Buying my first race quad/250 FPV

[Juckeyy]

Hi. I just got more interested in quads. Have been flying some mini quad and my friends' DJI.

I have been looking at the Emax Nighthawk pro 280 ARF and adding the AT9 receiver. What concerns me is if I want to upgrade later, since all electronics is on one PCB.

I also want to go FPV later.
My budget is around 350 usd for Everything. What would be the best?
How is the upgraded version of the Walkera Runner 250? That one is also full carbon fiber and The RTF transmitter seems very good as well.

Also, how about the Eachine Falcon?

What would you go for?

 

[Darkback2]

Hey good to see you getting into the hobby.

It is possible to get out the door for $350. I think that is about what I really ended up spending, though shipping or your radio, or miscellaneous stuff may push you over by a little bit.

The night hawk is a $70 frame. The martian on the other hand is ~$40...something to consider. The ZMR 250 is under $40, but the arms break pretty easily... I currently have a ZMR with "thug" arms on it...I like it because I don't break arms anymore. I am swapping over to a martian when it comes in.

Motors and speed controllers are going to run you ~$100 depending. I personally use the turnigy baby beast motors and am switching over to the DYS BLHeli speed controllers. They cost about $13 each, but it is a decent idea to have at least 1 spare esc for oopses.

So that said puts you at about $150 but you still needing batterie, a charger, props, a flight controller, and radio.

I am now swearing by the GR-18 combo, though before that I was a Turnigy 9x guy. The turnigy is a good decent radio cheap radio. but the receiver is also pretty honking. I originally had one crammed into my ZMR-250 but it is a hassle and a half to use. it runs about $60...Couple that with a NAZE-32 and you are good to go with money to spare for batteries and props.

There is a turnigy 6x which has a smaller receiver which would be a much better fit for a multi.

The problem here is that radios aren't cheap.

I personally have gone with the Graupner GR-18 combo. It comes in at $200 but it is an integrated flight controller/receiver with a decent radio. This would push you over your budget though.

You would still need at least 1 battery and a charger. I have a ~$30 lipo charger. (I actually have 2) makes charging much faster. and I use ~10 zippy max batteries. (there I got as many as I could.) They suck mind you but they are cheap. There is currently talk about the turnigy graphene batteries running ~$20. I haven't tried them... Key thing is a battery can cost as little as $10 or as much as well...

So...can it be done? Yes. but it would be tight.

Then I go look at the quads you linked and feel stupid.

Best of luck.

DB

 

[Juckeyy]

Hey good to see you getting into the hobby.

It is possible to get out the door for $350. I think that is about what I really ended up spending, though shipping or your radio, or miscellaneous stuff may push you over by a little bit.

The night hawk is a $70 frame. The martian on the other hand is ~$40...something to consider. The ZMR 250 is under $40, but the arms break pretty easily... I currently have a ZMR with "thug" arms on it...I like it because I don't break arms anymore. I am swapping over to a martian when it comes in.

Motors and speed controllers are going to run you ~$100 depending. I personally use the turnigy baby beast motors and am switching over to the DYS BLHeli speed controllers. They cost about $13 each, but it is a decent idea to have at least 1 spare esc for oopses.

So that said puts you at about $150 but you still needing batterie, a charger, props, a flight controller, and radio.

I am now swearing by the GR-18 combo, though before that I was a Turnigy 9x guy. The turnigy is a good decent radio cheap radio. but the receiver is also pretty honking. I originally had one crammed into my ZMR-250 but it is a hassle and a half to use. it runs about $60...Couple that with a NAZE-32 and you are good to go with money to spare for batteries and props.

There is a turnigy 6x which has a smaller receiver which would be a much better fit for a multi.

The problem here is that radios aren't cheap.

I personally have gone with the Graupner GR-18 combo. It comes in at $200 but it is an integrated flight controller/receiver with a decent radio. This would push you over your budget though.

You would still need at least 1 battery and a charger. I have a ~$30 lipo charger. (I actually have 2) makes charging much faster. and I use ~10 zippy max batteries. (there I got as many as I could.) They suck mind you but they are cheap. There is currently talk about the turnigy graphene batteries running ~$20. I haven't tried them... Key thing is a battery can cost as little as $10 or as much as well...

So...can it be done? Yes. but it would be tight.

Then I go look at the quads you linked and feel stupid.

Best of luck.

DB

Feels like I am lost in the jungle haha.
If I buy one of these ARF, which TX/RX could you recommend for a decent price?

 

[FlyingMonkey]

I bought the Emax Nighthawk 280 Pro RTF on sale from GearBest on sale for $108. I'll say I am rather impressed with it so far.


I'll agree the drawback to the RTF/ARF kits is the ones with proprietary parts. For example, the plug for the video transmitter is the same as another video transmitter, but the wires are completely different for what they do. If you tried replacing it and plugging in another, you'll fry it.


I also have a couple Versacopters. I love those! I can put one together, or take it apart for changes/repair fairly quickly. Building it yourself teaches you what parts go where, and do what. So you have a better understanding of what's going on. But for "just getting into the air" you're better off with an inexpensive arf, then building a kit one while you lean on the ARF.


The Spektrum radios are hard to beat. Everyone has them, so lots of people have made videos on how to do just about everything with them. And the aftermarket receivers are cheap, which if you're buying for several aircraft pays for itself pretty quickly.

 

[FlyingMonkey]

I am now swearing by the GR-18 combo, though before that I was a Turnigy 9x guy.

I'm watching your Failsafe thread. Other than carpet and finger damage, I'm liking it so far!

 

[Juckeyy]

You think this eachine with turnigy 9x would do the work?

 

[FlyingMonkey]

http://www.banggood.com/Eachine-Fal...ote-Control-5_8G-HD-Camera-RTF-p-1026335.html

Looks acceptable.

 

[cranialrectosis]

That Eachine Falcon looks like a good kit.

The only thing I don't like about this one is that FlySky has a crapola failsafe. Otherwise it looks like a nice machine.

The Turnigy 9X is a good beginner radio. Later for another $50 you can mod it to FrSky and have longer range, smaller recievers and good failsafe.

To be completely honest, I was going to recommend you not buy an RTF but learn to fly and build first. Racing quads isn't a cheap hobby. Starting out by building your own lets you learn how to fly and repair a quad for less money up front and if you decide this hobby is not for you, you have a smaller initial investment. Flying a DJI anything is no practice for one of these and when you crash (we all crash) the parts replacements tend to be more expensive and take a long time to be delivered.

Still, 2016 isn't 2014 and we have FAR more options today and the costs on these has come down considerably and while Banggood takes a LONG time to deliver, they do deliver.

Post some video when you get it in the air!

 

[Juckeyy]

That Eachine Falcon looks like a good kit.

The only thing I don't like about this one is that FlySky has a crapola failsafe. Otherwise it looks like a nice machine.

The Turnigy 9X is a good beginner radio. Later for another $50 you can mod it to FrSky and have longer range, smaller recievers and good failsafe.

To be completely honest, I was going to recommend you not buy an RTF but learn to fly and build first. Racing quads isn't a cheap hobby. Starting out by building your own lets you learn how to fly and repair a quad for less money up front and if you decide this hobby is not for you, you have a smaller initial investment. Flying a DJI anything is no practice for one of these and when you crash (we all crash) the parts replacements tend to be more expensive and take a long time to be delivered.

Still, 2016 isn't 2014 and we have FAR more options today and the costs on these has come down considerably and while Banggood takes a LONG time to deliver, they do deliver.

Post some video when you get it in the air!

Just want to hand out a big thanks to you guys!
I will tonight order the Racer 250 and turnigy 9x, will also throw in 10 pairs of extra 5040 props

 

[Franck3d]

I just got my Eachine Racer 250 in the mail last Friday and I'm really happy with what I got for the money.
I bought the package that came with the small fpv monitor that I can set up on a tripod for viewing.

I had a Flysky 9x, but I bricked it trying to add functionality via an upgrade board. It was a good transmitter.
Now I have the Taranis Plus and I'm very happy with its capabilities straight out of the box.

I'm learning that racers are a very different animal to fly! Take it easy!

 

[pressalltheknobs]

That Eachine Falcon looks like a good kit.

The only thing I don't like about this one is that FlySky has a crapola failsafe. Otherwise it looks like a nice machine.
...

The Flysky/Turnigy i6 and the iA6 series receiver use AFHDS 2A and supports programmed failsafe on all channels. The iA6 RX is a park flyer RX but reportedly has "more reliable" range than the old FlySky AFHDS as used by the 9X

Also as I understand it the old AFHDS receivers supported no-pulses failsafe on the throttle channel. I don't have one so I can't personally confirm that. As I understand it, that mode of fail safe is supported by a lot of flight controllers.

So not sure that "crapola failsafe" is quite right.

Really depends how they have programmed the failsafe on the flight controller in any case. You may need to set up the Throttle failsafe on the TX/RX to have it work. It's programmed from the TX in the i6. The old AFHDS no-pulses mode (assuming its real) required no configuration on the TX/RX. Both have to be configured in the FC.

The old AFHDS stuff with the 9X supposedly does have unreliable range and it's unclear if that is a QC problem or it's just sensitive to certain kinds of local conditions. So there's reason not to like that in general - why a lot of people hack the 9X with a FrSky module.

I would say that one of the good things about the Eachine Falcon is that it comes with an OK TX in the i6 so long as it's stock and they haven't messed with it. Even then you can probably reflash it with stock firmware. You can upgrade the RX to a iA6B for about $12 which has better range and supports CPPM, iBus and telemetry (although not in the most useful way) which could be useful if you change the FC board. The i6 is a cheapo TX but it's good value for $50 including RX.