I am new to this awesome hobby. My first and only copter so far has been a WL Toys v959 222. I had no idea what a quadcopter was or that moving my photography skills to the air was an option. I love it.
Now, I have bought, and am trying to assemble, a Hobby King SX 650 glass fiber hexcopter frame. Once I get the frame built, what is the best set up of electronics? I mean from motors, ESCs, controller board, etc. to use on this frame?
I would like to eventually put a gimbal and camera set up on this, but for now I am stuck at what components work well together and would make this hex a sweet first build.
I would also like to include GPS and FPV, if possible.
Thank you for any and all help.
Replies
Hi Louis,
the V959 looks like it was probably a good place to start.
Although I personally prefer quadcopters, the SX650 looks like a solid frame and should certainly be able to carry a Bruushless gimnbal and GoPro when you are ready.
It says it will take 12" props and bigger props are more efficient than smaller ones so you should get motors that can turn a 12" prop efficiently.
In the interests of maximum efficiency it is probably also worthwhile to get motors that will provide the proper thrust at 50% power (using a 3 cell battery - 4 at the most) to be able to lift your quadcopter into a hover.
Rather than recommend Sunnysky or TMotor or KDE I am simply going to say look around here on DIYDrones (and on my Quadcopters Are Fun Website:
http://quadcoptersarefun.com/index.html
and especially at the build a quadcopter page:
http://quadcoptersarefun.com/BuildAQuadcopter.html
and the quadcopter design page:
http://quadcoptersarefun.com/QuadcopterDesign.html
most of the information is applicable to hexs and octos as well.
You can go from cheap to expensive and reliability is the tradeoff.
DJI 920KV motors are pretty good for $25.00 and will turn a 12" prop.
I'm using those and $80.00 KDEs.
20 or 30 amp ESCs are fine and Turnigy or the DJI Opto ESCs are solid and reasonably inexpensive.
As for electronics, If all you want to do is fly it around manually, the $35.00 KK V2 controller from Hobbyking will let you do that.
If you want to do automated or semi-automated stuff, get a Pixhawk, it has a steep learning curve, but will do way more than anything else out there that is not being purchased by governments only.
Probably a good idea to start with a simple controller like the KK and graduate to a Pixhawk when you are a competent pilot.
Hope this helps, please look over my Quadcopters Are Fun and Multicopters Are Fun sites and you can communicate with me at gary@dronesarefun.com if you want more assistance.
Best Regards,
Gary