First FPV Drone Build? Don't Make These Mistakes

👉 Learn to fly like a pro and never make an expensive mistake again

It's real easy to do. What is you may ask? MAKING MISTAKES! Trust me.

WATCH NEXT 👀

🏎️ MY FPV RACING DRONE SETUP

🌟 WORTHY ADDITIONS

🥽 MY ANALOG GOGGLES SETUP

🎮 MY CONTROLLER SETUP

🧰 TOOLS I USE

🚁 DRONES

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:26 #1 Research Fail
01:25 #2 Lack Of Understanding
03:52 #3 Missed SmartAudio
04:25 #4 Double, Triple Check
05:15 #5 Sucky Soldering
06:10 #6 A Magic Goo (Flux)
06:52 #7 Wire Stripping
07:18 #8 Ribbon Cable Install
07:50 #9 Neglecting Shrink Wrap
08:16 #10 I'm Sorry

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[sakfpv]

My first drone build was a brushed little carbon frame, with those king Kong 55mm props. About 6 years ago. Shortly after I got a brushless carbon frame, happymodel crazy bee board, 1103 8000kv, and 65mm props. I still have that drone, hanging on my wall, fully built and ready to go. I just can't bring myself to fly it. I almost want to get one of those butterfly display cases and keep it forever. FPV has changed my life, in all seriousness. I now have about a dozen custom builds, about 4 bind and fly, and I'm shooting my first cinewhoop real estate video tomorrow. On a 4, 000sq foot beautiful Florida home. Amazing landscape, very nice interesting interior. Can't wait to get going on this next journey

[ntRC]

Check all connections with a multimeter before plugging in. Short stopper will prevent your drone from catching fire but multimeter will find the short before you blow it up. 😊

[Alluvian]

Regarding wire strip length I find for small pads it is easier to strip the wire longer when tinning it, and then once tinned, snipping the tinned end to the correct length. Just make sure the remaining part of the wire is nicely tinned. This may be because I suck, but I find tinning a 2 mm length of exposed wire pretty difficult without burning up the insulation.

[AerialWaviator]

Not "Mistakes", just Learning Experiences. Only mistake would be not learning and repeating things over that cause you troube and pain. Great job getting your first DIY FPV drone flying!! 

Tip: connect your Rx to a power pad that has power when you plug in USB (without battery connected). This will help you check and trouble shoot many issues via BetaFlight including the setup/configuration on your radio transmitter.

[miguelquiroz]

Yes made. When building drones, we tend to do a lot of mistakes by every drone you make. Learning curve, then we become masters. Just for the love of this hobby.

[sunsetpark_fpv]

As far as the 69 unit goes, personally I prefer the RX and VTX separate because if I break one or the other I only replace the one.
Oh no! You fried your VTX! That's exactly why I prefer them separate!

Soldering is a HUGE part of this hobby. Glad that you invested time into learning. It is EXTREMELY satisfying to me personally. Invest in a good iron. I have the Hakko FX888D and I love it. My first one was generic from Amazon and it just didn't stay hot enough and it was so frustrating trying to solder anything.

So glad that you got everything working. You learned a lot, and it cost you some money, but you can now build and fix quads - definitely worth it!

One little tip: instead of shrink wrapping anything, buy a roll of kapton tape. Shrink wrap is neat but when you have to remove it (by cutting it) it can be a PITA.

[multi-media]

I love all the new NZ fpv channels popping up! Really cool vid bro.

[oddeman]

Great video, much of the tinkering is some of reason i love FPV and building drones, the feeling when it works is fantastic, , , , 😊

[ff.photography]

really great. makes me want to try it. i have zero zero zero background in building anything, even legos.

[flyinbots]

Arguably number 10 was not using a smoke stopper to test it after rewiring the drone.

[Maxim]

Thanks for sharing!
Hope the eye is good now.

[ChainsawFPV]

Ain't FPV great!!! Def agree about the startup song. I used the Simpsons. It lasted less then a week. Lol

[launchfpv]

Awesome video! There sure is a lot to learn about drone building (and especially FPV racing drone building) but you have done a very good job for your first time. I have also had my fair share of issues with my race drones, which are almost identical to yours, but once you have 2, 3 or even 4 of these drones (like I do) It gets very hard to keep them all working, Hopefully you will continue flying FPV and I cant wait to see where you will go with this in the near future!

[anthonyrichard]

you can use plane esc soldered directly to flight controler for planes ....

[clifffield]

Just a note here too, those stack nuts (the top ones) are probably not on far enough - it looks to me like the nylon on the nuts might only just be coming into play and they'll likely loosen off with vibration. You might be able to get away with it if you check them after every flight - but worth noting. Get longer stack screws if you think you need them.

[clifffield]

Loving following you on your journey Brodie. Quit screwing up aye? :) Thanks once again.

[GRANOLAFPV]

I actually prefer running separate VTX and RX since when one fails you can replace it individually. The most common failure I’ve experienced is u.fl connectors ripping off. But most VTXs eventually fail as well. It’s definitely a tradeoff between cost, convenience, and replaceability tho.

[tk-maker]

Lol, all my drone have start up song😁.. could be another mistake to power up a new drone without a smoke stopper and if you apply conformal coating on electronic, remember no to seal your VTX's microphone and barometer. I use 400c-450c for soldering with flux on power cable and ESC pad.

[vacatedbroom]

Building fpv copters is a very steep learning curve, mistakes will be made

[Alluvian]

Startup tunes are okay if they are SHORT. Mine is currently the zelda box open sound, and even that is a little bit long for me...