New to Drones. Please help me?

[Abba]

Hi everyone,

I'm a complete beginner to FPV drones, though not a complete beginner to electronics.

I've ordered a bunch of parts to build my own drone at home. And i think i have gotten everything i need. But im a bit confused about receivers/transmitters.
So I had ordered a Flysky FS-i6 Radio which comes with a receiver.
I also bought This:
Realacc GX210 5.8G 40CH 200mW Raceband Mini AV VTX FPV Transmitter RP-SMA

So i'm assuming that the VTX sends signal to my goggles of what the camera on the drone is seeing right?

But i don't understand how the drone itself is being controlled. Am i supposed to wire in the radios receiver to the drone somewhere?

I know this is probably a stupid question but Please, any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!!

 

[Userofmuchtape&glue]

Hi!

No, not a stupid question at all!

Now I am just getting started in Quads, but I have been doing fixed wing FPV for a few years. and yes the camera sends video to your goggles.

You need a flight controller. like THis: https://hobbyking.com/en_us/hobbyki...flight-control-board-36x36mm-30-5x30-5mm.html

Cheers!

Abe

 

[makattack]

Hello Abba and welcome to the wonderful world of rc and flitetest forums! Your inventory is missing a few details that would complete your multorotor project. That might be what you need to complete:

A flight controller.
Electronic speed controllers (brushless)
Brushless motors.

You mention goggles but don't mention the video receiver that is presumably built into them. You will want to ensure they are compatible with your video transmitter and the antennas match.

The devil is in the details though and it would be hard to describe all the options in a single post. There are numerous good YouTube videos out there that describe building multorotors from scratch. Flitetest has a good number of them.

 

[French]

+1 to what Makattack said. If you provide us a list of everything you've purchased, it will help tremendously.

 

[Abba]

Thank you all for helping me out, And sorry i didn't list out all of my items, ill list them below here:
Flysky FS-I6 Transmitter with IA6 Receiver, 2.4Ghz Radio system Mode 2 Left hand throttle
Eachine 1000TVL Mini FPV Camera 1/3 CCD 110 Degree 2.8mm Lens NTSC PAL Switchable
Eachine EV800 5 Inches 800x480 FPV Goggles 5.8G 40CH Raceband Auto-Searching Build In Battery
4X Racerstar MS Series 35A ESC BLHeLi_S OPTO 2-4S Supports Oneshot125 Oneshot42 Multishot
4X Racerstar Racing Edition 2205 BR2205 2300KV 2-4S Brushless Motor 2 CW & 2 CCW For QAV250 ZMR250
F3 Flight Controller Acro 6 DOF/Deluxe 10 DOF for Multirotor Racing
Matek Systems PDB-XT60 W/ BEC 5V & 12V 2oz Copper For RC Multirotors
Realacc GX210 5.8G 40CH 200mW Raceband Mini AV VTX FPV Transmitter RP-SMA
FPV 5.8GHz Circular Polarized VTX Antenna RHCP Short
Realacc 210 V2 210MM 4mm Carbon Fiber Racing Frame w/ 5V 12V BEC PDB Runcam Mobius Gopro Camera Base

please let me know if you guys need links or any more information. thank you!

 

[French]

Is this what your flight controller looks like?

 

[French]

I'm not a FlySky guy, but I believe you need a IA6B receiver with ibus in order to take full advantage of the serial connection

 

[Abba]

French, im pretty sure thats what my flight controller looks like, and my radio controller comes with a IA6 reveiver, im not sure about the "B" part, is that important? Thanks

 

[French]

The "B" is important, because I don't think the IA6 has a serial output (a single signal wire that outputs all channel values). You will want a serial output from your receiver to the flight controller because it's easier to solder one input and there is less latency.

I think you can find a lot of the info on that flight controller here - http://seriouslypro.com/files/SPRacingF3-Manual-latest.pdf

Did the flight controller come with any cables?

 

[Abba]

Heres a pic of what the FC comes with. and should i go ahead and buy an FS -iA6B?

 

[Abba]

heres a pic of what i bought for the radio.
is it possible to do it on the standard non-"B" receiver? what does having a serial port do?

 

[makattack]

You should be able to use your existing RX with their PWM outputs connected to the PWM inputs on IO_1 (the port on the left side of the picture posted of your FC in the previous page of comments.)

You see that plug harness with all the black connectors with one wire going into them? Those are JR/Servo connectors that are designed to plug into the RX PWM output ports. You'll need at least 4 of them connected to your RX (for throttle, roll, pitch, yaw channels) and will need to configure your FC software and TX accordingly. I'm not sure what channel mapping your TX uses by default, but most use either the one I listed before, appreviated as TAER, or AETR (roll/aileron, pitch/elevator, throttle, yaw/rudder)

Hope that helps!

 

[Abba]

makattack, yes i think i get it, im understanding the concept you're telling me, im just a bit fuzzy on exactly which wires and where i get them. are you speaking of the wires included with the FC? Thank you!!

 

[Abba]

makattack, i found a pic with some wires included with the FC. is the one on the LEFT side the ones you speak of? TYSM!

 

[makattack]

Yes, both wire harnesses look identical to me, so you can use either. The one black JR connector with the red and black wire connected is the power connector that will supply power to the RX, while the others are all signal only wires.

 

[Abba]

Okay thanks, and im assuming that red/black cable goes to the top port of the RX that says B/VCC? Sorry, i got so many dumb questions lol, never built anything rc before..

 

[Abba]

By the way, once i plug everything up, is there some sort of software i can hook my quad up to to see all of the settings, and which port is responsible for running which throttle/roll/pitch etc..?

 

[makattack]

Yes... I just make sure the red wire is going to the + (middle pin) and the ground (black wire) is going to the -.

You have choices for software for this board. Probably the two most conventional software are cleanflight and betaflight. I personally would go with betaflight, as, despite the name, it's a bit more stable since cleanflight just rebased itself on a version of BF3.1.

You will need the chrome browser and then will need to install the betaflight configurator from the chrome app store. You'll also need to install various drivers needed, if you are running Windows. I believe Linux and OSX platforms don't really require any additional drivers. At least, I've never installed any on them.

This might be a bit old, but should mostly be relevant:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVV1UEK2nV0

Joshua Bardwell (who's on this forum as well) does a good job of sorting out the setup. Look for some of his newer videos on BF3.1 setup as well!

Make sure you select the SPF3 board for the correct firmware to install.

At this point, you may want to see if you can get someone to lead you through. It's actually quite a steep learning curve to start from scratch as you are doing. I also would recommend you learn to fly on a simulator first and maybe an inexpensive micro quad that can teach you line of sight orientation and flight. If you can get a mentor, that will be by far the quickest way to success. If not, watch everyone of those setup videos you can find on YouTube and just absorb as much as you can. Never mount the props until you are ready to fly, and be very careful to check everything before even applying power.

Just an anecdotal story: I met a fellow on our Boston MultiGP FB group, and found out he was a student at the University I work at. He mentioned he was building his first quad -- a micro brushed quad with a SPF3Evo brushed board. I talked him through what he needed to do online, as best as I could but ultimately he got impatient and put it up in the air before he was ready and flew about 5 seconds before he crashed and shorted out the FC when the VTX CP antenna landed on it.

He then told me he bought a Wizard and I said before you fly it, fly my NanoQX until you can comfortably fly LOS. Then fly the snot out of the simulator for FPV training. When he got his eachine Wizard, I checked it out and pointed out things he needed to change and improve. Led him through updating the software and installing and configuring a new version. We went out to the field a couple weekends ago and he had great success including flying freestyle FPV with flips and rolls. Only broke 3 props after 4-5 batteries too!

 

[Abba]

Yes i have a small hubsan x4 quad, I've got several flight hours on that thing(I've owned it for 2 years probably), but eventually have grown bored of the low power and touchy/spazy attributes it has. Thus my interest in larger quads.
I'll watch the video links you sent me, and try to soak up all that i can learn. I've been sorta camping on youtube lately just watching and learning everything people do and talk about.

I'll also check out some simulators and get a few hours of play in to get the feel.

Interesting story by the way. makes me want to be much more cautious with my soldering and assembly. I've heard hot glue and electrical tape is a good rule of thumb with drones also. Thanks

 

[Kwad&Order]

I assume you have the eachine x220? if so did you guy it in an RTF (Ready to fly) kit or an ARF (Almost ready to fly) If its and RTF you should be able to plug and fly, if its ARF then you need to bind your fly sky controller to your receiver via a bind key. here is a vid explaining it in greater detail no permanent wires needed

( I think this is what you needed but I wasn't 100% sure even after reading several times fpv is a confusing hobby at first I am learning new things every day!