Recommendations for bits and pieces to complete toolset

[anammox]

FYI, I'm shooting for a 180-250 DIY quad..

As I ease my way into this hobby I find myself at the point where I should pick up some heat shrink, heat gun, and servo cables. Anyone have recommendations on brands, or product specs?

Google led me to amazon which led me to this.

I'm skeptical of these kinds of packages because they're often put together with junk. Can anyone confirm, or is heat shrink pretty standard stuff? Similarly for servo cables? Is there anything else I would need? What gauge servo leads should I pick up, and how much do I realistically need? I do plan on getting a fixed wing of some kind, and most likely building another quad down the road so I'm OK with stocking up a bit up front. Hence the easing into it.

Have:

• hubsan x4 107d with wide angle lens
• Taranis X9D (backordered) - I know this might be overkill for a beginner but it was ons ale for $160 at hobbywireless so I had to. I'm also computer oriented and after watching setup videos I feel comfortable
  with it.
• Glue gun, sticks
• 60/40 solder
• soldering gun, stand
• rosin
• MM
• helping hand
• beer
• time (5 ft of snow, -10F)

Need:

• heat shrink
• heat gun
• servo cables
• quad stuff (tbd)
• anything else you can think of?

 

[brettp2004]

Do you have a harbor freight where you are? They have very inexpensive heat guns and assorted heat shrink packs.

 

[pressalltheknobs]

Taranis X9D (backordered) - I know this might be overkill for a beginner but it was on sale for $160 at hobbywireless so I had to. I'm also computer oriented and after watching setup videos I feel comfortable with it.

If your backorder is for a 9XD plus Taranis then probably all is good but I'm a bit suspicious of this being backordered. The original 9XD Taranis was around that price but hasn't been made in over a year as far as I know since it was replaced by the 9XD plus. The 9XD plus retails for around $200 without a receiver and there is plenty of stock about. If it has been a while since you ordered you may want to check on the status and make sure they are actually going to ship you one soon.

 

[anammox]

I don't have anything near me... Live in a smallish town. Closest anything is 90 minutes away.

 

[anammox]

If your backorder is for a 9XD plus Taranis then probably all is good but I'm a bit suspicious of this being backordered. The original 9XD Taranis was around that price but hasn't been made in over a year as far as I know since it was replaced by the 9XD plus. The 9XD plus retails for around $200 without a receiver and there is plenty of stock about. If it has been a while since you ordered you may want to check on the status and make sure they are actually going to ship you one soon.

I just checked

1 ea. Taranis X9D Plus 2.4 GHz ACCST Radio and EVA Case $161.99

 

[pressalltheknobs]

For a heat gun you might consider one of these...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/YIHUA-Digit...D-Heat-Soldering-Iron-3-Nozzles-/261961867288

Since you can also de-solder with it.

 

[pressalltheknobs]

I just checked

1 ea. Taranis X9D Plus 2.4 GHz ACCST Radio and EVA Case $161.99

Cool. Hope you get it soon. What receiver(s) did you get?

Get a second helping hand...

http://flitetest.com/articles/better-helping-hands

 

[PsyBorg]

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00RXCEDTW?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00
I got that for starter heat shrink set and pretty much just use an old hairdryer an ex left to shrink the larger stuff. the rest I gracefully shrink by holding my temperature controlled soldering iron close for the thin and tiny stuff.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HCFI3SC?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00
These I use by cutting to size and making my own for my requirements.

as for the quad stuff I started with a (please don't laugh as its been loyal and reliable for me) a walkera runner 250 and have now built a Vesa quatptor using the recommended power pack and a NAZE32 advanced. I repurposed the DEVO7 I have as I am familiar with it and like the feel and use http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00UD5K0AC?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00 receiver as it has PPM.

Other then that a steady hand for soldering. Good vision to see teeny tiny things (reading specs and a magnifying lighted lamp here). Other then that an occasional cold beer to celebrate success or to calm you when you get to wanting to throw the whole project out the window.

 

[anammox]

Cool. Hope you get it soon. What receiver(s) did you get?

Get a second helping hand...

http://flitetest.com/articles/better-helping-hands

Interesting... Maybe I will. I did not get a receiver yet. Any recommendations? I say these words and I only partially understand what I'm saying, but I am thinking something capable of SBUS, need some OSD in there for voltage monitoring, total amp usage, amp draw, and I can't think of anything else right now. Haven't done much research into receivers yet and I don't know how much of that I can squeeze on to a 180-250 without turning it into a lumbering brick

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00RXCEDTW?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00


http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HCFI3SC?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00

...
....

Other then that a steady hand for soldering. Good vision to see teeny tiny things (reading specs and a magnifying lighted lamp here). Other then that an occasional cold beer to celebrate success or to calm you when you get to wanting to throw the whole project out the window.

I was looking at that brand on amazon... does it really achieve 2:1 shrinkage?

Same with the servo cables, I was looking at something similar so sounds like that will work.

I tie flies so I think I'm set up for the teeny tiny dexterity. And I never let my beer stock get below a 6 pack so I've met those requirements.

 

[pressalltheknobs]

Interesting... Maybe I will. I did not get a receiver yet. Any recommendations? I say these words and I only partially understand what I'm saying, but I am thinking something capable of SBUS, need some OSD in there for voltage monitoring, total amp usage, amp draw, and I can't think of anything else right now. Haven't done much research into receivers yet and I don't know how much of that I can squeeze on to a 180-250 without turning it into a lumbering brick.

The two generally used for mini-quads are...

D4R-II - https://alofthobbies.com/frsky-d4r-ii-4-8-channel-receiver-with-27ms-cppm.html
X4R-SB - https://alofthobbies.com/frsky-x4r-sb-3-16-channel-receiver-with-sbus-and-cppm.html

The D4R-II has been preferred because CPPM is easier to set up than SBUS.

However now the X4R-SB firmware supports CPPM and the NAZE32 rev 6 does the right inversion thing for SBUS so some of the difficulty has gone away and probably the X4R-SB is the better one to get since you can choose CPPM or SBUS. SBUS takes up a serial port on the NAZE32 so it limits other options. CPPM maybe a bit easier to wire still but has more latency - unlikely you will be able to tell until you get good at flying it and unless you are a drone-elete you may not be able to tell anyway but it does give you bragging rights

A possible strike against the X4R-SB is that the battery voltage probe for the D-Series telemetry is simple and cheap but for the X-series is a complex beast. I haven't looked to see if there is a simple voltage probe for the X4R-SB.

[UPDATE: just checked and it seems the fbvs-01 works with the X4R-SB also so nevermind about that.]

It maybe this doesn't matter to you because the NAZE 32 FC takes care of gathering the telemetry and sending it to the FrSky RX. This kind of telemetry is good because you can program the Taranis it tell you what it is and alarm you if it is out of range.

OSD is a different animal and has to do with your FPV system. Your flight controller gives it the data and it displays in on your FPV screen. This does not require FrSky Telemetry. It is part of the sent video image.

Now you have lots of buzz words and acronyms to look up

I'm assuming NAZE32 rev5 or 6 for the FC of 180-250 quad. It's probably most popular choice for this kind of thing and therefore is a probably the best place to start.