 2507 1750KV. I personally would recommend all beginners to go something budget like the EMAX ECO Motors, although having flashier motors would be sick. Have fun with it, there are so many motor options out there.
Video Transmitter (VTX)
Video transmitter also known as VTX is an important asset. You can also save quite a bit of money here buying cheap alternatives from Eachine. VTX strength is measured through a unit called mW (milliwatts). An average VTX can output anywhere from 25mW to 400mW (400 being on the higher end). Long-range transmitter can output up to +1000mW. Typically the more expensive it is the higher the output power is. For a typical rip in the park 100mW is more than enough. For filming purposes 400mW - 800mW is typically the range you would sit at. If you want to exceed 5km than you will need +1000mW. Don’t be fooled by cheap VTX. The iFlight FORCE 1W VTX claims to output 1W (1000mW), but after measuring with a RF power meter within a minute of use the VTX drops it’s output power (so it won’t fry itself from the heat) to around 500mW. VTX is typically something you pay for what you get. From my experience, all TBS video transmitter are super reliable and easy to use. Where as some of the cheaper VTX like the Eachine branded ones will do the job but will have some work around. For example if you wan’t to change your video transmitter channel so you aren’t on the same one as you friend and you don’t have smart audio. You will need to press and hold the button and watch for the flashing lights to tell you which channel, frequency and power output you are currently on and change it accordingly. Whereas the TBS you can plug-in via micro USB and change it on your computer (but can also change it via flashing light). A great starter VTX is the Eachine TX805 and a higher end one for those with a budget would be the TBS Unify Pro32 HV or the TBS Unify Pro 5G8 HV (no micro usb for this one).
ALSO REMEMBER TO NEVER PLUG IN YOUR VTX WITHOUT AN ANTENNA OR LET IT SIT ON THE TABLE PLUGGED IN FOR TOO LONG. IT WILL MELT ITSELF.
Camera
Camera comes in two parts. The camera has a sensor which usually dictates the size of the body and the lens. Choosing a camera is also very subjective. When choosing a camera it’s safe to assume you want to look for a camera that has a higher dynamic range. I would honestly say most camera will do the job especially if you go with Caddx or Runcam. I would recommend regular size camera for 5” because a lot of the frame will need an adapter to fit micro size cameras. Some micro cameras also have older sensors and could mean you will have subpar video quality. There are two types of sensors used in FPV: CCD and CMOS. CCD being older less clear and more reliable but CMOS newer, cleaner image and will become the future of cameras with every update (it’s probably in 90% of cameras now). I personally love the Runcam Phoenix and the Caddx Turbo with a fairly reasonable size lens at 2.5mm. It is wide enough for me and has a great dynamic range. They are both CMOS sensor cameras.
Receiver
There are a lot of receivers with different protocols. The most popular nowadays are FrSky receivers and Crossfire receivers. I wouldn’t bother playing with other types of receivers as it can get pretty confusing with PPM and IBUS. With FrSky or Crossfire it’s as simple as 3-4 wires and binding is very simple. If you’re on a budget I recommend the XM+ or the XSR receiver from FrSky. Crossfire needs an external transmitter that attaches to your current radio and will run you an extra $200-$300. However crossfire can output more power than any receiver in the market. You can probably go +20km with a proper setup.
