Posted: 9/9/2026 6:49:26 PM EDT
[Last Edit: gtfoxy][Edited]
|
I’ve been thinking about getting into the drone hobby so I’ve been doing some research for the last few days. I first got excited thinking doing a DIY, printing it myself, as a project for my oldest. It would be something we could do together & also count toward home school class credits as well. I’ve dug into the regs & I’m torn between staying sub 250 to begin with & just going big with something like a 10”. I’d like to be able to do some good photography, especially considering I have a trip to Hawaii planned in March. I looked into regs there & they require every drone be registered, so If I’m going to have to do it I just as well go bigger. I like the idea of an FPV style, but I’m not looking into a total hot rod. I’d like to have good range & up time. GPS is also in the plan. My main hesitation on going pre-built is getting locked into a manufacturer ecosystem. Being able to have multiple drones using the same controller & flight controller protocol, as well as more open access to things like batteries & chassis. Pretty much what ever ai could print & get tuned out I could use. I also have GoPro’s to mount on it, so I can eliminate that item. |
| What kind of flying are you planning on doing? Thats the drone equivalent to "what are you shooting at?" In the gun world. There's no such thing as a do it all drone, in the same way as there's no such thing as a do it all gun. If you've never flown before I'd steer you away from building one yourself its nowhere near as easy as squirting out parts on a printer. |
|
Originally Posted By osprey21: Skyrover X1 Pretty neat. If we are talking prebuilt, how would you compare that to this model? https://droneclonexperts.com/products/razor-x-pro-4k-camera-drone?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=22166419116&gbraid=0AAAAAC2TS3rhf8aH2Ki3dLxpF-54CJaH8&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIoYeTl4XjlgMVQJHCCB1haDtPEAAYASAAEgJtWvD_BwE |
|
Originally Posted By gearsmithy: What kind of flying are you planning on doing? Thats the drone equivalent to "what are you shooting at?" In the gun world. There's no such thing as a do it all drone, in the same way as there's no such thing as a do it all gun. If you've never flown before I'd steer you away from building one yourself its nowhere near as easy as squirting out parts on a printer. I’m not thinking a do it all single unit. Instead I’m looking at it from what I’ve broken down to a few important aspects like speed, operating range, platform stability. All this going hand in hand with part compatibility. I don’t care about doing 100mph, right now, but I would like a drone electronics base that is durable & compatible with each other. Like what you have in your like units. Only I’m thinking broader spectrum of usage eventually. I’m imagining a unit that can do 30-40mph, have a decent stability in moderate winds of 20mph, an up time of 20-30 minutes, be able to fly 1 or 2 Go Pros with efficient energy consumption all while being relatively resilient in events of crashes. Range that a 5.8ghz setup can provide is fine. I’m also not opposed to analog systems for flight control as I plan having other recording methods as stated. I see a lot of 2.4ghz stuff out there in the non-FPV realm I’m curious about as well. FPV is cool, & I certainly want to explore that, but it’s not necessarily what I have to have for the first build. I understand there is a lot more to the process than making a frame & other components. I’ll put it like this, in relative gun terms, since that was your analogy: I have developed my own cartridge, spanning 3 individual barrel types, encompassing heavy-grain sub-sonic rifle, & pistol projectiles, as well as supersonic pistol, & heavy gran rifle projectiles spanning over 5 different powder selections in barrel lengths ranging from 8.5 to 16” in 1:10 to 1:20 twist variants. Able to punch a fist size hole with high velocity flat points, or tap stuff at 200yds with a 25Ogn subsonic. A veritable do it all cartridge, if you will. Printing, soldering wires, programming modules, & assembling components is not outside my wheelhouse. I know you have an immense amount of knowledge. I’m just asking you don’t underestimate my abilities and give it to me raw & hard. I’m sure I’ll fuck something up, but that just learing. 
|
|
Originally Posted By gtfoxy: I’m not thinking a do it all single unit. Instead I’m looking at it from what I’ve broken down to a few important aspects like speed, operating range, platform stability. All this going hand in hand with part compatibility. I don’t care about doing 100mph, right now, but I would like a drone electronics base that is durable & compatible with each other. Like what you have in your like units. Only I’m thinking broader spectrum of usage eventually. I’m imagining a unit that can do 30-40mph, have a decent stability in moderate winds of 20mph, an up time of 20-30 minutes, be able to fly 1 or 2 Go Pros with efficient energy consumption all while being relatively resilient in events of crashes. Range that a 5.8ghz setup can provide is fine. I’m also not opposed to analog systems for flight control as I plan having other recording methods as stated. I see a lot of 2.4ghz stuff out there in the non-FPV realm I’m curious about as well. FPV is cool, & I certainly want to explore that, but it’s not necessarily what I have to have for the first build. I understand there is a lot more to the process than making a frame & other components. I’ll put it like this, in relative gun terms, since that was your analogy: I have developed my own cartridge, spanning 3 individual barrel types, encompassing heavy-grain sub-sonic rifle, & pistol projectiles, as well as supersonic pistol, & heavy gran rifle projectiles spanning over 5 different powder selections in barrel lengths ranging from 8.5 to 16” in 1:10 to 1:20 twist variants. Able to punch a fist size hole with high velocity flat points, or tap stuff at 200yds with a 25Ogn subsonic. A veritable do it all cartridge, if you will. Printing, soldering wires, programming modules, & assembling components is not outside my wheelhouse. I know you have an immense amount of knowledge. I’m just asking you don’t underestimate my abilities and give it to me raw & hard. I’m sure I’ll fuck something up, but that just learing. That's helpful, you've clearly done some homework I would read your response as you're interested in drones in general and want to know where to start your path, and the more technical aspects don't scare you. That's good. Full disclosure, I fly everything from DJI "tripods in the sky" to search-and-rescue multirotors with multispectrum gimbal-mounted payloads to FPV fixed wing. So here's the path I'd probably recommend. First, I would actually start with a relatively inexpensive GPS-stabilized camera drone. Not because I don't think you can build one, but because learning to build a drone and learning to fly one are two completely different problems. There's value in separating them at first. Something in the DJI Mini/Mavic or SKYROVER class lets you learn orientation, wind, battery management, GPS behavior, Return-to-Home, airspace, camera work, etc. without simultaneously wondering whether the reason it's flying like shit is because you configured something wrong. And buy something you're emotionally prepared to put in a tree. You will put a drone in a tree. Everyone puts a drone in a tree. In fact, a few weeks ago I sent my buddy's $1500 thermal FPV out into the desert never to be seen again. That sucked, and it doesn't happen to me very often, but it does happen. Eventually that boring stabilized camera drone can become your spotter/recovery drone for retrieving the stupid FPV drone you just put on top of a building. I still use mine for exactly that purpose. DJI is sort of the Apple of drones. Their stuff works extremely well, but they very much want you living inside their ecosystem, and the current US regulatory situation makes buying into DJI a little weirder than it used to be. Existing authorized DJI models aren't suddenly illegal, but future US product availability has gotten complicated. The good news is that once you move into DIY FPV, you can make the system vastly more modular than I think you're imagining. Think of the pieces separately: Controller -> radio link -> receiver -> flight controller -> ESC/motors and then separately: Camera -> video transmitter -> goggles Your 5.8 GHz analog/Walksnail/DJI/HDZero system is generally the VIDEO link. That's separate from the CONTROL link. For control, I'd go ExpressLRS and never look back. 2.4 GHz ELRS is already absurdly capable. If you're buying higher-end equipment and long range/redundancy appeals to you, I'd look at one of the Gemini-capable systems. A RadioMaster Boxer or TX16S running EdgeTX can control damn near everything you build just by putting compatible ELRS receivers in them. That's the part that gives you the common controller ecosystem you're looking for. Flight controllers are similarly modular. Betaflight dominates FPV/multirotor stuff where you're actually flying the aircraft. INAV starts making more sense as you move toward GPS-heavy long-range aircraft and fixed wings. ArduPilot is another whole universe once you start getting into autonomous aircraft, waypoints, payloads, gimbals, redundant sensors, etc. You don't need to decide all of that today. What I WOULD buy early is the controller. Get the RadioMaster, plug it into your computer, buy Velocidrone, and start flying FPV in the simulator. Do that while you're screwing around with your camera drone. Then build your first FPV quad. And despite what you're describing as your eventual goals, I would NOT make your first FPV build a 10". I'd build a 5" 6S quad. That's basically the AR-15 of FPV. Parts are everywhere, everybody understands them, they're relatively cheap, they're extremely well documented, they're durable, and they're big enough that you aren't microsoldering everything under a microscope. Joshua Bardwell has a QAV-S beginner kit and an entire multipart YouTube series where he builds the exact aircraft in the kit from a pile of parts all the way through Betaflight configuration and first flight. Some software screens/settings inevitably change over time, but with your technical background you'll have no problem translating that. More importantly, build it yourself. Once you understand one FPV quad from component level, the whole hobby opens up. Motors, ESCs, flight controllers, receivers, GPS modules, VTXs, cameras, antennas, BECs, LEDs, servos, etc. stop being "a drone" and start being Lego. That's where your gun-building analogy actually starts working very well. You don't throw away the rifle because the extractor broke. You replace the extractor. Same thing here. You bend an arm, smoke a motor or rip a VTX antenna off and you're replacing a $10-$30 part instead of sending an aircraft back to the manufacturer. That matters because you are going to crash FPV. A LOT. For video, I'd probably start digital. You will eventually develop a strange appreciation for analog video that will make absolutely no sense to you right now. Analog looks like shit but it is cheap, light, incredibly flexible and, when the signal gets bad, it progressively gets worse rather than suddenly becoming a slideshow or disappearing. But for somebody coming from photography/GoPros, digital is much easier to love initially. Walksnail is what I'd probably point you toward if you don't want DJI. It's very good HD FPV without marrying the control system to DJI, and something like the Goggles X gives you a path to use analog later too. So you can have Walksnail on one aircraft, analog on another and ELRS controlling both of them with the same RadioMaster. THEN, after you've flown the 5" for a while, you'll actually know what your next aircraft needs to be. That's when I would start talking about 7", 8", 10", Li-ion packs, long-range antennas, GPS rescue, INAV, efficiency vs thrust, payloads, etc. Because the performance envelope you described: 30-40 mph 20 mph winds 20-30 minute endurance one or two GoPros good range stable platform is absolutely achievable, but those requirements start fighting each other. A crash-resistant aircraft wants to be relatively small and light. A 20-30 minute aircraft wants low disk loading, efficient motors/props and usually a large battery. A two-GoPro aircraft suddenly has several hundred grams of payload before we've even talked about the battery. A drone that doesn't give a shit about a 20 mph wind generally isn't going to be a tiny ultralight. So you're very quickly describing something in the larger long-range/endurance class. That's fine, but a 10" quad has a lot more kinetic energy, costs more when you crash it, and requires a lot more space to learn on. I'd rather you learn those lessons with a 5" first. And I wouldn't worry too much about creating one universal drone architecture. Standardize the interfaces instead. I'd personally standardize around something like: RadioMaster/EdgeTX ELRS receivers Betaflight for FPV quads INAV/ArduPilot when the mission requires it 6S where practical common battery connector families Walksnail + analog capability Then let the aircraft itself be purpose-built. Your 5" can be your basher/freestyle machine. Your 7" can be the long-range GoPro aircraft. Your 10" can eventually be the endurance/payload truck. A fixed wing can use the exact same RadioMaster/ELRS infrastructure. And later you can build some completely ridiculous GPS-equipped multisensor monstrosity because that's how this hobby works. You start out saying "I just want to take some pictures in Hawaii" and six months later you're soldering a thermal camera to a flight controller at 2 AM trying to figure out why UART4 isn't working. Ask me how I know. One other small point: double-check what you found regarding Hawaii requiring every drone to be registered. For purely recreational flying, the federal sub-250 g registration exemption still exists. Hawaii does have a bunch of location-specific restrictions, though, including places where drones can't be launched or operated at all, so where you intend to fly in Hawaii matters a lot more than simply whether the aircraft weighs 249 g or 251 g. Oh, and before you fly anything, get one of the FAA-approved B4UFLY apps on your phone. The old standalone FAA B4UFLY app has basically been replaced by approved third-party apps like AutoPylot, Aloft, Airspace Link, UASidekick, etc. Get in the habit of checking it before EVERY flight, even somewhere you've flown a hundred times. It'll show you what airspace you're standing in, nearby airports, restricted areas, Temporary Flight Restrictions and other stuff that may affect whether you can legally fly there. In controlled airspace you can also use the LAANC system to request authorization where it's available. This becomes especially important when you're traveling. Don't assume because you're standing in some beautiful empty spot in Hawaii that you can launch a drone there. You may have perfectly legal FAA airspace above your head while the landowner/park/state agency you're standing on prohibits launching or landing there. Those are two different sets of rules you have to check. It's probably the biggest conceptual difference for new drone pilots: "There's nothing around me" does NOT necessarily mean "I'm clear to fly." Also take the FAA TRUST test before you start flying recreationally. It's free, easy, and required. Think of B4UFLY/LAANC as your pre-flight airspace check and TRUST as the basic rules-of-the-road course. |
|
@gearsmithy Absolutely brilliant. That’s what I was looking for. I’ve been watching build & evaluation vids for like 3 days straight, & while the picture was emerging, you brought up some things I hadn’t quite ironed out. Thank you. I am definitely going to get a cheap starter I and my kids can learn on while I start moving down the build path. Cheers! |
|
Originally Posted By gtfoxy: @gearsmithy Absolutely brilliant. That’s what I was looking for. I’ve been watching build & evaluation vids for like 3 days straight, & while the picture was emerging, you brought up some things I hadn’t quite ironed out. Thank you. I am definitely going to get a cheap starter I and my kids can learn on while I start moving down the build path. Cheers! Happy to help. also, in case you didn't infer it from my response. You're going to be an FPV pilot. We all end up there because it's by far the most fun, and you can take your kids/friends for 'a ride'. It becomes a social thing. You show up at a wedding and people ask you if you brought your drones because they want to strap on your passenger goggles and experience the thrill without developing the skill. Eventually you'll come to see flying your old Mavic as a chore, because you're basically now a fighter pilot who has to fly a Cesna. It'll start to feel like "baby's first drone" to you, and that's good, because now you're fully addicted and teaching a toddler what DShot is. Welcome to your new addiction. |
|
One other thing I'd recommend you get started now - don't throw anything away. You know that box of old holsters and random AR parts sitting in your garage? Yeah, you're going to end up with one for drones as well. After you've built a few quads I highly recommend you build what my friends and I call a "trash panda." Basically a drone cobbled together from spare parts from you and your friend's spare parts bins. Your total cost is $0, and you'll find you fly it very differently than your other drones. When you have no money on the line, you genuinely DGAF. Here's the last trash panda I built, it's literally cobbled together form 15 year old drone parts. It can't even run the latest version of Betaflight, has zero bells and whistles but I fly it better than any other bird in the fleet because I honestly don't care about it. So if I'm out thrashing a bando this is the drone I'm sending up to do the craziest lines. It's already held together by luck so if it breaks, strip it for parts and start fishing through spare parts bins for what I need to rebuild it. It flys like shit, sounds like shit, and looks like shit, and I absolutely LOVE it.  Attached File ETA: @raverill |
|
Originally Posted By gearsmithy: One other thing I'd recommend you get started now - don't throw anything away. You know that box of old holsters and random AR parts sitting in your garage? Yeah, you're going to end up with one for drones as well. After you've built a few quads I highly recommend you build what my friends and I call a "trash panda." Basically a drone cobbled together from spare parts from you and your friend's spare parts bins. Your total cost is $0, and you'll find you fly it very differently than your other drones. When you have no money on the line, you genuinely DGAF. Here's the last trash panda I built, it's literally cobbled together form 15 year old drone parts. It can't even run the latest version of Betaflight, has zero bells and whistles but I fly it better than any other bird in the fleet because I honestly don't care about it. So if I'm out thrashing a bando this is the drone I'm sending up to do the craziest lines. It's already held together by luck so if it breaks, strip it for parts and start fishing through spare parts bins for what I need to rebuild it. It flys like shit, sounds like shit, and looks like shit, and I absolutely LOVE it. https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/424870/signal-2026-09-10-09-09-36-102_002_jpg-3825278.JPG ETA: @raverill I agree with this. Keep everything. I slammed a trash panda into a brick wall today. Good to go. Shrugged it off and I laughed my ass off cause I didn't care. I did pull off some sick shit at least.  ETA: I got back into planes recently and edgeTX and ELRS are awesome with that. The plane guys at the field look at me like I'm a wizard with my TX16s MK3. |
I like my Glocks like I like my women; 19, hard bodied, and in my pants. - NY_Shooter
NorCal Callsign: Hooligan
NorCal Callsign: Hooligan