Good entry level racing drone

[DrunkBat]

Im fairly new to drone flying, been doing it for about 6 months now. I have a tiny whoop and a jjrc h8d. Im looking for an entry level racing drone. Im trying to decide between the eachine blade 185 or the walkera rodeo 150. Both look pretty fun and rasy to fly. Does anyone have any imput on these? Or possibly a better option is the same price range? Banggood is sellong them for s pretty good price right now. It would be fun to build, but im looking at the rtf options mainly because i dont hsve a good transmitter. Any advise would be great!

 

[Jtrjr]

Bat,

I'm a total novice at this racing stuff. I've been flying Phantom 2's, 3's, Solo's, Tiny Whoop and some other toy drones for a couple of years now. I decided to try this racing stuff as well but wasn't prepared to go the "build" route yet. I wanted to see if I liked it and whether an old guy like me could even fly one of these things.

I ended up going with an Arris X-Speed 250B, like this one:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B015ST5UPM/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

You can find better prices on eBay. I've had it a couple of weeks and I'm satisfied that it will be a good "starter" for me. It was completely RTF out of the box. It's a totally new style of flying and it'll take me a while to learn how to fly this way. I've spent a great deal of time learning about the various components that go into these racers and have done a lot of work now with the firmware and Cleanflight. That's been an experience in itself.

I also have a JJPro P200 on the way as my second 'starter" bird. When I'm extremely comfortable with these two I'll start looking at building one on my own.

I wouldn't have normally answer a post like this as I have no real experience with these things but participation on this site seems a bit light so far and I thought I could at least give you insight into the road I've gone down. Hopefully, you'll get some more "experienced" folks to chime in with their thoughts. Good luck!

Jerry

 

[DrunkBat]

Hi Jerry. thanks for your insite. i will deffinatly look into both of those drones.

 

[TraumaChaser]

Don't buy eachine or walkera. They are junk. In my opinion you would be better off saving a bit longer and buying something with some quality and that will last and hold up in a crash. You spend that money on that crap and it's gone. No parts on those are worth putting in another quad down the road. If you wait until Black Friday you will be able to find some good deals and get a tx you can use on multiple quads and keep for years. I know it sucks to hear but I guess it just depends on how much of a rush you are in. Just keep in mind if you get one of those it might be instant gratification but you will end up starting from scratch when you want something better or worse if you crash it and are back to having nothing to fly.

 

[DrunkBat]

Can ypu give examples of some quality quads and equipment?

 

[Humboldt707]

Can ypu give examples of some quality quads and equipment?

I just got a Unicorn 220 and for the 300$ it's so far great, you have to learn and practice and these reasonable RTF machines are fine. Not all who wants to do FPV can build, gotta crawl before you can walk.

 

[TraumaChaser]

I can't really give you any advice on the cheaper quads. I haven't flown any of them just read a lot of negative things about the two you mentioned. As stated above I don't think you want to build one since there is some pretty advanced soldering and needed knowledge on how they work. Not to mention the software aspect of tuning one. I don't want to discourage you saying to save more money and get something like a vortex or vendetta (500$) a taranis x9d plus (200$) and one of the many Fpv headsets which go from 100-900$. I got the fat shark HD v2 just because I didn't want a 16:9 image and I knew I wouldn't have to buy another one because due to missing options. There are quit a few out there from goggles to headsets with screens. They all get the job done. I would start looking for cheaper options and do a lot of research on YouTube about the stuff before you buy. Don't watch just one review and buy something because someone said it was good. There are a lot of people out there who have no idea what they are doing or how hard it might be to replace broken parts. Plus some companies send stuff out for free and people feel obligated to give good reviews. Before I bought my first done I spent about a week weighing my options and watching reviews from trusted sources and reading through some of the forums about them to see what kind of issues people of had with them. Sorry I couldn't tell you buy this, this, and this but there is a lot out there and everyone has there own budget to stick to. In the end do what's right for you at the time. All I can tell you is get a sim if you haven't flown a RACE DRONE before. They are a totally different ballgame than a phantom or other types of drones. I used Fpv free rider even though I had plenty of experience with 3D helis and phantoms just because I wasn't use to the Fpv aspect of it. Immersion RC also has a sim called liftoff. You can get Fpv free rider for $4.99 so it's a solid deal. It's also very accurately gives the feel of flying a race drone. All you need is a tx to hook up to your computer. Hope you find something that fits your situation. Good luck.

 

[Bartie_1]

Nice thread,

This is a really good question and one that needs to be answered in - if it's this go to A if it's the other go to B (if you know what I mean)
There is a massive difference between floating around the sky with a GPS, auto level DJI and getting pretty pictures and racing.
I am that guy that has been getting great video for a few years now with the above BUT I also spend countless hours watching the blood pumping drone racing on the tube, I am also not frightened to say that I am a total noobe to racing - but I'm also that guy on COD that gets 4 kills in a game whilst others are getting 50, so you sort of get the picture.

If you come out to my garage I can show you 6 flags four gates and I even paid a sign writer I know a fist full of cash to make me up some slick arrows for the course which I have also pre-designed.
Stay with me I am getting to the point about now - obviously I was missing the drone mmmm my first racing drone what will it be so another 30 hours or more of research I end up with a great deal on a Walkera F210, nice... I wait the obligatory 5 weeks for my new child to arrive.

I remember I took a day off work and was at the sports field early - up up up she went and away she went, maybe 250 feet, for some reason I had no control over the craft and waved good bye as it became a spec on the horizon. 3 hours later I recovered the drone in one piece (sort of) at least 2 k's away. I have stripped it down as far as I can go and its been sitting in my study for 6 weeks but I think my next move is to shove it in a box and ship it off to be fixed - yes I can hear what your thinking $$$$$.
Surely there must be others like me out there that have similar stories and a good reason to add to this thread.

I have now taken a huge step backwards, baby steps people, baby steps - I have ordered:

Hubsan H502S with FPV camera.
This has GPS, altitude hold, return home and selectable frequencies from 5750MHz - 5840MHz to connect to the goggles.
Also a DFD F180.

As you can see, they are toys but my aim is to master them and move up from here - get good at line of sight and then crack open my FPV's and no I'm not going to tell you what they are but they were twice the price of the F210.

I would also like to buy a kit and build one and learn what makes them tick so that when I crash and I know I will - I can fixed it myself.

The moral to the story is rather than diving in the deep end, get some floaties and start at the shallow end it will be way less expensive and I'm sure much more fun.

Finally I think what is really lacking are experienced go to people who are already into drone racing, so joining a club and mixing with other addicts is my plan.

Thanks for reading this far.

 

[Jtrjr]

You guys are dead on! As I previously stated I have been flying toy quads and "assisted" ones for several years. This is a very different experience. I can't tell you the number of hours I have already invested in trying to educate myself on this new endeavor. As you can see from my first post on this forum, you can be out of this game as fast as you get into it if you're not careful. Fortunately, I got lucky!

Jerry

 

[Bartie_1]

Hey Jerry,
Almost a carbon copy of mine but you came down in the corn - what a massive field to fly in - I enjoyed the vid. You hit the nail on the head with orientation it can easily bring you unstuck and of course if its oriented the wrong way, your flying away from yourself and LOS is lost so is the bird, thats why I love
RTH on my DJI. keep at it mate.

 

[Humboldt707]

I use the Marco-polo R/c locater system on my quads, they have a 2 mile range and several week battery life when activated. They will pay for themselves the first time, no GPS or cell service is needed or monthly fees.

 

[Jtrjr]

Humboldt,

I use the Marco Polo system on my drones as well. Just didn't have a transmitter for this one yet. I love the Marco Polo system, I tested it once and had to use it once, they work very well.

Jerry

 

[daytona125]

Im fairly new to drone flying, been doing it for about 6 months now. I have a tiny whoop and a jjrc h8d. Im looking for an entry level racing drone. Im trying to decide between the eachine blade 185 or the walkera rodeo 150. Both look pretty fun and rasy to fly. Does anyone have any imput on these? Or possibly a better option is the same price range? Banggood is sellong them for s pretty good price right now. It would be fun to build, but i'm looking at the rtf options mainly because i dont hsve a good transmitter. Any advise would be great!

DrunkBat I would build one if I were you. What will happen is you will receive this "racing" drone in the mail and you will throw a battery in it and you will go to the nearest park and CRASH it. You will then go home with a sad face and then you will try to hunt down parts, but unfortunately you will probably not be able to find the right parts for it and you will have to buy new "sets" of parts, ie. broken part x 4. Once you get all these "sets" of new parts you will have to attach them and you will be overwhelmed because you won't be sure how to do it. One thing is certain. YOU WILL CRASH and it will break so you have to learn how to fix it and if you built it you can fix it. I promise you that a racing drone is WAY different than flying a tiny whoop, they are heavy and as soon as you "touch" something with it it will break, (especially with a cheap chinese prebuilt "racing" drone) with your tiny whoop you just put the belly down and fly it again,they are indestructible. I'm far from a good pilot and I do crash and almost every crash I've been in I've had to repair, replace something. Also. I have almost as much fun building them as flying them and I've learned so much doing it. Build it.... You'll have FUN doing it!!!!

 

[daytona125]

DrunkBat I would build one if I were you. What will happen is you will receive this "racing" drone in the mail and you will throw a battery in it and you will go to the nearest park and CRASH it. You will then go home with a sad face and then you will try to hunt down parts, but unfortunately you will probably not be able to find the right parts for it and you will have to buy new "sets" of parts, ie. broken part x 4. Once you get all these "sets" of new parts you will have to attach them and you will be overwhelmed because you won't be sure how to do it. One thing is certain. YOU WILL CRASH and it will break so you have to learn how to fix it and if you built it you can fix it. I promise you that a racing drone is WAY different than flying a tiny whoop, they are heavy and as soon as you "touch" something with it it will break, (especially with a cheap chinese prebuilt "racing" drone) with your tiny whoop you just put the belly down and fly it again,they are indestructible. I'm far from a good pilot and I do crash and almost every crash I've been in I've had to repair, replace something. Also. I have almost as much fun building them as flying them and I've learned so much doing it. Build it.... You'll have FUN doing it!!!!

Forgot to add. LEARN HOW TO SOLDER!!!

 

[Jtrjr]

Forgot to add. LEARN HOW TO SOLDER!!!

You got that right. I did my first SPRacing F3 flight control board yesterday. First time soldering and I had to do the header pins! It was not fun, thought I probably ruined the board as I got solder between a few of the pins. I thought I put too much heat to the board to get it fixed but the board is working. I just flashed it with Cleanflight last night and ran 5 batteries through it this morning. There is much to learn about with this new hobby!

Jerry

 

[theGreenOrange]

Check out droneproz.com, they have really high end stuff for a decent price. Also, the Storm Racing Drones at helipal.com are high quality, and they even have some really cheap ones (SRD type B Bind N Fly for $200 if I remember correctly).

I built my first racing drone and if you have decent soldering skills I would recommend building. You won't really save any money, but you will KNOW your drone inside and out. If you use betaflight, very little tuning is needed. I haven't even touched the default PIDs and mine is flying great. Also, you don't have to spend a ton on goggles, I got an eachine 5" 800x480 with 80 degree FOV for $90 and am very pleased.

 

[TraumaChaser]

Storm racing? Eachine ? You. Must have low standards. Or just getting into the hobby. High quality is definitely not a word I hear them decribed....well....ever.

 

[theGreenOrange]

Storm racing? Eachine ? You. Must have low standards. Or just getting into the hobby. High quality is definitely not a word I hear them decribed....well....ever.

Look at the parts they use on their high end drones like the Loki, and then come back and apologize

 

[theGreenOrange]

Storm racing? Eachine ? You. Must have low standards. Or just getting into the hobby. High quality is definitely not a word I hear them decribed....well....ever.

And as far as eachine I only mentioned their goggles, not their drones. The goggles are quite good for the price.

 

[TraumaChaser]

In my 6 years of flying helis and drones I've come to the conclusion nothing good comes from helipal. One of the worst rated websites in the hobby. Bad story after bad story after horrible experience after worked for a day and died tales.