Eachine 250 falcon. You can upgrade to your liking. Solid platform. The quad you can get for 150 to 180 depending on where you buy it.
If you were talking about a complete package though....that is different. The controller will set you back about 150 to 200 depending on which you buy but you can use it with future quads. The goggles will set you back 150 to 500 depending on what you want.
You can buy a complete eachine 250 racer package that comes with controller and goggles for under 500 but you will get Their controller and Their FPV set up and maybe not what you want for future builds.
There will be a lot of soldering. End of story. Soldering irons are cheap, not that long to learn how and plenty of youtube videos to show you how.
There will be a learning curve on programming flight controllers which will be further frustrated by having to REPROGRAM every damn quad you get when THEY decide to put out a revision to their software. I sound bitter don't i? That's because i have spent the last two days trying to get my quads to fly again after the release of Cleanflight "upgrade" they decided we needed.
Unfortunately, most of what you learn will come from hours spent on the web sifting through forums, some useful, most not. nothing comes with an instruction manual. Not your quad, not flight controllers, not cameras, transmitters and receivers on the quad, not your controller not your goggles. Nothing. You will get a pin out map to tell you what pin is for what and off you go. The freeware programming interface does not come with one either. Nothing.
Better to buy one already built or mostly built and start from there. You are going to crash it alot, you are going to break parts, there is where you will start your learning curve. Suggest you buy a RTF mini quad to get through the flying learning curve. I wouldn't start with a kit quad, your first few weeks will be hard on your wallet if you do. Mini quads, like the Hubsan X4 series, can bounce off walls and things and not get damaged because of their super light weight. DO NOT try buying a kit mini quad. They are underpowered, break often and do not fly anywhere near as good as the plastic RTF mini quads. I currently use mine as a shell mounted on top of my 250 to protect my receiver. One of the few uses i find it suitable for.
happy trails. Gonna be a long hike.
Your first tip. CC3D and openpilot are bad. No longer supported. NAZE32 and Cleanflight/baseflight/betaflight/raceflight - all pretty much the same program - are supported. Opt for the Naze controller on your first build.
Notice i didn't say good? That's because when they come out with a revision, it IS NOT backward compatible and it auto updates. So when you plug in your quad a few weeks after spending countless hours adjusting PID rates and other various things, it will no longer connect until you reflash your controller with the latest version, pretty much wiping out all of your effort and sending you back to ZERO to do it again. But it is supported and will have the necessary programming for the latest gear which changes frequently.
free is not free.
