Hello everyone,

I am Martin 28 years from Germany. This is the year i really want  to get into the FPV Quad Hobby, to be exact i really want to get into Race Quad flying. 

Through my research on different sites I stumbled upon the Eachin Wizard X220 like many other beginners and watched tons of reviews which we are all quite positive. A lot of those videos said that the x220 is a nice pick for beginners, since it's already built. 

My question now is, could i build an even better Quad myself with the same (or similar) amount of money? I am a skilled electrical engineer and even have the soldering equipment to do SMT and Reflow Soldering (reflow of course only for repairs). I am also able to Flash and Program myself. So the only thing holding me back on building something better than the X220 is the missing expirience about which components would be better. 

Of course this is a broad question "Which are better" ... leading to the answer "well, what do u want?". Seeing how the X220 performed in all those videos of expirienced people my only answer would be "exactly like the X220 but if possible with even smoother flight performance and more punch". If more punch means less smootheness then i would prefer smootheness to get into the hobby.

Other things i picked up about the X220 that could've been better:

- Antenna
- Motors
- Some fixing points

What would be your recommendation for a person who is 100% sure he can build a Quad himself? Still stick to the X220 in a package with the FlySky I6 and some goggles of my choice?

Quadsize should definetly be between 220 and 250

EDIT: Since the Quad is 136€ on Banggood i would be willing to spend up to 200€ for a selfbuild Quad


Btw. I am not going to buy it immediatly. I would first buy the remote and train with it on the Simulator for some time since i need money right now to get a new apartment.

I hope my description narrowed it down and is not like those "i wanna get into FPV, what should i buy" Threads


Thanks in advance for your help

from my experience:

I started out a year ago with a Eachine 250 racer, quanum diy v2 goggles and flysky fs-i6, and the quad was the first thing that I modified. I changed ESCs, motors, camera, vtx and FC. basiically, the only thing left was the frame. The Eachine motors from my experience are not good. The bearings get worn out pretty fast, and the tolerances are not great. I have used several cheap motors, and most of them have bad bearings. The only cheap motor that has lasted for some time for me was the sunnysky 2204 you can get for 10dollars at surveilzone. The brotherhobby R3 has been great to me so far, but they are in the higher price range. I also got some RCX RS2206 V2 2400kv which I only tested for a few packs and I must say they really impressed me with power and smoothness. And those motors are only 12USD a piece! I am currently putting them on a X210 build Im doing right now, so I guess I will have them in the air in a week or so.

Next up, I changed the goggles in June. I bought Fatshark HD V2 and It made my life much easier. They are so much more comfortable to wear for me, and much easier to put in my backpack. The only downside with them is the blurry edges. A friend of mine bought the HD3 goggles and they were blurry as hell according to him. He sent them back to Fatshark and they changed out the optics. Now, he told me the picture was crystal clear, so I cant wait to try his goggles and compare them with mine.

Lastly I bought a taranis and I must say the difference was quite big. It has much more features and the telemetry is very nice! I also like the gimbals better than the flysky, and I'm planning on ugrading to hall effect gimbals as soon as they are back in stock. I also didn't get my flysky transmitter to work with the computer, while the taranis is just plug and play.

So, what I'm actually trying to say here from my experience is that if you know you are going to stay in this hobby for a while, it could be something to thing about if you want to go down the road with the cheapest equipment and then maybe upgrade, or just go with the more expensive equipment and not likely upgrade in a while.

Thank you for your opinion! Very detailed information

I thought about Fatshark goggles and the taranis too but first i will go cheap on remote and goggles since i can still give the goggles to my friends if they wanna watch my perspective.

But from all you told me i will definetly build my own quad. Will take some time to research all the fitting components that add up to 200€ but i am not gonna order in the next 3 months i guess.

I am very thankful for your answer.

 to building your own! You get exactly what you personally want that way. And you can build it right, the first time.
This has been my philosophy for a while now with ground vehicles, to stay on budget but still get performance!

This guys has a similar mindset lol hope it aids in your research!

Another very helpful response.

Now i am absolutely set on building my own. Which means i will do my research on

Flight Controller
Receiver
Radio Transmitter

And after i've done that i will take a look for a Frame that i like and then i know my budget for Motors and ESCs.

Leaving only the goggles and remote (i will pick something for <100€ each) and of course batterys and chargers.

Ty!

Can't wait to see your build plan!

I too have been planning my first racer. Going to post it very soon so all the pros/veterans can look it over and make sure everything will work well together (check my homework so to speak lol)

These forums are full of great info and even better people, that are quick to reply with helpful advice. (I can't stay off it haha)
And just a side note. Dont forget to like posts and give reputation to those who have helped or made you laugh even. Helps reward those who really help others during contests and such. Ive also been trying to rate (star value) really good threads to help others see quickly what threads are best. (Like I said, I cant stay off of here, lmao and have read all the "welcome/how to use" threads)
So anyway 'nough ramblin'. Again welcome and good luck in your planning! 

I of course already liked the posts so far since each and everyone of those helped me

I decided to build my Racequad based on the Martian II Frame. I really like the overall layout/design. I watched a lot of reviews about the RCX RS2206 V2 2400kv motors and I think they will definetly be totally okay if not way to overpowered for me. Regarding the ESCs i didn't do a lot of research and so far thought about getting the Racestar RS30A V2. Radio will definetly be the Flysky FS-i6X but i don't know what receiver i should choose here? As far as i know i don't need 10 Channels... but on the other hand it won't make it that much heavier and the few bucks more won't hurt me and i might use it in the future for other projects that require more channels :/

About the flight controller... i do like the KISS from Flyduino, one reason being that the Software tools look well thought through and the other thing is... it's from germany ^^ (at least designed in germany).

The Goggles will be KDS Kylin vision goggles, what Video TX would you recommend?

These are the parts i managed to research so far, what are your thoughts on my choices?

Fs-ia6b receiver has quite good range, supports ibus and is not very big if you remove the case and the pins. These days, there is no need to use pwm or ppm. It is just so much more convenient to run a serial protocol. It also supports 10channel over ibus

If you go kiss, you will not be able to run ibus last time I checked. Could be they have added support. I got betaflight quads and a kiss quad and I must say I really like the kiss setup. It is even better if you run kiss escs as well. It feels like most of the magic is in the escs from my experience

(27-Jan-2017, 12:34 PM)oyvinla Wrote: from my experience:

I started out a year ago with a Eachine 250 racer, quanum diy v2 goggles and flysky fs-i6, and the quad was the first thing that I modified. I changed ESCs, motors, camera, vtx and FC. basiically, the only thing left was the frame. The Eachine motors from my experience are not good. The bearings get worn out pretty fast, and the tolerances are not great. I have used several cheap motors, and most of them have bad bearings. The only cheap motor that has lasted for some time for me was the sunnysky 2204 you can get for 10dollars at surveilzone. The brotherhobby R3 has been great to me so far, but they are in the higher price range. I also got some RCX RS2206 V2 2400kv which I only tested for a few packs and I must say they really impressed me with power and smoothness. And those motors are only 12USD a piece! I am currently putting them on a X210 build Im doing right now, so I guess I will have them in the air in a week or so.

Next up, I changed the goggles in June. I bought Fatshark HD V2 and It made my life much easier. They are so much more comfortable to wear for me, and much easier to put in my backpack. The only downside with them is the blurry edges. A friend of mine bought the HD3 goggles and they were blurry as hell according to him. He sent them back to Fatshark and they changed out the optics. Now, he told me the picture was crystal clear, so I cant wait to try his goggles and compare them with mine.

Lastly I bought a taranis and I must say the difference was quite big. It has much more features and the telemetry is very nice! I also like the gimbals better than the flysky, and I'm planning on ugrading to hall effect gimbals as soon as they are back in stock. I also didn't get my flysky transmitter to work with the computer, while the taranis is just plug and play.

So, what I'm actually trying to say here from my experience is that if you know you are going to stay in this hobby for a while, it could be something to thing about if you want to go down the road with the cheapest equipment and then maybe upgrade, or just go with the more expensive equipment and not likely upgrade in a while.

(31-Jan-2017, 03:01 PM)oyvinla Wrote: If you go kiss, you will not be able to run ibus last time I checked. Could be they have added support. I got betaflight quads and a kiss quad and I must say I really like the kiss setup. It is even better if you run kiss escs as well. It feels like most of the magic is in the escs from my experience

I will research tomorrow if they have added support for that, thanks for your Infos btw.

if you are going for flysky and would like a decent rx go for
http://www.banggood.com/Flysky-X6B-2_4G-...01513.html

i wouldn't go the route of a6b as this is old and bulky (decasing and depinnin it is ... pain in the...)

as you are experienced with soldering and planning of electronics you can pick something smaller in size than martian, remember that your key criteria should be weight - if you will have 2893467923641 m of cables... it will suck... if it will be light as a feather it will blow your mind... my first quad was around 700-800g (now i have no idea how it could be that heavy and still fly)

buy 4s batteries around 1300 - 1500 mah (i prefer SLS - but that is personal)

building it is relatively easy, and unfortunately there is no "best" part.

do a bit of research post what you think and lets see who will be the first to drop their 2 cents to it

Well i did my research and you guys were right. The KISS Flight controller doesn't work with I-BUS unless you flash it with Beta flight...

I really do like the XB6 RX and it of course can be bought in a bundle with the remote

I will go with the Martian II first, i really love the design. Of course i know that more weight means more force in case of an impact so more stress on the parts and a higher chance that the frame or anything else breaks. Yes i will keep all the wires as short as possible, just enough length so they don't hinder maintenance

Remote TX/RX: Flysky FS-i6X 2.4GHz 10CH AFHDS 2A RC Transmitter With X6B i-BUS Receiver
Frame: MartianⅡ 220
Flight Controller: X-Racer F303 or. Motolab Cyclone STM32F3 Flight Controller (What's your opinion? Does the higher gyro rate matter?)
ESCs: Racestar RS30A V2
Motors: RCX RS2206 V2 2400kv
LiPo: Definetly 4S but i will do some research which one exactly
FPV CAM: Runcam Swift or HS1177
Video TX: No idea ???
Antenna: Will do some research about those, probably Cloverleaf antennas
OSD: Would you recommend having an OSD? I am definetly interested in those
PDB: There is one with the Martian II but people seem to not like it since there is no Voltage regulator on it. Would you recommend a combined board and replace the Martian II one or an external voltage regulator
Recording CAM: GoPro Hero 3 Black Edition (got one lying around) Any recommended Mount for that? I can 3D print one at work.


EDIT: Awesome I just found this page on thingiverse Martian II http://www.thingiverse.com/search/page:4...tian+II&sa=

as you will go for vtx and osd i can recommenc this https://goo.gl/UX1gTy

Oh that's awesome! I gonna add it to my list


Current List :
Remote TX/RX: Flysky FS-i6X 2.4GHz 10CH AFHDS 2A RC Transmitter With X6B i-BUS Receiver
Frame: MartianⅡ 220
Flight Controller: X-Racer F303 or. Motolab Cyclone STM32F3 Flight Controller (What's your opinion? Does the higher gyro rate matter?)
ESCs: Racestar RS30A V2
Motors: RCX RS2206 V2 2400kv
LiPo: Definetly 4S but i will do some research which one exactly
FPV CAM: Runcam Swift or HS1177
Video TX/OSD: Diatone SP3
Antenna: Will do some research about those, probably Cloverleaf antennas
PDB: There is one with the Martian II but people seem to not like it since there is no Voltage regulator on it. Would you recommend a combined board and replace the Martian II one or an external voltage regulator
Recording CAM: GoPro Hero 3 Black Edition (got one lying around) Any recommended Mount for that? I can 3D print one at work.

(01-Feb-2017, 01:17 PM)Apicalis Wrote: Well i did my research and you guys were right. The KISS Flight controller doesn't work with I-BUS unless you flash it with Beta flight...

I really do like the XB6 RX and it of course can be bought in a bundle with the remote

I will go with the Martian II first, i really love the design. Of course i know that more weight means more force in case of an impact so more stress on the parts and a higher chance that the frame or anything else breaks. Yes i will keep all the wires as short as possible, just enough length so they don't hinder maintenance

Remote TX/RX: Flysky FS-i6X 2.4GHz 10CH AFHDS 2A RC Transmitter With X6B i-BUS Receiver
Frame: MartianⅡ 220
Flight Controller: X-Racer F303 or. Motolab Cyclone STM32F3 Flight Controller (What's your opinion? Does the higher gyro rate matter?)
ESCs: Racestar RS30A V2
Motors: RCX RS2206 V2 2400kv
LiPo: Definetly 4S but i will do some research which one exactly
FPV CAM: Runcam Swift or HS1177
Video TX: No idea ???
Antenna: Will do some research about those, probably Cloverleaf antennas
OSD: Would you recommend having an OSD? I am definetly interested in those
PDB: There is one with the Martian II but people seem to not like it since there is no Voltage regulator on it. Would you recommend a combined board and replace the Martian II one or an external voltage regulator
Recording CAM: GoPro Hero 3 Black Edition (got one lying around) Any recommended Mount for that? I can 3D print one at work.


EDIT: Awesome I just found this page on thingiverse Martian II http://www.thingiverse.com/search/page:4...tian+II&sa=

Im going to try to get my build plan posted later today, quite similar. (My first "real" build)
I am going to use the XracerF303 v3.1. (Higher rate gyros can run faster loop times to make the quad feel more "locked in" to user inputs)plz correct me if Im incorrect here veterans!
Decided on Racerstar ESCs but I have heard the MS series performs well. Even tests where the MS25A was on par if not slightly better than the RS30A (note ms series comes in 35a 25a ect.) Im future proofing some here with the 35A for crazy motors and props down the road
For PDB im going to try the DemonRC Pulse. Excellent company and previous Demon Core v2.3 is a goto for many and has (imo) everything a PDB should have. Pulse adds LED controller and a strong 5v line.
The Runcam Swift 2 has OSD and a mic. Its OSD is very basic but it gives you voltage info which can help me time when to come back in and avoid damaging lipo or worse.
VTX Im choosing Eachine TX526. Can be switched from 25/200/600mw which means I can fly it longer range(600mw) (looking into my ham *minor legality in US)but also fly indoor and races with friends(25mw). I know im gonna break some antennas while I learn the quad and test myself so for now I chose Aomway antennas which have great bang for the buck reviews. Later I can reinvest in high end.
Just my 2cents Veterans let me know if I have messed up anywhere also.