Hi all,

Just want to introduce myself and possibly get some direction with my foray into quads and fpv in general.
I have been researching for some time now and feel like there is still so much information that I don't and so much I don't know about building.
While I am trying to learn as much as I can, I do also really want to be able to go fly and enjoy it at the same time.

Like a lot of beginners, I really wanted my first build to be a 5" that I did completely myself. 
I love watching/practicing freestyle and think this is the main style I would fly (I do think I'll fly attempt some sort of cinematic eventually); 
however, the more I look into it I feel like I should go with something much smaller, cheaper and more "crashable" to start
(I have 100+ hrs in the sim, but I feel like that just taught me I'm going to crash a lot) 
until I feel comfortable flying, repairing, soldering, etc.. 
I do want something that rips though.


I've been looking at getting the vision40 from rotor riot.
75mm drone with the digital walksnail system.
(I've also taken a look at the Mobula7)

I have already purchased the:

Radiomaster boxer 4in1 - 
     I purchased this first when I was first getting interested so I could practice. Unfortunately, I thought I was being smart and found some small forums saying it would not be the worst thing to purchase the 4 in 1 protocol and get an external elrs module because so many smaller quads flew with FrySky or other protocols. So, I went with that. Oh well.


What I plan on purchasing:

- Walksnail goggles X
   - RDQ Series 22.2V 6S 1000mAh 100C LiPo - XT60 to power it
   - possibly the Walksnail Patch antenna

- Ranger Micro 2.4Ghz elrs module

- Batteries: weBLEEDfpv 450mAh 1S BT2.0 LiPo

- Battery Charger: BetaFPV BT2. 1s Battery charger Voltage Tester


I'm just looking for any feedback on the direction I'm thinking of going, any of the parts I'm looking at picking up or missing, or any fpv tips or advice in general would be greatly appreciated! Thanks all!

welcome!

i watched the vision40, it looks nice overall. i still saw something i wouldnt like, the canopy is mounted directly on to the vtx, i would like some soft part between.
i would go with the more common original, the mobula7.

1s is different animal, its not the same kind of flight. its a gokart compared with a rally monster.
a rally car can accelerate fast from any rpm, a gokart needs to keep some rpms to stay in a rpm area where it brings good performance. maybe its not the best example.

the route of starting small is perfect.
my suggestion might sound stupid but its sure you does need more than just two sizes and sorts of quads ;-) dont believe you will stay on just two quads :-)
to get a good learning curve, you will crash alot. a whoop doesnt provide the same kind of flight about throttlehandling, something between a whoop and a 5inch. 4inch/3,5inch/3inch would offer the acceleration of a big quad.
i would suggest a small lightweight 3,5inch like the happymodel crux to get flightpractice for 5inch cinematics.
there are other benefits on the smaller blades; no danger and others doesnt feel unconfortable watching it fly, less loud does allow much more spots to fly, the small form factor and weight does allow to carry it way more easy... sunday morning, picking up some bred by bicycle? 3.5inch does match the options much more often than a 5inch.
a small lightweight openprop 3.5inch is more durable than a 5inch. 3,5inch will allow more flighttime, 5inch will need to join the bench sooner.

you dont need a high c rated battery to power the the goggles, a lower c rated battery would offer more battery capacity at the same weight and would be less expensive.
i would suggest a liion battery with much capacity for the goggle or maybe a big lipo. im dont know how hungry the new walksnails are but other hd goggles are - 1000mah wouldnt last many hours. it doesnt need to last forever but charging it everytime befor a flight, to stay save with goggles runtime, does make it less simple to go out and fly. loosing a place to charge other batteries does mean less flighttime, it doesnt matter to much if there are enough chargers.

Are you planning to fly indoors or outdoors as well. I don't have the Vision 40, but a very similar build more like a Mobllite 7 WS, but it is heavy for its size and gets shorter flight times. If you plan to fly mostly indoors and in smaller space like a house (not warehouse) then you might be happier with an analog 75 whoop. It will be more agile, easier to fly, have better flight times, even if the analog FPV feed is crappier, for indoors I think its ok. If you will fly outdoors though, maybe consider a larger 2S 85 whoop if you want to stick with digital.
As for the Walksnail 1S VTX, they are not super fragile, but sometimes (not often but it may happen) they will just die after a crash.

As for Goggles X, I think there are still some issues with it and if you can find the old Goggles for a much cheaper price, you might want to consider those.

I am not an experienced pilot by any means but my experience with getting into FPV seems to have started similarly. I started out with an Emax Nanohawk X wich is a 1s toothpick Bnf. Then after month or so and many crashes the vtx antenna came loose and my attempts to solder it back on ruined the vtx. So I was back to shopping for quads I contemplated building my own but then stumbled on a great deal on a Emax Hawk sport a 5 inch (no I'm not affiliated with Emax) and bought that. I have yet to majorly crash the Hawk. Something about how relatively floaty it is the ground just gets in the way less?. I don't necessarily have to big of opinions on what is your best interest but if you've practiced a lot on a sim I wouldn't be scared to go straight to a 5 inch. Also if you build your own fixing it will be easier.

(30-Jan-2024, 12:06 AM)hugnosed_bat Wrote: welcome!

i watched the vision40, it looks nice overall. i still saw something i wouldnt like, the canopy is mounted directly on to the vtx, i would like some soft part between.
i would go with the more common original, the mobula7.

1s is different animal, its not the same kind of flight. its a gokart compared with a rally monster.
a rally car can accelerate fast from any rpm, a gokart needs to keep some rpms to stay in a rpm area where it brings good performance. maybe its not the best example.

the route of starting small is perfect.
my suggestion might sound stupid but its sure you does need more than just two sizes and sorts of quads ;-) dont believe you will stay on just two quads :-)
to get a good learning curve, you will crash alot. a whoop doesnt provide the same kind of flight about throttlehandling, something between a whoop and a 5inch. 4inch/3,5inch/3inch would offer the acceleration of a big quad.
i would suggest a small lightweight 3,5inch like the happymodel crux to get flightpractice for 5inch cinematics.
there are other benefits on the smaller blades; no danger and others doesnt feel unconfortable watching it fly, less loud does allow much more spots to fly, the small form factor and weight does allow to carry it way more easy... sunday morning, picking up some bred by bicycle? 3.5inch does match the options much more often than a 5inch.
a small lightweight openprop 3.5inch is more durable than a 5inch. 3,5inch will allow more flighttime, 5inch will need to join the bench sooner.

you dont need a high c rated battery to power the the goggles, a lower c rated battery would offer more battery capacity at the same weight and would be less expensive.
i would suggest a liion battery with much capacity for the goggle or maybe a big lipo. im dont know how hungry the new walksnails are but other hd goggles are - 1000mah wouldnt last many hours. it doesnt need to last forever but charging it everytime befor a flight, to stay save with goggles runtime, does make it less simple to go out and fly. loosing a place to charge other batteries does mean less flighttime, it doesnt matter to much if there are enough chargers.

Hey thanks for the info! 

I did not realize the the canopy was mounted directly to the vtx. I'll take a look into that.

So you're saying the smaller whoop flight characteristics are different enough that I migth want to go with somethin bigger right away anyway? I do like the thought of being able to pull it out in more places, but I also want something I can really rip around. And you like the 3" or 3.5" over the 5"?

I believe the new goggles x are pretty power hungry but I'll look at getting something with a lower c rating. I'd like to not have to charge it every time I go to fly.

Thanks for your help!

(30-Jan-2024, 12:28 AM)mstc Wrote: Are you planning to fly indoors or outdoors as well. I don't have the Vision 40, but a very similar build more like a Mobllite 7 WS, but it is heavy for its size and gets shorter flight times. If you plan to fly mostly indoors and in smaller space like a house (not warehouse) then you might be happier with an analog 75 whoop. It will be more agile, easier to fly, have better flight times, even if the analog FPV feed is crappier, for indoors I think its ok. If you will fly outdoors though, maybe consider a larger 2S 85 whoop if you want to stick with digital.
As for the Walksnail 1S VTX, they are not super fragile, but sometimes (not often but it may happen) they will just die after a crash.

As for Goggles X, I think there are still some issues with it and if you can find the old Goggles for a much cheaper price, you might want to consider those.

Thanks for they reply!

I think I plan on doing both. I was thinking initially it would be mainly for like a decent sized backyard/field.

I like the idea of going analog and really lightweight, but I know I really do want digital.

If I do want to start outdoor were you thinking like a mobula8 or did you have one that you like in the 85mm size?

I'll take a look at the walksnail 1s vtx issue. I was not aware of that.
And I do know the goggles x have some issues, but it seems like I would be getting the older pair at around the same price and without some of the things I would want.
HDMI out/in, AV input(once they get it working), and a few other things. Do you feel like the issue are enough to not consider getting the goggles x? Or maybe to wait until they have a lot of the bugs worked out?

(30-Jan-2024, 01:01 AM)Crashesintotrees Wrote: I am not an experienced pilot by any means but my experience with getting into FPV seems to have started similarly. I started out with an Emax Nanohawk X wich is a 1s toothpick Bnf. Then after month or so and many crashes the vtx antenna came loose and my attempts to solder it back on ruined the vtx. So I was back to shopping for quads I contemplated building my own but then stumbled on a great deal on a Emax Hawk sport a 5 inch (no I'm not affiliated with Emax) and bought that. I have yet to majorly crash the Hawk. Something about how relatively floaty it is the ground just gets in the way less?. I don't necessarily have to big of opinions on what is your best interest but if you've practiced a lot on a sim I wouldn't be scared to go straight to a 5 inch. Also if you build your own fixing it will be easier.

Thanks for your reply!

This is actually the other side of the argument in my head. I have flown tinywhoops and 5" in the sims and I can definitely tell the difference in the 'floatiness' of the quad. The smaller whoops don't feel like they carry any momentum, so part of me does want to go straight into the 5" and just takle those challenges as they come.

Have you had to fix/solder any of your quads? Did fixing anything give you trouble early on?

I think where you fly will greatly determine the size of quad you should start with. If you have easy access to a large open field and can see yourself making a trip out there everytime you want to fly/practice, then you can certainly consider something larger. But if you see yourself flying more in your backyard then definitely start with a micro. You most definitely don't want to be learning to fly a powerful drone in a residential neighborhood. For a 5" you should consider the noise and potential for damage.

My 85 WS is scratchbuilt, but I imagine either the Mob8, Meteor85, or possibly the more expensive Flylens. Nick Burns reviews lots of BNFs so you can check out his channel.

As for Goggles X, some other forum members have this, my comments only based on what I've read. If you are mostly interested in using them for WS, I guess they should be ok, and the old goggles don't have any form of input if you wanted that.

my suggestion is to use a whoop for fun and flighttime and a 3.5inch to train musclememori for a big 5inch where cinematics are possible and crashing more expensive.

my personal choice are mostly micros between 2.5inch and 4inch. i do enjoy 5inch racing and whoop racing. i have all kind of quads, the most flighttime and lowest cost of repairs does whoops or micros up to 4inch. my 7inch is very very rare in use :-) but its nice either.

(30-Jan-2024, 03:45 PM)Henry Wrote: Thanks for your reply!

This is actually the other side of the argument in my head. I have flown tinywhoops and 5" in the sims and I can definitely tell the difference in the 'floatiness' of the quad. The smaller whoops don't feel like they carry any momentum, so part of me does want to go straight into the 5" and just takle those challenges as they come.

Have you had to fix/solder any of your quads? Did fixing anything give you trouble early on?

I did replace one of my motors on the Hawk which wasn't too big of a problem. If money, time, and patience are not in short supply I would recommend building your own if going the 5 inch route.

If they did the YMZFPV Lightning in WS, that would probably suit you better as a quad for outdoors use. It's 2S, has some pop and hang (huckability) and from the flight video has pretty decent pep for something so small. But right now it's an analog only bird, although I guess there is nothing stopping you buying a frame and building a WS version. I'm looking to build a custom version of it, but more aimed at 1102 9000kv motors running small 3S Lipos, as I personally prefer a bit more power, but I am also not a digital user.

Nick's Review



On the digital side, if you can afford it, then go with it, but be aware besides initial outlay, you are adding in components that cost a lot more to replace if you break them. Like $80 for a VTX, $50 for a camera, in comparison to an analog system at $15 for a VTX, $15 for a camera. If you have the budget and a good job to finance it, then go for it. If not, save digital for when you are a competent flyer that rarely crashes and isn't going to torch components on a regular basis. Or in simpler words, break cheap things at first and save expensive things for later. I am learning on analog and yes you break stuff a lot. So far for me I've snapped two CF frames so far, blown up a few VTX and two FC, torched a few motors, broken many props and had all my first Lipos die on me. Total cost maybe a couple hundred dollars worth of kit. If that had been digital kit, you would probably be looking at north of 600 dollars. So if you don't have the very good job and complete financial stability, give serious thought to whether you can afford that route initially (if you can't, you could still gradually build up some parts in the background when you have spare money, ready for your first build).

Someone mentioned the noise factor, but you will also need to do Part 107 if you are going 5 inch. There is no getting around the fact it will be over 250g in weight. Yes, it will be really loud when you fly, will probably scare some people and you should ideally fly it as far away from others as possible or you may end up with the cops rocking up on you every time you fly. The simple fact is a 2S or 3S or maybe even a 4S 3-4" bird makes far less noise than a big 5" 6S. The sound for me is very similar to the vulcan cannon on a warthog and the sound travels a long way. Every time I've been flying around people running 6S 5 inch quads, people always seem to come and start asking questions or giving hassle. When flying 3 inch 3-4S quads, it's rare to see people.

(31-Jan-2024, 02:11 PM)Pathfinder075 Wrote: If they did the YMZFPV Lightning in WS, that would probably suit you better as a quad for outdoors use.  It's 2S, has some pop and hang (huckability) and from the flight video has pretty decent pep for something so small.  But right now it's an analog only bird, although I guess there is nothing stopping you buying a frame and building a WS version.  I'm looking to build a custom version of it, but more aimed at 1102 9000kv motors running small 3S Lipos, as I personally prefer a bit more power, but I am also not a digital user.

The HGLR Draknight frame is a near exact clone, I put together a WS build with the 1102 motors taken off a Pavo Pico and it makes for a very nice 2S cruiser. The cage clearance is a little tight for two board setup, but just barely enough. For freestyle, 3S might be a better option, but I think the OP is looking for a BNF?
https://intofpv.com/t-draknight-2-walksnail

Yeah, iFly mentioned that when i was talking with him. Not available in the UK and not really bothered ordering it from China and getting hammered on tax and shipping. I kind of mentioned it more in passing for the OP. If it had WS as a BNF option, it would be a suitable small flyer until he got his skills up, while not being sluggish or suffering the same issues whoops have. But they so far have no digital option.

I think if I was going straight to WS I would probably go with a Mob8. You get 2S capability and it's still a whoop. Or the Pavo25 if you wanted something a bit bigger. both are BNF, both are good quads, both are whoops, but the Pavo would have considerably more power and need larger, more expensive Lipos.

(31-Jan-2024, 08:17 PM)Pathfinder075 Wrote: I think if I was going straight to WS I would probably go with a Mob8.  You get 2S capability and it's still a whoop.  Or the Pavo25 if you wanted something a bit bigger.  both are BNF, both are good quads, both are whoops, but the Pavo would have considerably more power and need larger, more expensive Lipos.

I just setup my Pavo25v2 which Bfpv sent me since they couldn't ship out the Twig. If you are referring to the V2, I don't think it would be a good beginner quad, but you might like it. 1505 4S motors on 2.5" props    but it is heavy and will need a bigger battery.

Yeah 4S is kind of big for a beginner. So the v2 uses 1505, the one I looked at last time had 1404 4500kv motors. That must have been the v1.

It's a pity they got rid of the old Meteor 95 from when I first started. i knew a couple of people who bought them as beginners and flew them on 3S packs for a couple of months before transitioning to 4S. But the newer ones seem to have overly more powerful motors from the outset. I would have said the Pavo20 would be a better choice for a beginner, but it seems like there is a massive shortage of stock and even the Pico seems to be suffering from availability issues.

But I have no skill in digital BNF's. That's more your area than mine.