Heya Forum!
..writing to you after a sleepless night (..*hmm, if I was this frenetic about a girl, they'd probably have me locked away by now.. ), my first haphazardous built and my first FPV lawn-mowing experiences..
*Golly, is-that-thing-fassssttt!!! After the initial refrain, this thing quickly grabs your heart and snuggles up against it. *what a blast!!
I'm far from being halfway proficient, but after stuffing it with freshly cut grass upon landing (..fellow beginners: Soft underground is really, really, really a good idea, but a mown meadow should be favored. On the other hand, my Shuriken smells of freshly cut grass now, and somehow that's really nice! :-)

A little word of advice: Take along your old toothbrush when you do your first attempts! At the beginning you'll just "lag" on disarming your quad after landing, and even within just one second, the propellers will hungrily stuff the innards of your quad with all sorts of biological products. I would have loved to have one today in the field, but was stuck with pinching my "veggie-quad" instead..
So QUESTION to the Forum: How do you guys clean your quad? I'm assuming that this happens to everyone, once in a while..: Dried grass is really difficult to remove without taking the whole thing apart..


But all this wasn't the subject of this thread, so:
I did 3 Lipos on my first FPV-attempt today. It was dawning, and the low sun wasn't really improving the already very grainy picture..:
Has anybody had the opportunity to compare the Eachine VR D2-headmount (..do you call a screen "goggles" as well? I mean, it's just one screen, and not of what pops in mind when hearing the word "goggles". Rather "forehead-wrench", or "accomodation-chamber-of-torture"..
The picture feels pretty darn close to the eyes, at the beginning I was unvoluntarily moving my head backwards the whole time. Additionally, somehow a lot of readings popped up on the screen and I could not make them go away. Had to do my maiden while looking at things through a page of newspaper - at least that's how it felt 
This sure takes a lot getting used to, I'm aware of that. Just hoping that someone's going to say: *Ah, that screen-headmount is not really good, the quality on my Fatsharks (..Dominator V3, for instance..?  ) is much better and makes it easier to orientate. Reallyreally hoping - otherwise it's really, really, reeeeaaallly difficult (..what it is anyway, as we all know..), and it will take a lot of what I don't really have: Patience..

As far as my first built is concerned, know that:
a. It was neither planned, nor shopped for - just had an iFlight iX2-frame lying around (bought out of curiosity & cheap)
b. The components used are not intended for micro-quads, even though they're so tiny. (..for instance the HGLRC xjb v1-module, which made me drop off my chair as I found the maximal amperage of the 4-in-1 ESC's: Apparently 25 Amps each, and could sport up to 6s (..rreeeaaalllyyy???) Lipos. If that's really true, it's a really good combo: Quick installation and setup!
Of course, the iX2 got a bit heavy - despite my initial discipline to keep it well organised and doing a clean built in general: The mess will invariably strike back, but you'll have to use less swearwords when cleaning up your workplace...


However, the FC and 4in1 ESC does not really fit into this frame as it was developed for a different "x-style". In order to use it, I had to rotate the yaw-plane in betaflight, which was quite tedious.
The whole building procedure was a great experience, though. A lot of little problems will pop up along the way (..like "how do I fix this on a sunday, when it's really difficult to organize some decent aids/tape/glue - you name it..), especially if you start "just like that" - that's what I did, and I really don't recommend it. In my case it was because I just couldn't get over the defeat with the Kingkong 90GT, where everything seemed so simple (..on youtube, that is ;-))
PLAN YOUR BUILT!!
Take your time in chosing the components, if I would have known this forum before ordering as excitedly as a squirrel on cocaine over the internet, I would have avoided a lot of tinkering and ultimately resigning..
Take your time as well to see how things fit together, and try to keep wire routing (..get enough wire in the right gauges, too!! Don't forget that, or you'll be stuck like me on a sunday taking apart battery charging boards for plugs and cables, ending up with too thin wires on one side, and way too thick ones getting in your way when screwing the whole thing together.. )



Loctite might be a good idea, too! You don't need to go for the catastrophe-proof strength (..red color? green? I used the blue one which is medium and seems plenty).
Don't put it directly onto the screws, you'll end up with a Loctite-screw-salad and its sauce oozing all over. Take a little piece of aluminum foil (stays put and liquid does not flow away like with plastic foil), put a droplet (..that's enough, really) on it and dip a little bit of the thread into it. It's easier if you put the bold/screw already on the screwdriver: You can give the screw a little turn, and it keeps your fingertips clean. The stuff polymerizes (hardens) under exclusion of air/oxygen, that is cool because it solidifies only when you use the screw - no need to rush..


As I just said - keep it orderly, because towards completion, things unvariably will get tight/messy. It looks a lot better, too, and makes checking on the correct wire connections easier than when fishing through a bowl of electric wire spaghettis..


Concerning the "solutions on the way", cable ties/binders come in handy. Get one of those boxes with lots of different sizes. Stabilizing antenna coax cables, mounting and securing stuff.. If you don't have infinite time at hand and you don't own a 3-d printer (I don't - yet.. ), you'll grow to love these little versatile plastic thingies.
Another thing is sticky foam tape. I wish I had bought not only double-sided one, but you can leave the protective foil on on one side as an intermediate remedy. Take into consideration that the protective plastic foil will shear off over time (..especially with higher temperatures..) and accumulate/stick to all sorts of things.
I came up with this solution for my "landing pads"..:
(..*wait, Imgur does not want my picture..)

Again, cable binders/ties + some packaging foam (easily cut with a sharp kitchen knife) can serve all sorts of purposes..

and again:
Keep things orderly!! You'll go from this:

While you keep grinning of joy innerly (..at this stage of the built),
to this:



..meaning that you'll have to take care of the disc area of your propellers not to conflict with any wires (..not good friends, really..) and wire routing becomes increasingly demanding as the built "fills up". Get the right gauges, again - a too thick cable can be a pain in the ***

It somehow works, not really well as the components don't seem to go along too well, but it's not bursting out in flames, on the other hand. Task fulfilled, I don't feel like a hopeless anymore (..why does Eachine have to write on everything "starting from age of 14"? - I already feel miserable about my absent knowledge & skills, don't need to know that 14 y.o. laugh their ass off about my attempts..  )
I'm just a beginner noob, and that' fine. I'll soon evolve to bloody principant-level, I'm confident..

So long, hope this wasn't too redundant or superfluous to the Forum or whatever,
just trying to contribute a little in exchange for all the precious information I found here. Without intoFPV, I'd be standing in front of this like a deer in front of headlights.

Ah, yes, last thing:
Get one of those assorted plastic hardware boxes (m2/m3, maybe even m4?), as the included components not always are sufficient, or, like in this case, you'd have to use m2, but all the rest was m3. Washers (Aluminum might be luxurious, but can corrode, and the plastic ones are easily modified if for any reason they don't fit in your actual built) in many different sizes and heights, used as spacers, can safe you many hours.



Really have to go to bed now, but if I'd do what I feel like, I'd spend all night on the rooftop (living in the centre of a town..) exercising my hover..

Wishing everybody all the best and friendly Gods of the Built,

Emanuele

Great stuff man! Well writen, Im still giggling over the lawn mow... I mean quadmower... I mean quadcopter
You hit the nail on the head when you talked about a noobs latency to disarm. I did the same thing my first flight when I was riding a bit too low and caught the ground. Mine was not near as bad though as our grass here hasn't really started to grow yet. I was just telling my wife tonight how I had to put a pair of tweezers in my flight pack for picking out debris thrown inside the frame "organics" Good stuff bro!

As for cleaning, try some electronics cleaner in an aerosol to blast it (UNTESTED ON MINIQUAD) I use the stuff for automotive sensors and cleaning my RC ground vehicles ESCs/RXs. For the props and carbon I would use windex (glass cleaners are usually fairly mild, I used to detail automobiles) and a good microfiber rag. Just spray/soak the rag not quad should pull the grass off and leave a shine hope thats some help.

Let us know how the cleaning goes. Could be a good thread to start, miniquad cleaning and maintenance.

:-):-):-)
..definitely an airborne formula one - mower, man!!:-):-):-)
The power density of a modern mini-quad is truly impressive and it sheds some light on the responsibility one should be aware of when arming such a sweet little "critter".
Great idea about starting a maintenance and cleaning thread! Totally agree, I was sitting in front of a bunch of cleaning aids yesterday, with my virtual mother's voice in the ears ("Don't mess up the micro-fibers with cleaning products, ONLY WATER..) battling my need to reduce the amount of nutritional fibers in my quad, *giggle..
So let's fly.Crash.Learn.Clean.Repeat!
Rock the week..

The wife: "you should get the lawn mowed sweetie"
Miniquad addict: "I already did babe "
Wife: "wow really?"
Miniquad addict: "yup! Actually going out to mow it again!"

I think Ill try to start a maintenance thread tonight where we can all add our experiences and practices for maintaining our equipment.

*heehh-heeehhh-heeeehhhhhh....
Was spontaneously thinking about a "mower-version" of a quad, with sealed innards, spool-proof motors and propellers and so forth.. *giggle
Cool! - I've sort of started a noob-version of it, but the thread just will gather information without giving an overview, so a dynamic, "open-source"-list would be just sweet! Keep it up!

Great story!

I end up getting that little hop that the quad does in air mode when trying to land and that always seems to get me in trouble unless I disarm. I've also been caught full of red mud from baseball fields and wished I had a tiny toothbrush. I think after this thread I'll need to add a "can of air" to the list of things to come with me in my bag when I go flying!

As for mower-version... that sounds exciting, but also... scary!... would definitely need to block off the area so no children come by and get stuck underneath x.x

Chris (Xtopher98) won a video contest here with his "Mowing" video: http://intofpv.com/t-race-gate-and-cap-p...2#pid10462

(28-Mar-2017, 12:32 PM)sloscotty Wrote: Chris (Xtopher98) won a video contest here with his "Mowing" video: http://intofpv.com/t-race-gate-and-cap-p...2#pid10462

That's soo funny!! - and pretty much my childhood phantasy - except that I was piloting the whole bed, then..

(28-Mar-2017, 12:32 PM)sloscotty Wrote: Chris (Xtopher98) won a video contest here with his "Mowing" video: http://intofpv.com/t-race-gate-and-cap-p...2#pid10462

I can see why he won! That was a great video.

Cool post! I have to say I am thankful for the 14years + because where I am, FPV is illegal but the use of 'toys' is unrestricted so anything designed specifically for kids (ie. 14+) is legally a toy!