30-Jul-2022, 05:04 AM
What has made the biggest difference in my FPV experience
1) Good FPV antennas. Cannot emphesize difference in image quality and penetration.
VAS SkyHammer is a great omni. Helical antenna can allow you to go behind 2, 3 or more buildings.
2) 1MW+. Feel superior, right! ExpressLRS is magic, right? No matter what fancy gear you have or high power, a go behind a little hill (or jamming source) and can failsafe 100m away.
3) Always practice safe flying. There can be bad RF. Never assume you can make it. So please, please - dont fly over roads or people's houses.
4) Crash. Just arm and fly? No! Always examine for damage. Last thing you want is a prop to cut your motor wires or antenna.
5) I only fly analog. But Ratel/Toothless2 is world sharper and better than cheap camera like EOS2.
Build Tips
1) Always tin wires - tiny whisker can short and quad freak out or failsafe mid flight
2) Flux. Magic that makes things shiny and prevents bridged pads. I soldered with propane torch and 10cm house wire. But no flux = bad.
3) Dry fit first. Cut VTX, Camera and RX wires with 2-5mm slack for super clean build.
4) Always add low ESR capacitor. 80% of included cap are junk Get Panasonic FM/FC or Elna RJF. Always 25V+ for 4S and 35V+ for 6S builds. And 2-3cm away from ESC max.
5) Secure things well. Always zip tie power cable and strongly secure VTX antenna so it does snap off.
Zip tie things to stack columns. Zip tie to arms. Don't forget the battery balance cable.
6) Big brand FC/ESC are about same quality. Mamba, HGLRC, HobbyWing, Kakute - they all work equaly well for me.
For toothpicks, AIO FC are notorious for breaking, especially sub 20A "cheap n light".
Getting good flight performance and flight time
Your experience may vary.
1) You will never get fast agile long range quad with cheap motors or "25C" battery.
2) Its 80% weight reduction. You can get 15min+ of cruising on LIPO, and 25min+ on 18650 LION - even on small 4". But, not with heavy 40g frame or with 10g camera. My lightest 1404 4" on 14g frame was 81g. with LEDs.
3) Its obvious but needs repeating - you can't get "best" at everything. Long range quads with skinny arms are fragile flying "gas cans". Sharp responsive quads have oversized motors. Whoops or worse cine-whoops have very small inefficient props and performance sucking prop guards.
4) Yes props do make significant different. Typically biblade are more efficient especially at high rpm, but there are very efficient triblade props too. Maybe your big motor quad is drifting wide - try high pitch props. Its cheap easy way to improve flying enjoyment.
4) Dont stray too far from known good formula. There is very good reason why almost nobody uses 1204 motors on 4" or 2306 motors on 4"
1) Good FPV antennas. Cannot emphesize difference in image quality and penetration.
VAS SkyHammer is a great omni. Helical antenna can allow you to go behind 2, 3 or more buildings.
2) 1MW+. Feel superior, right! ExpressLRS is magic, right? No matter what fancy gear you have or high power, a go behind a little hill (or jamming source) and can failsafe 100m away.
3) Always practice safe flying. There can be bad RF. Never assume you can make it. So please, please - dont fly over roads or people's houses.
4) Crash. Just arm and fly? No! Always examine for damage. Last thing you want is a prop to cut your motor wires or antenna.
5) I only fly analog. But Ratel/Toothless2 is world sharper and better than cheap camera like EOS2.
Build Tips
1) Always tin wires - tiny whisker can short and quad freak out or failsafe mid flight
2) Flux. Magic that makes things shiny and prevents bridged pads. I soldered with propane torch and 10cm house wire. But no flux = bad.
3) Dry fit first. Cut VTX, Camera and RX wires with 2-5mm slack for super clean build.
4) Always add low ESR capacitor. 80% of included cap are junk Get Panasonic FM/FC or Elna RJF. Always 25V+ for 4S and 35V+ for 6S builds. And 2-3cm away from ESC max.
5) Secure things well. Always zip tie power cable and strongly secure VTX antenna so it does snap off.
Zip tie things to stack columns. Zip tie to arms. Don't forget the battery balance cable.
6) Big brand FC/ESC are about same quality. Mamba, HGLRC, HobbyWing, Kakute - they all work equaly well for me.
For toothpicks, AIO FC are notorious for breaking, especially sub 20A "cheap n light".
Getting good flight performance and flight time
Your experience may vary.
1) You will never get fast agile long range quad with cheap motors or "25C" battery.
2) Its 80% weight reduction. You can get 15min+ of cruising on LIPO, and 25min+ on 18650 LION - even on small 4". But, not with heavy 40g frame or with 10g camera. My lightest 1404 4" on 14g frame was 81g. with LEDs.
3) Its obvious but needs repeating - you can't get "best" at everything. Long range quads with skinny arms are fragile flying "gas cans". Sharp responsive quads have oversized motors. Whoops or worse cine-whoops have very small inefficient props and performance sucking prop guards.
4) Yes props do make significant different. Typically biblade are more efficient especially at high rpm, but there are very efficient triblade props too. Maybe your big motor quad is drifting wide - try high pitch props. Its cheap easy way to improve flying enjoyment.
4) Dont stray too far from known good formula. There is very good reason why almost nobody uses 1204 motors on 4" or 2306 motors on 4"
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