Hello! Been
awol for the last week. Uni has been super busy but been playing with the drones when I can. Kept running into issues that required me to order things and wait.
Taranis refused to connect to PC, browsed the internet for a while and spotted that some cables just refuse to work for whatever reason. Ordered a new one and it connected no problem, will configure it properly and get it updated when I next get some free time.
Set up the
DJI properly with the Taranis and got all the modes working so been out flying with my friend a load last week, getting more confident with the general controls (The DJI definitely gives a false sense of skill which we soon found out when my friend turned his racer into acro mode and powered full speed into the grass

).
The 6 rotor racer: I still couldn't get the fc to connect to beta/clean. I may well be wrong but I think, due to it's age, the fc version is not supported on the current betaflight? I Decided to invest in another current fc that I might have better luck with. Worst case scenario I'll have a spare which can never be bad. Went for a KAKUTE F7 because it has motors 5 and 6 shown on the board. I imagine the other flight controllers support 6 rotors but decided I'd play it safe as it appears to be natively supported.
This leads to
Soldering. Most of the projects I work on are electrics not electronics, I though I was confident soldering... That was until I approached my shiny new flight controller with a chisel tip that spanned about 4 pads haha. Don't worry I didn't destroy it, yet! New soldering iron with temp control and some appropriately sized tips and solder are on the way. Will be getting some practice on the old board before committing to the new one.
@RENOV8R thanks for the RCdiy link, was really helpful. Used it loads playing about with the tx.