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[Smashmouth]

Can someone point me in the right direction. I have little experience in the world of RC. The closest I got was building a Subaru rally car that came in bits on the front of a magazine every fortnight. Cost a small fortune and I could have bought the same model in my local model shop for half the price.

My long term goal? I want to fly a quad with a mounted camera and a pair of goggles to give me that flying experience I have seen many forum members do.

In the mean time I want to start with the basics and learn how to fly and control a quad. I want to build my own quad bit by bit. I know I need a frame. What else do i need and in what order? Are there any good tutorials/videos?

I am thinking of getting the HobbyKing X525 frame mainly because if it crashes, I wont be sobbing. Any other alternatives? Just looking to build my first and progress from there.

Thanks for any help.

 

[tombrown1]

You'll need a frame, esc's, motors, props, a flight controller, and batteries.

Start with a Blade MQX. As you're learning to fly that, start building one from scratch. There are lots of resources on this forum. Start with the scratch built multirotors section.

Good luck,

Tom

 

[gtranquilla]

Good advice from TomBrown1...... Blade MQX BNF vc/w cheap entry level 4 channel fhss 2.4Ghz RC radio or buy the Quad only and buy a really good RC radio to go with it..... i.e., 8 to 14 channel Spectrum or Futaba 2.4 Ghz...... not a parkflyer RC system if you plan one day to fly expensive equipment a long distance. Choose your DIY parts carefully or you may end up like myself and others with a large surplus of parts in your garage, too good to throw away but not what you need to get an MR into the air. And don't buy undersized batteries that get used once only when you discover you can only get 5 minute flights with them.

 

[PeteDee]

Just a note, Futaba radio will not work with the mQX.

Pete

 

[RobertsUp]

A flight simulator. The Aerosim has 12 different multirotor models including every kind, some with "+" motor mix config. Batteries deplete in real time. The program can be customized to match your own craft and transmitter setup exactly. Fpv with osd can be activated. The sim Gaui 330 flies manually same as the Blade mQX. Crash, crash, crash, and then afterward, crash.

 

[Smashmouth]

First of all, sorry for the late response. What with difference in time zones and 13 hour day in work mounts up.

Thanks for the advice. I will have a look now at the Blade and let you know what I decide. Never even thought of a flight sim !!

 

[CopterCraft]

Flight sim is definitely a good idea. With the current ones on the market, if you master the sim, you have a good chance of getting your quad in the air and back down again in one piece and more importantly, safely. As you learn on your actual controller, it gets you used to the stick movements, and placement of the controls. Obviously it will never take into account the random factors such as weather, and aircraft performance. But it gives a very good approximation.

 

[Smashmouth]

Thanks again for the info.

What would be a suitable controller for a beginner that will see me through to when I am a bit more advanced. I get the impression that some controllers will work with everything and some controllers are very selective at what electronics you use.

 

[CopterCraft]

There are a few choices, i have always been an advocate of Spektrum and the DX8. It received some bad press a year or two back due to brown outs. But that was all resolved and they are great radios. Allowing failsafes to be programmed on all channels which is very important in a multicopter. They are also really easy to navigate and program.

If you are looking for a few more features, and have a bit more time to explore the controller, there is the Graupner Hott MX-20. The benefit of the spektrum is it comes with telemetry and most importantly means to monitor remotely the voltage. The Graupner can do the same, but you need to purchase separately the telemetry module. It also has extra channels, which is important if you are going solo on larger multicopter setups with gimbal.

If you have a bit more cash, there is the JETTI DC-16 & DS-16. Which will serve you well for many years, but its about 2-3 times the price of a Spektrum controller. some people will recommend Futaba, but personally if i was a beginner i would find them difficult to navigate. So anyway, they are my top 3 choices, im sure others will have their own views. But in summary:

Spektrum DX8 (cheap and easy, but still good quality)
Graupner MX-20 (mid-range price, extra channels, more features but more complex to program)
Jetti DC-16 or DS-16 (all singing all dancing, easy to program, massive amount of channels, but near on £1k)

I hope at least some of that helped! To go over your last point, i have used all of those radios on most current autopilots, ESC's and gimbals+controllers, and have not experienced any issues. So they offer good compatibility.