While youtubing the TBS discovery and ad came up for the Turbo Ace matrix quad. It looks very rugged and quite a bit larger than the phantom. Is price the main differentiator? Its boasting a 25 min flight time with a gopro 3. impressive.

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It is amazing how cheap you can get into this hobby for. Parted out this new build (I already had a charger and LiPo's) will be under $200 for a full fledged GPS enabled 6 mode quadcopter.

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That's what I thought too when I made my first order of ~$300 in parts to build my first quad, but there's always going to be something else out there that you're going to want. I've dabbled for ~2 years and I'm easily in a few grand.

Your $200 number seems low. I could see your motors, ESCs, and flight controller coming in around $200, but that's far from 'full fledged'. If that's an accurate number i'd really like to know where you're buying parts, because that is cheap.

As mentioned, I already have the charger and lipos batteries. That is a big chunk of a build. $200 was a typo. Should of been under $300 (everything except batteries and charger)

Hobbyking in your friend when it comes to saving cash. Now that they have US warehouses in Washington and Arkansas, shipping isn't a killer either.

HKPilot Mega 2.7 - $67 (HK) OR (plenty of non GPS flight controllers cheaper like KK 2.1 [$30] or CC3D [$20]
Afro ESC - $14 x 4 (HK) or the Qbrain 4-in-1 $30 (HK)
Power Distro - $4 (HK)
GPS/Magno - $33 (HK)
SunnySky Motors - $16 x 4 (ebay)
Frame - $16 (amazon)
Props - $10-20 (all over ebay)

Add in a good but affordable Tx will take you close or just over $300 Turnigy 9X - ($70)

This does not include anything with telemetry, FPV or OSD.

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As mentioned, I already have the charger and lipos batteries. That is a big chunk of a build. $200 was a typo. Should of been under $300 (everything except batteries and charger)

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Ok, $300 sounds more like it.

Turnigy 9x is an awesome radio, especially if you throw some custom firmware on there. I can't imagine myself ever needing much else.

I've spent more money with hobbyking than I care to think about. I've heard a lot of customer service horror stories, but I have yet to have any problems with them. And it is really nice having the 2 US warehouses now, waiting on everything to get here on the slow boat from Hong Kong was brutal.

Curious to hear some impressions on the HKPilot Mega. I've had my eye on it for a while. I've just been keeping it simple with my trusty KK2.0 boards.

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Got my hubsan x4 for Christmas. Flew it last night for the first time around 11pm (after we opened gifts). All set and excited to fly it today when I can actually see it and record video.

Take off and hover for about 30 seconds, then ascend to a really high altitude, when all of a sudden a cold front blows through and pushes my quad far away. Instead of being smart and lowering it immediately, I tried to bring it back. Unfortunately it was too far gone. It went into the heavy brush and couldn't be found. After about an hour of searching, we gave up.

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Plot Twist!

When we were searching for my hubsan, it was on my mother-in-law's neighbor's land (with all the heavy brush). When we couldn't find it, I told the neighbor and he said he would keep an eye out for me. Flash-forward to today - my wife got a phone call from her mother and apparently the neighbor said his dog found it but thought it was a toy and it was in pretty bad shape. He told them he was going to look for parts to fix it back up.

I had received a complete crash kit for Christmas, which I thought was a waste since I had lost my hubsan. So thinking I could just piece it all back together with the crash kit, I called her and asked if they could just retrieve the chewed up copter for me. When they went to talk to the neighbor, he gave them a brand new hubsan he had ordered to replace it.

At the exact same time I received this information, I got an email confirmation stating that my new hubsan, which I ordered to replace my lost copter, had shipped from Amazon...

That was really nice of the neighbor to buy a new replacement. He didn't really have any obligation to imo.

No joke. Where does he live? I may need to crash land in that general direction.

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Curious to hear some impressions on the HKPilot Mega. I've had my eye on it for a while. I've just been keeping it simple with my trusty KK2.0 boards.

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I am too. Read good things about the mega. My Cheerson CX20 had an APM flight contoller and my IRIS+ has the Pixhawk. So at least I will be familiar with it all and using Mission Planner to get it set up.

I just ordered a cheap QAV250 chinese knockoff kit (frame, esc, motors, flight controller, power board) from ebay. That should be fun to build...and crash!

The 250 size quads are a lot of fun, you can be a lot more reckless with less worry about breaking stuff. I have the cheap hobbyking 900mhz fpv kit i've been working on getting hooked up on it, fpv is a little intimidating though..

I'd like to eventually upgrade to a better 5.8ghz system and maybe some fatshark goggles, but that's a nice chunk of change. Figure I better get familiar with my cheapo fpv kit first before i do anything crazy.

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That was really nice of the neighbor to buy a new replacement. He didn't really have any obligation to imo.

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No kidding. The only thing I can think of was that the neighbor felt bad for his dog chewing it up. However, it was my fault for not being able to control it and keep it off of their land in the first place.

Quads are addicting. All the peices arrived over the last couple days for this build. Parts list is above post. Now to tinker and get it flying.

QAV250 kit will arrive in a couple weeks. Can't decide between CC3D or KK 2.1.7 for flight controller on the 250 build.

I bought a brushless gimbal a little while back, but I don't really have a good rig to put it on. I'm kinda liking the TBS Discovery clone frame... Guess it's time to spend more money..

It is what it is. A knockoff. A little extra care and attention needs to be take to make sure you don't strip screw heads since they are pretty soft. Also the pre-drilled holes aren't all the exact same size. Nothing a little cordless drill and some bit s can't handle when you are piecing it together.

I'm not 100% happy with the layout of the electronics here. I wanted the main components (power board, FC and receiver) all in the mid part of the quad. Just couldn't make it work with the HKPilot. It is too large and can't stack in there. So for now, it lives on the top plate.

The GPS standoff is pretty tall. Anyone have a good idea how far you have to keep GPS away from electro? What if I cut that stand down to a couple inches instead of the 6"+ it is now.

I know it's recommended to keep your GPS module away from your other electronics, but i've seen tons of quads with the module attached directly to the frame. You could just try mounting yours directly to your frame and see if it gives you any issues. If not, you know you won't have any issues shortening your standoff.

After keeping up with this thread for a while I decided to jump in and get one. Had some gift cards to best buy and ordered a Protocol Dronium. It seems like a decent starter done. It should be delivered today and I can't wait

Any good walkthroughs for building one from scratch like that atmhockey? I'd like to try that sometime.

Tons of YouTube and diydrones. Com was what I used to learn as parts were coming in. It is fairly easy if you have and mechanical/electrical chops. Really stuff is plug n play.

She ain't pretty, but she didn't catch on fire when I plugged her up!

Now to get into mission planner and calibrate everything. Still have to trim up stuff and tuck away some cables.

That's alot of work. I just want to fly the thing. Im a 'pilot' (although as evidenced by my vid, not a good one) not a mechanic.

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Any good walkthroughs for building one from scratch like that atmhockey? I'd like to try that sometime.

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This is probably the best/most complete build video of any multirotor I've seen. Obviously there are tons of other sources out there, and a zillion different configurations you can go with, but this is a very complete, beginning-to-end build video. He also sells that tricopter on his website and has a ton of other good information as well.

I think I mentioned it earlier in the thread, but pretty much everything i've ever wanted to know about multirotors i've found on either RCGroups or Flite Test

Got everything put together, radio binder, ESCs calibrated and flight controller loaded. Put props on and throttle up in garage and it wants to immediately back flip upon takeoff. Troubleshoot time.
1 battery to far back messing cg.
2 landing skids just not made for this quad
3 something wrong with motors. (they all spin up at same RPM and sound in sync.

Now that the weather in Dallas is going to suck to fly for a few days I'll have to wait.

EDIT : have the ESCs connected to flight controller wrong. Had printed a pictogram for KK and not ardupilot.

AR-15s and drones = Legos for adults. I have built, flown, torn down, rebuilt, and flown again three times. Want to get it just right both in form and function.

I want a drone with a 3 mile range. Do these exist?

I quad could do 6 mile mission (3 out 3 back) with e right flight controller computer on board. You could even fly it out of Tx range and still have it continue mission you built in the software.

The big limitation would be battery power.

Asking for something specific or just curious? Some dude on the IRIS forums posted a video of him flying a mission from the beach at Boca out to the shipping lanes, videos a tanker and flew back.

Is like to buy/build one if I could do a 6 mile round trip mission and have it live stream video back to me.

Current FAA regulations require you to be withing sight of your aircraft. Not sure how strictly they enforce their current guidelines though..

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AR-15s and drones = Legos for adults. I have built, flown, torn down, rebuilt, and flown again three times. Want to get it just right both in form and function.

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I just got my 3d printer up and running. Drones + 3d printing = ENDLESS POSSIBILITIES!!! I ordered that same knockoff TBS discovery frame you have, should be here Monday. First order of business is to print a gopro brushless gimbal for it.

Damn that would be sweet.

You could get a little business going with that 3d printer. There is a guy on the IRIS+ facebook group that is printing pieces (landing legs, gimbal mouts, etc) and selling them.

If I can get design files, want to print some stuff for me? Also curious about your gimbal.

Still getting my feet wet as far as the 3d printing goes, but I'm willing to give it a shot.

This is the gimbal I have. Works very well out of the box with. Gopro 3. It's a little awkward that the controller is integrated into the gimbal itself. Planning on printing a new gimbal to fit the frame and make use of the controller and motors. Hopefully that controller fits into the body of that frame somehow.

I would like to get a battery tray 3d printed that would fit under the frame. The battery slot in the back of the frame messes too much with CG if you don't have a gimbal and gopro mounted to the front to counter.

There are several unused holes at the bottom of the frame that could be used as bolt points. Figure in a few slots for battery straps and it would be pretty easy to design.

I did buy some 3D printed extended landing legs off of ebay. They allow more height off the ground for battery clearance.

Landing legs - I bet you could find the file out there somewhere.

Boy09

If you feel lie practicing some 3d printing! I would pay for one if these.

FPV monitor mount for Turnnigy 9x

What 3d printer do you have? I've been wanting to buy a cheap(er) makerbot knockoff to check it out. My family is in cnc machining and I've done quite a bit of work with cad/cam, gcode etc. I was looking at the Flashforge creator pro.

See my last post here. If you just want to 3d print and aren't looking for a project, I definitely wouldn't go this route..

I would take a look at the Printrbot Metal Plus. Or if you want to go cheaper, I've read good things about the XYZ Da Vinci 1.0 if you make some modifications to run open-source firmware and use regular filament rolls instead of their proprietary cartridges. I think it's down to $399 on amazon.

Added some FPV to my Franken quad. Basically getting close to being just like my IRIS+ on a cheap frame.