First build

[MuderFuger]

I've had two bind and fly drones, but want to build one this time around. I want to build a 5" freestyle quad, and I'm feeling a little overwhelmed with the choices. The electrics almost seem easier to choose than the frames. How do I choose? What should I look for in a quality frame? I plan on running a 4s 1500mah system, with somewhere around 2600 kv motors, but not sure what size motor can would be best. Does it really even matter? 2505 seems to be popular. Gemfan props also seem to be popular, so I'm leaning that way. I'll be running either an f4 or f7 FC, so again, does it matter which brand? Or do they all do pretty much the same thing? I'm planning on buying a taranis qx7 as I've been running dsm2 on a fifteen year old dx6i. Also want to run at least a 30 amp all in one esc on at least dshot600. Again, just pick a quality brand? And for video I want at least 600 mw for range. But truthfully 300 would probably suffice. I know I'll want a high tvl camera, but not sure which to buy.
I was looking at picking up the Joshua Bardwell Xilo Phreakstyle bundle, but it's on backorder and a review on it said that replacement arms were very hard to find. I do want the ability to carry a GoPro as well. My budget is around a thousand dollars, including buying the tx, GoPro, and batteries. If there's enough left over I may also upgrade my entry level goggles.
So any advice and help for this noob would be appreciated. I've set up betaflight on a couple quads already and am pretty good with a soldering iron. I've also enjoyed building rc car and truck kits in the past. So I'm confident in my abilities to get it all together and flying right. The choice in components is what worries me.

 

[okw]

Let me preface this long post by saying that I'm about as far from an expert on the subject as you can get. While I've been flying RC planes and helicopters since the '90s, until recently, the only quad I had was a Mavic that pretty much flies itself. Then a couple weeks ago I bought a Tinyhawk micro and a few days later picked up some Attitude V5 goggles, with the plan to upgrade to a 5" quad before long. Well, "before long" ended up being about a week. I ordered the parts and built my 5" last weekend. So this will be strictly from a rookie point of view.

After reading a lot about different setups and watching Bardwell's video series a few times on the Bardwell/Xilo bundle that you mentioned, I was also leaning toward that one. But since it's on backorder, I too decided to just buy the parts individually. I picked up all of the parts from GetFPV and Amazon.

For the frame, I wanted something that looked like the arms could withstand the crashes that I expect to have plenty of. I've no plans to do any racing, so weight wasn't a concern. And I didn't see a need to spend a fortune on a frame. So I went with the TBS Source One. A bonus was the fact that it's open source and the drawings of all of the parts are available so if I need to, I can make replacement parts on my little home-built CNC router. I could also easily design any parts that I might want to 3D print for it; such as a mount for a Runcam 5 that I'll get eventually. Also, there are already tons of part designs available for it online for free. I downloaded a mount for the VTX antenna, one for the FPV camera, and some pads to protect the arms on my rough landings on pavement.

I've seen good reviews of the iFlight motors, so I went with the XING-E 2207 2750kV, which seems to be close to what was in the Bardwell/Xilo bundle. Though a little higher speed. The XING-E appears to be on the lower end of the iFlight offerings (costwise anyway), but I'm hoping that they hold up well enough for my flying. I got a bunch of GEMFAN Hurricane props, as well as a couple sets of Lumenier Gate Breakers. I've only flown the GEMFANs so far and I'm certain that I'm not experienced enough to tell the difference.

Watching Bardwell's videos, I liked the Xilo F4/ESC combo that's used in the bundle (when it's not backordered). It comes with a harness to connect the ESC to the flight controller and it has a dedicated SBUS port, so it's very easy to get a FrSky receiver with its inverted serial communications hooked up. It was by far the most expensive piece I ordered, but I couldn't find a decent flight controller and ESC for much less.

I ended up with a Foxeer Falkor 2 Micro camera feeding a Rush Tank VTX. The camera is switchable 4:3 / 16:9, has a 1.8mm lens, and 1200 TVL. I really liked the picture on the comparisons that I've seen and I've got no complaints flying it so far, with my vast 4 days of experience. And I figured the micro size could fit in anything else that I might want to move it to in the future. The Rush Tank has 25/200/500/800mW power levels, as well as Pit Mode. It has a MMCX connector for the antenna, which you want, because it's much more secure than the smaller IPEX connector. And of course, SmartAudio.

The build was very easy with it being very similar to the Bardwell videos and setup was a breeze, again watching more videos on Betaflight. I forgot to order any standoffs to mount the stack, so I had to wait a couple days extra for the first flight, which was rough. I can't say yet how close it flies to the simulator, but I think it flies great. With a 1500mAH 4S, I get just under 6 minutes in the air. I'm sure that will drop down some as I start flying a little harder.

In the end, I think just about any parts from common "name brands" will work very well for your first build. At least that's what I've seen in just about every other project I've worked on. I hope that this information from a newbie perspective is helpful, if you didn't fall asleep halfway through the 3rd paragraph.

Good luck with your build!
Keith