Spork
There is no spoon
UPDATE 3/22/18
I changed the title of this from Spork's First Build to Spork's Journey because I'll not likely get around to a build for a month or two. The thread has sort of morphed from a build to my new plan of playing with a BNF micro (65mm), learning FPV, and modifying my HS toy quad for FPV. Next up will be playing with a DJI Mavic and a larger micro BNF (2").
Right now the build candidates are something like the 3" Armattan Japalura or the bigger brother 5"/6" Armattan Chameleon - loving those frames. When I get to that point, I'll start a new thread.
Original post below
-----------------------------
Okay folks, time to s**t or get off the pot. I've watched tons of build videos, read a ton of forum and blog posts, learned how to solder and built out my workbench with tools and supplies, etc.
(Richard Dawson Running Man voice) It's time to start BUILDING!
Not really, but it's time to start finalizing my parts list and start ordering.
So I've decided I want to go with a Taranis radio. Likely the QX7, but I'm still looking at reviews of the QX7S and the X9D. This will be my first purchase so I can start practicing with a simulator while I finish my shopping and work on building the quad.
I'm also pretty sure I want to go with the AomWay Commander goggles, but will likely buy a cheap video screen before that to use for setup and testing on the bench. The goggles will be purchased last, to help spread out the costs a bit.
Regarding the build, my first one will be an 5" FPV race/free style type. Not interested in being the cheapest or fanciest. Somewhere in the lower-mid end of the budget range though so I don't cry too much if I smash it to bits. My biggest requirement here is to be a great platform for a noob builder to learn a lot from as I build it. The smaller stuff scares me a bit from the point of view of trying to cram everything in. I figure I can worry about faster, fancier, etc on the next one. Don't have a firm budget limit, but let's say it's $200ish. Happy to spend less, but will go higher if needed.
Frame-wise, I'm thinking something along the lines of the Martian II: Banggood would be a good start.
I go back and forth on F3 vs F4 for the flight controller - no specific model in mind here yet. But it brings up the question on software for setup. I see lots of folks use Betaflight (or Beetaflight, so Moz knows what I mean - lol) so it seems an obvious place to start. Any reason to consider Cleanflight/KISS or the others?
Another area of question is, should I use separate ESCs or an AIO? Seems like the AIO is a no-brainer, but I see a lot of builds that don't use them, so I have to wonder why. Is it just cost/preference? Something else?
I'll leave specific parts selection beyond that until after I finalize the frame and FC choices.
You may ask, "Spork, why don't you just pick one of those build videos you watched and buy the parts list?" Well, I still may if enough of you guys say it's my wisest choice. A lot of the build videos I've watched are a little older and stuff in this market seems to change pretty quickly. Plus I'll probably learn a lot more if I don't follow someone's specific build and merely use them to understand the basic process (which I think I somewhat have now).
Anyway, to reiterate, the main purpose of this build is to learn, without being too big of a pain in the rear, while using reasonably inexpensive parts that aren't SO cheap that I'm kicking myself about not spending a few more bucks five minutes into my first flight. Not too picky on speed - in fact too much speed will probably make me crash faster, but bad FPV video quality is off the list - it should be good at minimum. Other highly desirable features are OSD (basic battery level is fine at first) and a buzzer for helping me figure out which tree I've crashed into again.
Sorry / not sorry for the lengthy post, but any guidance or suggestions you guys have would be very much appreciated. I'm not looking for a specific parts list as I'd actually prefer to learn about those components more myself - use ecalc to help me learn more, etc - but any and all suggestions are welcome.
Thanks!
I changed the title of this from Spork's First Build to Spork's Journey because I'll not likely get around to a build for a month or two. The thread has sort of morphed from a build to my new plan of playing with a BNF micro (65mm), learning FPV, and modifying my HS toy quad for FPV. Next up will be playing with a DJI Mavic and a larger micro BNF (2").
Right now the build candidates are something like the 3" Armattan Japalura or the bigger brother 5"/6" Armattan Chameleon - loving those frames. When I get to that point, I'll start a new thread.
Original post below
-----------------------------
Okay folks, time to s**t or get off the pot. I've watched tons of build videos, read a ton of forum and blog posts, learned how to solder and built out my workbench with tools and supplies, etc.
(Richard Dawson Running Man voice) It's time to start BUILDING!
Not really, but it's time to start finalizing my parts list and start ordering.
So I've decided I want to go with a Taranis radio. Likely the QX7, but I'm still looking at reviews of the QX7S and the X9D. This will be my first purchase so I can start practicing with a simulator while I finish my shopping and work on building the quad.
I'm also pretty sure I want to go with the AomWay Commander goggles, but will likely buy a cheap video screen before that to use for setup and testing on the bench. The goggles will be purchased last, to help spread out the costs a bit.
Regarding the build, my first one will be an 5" FPV race/free style type. Not interested in being the cheapest or fanciest. Somewhere in the lower-mid end of the budget range though so I don't cry too much if I smash it to bits. My biggest requirement here is to be a great platform for a noob builder to learn a lot from as I build it. The smaller stuff scares me a bit from the point of view of trying to cram everything in. I figure I can worry about faster, fancier, etc on the next one. Don't have a firm budget limit, but let's say it's $200ish. Happy to spend less, but will go higher if needed.
Frame-wise, I'm thinking something along the lines of the Martian II: Banggood would be a good start.
I go back and forth on F3 vs F4 for the flight controller - no specific model in mind here yet. But it brings up the question on software for setup. I see lots of folks use Betaflight (or Beetaflight, so Moz knows what I mean - lol) so it seems an obvious place to start. Any reason to consider Cleanflight/KISS or the others?
Another area of question is, should I use separate ESCs or an AIO? Seems like the AIO is a no-brainer, but I see a lot of builds that don't use them, so I have to wonder why. Is it just cost/preference? Something else?
I'll leave specific parts selection beyond that until after I finalize the frame and FC choices.
You may ask, "Spork, why don't you just pick one of those build videos you watched and buy the parts list?" Well, I still may if enough of you guys say it's my wisest choice. A lot of the build videos I've watched are a little older and stuff in this market seems to change pretty quickly. Plus I'll probably learn a lot more if I don't follow someone's specific build and merely use them to understand the basic process (which I think I somewhat have now).
Anyway, to reiterate, the main purpose of this build is to learn, without being too big of a pain in the rear, while using reasonably inexpensive parts that aren't SO cheap that I'm kicking myself about not spending a few more bucks five minutes into my first flight. Not too picky on speed - in fact too much speed will probably make me crash faster, but bad FPV video quality is off the list - it should be good at minimum. Other highly desirable features are OSD (basic battery level is fine at first) and a buzzer for helping me figure out which tree I've crashed into again.
Sorry / not sorry for the lengthy post, but any guidance or suggestions you guys have would be very much appreciated. I'm not looking for a specific parts list as I'd actually prefer to learn about those components more myself - use ecalc to help me learn more, etc - but any and all suggestions are welcome.
Thanks!
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