Help with gear, Please?

[RiPHS]

Hello Everyone,

I'm new around here and to the hobby. I'll start by introducing myself. My name is Gabe and I live in the US Virgin Islands. When I was younger I had some experience with RC cars (some of you might know the RC-10) but I have no experience with quadrotors and I'm really looking forward to building and flying. There are only a couple of drones on the Island and they are the Phantom type so my resources here are limited.

Currently, I'm in the process of setting up my Christmas present to myself and would like to see if anyone has some advice on my first setup. Most of the money is wrapped up in a radio and the headset, I'm assuming it'll be much easier to change things up once that big purchase is out of the way. I'll list the components I have in my cart, please chime in and tell me if this is unrealistic for a beginner or if there are some additions or things I don't need. I'm looking for something a little better than beginner but not overly advanced. Is it possible to buy and extra battery or two and easily swap them for more flying time? I sent basically the same question to the folks at flitetest in an email so if you're reading this twice, I apologize.

Thank you all in advance for any advice you're willing to share. Happy Holidays.... I'm stuffed full of turkey and I hope you are too.

Take Care,
Gabe

 

[FlyingMonkey]

Not terrible...

But the camera isn't going to work. That's for the mini indoor aircraft. It's low power and very limited range. You'd fly beyond that pretty quick.

A camera like this...

https://store.flitetest.com/run-cam-swift/

or this...

https://store.flitetest.com/runcam-owl-plus/

Then you'll need a video transmitter.

https://store.flitetest.com/fpv-transmitters/



The radio looks good, but I'm not sure if it's packaged with a receiver or not. It shows two different ones in the pictures. I'm pretty sure it's not shipping with both.

 

[ElectriSean]

I would ditch that transmitter in favor of the Taranis. It's probably not as user friendly, but there is a ton of support out there for them. And it's about half the price, for the same if not more features.

 

[RiPHS]

Thank You Both for such a quick reply.

I revised the list, however, in addition to the list I added the FR SKY D8R-II plus Receiver and a Lumenier 2250mAh 4s 35c Lipo Battery. Will the battery work with this set-up and did I pick the correct receiver?

Flying Monkey, you said not terrible... could I do better for the same cash-ola? On that note, I have found a 10% coupon code for flitetest, does anyone know of a better code?

ElectriSean, I changed the radio to the one you suggested.

I'm up for any suggestions to make this better. At this point, I'm the only one that will be flying so I'll be teaching myself, along with youtube. Would this set-up carry a gopro as I might try to use it to take scenic video as well, is that even a possibility? Approximately how long will this thing fly before a battery swap and will the higher mha battery prolong flight?

 

[Sid]

I wouldn't say there isn't a ton of support for them, i have been using the Graupner MZ-18, which is pretty much just like the MZ-24. RCGroups is a good resource for the Graupner radio.

One of the things i love about it is that rx/fc built into one, and completely configurable via radio. But imho Taranis is more of a throw away TX

 

[ElectriSean]

This setup will easily carry a gopro. I would stick to 1300-1500mah batteries due to weight. You should get between 3-6 minutes depending on how hard you fly. Definitely get more than one

For a Rx, from the FT store I would get the X4R-SB. For some reason it's listed with the transmitters one the FT store.
https://store.flitetest.com/frsky-x4r-sb-3-16-channel-receiver-w-sbus/

I'm pretty sure that 10% off sale is the biggest sale they've ever had, so your timing is great

I also think I should mention that this is not exactly a beginner setup... It's actually pretty high end. Most people start with a nano size to start, as you can bounce them off just about anything and they keep going. With what you saved by changing radios, I'd recommend getting an Inductrix or something to learn on. Also definitely get a sim. FPV freerider is an excellent place to start. Joshua Bardwell has an amazing series of instructional videos on YouTube using freerider. You really can't beat a sim for learning, unless you're more interested in learning how to fix stuff

 

[ElectriSean]

I wouldn't say there isn't a ton of support for them, i have been using the Graupner MZ-18, which is pretty much just like the MZ-24. RCGroups is a good resource for the Graupner radio.

One of the things i love about it is that rx/fc built into one, and completely configurable via radio. But imho Taranis is more of a throw away TX

I didn't say that there isn't support for Graupner, I didn't say anything about them at all really, except I think the OP would be happier with a Taranis. I don't know anyone with a Graupner though. I know 4 guys with taranis that all love them, and pretty much everyone I know that is into multirotors that doesn't have one wishes they hadn't invested in Spektrum (myself included )

The Rx/FC combo is a pretty neat package. I've always been more DIY though, and I love the way the *flight development happens.