r/diydrones

​I’m going to Norway for 3 weeks this summer and I want to build a 5" quad that can handle cinematic mountain surfing with a GoPro, but also rip freestyle when I'm back home. My total budget for the quad, extra batteries, and any necessary range upgrades is €500.

​My current gear:

​Goggles: Fat Shark Eco (Analog)

​Radio: RadioMaster Pocket (ELRS 2.4GHz)

​My plan/questions:

​The Build: I'm looking at a 6S build. Thinking about a Source One V5 or TBS Source One frame for budget durability. What motors/stack would you recommend for that 6S "power-meets-efficiency" feel?

​Video Range: I’m sticking with the Fat Shark Eco for now(if possible). What are the absolute best patch/long-range antennas I can put on these to avoid losing video behind a ridge?

​Batteries: I want to get 6S Li-Ions for the long cruises in Norway and 6S LiPos for freestyle. Any specific brands that offer a good balance of weight/performance?

​Control Link: Is the 250mW internal ELRS on my Pocket enough for 2-3km mountain surfing with LOS, or should I spend part of my budget on a 1W external Nano module?

After the last post I checked everything regarding the motors and propellers and all . I tried after charging to the battery till around 4.18v . But there is still no lift only that wired rotating in 1 direction . Can you guys help me . I have shared a link with the video and images .

Hey everyone, ​I’m currently working on a project of mine for my masters, involving a 450mm Quad-X UAV (Pixhawk 2.4.8, A2212 1000KV motors, 30A ESCs).

​I’m trying to keep the weight down and since I am a student the costs must be kept even lower. I was looking into buying a Power Distribution Board (PDB), but due to budget constraints i had to give up on that idea, and since i had no ine to guide me i had to use the help of AI Gemini (Thinking and Pro mode since they are better for Complex problems), and it suggested that I could skip the PDB entirely and use a "Star Joint" (or Star Solder) method instead.

​For those who haven't heard it called that, the method described is:

​Stripping the power and ground leads from all four ESCs and the main battery connector, twisting all the positives into one central "node" and all the negatives into another, and soldering them into two solid joints. These are then heavily insulated with heat shrink or liquid electrical tape, effectively creating a manual power loom without a PCB.

​My questions for the experts here:

1.​Is this actually reliable for a 450-size drone drawing ~40-50A at hover/punch-out?

2. ​Aside from it being a bit "permanent" and harder to swap ESCs later, are there any major safety or interference risks I'm missing by not using a filtered PDB?

3.​Has anyone here flown a "star-soldered" rig long-term?

​I genuinely need your guys' help and i had to do what i had to do due to lack of resources, budget contraints and for those who dont know the hardware is insanely expensive here in my country. All I need is a working UAV at least. Just wanted to see if this is a standard "pro-tip" or a "you're going to crash" move.

​Thanks in advance!

My Aio is 25.5 x 25.5 mounting but My Vtx the 20-600, i think is 20x20 mounting, are there any adapters to get to make it fit in This frame

Hi-With regard to Drone Receivers being used at 915MHz, I am aware that when flying, de-sensing of the receiver can become a regular occurrence especially when Drone devices are flying close to 5G/LTE Cell Towers. Usually,most receivers have a very wide rf front-end and it is relatively easy for unwanted 5G/LTE signals to overdrive the receiver LNA into compression such that gain drops,unwanted intermods and harmonics are generated and the receiver sensitivity at 915MHz can reduce dramatically. This means that important data does not get received by the Drone,meaning you have lost control of the Drone.

I have developed a 915MHz saw filter pcba,size 10mm by 12mm and 1.2mm high and the board includes the rf connectors (u.fl).This filter board works perfect up to an receiver input level of +10dbm with a zero-drift reliability.The performance of the rf bandpass filter with regard to In-Band Insertion Loss and Out-of-Band Rejection is exceptional.This filter will safely attenuate the 5G/LTE bands just below and above 915MHz such that the LNA never becomes overloaded so the important control data always gets received correctly.This filter provides excellent rejection from 100MHz through to 6.1GHz such that all unwanted blocking signals at the input of the Receiver Antenna terminal are greatly attenuated.

If anyone is interested, I can provide photos of the pcba and VNA plots of the filter performance close in at 915MHz and also wider band over the range (100MHz-6.1GHz). I can also provide S2P files across the two bands mentioned such that you can look at the performance of the filter in RF Design Software such as ADS,Microwave Office or free software such as RFSIM99 or ATYUNE.

The main target of this rf bandpass filter was to provide a solution to Drone Unwanted Receiver Blocking problems as a re-fit to the Receiver channel.The pcba weighs less than 1 gram (it was too light for my electronics scale to measure a value,just showed 0.00 grams!!!) and can easily fit inside most sort of enclosures.I would be interested to hear feedback regarding everyone's point of view on whether lost control of a Drone due to LTE/5G blocking is a real problem and if yes do you think my hardware solution might help?

I'm building a small RC plane, but the parts (motor, battery, ESC) I'm looking to buy seem to have incompatible connectors or straight wires coming out of them, how am I meant to connect these together?

https://www.amazon.com/1480KV-1800KV-Brushless-Fixed-Wing-Quadcopter/dp/B0D6YHQLXG/

https://www.amazon.com/Brushless-Electric-Controller-Quadcopter-Multi-axis/dp/B0DDKK1C8H/

(I don't have a battery picked out yet, what should I look for? Ideally I'd be going for a 2S 900mAh)

I'm just getting into drone builds and came across this visit from a year ago on youtube. I'm wondering how this worked with the weight, the down draft being partially blocked by the box itself, and just curious in general if anyone has any insight on this interesting build. It seemed to fly pretty seamlessly, and I didn't pickup any Ai qualities from the video, so I do believe this is real.

So thats my question. Can someone (myself) implement throw mode for traditional helicopters?

I'm making a research at my uni for payload recovery using single rotor uavs, and I stumbled with the throw mode. Do someone here know why is it limited to multicopters? It seems like it would be a great mode for helis and planes.

I'm most interested in the feature of activating active stabilkzation and mission guidance during fall at a certain height range (dropping a Heli from 500m from a drone).

If it is not possible, what could be the most efective way to achive something like that? -> drone drops Heli or plane at 500m -> aircraft free falls -> aircraft arms at 200m and lands autonomously

The free falling is for data capturing, safety reasons and energy managment.

Thanks for reading this, any help and comment is welcome!!

So I want to make my first fpv drone ..

Confused between 3.5 inch and 5 inch..

I want to make 5 inch because it's more versatile and can be used for filming videos and racing, but I'm scared I might crash it and will have to spend lots of money on repairs..

I have made and worked with 10 inches and know drone building and stuff.

Hi all,

To preface: I have a decent bit of experience working with robotics, software engineering, etc. but have never built a drone from scratch.

I’ve always loved bicopters. I really want to build one of my own as the market offerings aren’t exactly plentiful, but there’s not really a lot in the way of references. For now I’m kind of just planning out what components to use and would like your input on whether electronically and weight-wise this would work.

I plan to use two of [these](https://a.aliexpress.com/\_c3uJveZ3) ESCs that claim to be 2-3S, and control two of [these](https://a.aliexpress.com/\_c3pjN5Q1) brushless motors. The propeller housings will be actuated with MG90 servos, one on each end. I’ll be powering this with 2 18650 batteries I got lying around from Amazon, and a step down converter to power an ESP32-S3 that would be the brains to the whole thing.

Electronics-wise, does this work out? Am I overlooking something critical that might make this whole project fail before it takes off? Any input would be much appreciated (with the caveat that I really really would prefer to work with a MCU like the ESP as I’m quite familiar with them). Thanks in advance!

Hello all,

I recently got back into the hobby after an 8 year break. I bought a RotorRiot Vision 40 2s and a Cinemini 4s along with an Avata 2 with the goggles and controller 3. I find both of my RotorRiot drones to be super twitchy and borderline unflyable. I admit I never really had a grip on pids and am pretty uncomfortable with making any changes to the config on my own. I thought it might just be my skill level has slipped but firing up one of my older drones (Immersion Vortex 285) I am super comfortable and in control.

Could anyone suggest any changes I could make, primarily to the throttle channel that would help me get them under control?