I just purchased one of these. I've been reading and watching videos most of the day (oops) trying to lay out my plan of attack when it arrives. You certainly seem to have a lot of this quad figured out, jhitesma
For very tame, beginner flying should I stick with cleanflight for a while? Should I go straight to another firmware? I don't need anything super acro, but would like to master flips.
Did you get the ARF or the RTF? The ARF comes with bone stock baseflight while the RTF apparently comes with at least a bit of a basic tune on it's otherwise stock baseflight setup.
Though even on the bone stock just flashed baseflight setup it's entirely flyable it really comes alive with a better tune. When just starting I'd say there's no need to monkey with things - but if you can get someone with an RTF to share the stock tune from that it may give slightly better results than the baseflight defaults.
I really wouldn't worry about flashing over to cleanflight right away and honestly I'm not a huge fan of cleanflight, or baseflight or raceflight.
I've been quite happy with mine since I flashed dRonin and the autotune got it flying better than hours of manual tuning with *flight ever did.
Any suggestions for replacement props?
I've used the following on mine, all 2 blade - I've yet to play with tri blades as I haven't had much time to fly since they became popular:
FC 6x4.5" - Cheap, reasonably durable and reasonable performance. IMHO best bang for the buck. But...the only place I know to get them is himodel and shipping is crazy unless you order a LOT.
HQ 6x4.5" - Expensive, high performance but fragile. If you're looking to get the most performance HQ rocks...but you better have deep pockets or not crash.
DAL 6045 - Tough, lower performance than FC or HQ, but cheap and hold up to a lot of abuse. Good for when you're learning and can perform decently...but due to balance issues not the best if you're looking to record video.
KingKong 6045 - Tougher than the DAL's but lowest performance. Dirt cheap. Ok when you're first starting out I guess but the performance is abysmal. Might be too tough in that you may end up breaking other things like motor shafts.
I tried some 5" props as well, but on 3s didn't find them worth bothering with, on 4s you'd need to go 5" but if you're just starting out there's no need to mess with 4s.
I also tried some 6040's from HQ and DAL and they're not bad...a little lower performance but can give slightly longer flight times in exchange.
Any suggestions for stable PID settings? I'll likely be running 1300mah 3S to start out since I have some laying around.
Nope, I ditched *flight before I got a tune I was happy with and really PID's are something that it doesn't make a lot of sense to share as so much can affect them. 1300's will work as long as they're a high enough C rating (you'll want around a 40c or so with 1300) but you'll only get 4-5 minutes of flight. 1500's are a better bet since you can get by with a lower C and get a bit more flight time. 2200's will work...but at that point you don't really gain much because of the extra weight...it feels a lot heavier in the air with a 2200.
I'd also like to mount a GoPro (may be asking a lot).
Can probably handle it...but GoPro's are too rich for my blood so I've only flown my mobius and can't give any advice on mounting a GoPro or how it handles with one.
I'm not likely going to be running FPV for a while, can I just flip off the VTX switch and leave off the antenna? Should I physically unplug the VTX to keep it from frying?
Just turning the switch off should be ok, but unplugging it wouldn't be a bad idea. Actually removing it would be best since then you won't risk damaging it in a crash and will shed a few OZ's to help make up for it being a kind of heavy setup.
I saw where someone else on YouTube cut and mounted a thin 1mm thick CF plate under the board. Would that make sense to reduce the likelihood of smashing it to bits in a gnarly crash?
Honestly I don't think it helps much and this is already a heavy quad for it's size. I know some people got replacement all in one boards that didn't have the protective coating on them and then yeah it would make sense. But I've flown mine through sprinklers and landed in wet grass as well as crashed into pavement and rocks all with no damage to the main board even though I've sheared off a couple of arm mounting screws from impacts.
That said...when you're first starting you tend to find all kinds of new and creative ways to crash things and break them...so a little extra weight for extra protection may not be a horrible thing.