"Tinkering is good, but not with frames. The frames are more critical than they appear. They must be extremely light weight yet also very strong and rigid. You daughter can use her CAD and 3D printing skills to make fixtures for housing the avionics…"

"Hi Kayaken. Printing your frame is often a bad start, unless you have an SLS printer. Start with an inexpensive carbon or glass filled nylon frame such as an F450. There are some good kits available that include everything you might need. "

"You could test your theory by temporarily shutting off GPS during flight. With the EKF in Arduplane, it is unlikely you will notice much change in course if flying straight, so long as your compass is working reasonably well. Same is true with degra…"

"Hi Patrick,
We have experienced (too many) GPS glitches and compass failures, and none have caused straight and level fly away. Only times we have experienced straight and level fly away was with RC failure. Depending on the type of RC transceiver o…"

"There are several vendors of quality lithium ion battery packs with integral battery management systems (BMS). A good vendor is https://uavfpvbattery.com/. I prefer custom battery packs from http://www.novoxypower.com/. You can specify the batteries…"

"A voltage drop when drawing current results from internal (battery) resistance (V = iR). The internal resistance of a battery is based on chemistry, design, and temperature. The "C" rating of a battery may be helpful to gauge your purchase from a kn…"

"The Pixracer uses an ESP-01 WiFi adapter with embedded 2.4GHz antena. It was not intended for long range communication, but it often yields ~100m range to a laptop with internal WiFi, ~150m range to an WiFi adapter with expternal antenna, ~250m rang…"

"If you are using open source collaborative tools such as OpenVSP, Fusion 360, PX4, etc. I would be willing to assist as an advisor."

"As a beginner, select a power module that is rated for your max voltage and current with power and signal cables matching your battery, aircraft, and flight controller. Should your needs become more demanding, you might want a power module with more…"

"I suggest you use ecalc (https://www.ecalc.ch/) to evaluate battery options. For small quadcopters you are going to need a battery that delivers high current with minimal voltage drop. Lithium polymer batteries provide the best option for small quad…"

"There are many ESCs to choose from, and nearly all will be fine for a first time builder. Select an ESC of appropriate voltage and amperage that operates on BlHeli Firmware and has an easy to use USB linker so you can install current firmware and ad…"

"In general, 3d printing a drone body is a poor idea unsless you are not poor. You can get good results from SLS 3d printing nylon with glass or carbon fiber fill, or from high end FDM printers with special materials. Otherwise you are better off pur…"

"Indeed the Tarot FY690S is an excellent frame (https://www.banggood.com/Tarot-FY690S-Full-6-Axis-Folding-Rack-Carb...) It sets up nicely at 4S or 6S. You can purchase 3508 motors and ESCs from Kashmir World Foundation that are optimized for a light…"

"Hi Al,

You can purchase an F550 hexacopter kit through Kashmir World Foundation. This is a good quality kit that comes with rather detailed instructions. It is intended as a research aircraft for deep learning applied to camera and other data sets.…"