Greetings from Tennessee, John is the name and my R/C days began 40 yrs ago with glow fixed wing. My attempt at rotary wing was futile and gave up.   With the release of multi~rotors I invested $60 in a Syma X5 package and over came my rotary wing failures! Started joining groups on FB and the hook was set. After a couple of months I spotted an MJX 600 shipping from Nashville (Jeff Suits Enterprises) and dropped around $100 on it and gave the X5 to my son who showed interest (he never got caught up in my glow days) Again the hook was set even deeper and Jeff was selling FPV Racing Quads so I took the bigger plunge and bought the EMAX Nighthawk Pro 280 "All~in~One" package. All this occurred prior the spring thaw in 2017, yes just barely a year into model flying. Purchased a couple of Goggle kits and wish I had spent the $$$$ on a FatShark.

To make a long story short I'm on my 2nd "All~in~One" FC ($67 usd) and the M1 & M3 motors are not spinning, more like a jerking attempt to turn so it is time to retrofit my 280 frame. There's not much racing in my part of the country but I do fly often weather permitting. 

After reading through Oscar's site which IMO is the best resource available today I'm confused on which FC to buy, ESC's if required for the motors and 3s Lipo packs I have. Soldering and electronics is not a problem since I worked process controls at a Zinc refinery for 20 yrs before retiring.

If someone will redirect me to the proper thread for my situation it will be appreciated!

Thanks for the kind words John, and welcome to the forum
As to what FC to buy, I think we can pretty much filter the choices down to F4 and F7 FC's..
For Betaflight, I think these latest F4 FC would be good options:

- CLRacing F4S
- Betaflight F4

We recently had a discussions about the new CLRacing F4S here:
http://intofpv.com/t-clracing-f4s

And here are is my 2cents on which one to get:
http://intofpv.com/t-clracing-f4s?pid=32194#pid32194

Hello John,
welcome to the forum.

as for the FC beside those mentioned by Oscar try not to buy anything below F4 (price is a bit lower yet technology has moved beyond F1/F3 chips)

Gosh... so were onto F4 only now? my F3s are going to feel old if they're obsolete :p

Oh... hey John! welcome to the forum! It sounds like you have the right kinds of questions

If you can't easily find threads here that answer your questions feel free to start new ones. While we may have seen similar questions in the past, it's always great to have a new opportunity to hash out a previous discussion. Such as what the guys above are saying with going with F4 and F7 only... I could ask at least 3 follow up questions to that recommendation alone.

F3 are fine Carl I even have a quad still running the F1 Naze32
it's just for someone who is out there on the market looking for a new FC.. it's best to get the latest tech that would last longer

Thanx all for the Welcome and the feedback. I'm reluctant to go "AIO" after my history with the EMax but the FS4 I will build on.

Part of the build from scratch in me is active again so here I go.

After further review of cost of from scratch I will go with the "AIO" suggested here...

Cmon... if he is buying news stuff let him buy something reasonable
going hardcore with Naze V5 might not be the best approach now