Hey guys! Been researching for awhile but it is still very overwhelming. I really just want to jump on it and buy a already built quad FPV drone but I would much rather ask for your guys advice. Thank you guys!
A newbie, need help getting into FPV drones
- Thread starter FPV_Flying89
- Start date
Welcome @FPV_Flying89, what are you looking for and what is your budget? What gear do you already have, like radio and goggles? There are too many choices and too many price points to give an easy answer without more info from you. Let us know what you're thinking and we will try to help best we can.
I have nothing. I just don’t want to buy something and it isn’t compatible lol. But I’d be willing to spend 200-500$ for a drone. Not including Googles. I honestly don’t know the price range of these things. I want a really good started drone but also one I may use for awhile as well.
Ok, that is at least something to go on. If you have never flown an FPV quad, it is not like a DJI or similar, you will crash a lot in the beginning and things will get broken, there is no way around it. Every bit of this will have a learning curve, flying in the goggles can be very disorienting in the beginning, and it will take some flight times to get used to it.
I would suggest you start with a whoop style quad so that you can get more experience before you put a larger quad in the air. There isn't any good reason to skimp on your TX and goggles since they will last long time, quads on the other hand are consumables, they will get destroyed over time and you will need to be able to fix them to get back into the air. I would recommend starting off with something like these.
Stick with the original and stay away from the "2019" versions, they have too many shortcomings to consider in my opinion.
If you want the least expensive, get this...
FrSky Taranis QX7 2.4GHz RC Transmitter - Black or White
Don't miss the FrSky Taranis QX7 2.4GHz RC Transmitter in black or white. This affordable transmitter is waiting for you, so order today for fast FREE shipping from the USA!
www.racedayquads.com
If you can swing it, get this since it has some nice features that will save you money in the long run, like a battery and charger as well as much better gimbals.
FrSky Taranis QX7S 2.4GHz RC Transmitter - Carbon or Blue
Get the latest and greatest transmitter with the all-new FRSKY QX7S Radio Transmitter in Carbon. This stylish, high performance transmitter will keep you flying high!
www.racedayquads.com
For your first quad to learn to fly on, most of us will recommend the EMAX TinyHawk S or II (2), you can fly it around inside the house or garage, as well as outside on low wind days. It is very sturdy as FPV micro quads go, and you will be able to learn to fly without constantly being broken and needing repair before you can get back in the air.
EMAX Tinyhawk Drone & Parts for Sale - RaceDayQuads
EMAX has long had a solid foothold in the FPV community, however, the Tinyhawk marked their rise to supremacy. The Yinyhawk is THE go-to starter drone with its option to come as part of an RTF kit, and well-labled replacement parts. This is a great entry point for new pilots.
www.racedayquads.com
EMAX BNF Tinyhawk II 1-2S Analog Racing Drone w/ Runcam Nano2
All product containing lithium batteries must be shipped by a ground shipping method. In their endless search for perfected flight performance, the engineers at EMAX have revisited the Tinyhawk platform in order to optimize the experience in the all new Tinyhawk 2. With improvements made in...
www.racedayquads.com
For goggles, these are the least expensive worth having. They have a great picture and all you would need is to upgrade the antennas for a good FPV experience.
Eachine EV800D 5.8GHz 40CH Diversity FPV Goggles with DVR
The Eachine EV800D 5.8GHz 40CH Diversity FPV Goggles with DVR gives you all the features you need while staying at a great value price. It boasts a 5 inch 800x400 screen, DVR, and more!
www.racedayquads.com
If you want to go with something better, there are a bunch of choices starting around the $300 mark and going up to about $650-$800 range. Let me know what your thinking so far and we will advise further.
Ok, that is at least something to go on. If you have never flown an FPV quad, it is not like a DJI or similar, you will crash a lot in the beginning and things will get broken, there is no way around it. Every bit of this will have a learning curve, flying in the goggles can be very disorienting in the beginning, and it will take some flight times to get used to it.
I would suggest you start with a whoop style quad so that you can get more experience before you put a larger quad in the air. There isn't any good reason to skimp on your TX and goggles since they will last long time, quads on the other hand are consumables, they will get destroyed over time and you will need to be able to fix them to get back into the air. I would recommend starting off with something like these.
Stick with the original and stay away from the "2019" versions, they have too many shortcomings to consider in my opinion.
If you want the least expensive, get this...
FrSky Taranis QX7 2.4GHz RC Transmitter - Black or White
Don't miss the FrSky Taranis QX7 2.4GHz RC Transmitter in black or white. This affordable transmitter is waiting for you, so order today for fast FREE shipping from the USA!
If you can swing it, get this since it has some nice features that will save you money in the long run, like a battery and charger as well as much better gimbals.
FrSky Taranis QX7S 2.4GHz RC Transmitter - Carbon or Blue
Get the latest and greatest transmitter with the all-new FRSKY QX7S Radio Transmitter in Carbon. This stylish, high performance transmitter will keep you flying high!
For your first quad to learn to fly on, most of us will recommend the EMAX TinyHawk S or II (2), you can fly it around inside the house or garage, as well as outside on low wind days. It is very sturdy as FPV micro quads go, and you will be able to learn to fly without constantly being broken and needing repair before you can get back in the air.
EMAX Tinyhawk Drone & Parts for Sale - RaceDayQuads
EMAX has long had a solid foothold in the FPV community, however, the Tinyhawk marked their rise to supremacy. The Yinyhawk is THE go-to starter drone with its option to come as part of an RTF kit, and well-labled replacement parts. This is a great entry point for new pilots.
EMAX BNF Tinyhawk II 1-2S Analog Racing Drone w/ Runcam Nano2
All product containing lithium batteries must be shipped by a ground shipping method. In their endless search for perfected flight performance, the engineers at EMAX have revisited the Tinyhawk platform in order to optimize the experience in the all new Tinyhawk 2. With improvements made in...
For goggles, these are the least expensive worth having. They have a great picture and all you would need is to upgrade the antennas for a good FPV experience.
Eachine EV800D 5.8GHz 40CH Diversity FPV Goggles with DVR
The Eachine EV800D 5.8GHz 40CH Diversity FPV Goggles with DVR gives you all the features you need while staying at a great value price. It boasts a 5 inch 800x400 screen, DVR, and more!
If you want to go with something better, there are a bunch of choices starting around the $300 mark and going up to about $650-$800 range. Let me know what your thinking so far and we will advise further.
Wow! Really appreciate the help. Thank you so much.
L0stB1t
Member
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I'd recommend to learn to fly using a simulator. I'd even say to only get a TX and learn to fly in the simulator first. If you enjoy it, get the goggles, quad, batteries, charger and tools. You'll need about 12 hours in the simulator to get good basic control. I like the Liftoff simulator but everybody has his own personal preference.
I agree with L0stB1t, I had done the opposite of this and had a lot of bad habits to break once I got a hold of a simulator and corrected them. A sim and TX is the perfect starting point. FPVFreeRider is free and very decent for what it is, but I'd recommend Liftoff by Rotor Riot. It's $20 on steam and you can even use a regular gamepad controller like a PS4 or Xbox 1 if you do not have a transmitter. Whatever TX you opt for, there should be a dongle you can connect thru USB so you can fly with that.
Using sims helped me alot. If you get the QX7 radio or a different FRSky radio, I would recommend this as well so you don't have a cable attached to your controller to use the sims.
FrSky XSR-SIM Wireless USB Dongle For Simulators
I wish I had come across it sooner.
Definately agree with starting with the little whoops as they crash and keep right on going...
FrSky XSR-SIM Wireless USB Dongle For Simulators
I wish I had come across it sooner.
Definately agree with starting with the little whoops as they crash and keep right on going...
droneguy
Well-Known Member
@FPV_Flying89
Personally, I'd avoid the QX7. The ergonomics aren't very good and overall it's a tired design. For the same price you can get a basic Radiomaster TX16S or upgrade to the Hall gimbals version for a few extra bucks. You get a much nicer user experience and a much better future proof radio with the color touch screen. If you start with the potentiometer gimbal version, you can always upgrade them later. There is also a nice upgrade path for the TX16S with all sorts of nice addons if you chose to stick with the hobby. ie. folding handle, aluminum accents, leather side grips etc.The Eachine EV800D are a great starter box goggle and hard to beat for the price.
For a starter drone, the Emax drones are great and very durable in crashes, but if you burn an ESC which people do often enough with turtle mode or failing to disarm in a crash, it will cost you half the price of the quad to replace and it's not an easy soldering job for a newbie. You may also want to consider a 2.5in or 3in racing drone like the Diatone R349 (or many others) as it's much easier to fix. I've fixed my share of Tinyhawks too but they are more challenging due to the tiny components. The Diatone specifically is very fast, so you'd need a throttle scale to tone it down until you get used to flying. As others have stated, start on a SIM with a radio and you will save yourself a few crashes and dollars.
Last edited:
I think this ship has sailed @droneguy, this was about year ago and at that time the Jumper and RadioMaster were much more in their infancy, harder to get, and even had (some) issues like the original wiring in the first TX16 platforms. In most of the newer queries a lot of us have been recommending the newer TX models. Thanks for all the help you're giving everyone, it's great of you to do so!
I was in exactly the same place a few weeks ago. I brought the Eachine Wizard x200s with the ev800 goggles and I'm really happy with the set up. One thing I wish I did was research about lipo batteries before you get them plenty of good posts on this forum about them but it's something that I wish I did.
droneguy
Well-Known Member
@Eachine98379872
Hopefully your experience with the Eachine Wizard x200s continues to be an enjoyable one. It's hard to argue the merits of this quad when looking at the price and many people have purchased this quad based on the apparent value and low cost. But a small word of caution... if you start having any major issues like many people have (burning up ESCs, failing motors, de-sync issues) then you may want to replace any failed parts with upgraded parts instead of replacing with the exact same failed components. I've seen too many people sink money after money into these budget quads and keep having a repeat of the same problems. Before too long you may find you spend as much as you would have for a more expensive premium quad. So if your ESC or FC goes, then upgrade it to newer type with the FC being an F4 as a minimum. Generally, it's recommended to stay away from F3 based flight controllers moving forward for a few reasons.
Since release of version 4.0.0, BetaFlight has dropped support for the F3 based flight controllers. While 4.0.0 still works on F3 boards, the devs have disabled many of the new features for these boards in order to make the most general features fit on the FC. Some of the features that have been disabled are D-term Minimum, Dynamic Lowpass Filters, Launch Control and RC Smoothing Filters. These features, actually work perfectly fine on F3 boards but you need a custom version of Betaflight to add them to your F3. It's alot more work to get the quad to fly well and you won't be able to leverage all the great enhancements to BetaFlight with an F3 FC.
Hopefully this quad serves it's purpose for you and gets you in the air and flying well. I hope your experience is a positive one, but if you run into any issues, come back here and we'll be glad to help as this is a very helpful community.
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