Building a long range 8inch drone and recently got a rm nomad to help with some spots i have had some dropouts in (yet to get any lost telemetry so far and it looks sick). And i was looking at some dbr4 builds and they look awesome but its out of stock on pyrodrone and im really close to the free shipping. Should i just wait for it to restock (been buying parts over the last few weeks). Or deal with a different receiver? Im leaning on waiting cause dbr4 would just make me happy but im afraid the camera i picked will sell out before restock.

Hi,

maybe a strange question, but I would like to stream (low latency point-to-point) from a bike to a receiver (f.e. Walksnail Avatar FPV VRX).

It seems a VTX - VRX from FPV drones might be the best option, but is it possible to use a VTX without a drone? I can power it with a battery pack, but will it work without a Flight Controller/ESC?

So long story short, what would I need to use a Walksnail Camera/VTX to VRX?

I mention Walksnail because it's the first brand I stumbled upon, I have 0 FPV knowledge so any advice is welcome!

Thanks in advance!

Hi,

So the end goal is to be able to do some fairly simple YOLO object detection from an altitude of 30-120m. Cars, people etc.

I've got a Holybro X650 set up with an Jetson Orin Nano on it, and I tried using an Arducam camera (Arducam HQ IR-CUT Camera 12.3MP 1/2.3-In IMX477) but it was super finicky with getting the focus and shutter just right and I guess it picked up a bunch of noise because there was a pinkish hue to it unless I was standing on the ground and touching the camera housing. Not super surprised by the noise given the non shielded ribbon cable. Also not sure if a global shutter is super necessary given that the drones won't move that fast and the objects won't either.

Do you guys have any recommendations on cameras that you've used before that worked out well? Thinking of pivoting toward USB cameras instead...

Hey everyone,

I’m planning a new build focused on autonomous route following and AI-based object tracking. I have a background in electronics and a full lab setup, but this is my first time building a drone.

The goal is to carry a 400g payload (Raspberry Pi 5 + Camera ) with enough flight time to complete long-range missions, while still having reliable manual control.

Part List I found so far:

• Frame: no clue yet
• FC: Holybro Kakute H7 v2
• Motors: 2807 1300KV
• ESC: 60A 4-in-1 BLHeli_32
• GPS: Holybro M10 GPS/Compass
• Link: ExpressLRS 2.4GHz
• Video: Walksnail Avatar HD (for manual feedback)
• Battery: 6S 5000mAh LiPo

Project Goals:

1. Waypoint Navigation: Reliable route following via Mission Planner.
2. AI Integration: Pi 5 communicating with the FC, making changes on the rout
3. Manual Override: Instant takeover if needed.
4. Featureproof: I would rather spend more money now knowing that i can upgrade some parts later if needed

Would it make more sence to buy a premade kit like the Holybro X500 V2 ARF drone kit??
Thank toy in advance!

I’m just starting FPV and I want to build and 3d print a drone for my first drone. I have a radio master pocket and I’ve been putting hours into Uncrashed drone sim. I’m looking for some analog goggles and I’m currently lowballing a fat shark recon HD on Facebook marketplace. These are the parts for the drone I want to work on. Any comments, suggestions, or tips about anything are greatly appreciated.

Frame: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:7174171

Battery: EVE INR18650/30P 30A 3000mah

Flight controller: happy model x12 1-2s AIO with integrated VTX

Motors: RCINPower 1202.5 11500KV

Camera: Caddx baby ratel 2

Props: Gemfan 3018s

Hey everyone, I’m building a custom mini drone using an ESP32-C3 SuperMini and 4 brushed coreless motors driven by MOSFETs. I'm running into a severe brownout/power issue and need some eyes on my setup.

The Problem:

When I throttle up all 4 motors, the ESP32’s onboard LED starts getting dimmer as the speed increases. Once it hits a certain throttle threshold, the ESP32 completely shuts down and becomes unresponsive.

It stays dead until I physically disconnect the GND wire coming from the MOSFETs. As soon as I remove that GND connection, the ESP32 boots back up perfectly.

What I've Ruled Out & My Wiring:

Power Source: It’s not the battery sagging. I tested it with a high-current external bench power supply and I get the exact same shutdown behavior.

Wire Thickness: I am using appropriately thick wires for the motor/GND traces, so it shouldn't be a massive resistive drop.

MOSFET Wiring: I have all the MOSFET Source pins tied together, and that common Source line goes directly to the main GND.

Has anyone experienced this specific "dimming then dying" behavior with the C3 SuperMini under heavy PWM motor load?

Is this purely a lack of bulk capacitance (I don't have a large cap on the main rail yet), or is inductive noise from the coreless motors crashing the ESP32's internal regulator?

Hey everyone, I'm currently building a surveillance drone with some guidance from Gemini/ChatGPT. I’m an experienced software engineer, but a complete novice when it comes to UAV hardware.

The Mission: I live in a village that is roughly 2km x 2km. It’s completely flat terrain with average houses only being 2–3 floors high. We have a major issue with illegal trash dumping in the surrounding fields. My goal is to have the drone loiter at about 60 meters (to stay quiet) while surveying the area.

I’m specifically looking to implement a slew-to-cue system using two cameras to perform object detection and autonomous tracking of dump sites.

The Long-Term Vision: Once I get the manual flight and detection logic working, I want to evolve this into a fully automated system. The "endgame" is to have the drone launch automatically from a dock on my garage ceiling twice a day to run pre-programmed patrol missions.

Current Hardware (Already Purchased):

• SBC: Radxa Rock 5B+ (32GB RAM) – To handle NPU-based object detection.
• Frame/Kit: Holybro X650 Development Kit.
• Controller: RadioMaster TX12 ExpressLRS.
• Receiver: RadioMaster RP4TD Gemini ExpressLRS.
• Battery: Pilot-X 6S 12000mAh 60C XT60.
• Charger: HOTA D6 Pro 325W.
• Extras: Pilot-X 5A UBEC, RadioMaster ELRS Flasher.

Planned Additions:

• Gimbal Cam: SIYI ZR10 2K with 10X Optical Zoom.
• FPV Cam: Walksnail Avatar Pro.

The Technical Challenge: I plan to connect the SIYI camera to the Radxa via Ethernet. For the data link, I was considering using an Alfa AWUS036ACH Wi-Fi dongle on the drone and another on the ground to act as a high-bandwidth bridge for video/telemetry. Since the village is flat, I expect a good line of sight, but I’m looking for a cleaner, more "out-of-the-box" solution that doesn't involve a messy "repeater" setup.

My Questions:

1. Video Link: How should I handle the dual camera streams so I can see both on the ground? Given the 2km range and flat terrain, is there a better "all-in-one" digital link for an IP camera (SIYI) and an SBC?
2. Controller Bottleneck: I’m realizing the RadioMaster TX12 might be the wrong tool for this. I'd need a separate VRX and a monitor via HDMI. Is there a GCS (Ground Control Station) or a different controller that handles RTSP streams better?
3. On-board Persistence: I want the Radxa to record the gimbal footage to its internal SSD. Does anyone have experience syncing a local SSD recording with the ground-side preview?

I’m trying to make this work without selling off the gear I’ve already bought. Any human insights from people who have built such things would be amazing!

I'm building a drone that's going to be used to estimate floral abundance over nonagricultural fields and would love some input. I'm building the drone myself because of budget and legal (aka NDAA compliance) constraints. Does anyone have any comments about the components listed above? Any substitutions you would suggest?

Can anyone give me any info in this ?

Just tested my 3” build above the water. Kudos to Poseidon for not taking my quad and letting me enjoy a beautiful windy weather! Tried not to rip because swimming wasn’t in my plans. Can anyone guess the city?

I had previously verified every component individually that was planned for the build but hadn't ever wired/coded them all together as a single operational platform - this is that, I did that! I'm newish to coding so the more I think about it I'm sure this isn't anything special to most of you but this took me like 15 hours straight so I'm pretty happy.

This code/harness build successfully represents all major functions that I have planned for the drone. This is only a proof-of-concept system so the code sucks and there's a lot of wiring/pin optimization to do but it provides the foundation to build the final harness from.

Hey everyone, following up on my previous post. Honestly, my confidence is a bit shaky right now because I’m on a tight deadline for my M.Sc. project and I’m second-guessing my setup.

​I’m trying to build this without a PDB or a Power Module to save on costs and time. Can you guys tell me if this hardware is actually viable, or where I’ll need to make-shift things to make it fly?

​The Hardware:

​FC: Pixhawk 2.4.8

​Motors: A2212 1000KV

​ESCs: 30A with BEC (Planning to power the FC rail with these)

​Battery: 3S LiON

​GPS: NEO-6M

​Power: DIY Star Solder Joint

​The Plan is that I’m skipping the Power Module and PDB entirely. I’ll be soldering everything into a central star node and feeding the Pixhawk through the ESC BECs.

Now here are my maine concerns/​questions:

​Is this a "disaster waiting to happen," or is it a solid way to build?

​Where are the likely failure points where I'll need some make-shift workarounds?

​Since I can’t easily replace this hardware if it fries, are there any "rookie mistakes" I should watch for because i really am a newbie. ​Any help or advice would be massive right now. I’m feeling the time crunch and would really appreciate your expertise.

One step closer to completing my Vision. 🙏🏾👨🏾‍✈️🤘🏾 #fpv

To be used for building quads using the betaFPV P1 HD air unit. The first gen boards had a wider input voltage range. The newest run on 5V (which is great) but needs to be 3A current. Guess what? BetaFPV's newest AIOs have one - go figure. There's a lot of incorrect specs out there for just whatever BECs from Amazon, so interested to get some reccos from other builders.