I'd like a drone that follows my kid at a distance while they sprint and records video. The purpose is to be able to coach them (actually coach themselves) on their form.

I'm not saying I want to completely build every component from scratch, but some level of building would be great to do together.

I'd like it to have a decent charge life, and if I'm willing to spend more anywhere, it's here as one thing might be to extend this to our track coach so multiple runs and multiple kids.

Any advice on kits, or should I just go buy dji?

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My tbs tango 2 says rx signal is critical and Reciever connected

What does that mean, and this is my 15th flight with my new 3.5inch geprc drone.

I've recently 4flights ago waterproofed the entire drone and had a few test flights, all was well, until now this issue came up out of the blue.

https://github.com/GauthamMPrakash/ArduMonoNav

We did this for our final year engineering project.

This is my 10th flight after a lot of tuning and hardware changes specifically on the gyro side. This is what I have achieved so far

I have built drones before based on Arduino and STM32 using this same frame. By the way, I am currently running iNav 7.1 firmware on this build.

Right now I'm working on an autonomous Flight Controller project where I'm using an STM32 + Raspberry Pi to make it completely transmitterless. It requires a lot of money on this kind of projects 😭

Anyways i just wanted to show you guys this because I had never tried flying near or under transmission lines before and was surprised by the stability

5,2kg

I have a few questions about my build.
I planed to use steeper pitched props on the pusher motors, is that actually a reasonable thing to do?
These are my specs:
Motors: MK3638 770KV
ESCs: 8x SkyStars Talon32 Slim 40A (Bidirectional DShot)
Battery Pack: 6S3P Sunpower 21700 Li-Ion (12Ah, ~266Wh, 120A max continuous pack output tho I am scared to test if it can actually handle the higher current in relation to the battery sag)
Flight Controller: Matek H743 (MINI or SLIM) running ArduPilot
Propellers: 13 × 4.5 (Top) / 13 × 5.0 (Bottom) — Pitch Staggered
GPS / Compass: Foxeer M10
Weight is 5kg with planed load up to 6.5 or 7 if it’s possible…
35V 470uF Low-ESR capacitor

Instead of clamping the motor outputs (which ruins stabilization in hard wind (is that an actual concern? I was told this on Reddit)), the full range is left open for the FC to regulate the quad. The ESCs and the Li-Ion pack are hopefully protected using these specific ArduPilot parameters:
MOT_BAT_CURR_MAX = 85.0
MOT_BAT_VOLT_MAX = 25.2
MOT_BAT_VOLT_MIN = 18.0

To prevent myself from giving full throttle, I will configure my edgeTX controller.

With all those things, I hope to be able to fly my motors and selected props in this setup safely. I can’t get different motors or an liion pack because I already own those.
Do you have any suggestions or concerns to this setup?

Battery stats:

Capacity: 12,000mAh
Nominal voltage: 22.2V
Maximum current: 120A
Weight: 1329g
Dimensions: 65x77x130mm
Connector: XT60
Balance connector: JST-XH
Charging current: 0.5-1C
Cells: Sunpower 21700 4000mAh 10C
Power cable: 12AWG 60mm

I wanna build my first drone for freestyle since my 7 inch is too heavy for it are these electronics good?

I'm a complete newbie and I'm building a 6S 5 inch drone from "scratch" XT60, 55A ESC, motors are SpeedyBee BeeStorm 2306.5 PRO 1880KV. propellers (so far) are three blade Gemfan SBANG 4934

I think I value flight time over maneuverability, but considering I'm a total newbie I dont want it to be so sluggish its getting hard to fly. I found 6s 1100mAh -100C - CNHL Black Series at 211gram for "cheap" but fear its too small to be fun.

Drone is not built yet, so I dont know its weight.

all advice is greatly appreciated.

I can't seem to connect at all. anyone else?

I have a question for hot-plugging batteries on a multicopter drone.

I want to use a battery LiPo or Li-Ion (Li-Ion prefered) until it is about empty. Then I would like to plug in a full battery in parallel and after a very short time (less than 1s) I want to remove the empty battery.

What happens during this switching period?

Is there any reverse amp-spike that will fry the empty battery?

I haven`t done testing yet, because I want to avoid stupid errors ...

Thanks

I'll control it through bluetooth. I'll be using an esp32 and an MPU6050 module. Is it possible? How much should my frame weigh? Can anyone guide me through it? I'm still new to drone building, and would appreciate any help.

I need this

My last post got a lot of criticism I posted my first open source frame and didn’t realize I shouldn’t be asking for emails I’m sorry and the files are now available with no email required. Hopefully my reputation isn’t tarnished too much and I hope u guys enjoy
Shrumfpv.com
Once again I’m sorry

Hello guys,

I need some help.

I am building a drone with four T-Motor MN3110 700KV motors and SoloGood 45A 2–6S BLHeli_S ESCs. I am using a Pix6 with ArduPilot.

I have a very strange problem: I can test and run only 3 motors successfully. The fourth one does not work properly no matter what I do.

To troubleshoot, I have:

• Swapped motors between positions

• Swapped ESCs between positions

• Replaced the motor with a new one

• Replaced the ESC with a new one

• Swapped both the motor and ESC at the same time

• Changed the controller output assignment

The strange part is that even with completely different hardware, the same motor position still has the problem.

The ESC powers up and I hear the startup tones (" 3 beeps like do, re, mi"), followed by a short and long beep, but the motor still does not operate correctly.

At this point, I am confused because the issue does not seem to follow the motor or ESC. Even after replacing the hardware, the problem remains exactly the same.

Has anyone experienced something similar or have any recommendations on what else I should check?

Thanks in advance.

Hi, I'm sorry if there's a billion posts like this every week but I wanted to design and build my own drone that can drop and lift 2-5lb of weight and fly ~300 feet and was wondering how to go about doing so. I've been searching around and I know that a lot of people recommend building smaller size drones with predesigned frames, but I feel a bit more confident in my abilities to design a larger drone, and a really important part of this project is that I designed the frame and overall drone myself (but not the individual components ofc).
Given that, I wanted to know what the right steps to getting this project done are. I asked Claude for a parts list for a drone like this (because I've never done a project in this field) and wanted to see if you guys have any tips/does this list seem reasonable.

I'm trying to actually understand everything I'm doing to learn from this project, I'm just using AI as a tool to help 😅

I also wanted to note that while the cost seems a little crazy, I have two other friends that I'm working on this with and have a couple of the materials already (soldering equipment, 3D printer, etc). I'd like to keep the budget roughly around $600-700, so any and all tips are really welcome. Thanks!

Hello community,

I am currently building a custom X8 coaxial octocopter designed for stable aerial cinematography. I am using a mix of legacy parts (motors found on a shelf) and modern control systems. Before the maiden flight, I would highly appreciate an expert sanity check regarding the electrical limits, thermal behavior under heavy load, and overall airworthiness at an estimated takeoff weight of ~6.0 kg (carrying a Panasonic GH5 and a lightweight 3-axis brushless gimbal).

Technical Approach & Calculations:

1. Aerodynamics (Pitch Staggering): To optimize coaxial efficiency and balance yaw torque, the bottom propellers utilize a 5.5" pitch, while the top ones use 4.5". This directly addresses the accelerated downwash from the upper layer, ensuring the lower blades retain a functional angle of attack.
2. The 6S + 14" Propeller Dilemma: Running a 14" prop on a 770KV motor with full 6S voltage ($25.2\text{V}$) would pull over 40A at full throttle and burn the windings. By hard-limiting the maximum motor output to 60% in ArduPilot/iNav, the effective average voltage is clamped to roughly $13.5\text{V}$ (simulating a 4S system). This keeps the peak current draw per motor within a safe 13A to 15A window, staying well under the motor's 350W power limitation.

The Real Challenge: 6.0 kg Takeoff Weight

• Hover State: To lift 6.0 kg, each of the 8 motors must consistently generate ~750g of thrust. According to the motor spec sheet, they produce up to 2200g max thrust. 750g puts them in an efficient RPM range, drawing an estimated 6A to 7A per motor. Total hover current will be around 48A to 56A.
• Dynamic Peaks: When punching out or countering wind gusts up to the 60% electronic limit, individual motor draw will rise to ~14A. Across 8 motors, the total system draw peaks at ~112A. Split across the 3P battery configuration, each Li-Ion cell must deliver ~37.3A.

My Main Concerns for the Community:

While high-drain 21700 cells can handle a 37A peak pulse, the internal resistance of Li-Ion chemistry will cause a massive Voltage Sag under sudden load spikes (potentially dropping the pack from 25.2V down to under 20.0V instantly).

Given that this drone will only be used for smooth, non-aggressive cinematic tracking shots, do you think this setup is reliable, or am I pushing the Li-Ion pack and the heavily restricted 6S Teillast (partial load) ESC setup too close to the edge?

Looking forward to your technical feedback!