5" Drone - Am I doing this right?

H

helmetface

Member
Hey all, I'm pretty much 'there' in my research and ready to pull the trigger.

Looking to build a moderately fast freestyle/utility quad.

I've already got a Taranis Qx7 and I intend to pick up a set of Fatsharks.

Frame:
220mm Martian II

F.C:
Racestar StarF4S 30A Blheli_S Dshot 4 in 1 ESC AIO F4 OSD
While this is a 4-1, I'm unsure whether there's any real advantage to going with singular ESC's...other than breakage.

**Edit**

It's not much more to go with a good ESC setup, so I'm looking at this route, now:

F.C.:
KISS - 32b V1.03

E.S.C.:
KISS 24A Race Edition
24A seems sufficient, but there is a 32A option

Motor:
DYS Samguk Series Wu 2206 2400KV 2700KV 3-4S Brushless

Prop:
DALPROP T5045C Cyclone 5 Inch 3 Blade

FPV Cam:
RunCam Swift 2

FPV Trans:
Team BlackSheep TBS UNIFY PRO

FPV ANT:
Team BlackSheep TBS Triumph

Reciever:
Frsky XM+ Micro D16 SBUS

I haven't decided what camera I'd like to go with at this time.

So, basically I'm posting this as a means to checking my research. Do all the components I've decided upon work with one another? Are there 'better' choices without spending much more? I long surpassed my budget...

I've got batteries and charging means all sorted out, but otherwise, have I missed anything?

Thanks for any advice!
 
Last edited:
It'll all work together just fine, the only thing I'd do is go for the higher 32 amp ESCs just to be safe. (And go for a Betaflight setup instead of KISS but that's just me lol).
Don't forget to start a build thread when you get all your parts rounded up, we like lotsa pics!!
 
Couple of things I see missing, what're you doing for FPV goggles/receiver side? Second one what's the plan for charging, did you pick out a charger did you grab a parallel charge board as well or do you plan to just charge them each back to back?

For the charger you want something that will support charging at whatever rate you want to charge at, charger wattage my very well be a limiting factor in charge rate if you do go with a parallel board, if you plan to just charge them one after another this is less of a concern but will take more time to get everything juiced to go flying (this is problematic since you also need to charge goggles/fpv receiver typically and personally upgraded my transmitter/radio to use a lipo and lipo charger with a boost converter to bump the voltage on the lipo up to 6.5V which is in the acceptable range for my transmitter).

Would also add regarding the video receiver anything will basically work for a small park or around a baseball field and back but if you want to get across more than a soccer field or american football field you'll likely need/want diversity with both omni and patch antenna.
 
Last edited:
Another thing regarding the ESCs having the extra amperage headroom is good even if you don't expect you will draw that much in normal flying around can help to keep things functioning in cases where your props are locked up but the motors/escs are still getting throttle signals and the ESCs will be heating up. I think I've replaced more ESCs than any other component (not counting props), basically order of parts I have to replace from most often to least:

Propellors ($12 for 16)
ESCs (randomly fry them typically) ($40 or so)
Motors (bashed up from crashes and or magnets pushed out of place) ($40-80)
Camera lense ($12)

Never replaced due to damage:
FC ($40)
FPV camera body and control board ($90) (did replace control board but had blown solder pads, $40 on runcam split)
Frame ($20, I have a cheap plastic one from amazon, originally 3d printed this)
FPV goggles ($50-600, started with cheap box goggles, now using HDOs with laforge, signal is great, features for band scanning etc. are great, price is painful)
Charger AR1 from keenstone (500W, requires separate AC->DC transformer expects DC in, I am using a bench power supply for this) https://www.amazon.com/Battery-Balance-Charger-AR1-Discharger/dp/B01D4POP6C
Fused parallel charge board ($15) https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B077N41KJ7/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
 
Back
Top