If you don’t already know, my wife is a middle school science teacher and uses drones in her class. This year she has taken on the task of Georgia Technology Student Association (TSA) Instructor. This weekend I assisted with with a weekend team building conference in Clayton Ga. We took 5 students, in a minivan..
This conference is mostly Highschool level, and a new competition they have created is drone building and task completion. My wife and I had heard about this.. but the tinyhawks are much easier than 3-4s larger prop rigs. Especially for middleschool.
So as my wife is with her kids during training.. I’m taking advantage of the open mountain area..as I am burning some packs.. I began to draw a crowd.
Apparently some of the schools attempted to take on the “drone competition”. I was getting questions from soldering issues, binding, channel mapping, modes, betaflight, pid changes… not a big deal except there was no cell service and the Wi-Fi was locked down. So I am fielding questions the best I can, giving suggestions from Bardwell you tube to Oscar .. suppliers, places to find help and this forum..
I told them to use the search first before posting.. and use photos…
These kids are literally the top 5% and brilliant.. academically..but this drone challenge is like learning to fly a plane as you are building it.. From what I gathered, they have to build the quad, get it flying THEN it needs to pick up an transport a payload.. so we are taking servos.
Not a difficult task for a seasoned fpv hobbiest.. but for someone with ZERO experience.. not so easy..
I heard stories of quads costing upwards of $700 to build (basic 5” freestyle) to maiden flights taking off and disappearing .. one teacher said their quad used Flysky.
When I started I thought Flysky and Frsky was the same .. but thought it was a typo..oh.. lipos lighting off was a issue also.. (improper charging)
So, if teacher or student posts here, please be as patient as you can…I would greatly appreciate it..

I’m always happy to help in any way that I can.

I actually don’t mind when people post threads prior to doing a search. Yeah, the question may have already been answered before, but, that answer may or may not be directly applicable to their use case.

Also, it’s takes me all of a few minutes to answer a question. When you’re diving into something new, especially something that can be as complex as quads, it can be a frustrating waste of a day trying to google or search for the answer when you don’t know how to recognize the correct or incorrect answer when you see it. I’m all for saving someone some of that frustration when I can.

I’ve personally spent a week plus trying to find an answer myself, finding what I think is the right answer but wasn’t, then going down a rabbit hole of screwing up a bunch of stuff trying to fix the original problem, and then spending another week or more trying to figure out what the hell I screwed up trying to “fix” it, and how the hell to fix all the crap I’ve now screwed up. Simple things like tx to rx, protocols, and what works with what aren’t simple when you’re just starting out.

Edit- sounds like you should start a drone building workshop. I’d offer to help, but, I’m quite a ways away from you, and children and teenagers annoy me.

… I think it’s harder to know what to or how to ask a question if u don’t know where to start ..
I remember fixing my (used) quad.. got it flying and couldn’t get the OSD in the goggles.. I searched, and searched.. did this, did that.. still no osd..
I contacted the hobby shop I bought the replacement RC from and asked about a possible solution ..
Now I replaced the fc with the same one that came with the quad.. well, I had no idea this F3 Fc did not have Osd!!!

A lot of these school competitions have a pre-defined list of designated parts/suppliers or restrictions of what can or cannot be used. Don't know if the competition you are working on would have the same. Also some have a starter kit or starter tutorials to get the students going, but maybe this is a different type of competition.

.. pm me… I’m gonna do some digging see if I can find out more particulars on the perimeters of this competition.. they maybe the same..

Hi Rob,

As always, I will help where I can. The project sounds remarkably close to my
Rescue Quad build which was intended to retrieve a downed quad. My build has
dual cameras and was intended to pick up a payload. Even though the project
did not get finalized during my window of opportunity, there is a lot of good
information in that thread.

The dual camera setup was intended to have a piloting camera and a targeting
camera. Using a servo to tilt one camera from a flight angle to straight down
didn't appear to be a workable solution. 

As for picking up a payload, that sort of depends on what type of payload that
you intend to pick up. Considerations include the type of connection device,
the length of cable, and the inclusion of a release mechanism should the device
used for connection get tangled up or caught and the quad can not move with
it still attached. 

The other circumstance for me is that the quad weighs over 250 grams dry,
more with a battery, and even more once the payload is attached. With the
new FAA regulations, I will need to register the craft and attach an operational
Remote ID device before resuming work on the project. Not a big deal, just
things that need to be done.

Later, My Friend, iFly  

.. got a text from them ..apparently this flew at one point and these students are staking over.. we started from the beginning.. radio on, quad plugged into betaflight.. no rx movement.. said it was bound. Had them inspect the components.. a wire had broke loose from the rx.. gave some soldering tips (flux, lead solder, good eyes-practice).. havnt heard back..
They are using Flysky, wonder if it uses open TX?

FlySky transmitter can use OpenTX.
Now, I don't know if all transmitters can, but it seems some can.