UAV Futures inspired $99 build

roger jones

roger jones

Well-Known Member
New to this hobby currently learning to fly my first drone JJRC H33. A very low tech toy drone but I am finding it forgiving and easy to control in the garden.

Having watched a number of YouTube videos a $99 build even having converted to £ seemed like just the thing to keep me occupied while I learnt to fly.

Having followed the why walk when you can stumble, buying parts was inevitably the next step. I realise some of the parts in the $99 build spec are now considered vintage.

My theory was one, older parts keeps the price down and if I fry the build I can potentially get back on track.

I will post my parts list and costs so far, tomorrow. Safe to say a $99 dollar build it's not.

That said UAV Futures is a great YouTube channel, providing you don't mind hyper Steve.
 
Nice Roger. I love UAV Futures, although his cheeriness can get a touch annoying, he has tons of great content.

Looking forward to following along on your build.
 
Kit list so far.

Item

Price



Soldering station

£15.99

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/58W-Varia...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649




Solder Sucker


https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Silverli...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649


SOLDER WIRE 1MM/3M






M3 Nylon Hex Spacer Screw Nut Assortment Kit Standoff Plastic Black

£5.69

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/260-160p...var=670784172910&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649




Assorted Electrical Cable Heat Shrink Tube

£1.99

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/260Pc-Ca...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649




7Pcs Black Hex Screw Driver Tool Kit 1.5Mm-5.5Mm

£8.42

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/7Pcs-Bla...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649




Transmitter and Receiver

£38.94

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Flysky-F...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649




Frame

£14.52

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ZMR250-2...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649


This frame cam with 3 lower decks.IE 4 plates in total. One of the extra lower decks is a PDB. I am not using this and have opted to use a smaller PDB in line with the project I am following. Also due to negative feedback on these integral PDB’s. (This one may be fine to be clear but given a separate PDB was £6.29 I went with the advice)




ESC

£27.99

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Racersta...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649




PDB

£6.29

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Matek-Sy...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649




Motors

£27.99

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Racersta...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649






£14.46

TURNIGY Batteries 1800MAH 3S 20C LIPO PACK x 2


https://hobbyking.com/en_us/turnigy-1800mah-3s-20c-lipo-pack.html




TURNIGY Charger ACCUCEL-6 80W 10A BALANCER/CHARGER LIHV CAPABLE

£21.60

https://hobbyking.com/en_us/turnigy-accucel-6-80w-10a-balancer-charger-lihv-capable.html


Note it may be called a charger, look like a charger but it still needs a separate power supply to work




TURNIGY® FIRE RETARDANT LIPOLY BATTERY BAG (120X53X42MM) (1PC)

£1.87

https://hobbyking.com/en_us/fire-retardant-lipo-battery-bag-120x65x55mm.html


I may have bought the hype? But to save burning down the house I thought I had better get one of these as well




XT60 CHARGED/DISCHARGED BATTERY INDICATOR CAPS (5 PAIRS)

£2.30

https://hobbyking.com/en_us/xt60-charged-discharged-battery-indicator-caps-5-pairs.html


With two batteries coloured caps seemed critical.




NYLON XT60 CONNECTORS MALE/FEMALE (5 PAIRS) GENUINE

£3.05

https://hobbyking.com/en_us/nylon-xt60-connectors-male-female-5-pairs-genuine.html




TURNIGY HIGH QUALITY 18AWG SILICONE WIRE 1M (BLACK)

£0.54

https://hobbyking.com/en_us/turnigy-high-quality-18awg-silicone-wire-1m-black.html




TURNIGY HIGH QUALITY 18AWG SILICONE WIRE 2M (RED)

£0.90

https://hobbyking.com/en_us/turnigy-high-quality-18awg-silicone-wire-2m-red.html





£192.54
 
:rolleyes: ... Seems like a decent iron and at a surprisingly cheap price, makes me wonder how well the temp regulator works, but it's not overly important ... I run at about 350-400 C for most work.
Good solder sucker too (spring loaded plunger types blow those squeeze bulbs types away), got several just like it. But buy some extra tips while you're at it, you'll need them.
I'd get some solder wick too, it'll get up what the sucker leaves behind and comes in handy for cleaning up circuit pads too.
You should also get some flux too while you're at it. ;)

Those ESCs have D-shot which is good, but since the motor's link is the ESC's link can't tell if 20 amps is enough .... I'd shoot for 30 amps though.
The motors/props combination will help dictate the right ESC requirement. ;)

Heard good things about the radio ... don't think that RX is diversity though, and it's worth the extra money to have that imho. :)

Well known frame, but no specs. There were shortcomings with the originals (the pdb being just one of them) and later versions corrected that.
I think they're called V2 or maybe V2 point sumthin .... dunno .... You want the one with 4mm arms and 2mm plates not the thinner V1 stuff, which this may be (or maybe not) :p
 
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I'm building my first quad as well, looked at those 4 in one ESC's and ended up going with a DALRC 4-in-1 40A 32bit Engine ESC, figure the 40a continuous should handle current and future needs, will see how it goes though.
 
I'm thinking of putting together another build list too, definitely getting that ESC pack and I'm wrestling over the decision for an AIO .

There's the HGLRC F3 V4 PRO that looks pretty good for only $40 ... It's got FC/3A 5V BEC/ OSD/PDB (with current sensor) and a 25-600mW VTX that's 2-6S ready. ;)

A two card stack (will slip an XSR RX between the boards) with everything you need for $100 bucks ain't too shabby, and sure beats the TBS cube
being less than half the weight, size and cost. :D
 
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I bought myself a new soldering iron, a dremel 2000, love it, butane powered, portable, I use the exhaust vent for the soldering tip to shrink the heat shrink tubing after I solder my wires.

Nice for small jobs, going to make a nice field setup as well.
 
Swap the standoffs for the rubber vibration mounts.
8-pcs-m5-air-compressor-rubber-vibration-mount-isolator-15mm-x-15mm-1024x1024.jpg
Better in my opinion.
If you can't get the parts under £100
There is plenty of kits on ebay from China. I just seen one for £60 or £59.34
Puda chameleon frame
20amp esc
F3 fcb Matek pdb
MT2204 X4 motors
Battery straps
Propellers
Soft mounts
Lipo pigtail.
All your missing is vtx & camera, zip ties
And a soldering iron & it's game on.
Normally I'd say stay well clear but it is so cheap & so much better than flying a cheap toys
. Like I did.
I got 2hrs out of a syma & jjrc. Then moved onto self builds so I basically learned on a zmr250. I just kept it low & slow then gradually built up. It was quite a few Lipo's before I broke anything.
this was my baby, I built it & I wasn't smashing it. It served me well.
Roger you can't go wrong with any of the esc's on RadioC.Com, especially the one I use. Pocket rocket. £5.90 Dshot.
If you can get any I just bought the last 9 again. But they will put them on back order.
 
... LMAO ... Me too, I mean you can get four mediocre Racerstar motors for $33 total or some hot rod T-Motors for $25 each.
Motors are something I don't like to skimp on, ESCs either, or flight controllers, or cameras, or VTX, or frame, etc, etc
.... hence the delima :p
 
Good builds & better builds.
Im sticking with the emax RS2205
& my esc. I know them, they know me.
Vtx I have been forking out lately,
Tramps & unifys. I was given a Betaflight F4 SD & liked it. So I'm in the middle of replacing the old sprf3 boards in the rest of the squad.
 
Gyro Doctor said:
.... hence the delima :p
Click to expand...

This kept happening to me when I started planning from UAVFuture's $170 build. By the time I made a tweak here, a tweak there, and added a battery, I was north of $300. With my recent direction change into the whoop size, they are closer to $100, but I already have 1 on the way, another I will order soon, and a kit to build another. It's a sickness I tell you. I'm not holding out hope for saving much money when I look at 100-130mm builds - if's anything like other hobbies, smaller and lighter mean more expensive.
 
I was looking at the UAV build, wanted to build one cheap but then starting thinking if I upgraded this I would like it better.

Flight Controller and ESC, $95
Frame and PDB $115
VTX $35
Camera (not ordered yet) $50+
Reciever $25
Motors (for the moment) $30

So far I'm over $350 in costs.

I'm toying with some ideas and only testing will tell if it will be worth while but soldering some 3 way connectors for the motors for quick swaps.

I'm not too worried about weight for this first build.
 
roger jones said:
Well I have all the parts above so now its time to start practicing my soldering. Two wires tinned and soldered today and heat shrink applied.
Click to expand...

Awesome. So at 2 wires per day....LOL just kidding. By the time you get to 8 to 10 pairs of wires, your speed and skill will have increased very noticeably.
 
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