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Backstory

Hey there!

I found this forum after digging down for various sources,  registered to RCGroups and made my thread there, but I thought that it would be great to maybe stay here as well - as both communities are great and really gave me a heck a lot of experience. I suppose I am not the only one who is registered to both? ^^. As with the other forum, here I was able to find a huge block of info - so  I wanted to thank you all!

Here's a little bit of my backstory:

I got interested in drones, like I most people - when the hype started, and a couple of years back my brother gifted me a Syma X5C for Chrsitmas.... now:

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One of my friends is also building an Arduino based 250 (his first quad ever) and he's a huge inspiration/help as well. It's really nice to have somebody close-by to share the experience together. My Syma X5C was gifted by my brother (in 2014) and it always gave me joy, so I hope the RC hobby will turn out to be something for me.

My first drone - Syma X5CI recently replaced an engine and got some Turnigy 750mAh batteries for my Syma X5C. It's a good thing I noticed in the forums someone saying that you need to change the poles around. With the batteries coming out of my jean's pocket (in -15C weather) around 13-14 minutes of flying time with everything stripped! Superb!

With the X5C I have the sports/training covered for now, but since I am keen on doing everything, I will probably end up with an another copter later, with an APB or a KK FC to mess around with. For now though, I will be mostly focused on this.

Bunker
2016/01/24

My first project is named 'Bunker' and its goal is the most stable flight possible to capture pro quality video/photo. Since my Sony AS30V seems to be dead (focus is completely lost, I will try to fix it though). It will probably try to lift my Fuji X-E1 EVIL camera (with an 16-50mm lens), or if that seems a tad high in weight for my imaginary budget, I will just get a GoPro - so it will be much lighter.

After all of the consideration I decided that I want an S550, NAZA based Octa. I did not choose an off-the-shelf drone, because I enjoy figuring things out and building them. There are many local ads for ARF drones, I might use some of them for parts. I hope this thread will be helpful for other newbies as well. As I am complete beginner in RC - like I said, it's my 3rd day! So maybe my little contribution would be a nice example - and I will take all the advice I can get here :D

Here is a small brief on what is currently planned:

RC Career Step 0:
Turnigy 9X w/ FrSky

Step 1:

• Frame: S550 Hexacopter from HobbyKing
• NAZA /w PMU /w GPS
• SunnySky X2212 KV980 - I am a tad poor, so this is the best I can buy basically! Hopefully not from BG! 
• Emax Simonk Series 30A 
• Rotors 9 or 10 inch (calculating, info in link below)
• Powered by 3S or 4S (calculating, info in link below)

! PART LIST CHANGE: NEW LIST @ (CTRL +F ) 2016/01/24 Evening ) 

Step 2:

FPV + Recording equipment

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Item & Calculations sheet

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2016/01/24

Yesterday I found a local ad with some parts that I needed:

1) iMAX B6AC Dual Power Charger

Since I do not have any proper battery charger, apart from the genius SYMA X5C 'hey let's connect this .. USB KEY into a battery' type of thing I went for this.

I really liked the ergonomics of the device, and since I did not have any other batteries apart from my 1S ones, I took off the plugs off the ends. (TOP TIP: remove the rubber sleeve first... or its much more.. weldable :D, burned a battery..and my hands..and tbh just get a proper adapter - I wont be unplugging the terminals unless I REALLY NEED TO) and connected it using the crocodiles. Charges well and I am feeling much more secure!

Body unit with the Turnigy NANO-TECH 750mAh 3.7V connected

The glorious display of the iMAX B6 is awesome!

2) NAZA Lite

I've got an used NAZA Lite with the PMU/LED in the box, as well as the ultra cool M8N GPS.

I saw a good review here about the GPS location lock speed - 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpubCsouP8I

It seems like the chinese GPS blows the stock NAZA GPS out of the water. So I thought it was a good pick to buy it together as a bundle.


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2016/01/24 Evening

A little off track: experience with iMAX B6AC and Turnigy 750mAhs. Basically. I cooked one of them. Accidentally left the rubber bit on .. AGAIN.. and when I took off the micro pin to charge it, it welded itself so badly, I just ripped the cables out to prevent..an explosion in my face. So really, newbies.. and intelligent people, if you're tired, distracted, or not at 100% - don't mess around with batteries. After that I tried to solder the connectors back (this time wearing safety gear) and I couldn't do it, but I was man enough to say - this is dead - just deal with it.

Sadly now only a few pins w/ cables remain as a reminder. RIP battery.

Last night was - forget and push the buy now button night. In the end the part list that was ordered was this:

Hexacopter: 

• S550 Hexacopter  - bought from HobbyKing international (god help me). They were also too lazy to give me a 'proper' custom declaration value, because it seems I am not a 'gold' (IIRC) member. Even though I ordered 3 packages at the time, they said that its impossible, until the system makes me a member.. So I guess I should prepare to pay taxes.
  
  
• SunnySky X2212 KV980 - bought from GoodLuckBuy, here I also made a mistake of buying all of them together, instead of 1 by 1, because they refused to ship them indipendently. I hope I wont get taxes to death as well here. It seems BangGood are all fakes, so I am happy that I found info to buy from GLB only.
  
  
• NAZA M-Lite w/ M8N GPS and Naza PMU - bought this from a local hobbyist, he was very nice. Forgot to add one of the channel cables, so I will go to his work and pick it up today.
  
  
• Afro Slim 20A ESC - HobbyKing. in the end, I found these gems. A bit cheaper, much lighter. Also they say that they have 2x15A parts, and it's okay to have them on the edge. Since the engines will go max 18A.. I should be okay, did not want to get the 30A for the weight.
  
  
• GWS Style Slowfly 9x4.7 Green -  HobbyKing.  (bought 4 of each, if I understand - this was a mistake because they're gonna snap like a bitch? Need to stockpile them? :D) - I don't understand anything about propellers apart from their diameter and pitch. So I chose to go with these for now. 
  
  Should I get carbon fiber ones? What about the wood ones? Those look cool ^_^...
  Also need to learn about balancing. Really badly.
  
  
• Turnigy 20C 5000mAh 3S -  HobbyKing.  it was this vs MultiStar vs ZIPPY FlightMax, so I decided to go with Turnigy - because thats what I use now, I am happy with it. 
  
  
  

Accessories:

• Afro USB tool
• iMAX B6AC Dual Power

Waiting for auctions, to get the last parts for now.

Updated the list with all of the prices: Item & Calculations sheet

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2016/01/25

* Auctions 

* Picking up NAZA cable from the forgetful dealer.

* Getting a 9V for my multimeter and checking if my power adapter is okay.
* Connecting Naza to constant power.

I suppose a 12V/1A power adapter is okay to connect to NAZA? Because I am waiting for my batteries.