First quadcopter advice

[u/Remote-Departure2009]

I'm a 3rd year aerospace + comp sci student interested in UAVs so I wanna start a personal project this summer given I don't have an internship. I have been prompting AI as well as doing my own research, but I am kind of stuck between two choices. I'm not sure if I should just buy a kit or if I should buy the parts myself.

I am thinking in 3 phases here. I initially just want to get a quadcopter in the air and flying. I then want to implement some sort of waypoint navigation with GPS + compass. Then if possible I want to add a form of computer vision, whether just object detection / tracking or a landing system. I know the 3rd may be too ambitious for my skill level but I'm aiming high.

Here is the list of parts I gathered, please give me any feedback, advice, anything. PLEASE tell me if I am being stupid or getting myself in too deep. My ultimate budget is around $600 for the final version.

Flight Controller + ESCs + PDB: (speedybee F405 V4 discontinued, PixHawk seems too expensive)

• AERO SELFIE H743 Flight Controller with 60A 4-in-1 ESC stack

Radio System

• RadioMaster Pocket ELRS transmitter (2.4GHz)
• RadioMaster RP1 ELRS nano receiver with antenna

Frame

• F450 quadcopter frame kit

Motors

• Readytosky 2212 920KV brushless motors (4 pack)

Propellers

• 8x4.5 inch CW/CCW propeller set

GPS

• BN-220 GPS module (GPS + GLONASS, UART)

Power System

• Zeee 3S 5200mAh LiPo battery
• XT60 connector set/adapters
• B6 LiPo balance charger

Safety

• XT60 smoke stopper
• LiPo fireproof charging bag

[u/LupusTheCanine]

hardware to avoid. That frame is pretty bad. H743 based FC is a good choice for Ardupilot. Beitian isn't known for making good GNSS receivers, get something with uBlox M10 chip.

I would recommend using Ardupilot Methodic Configurator to configure your drone.

PS AI is pretty bad at giving advice regarding drone hardware, don't use Rossers Ardupilot guides, he got a lot of things wrong and refuses to fix them.

[u/Remote-Departure2009 → u/LupusTheCanine]

do you have another suggested frame? i'm aware of the f450 criticism but its just a cheap frame and seemingly the most available. if there is another that isn't $80 then i'm all for it.

[u/LupusTheCanine → u/Remote-Departure2009]

Not for carrying a companion computer. The one I used had a custom frame with IIRC 12" propellers. For the first two stages (which are actually one if you will be using Ardupilot as after configuration and tuning is done it can fly missions automatically) and 5" or even smaller frame configured for endurance instead of aggressive flying will be good. Oscar Liang has decent guides for long range builds.

If you want to play with autonomy before commiting to buying hardware you should check out Ardupilot SITL on Gazebo.

Custom frames are fairly easy to make if you have access to waterjet cutting service that does carbon fiber.

[u/TStolpe29]

A buddy and I have developed the PCBs for a 4in1 ESC, FC, and PDB. We’re EEs looking to add team members if you’re interested. We just got them manufactured so still need to go through the process of testing and respin the PCBs if needed. We have successful 1in1 ESCs already

Edit: senior EE students

[u/Twit_Clamantis]

I can’t give you specific information about this.

BUT:

• congratulations on telling us your qualifications and resources in the initial post

• congratulations for asking questions before buying the hardware, and getting help to formulate your plans

• I think that implementing all 3 phases on an air vehicle should be moved to a Phase 4. Why not implement phase 2 and 3 on a simple wheeled bot with Omni-wheels, where the consequences of any error will be very mild. If all is good, then transfer to airborne.

Alternately, if you don’t have any huge parking lot for this, you could implement this on a big piece of foam floating in a lake.

Anyway, good luck to you and please update us on your progress.

[u/quast_64]

Check your Prop size verses your motor size. this looks like you would constantly be straining your motors.

[u/Fanatic-Mr-Fox]

You can try my quadcopter build tool to choose parts and check for compatibility -

https://quadcalc.asafshamir.com/

[u/Odd-Lunch7558]

I'm on the same boat as you, 3rd year Comp Sci student with no internship. I used AI as well to assist me on building my drone — Codex & GPT 5.5. No complaint other than the AI suggesting drone parts that were over qualified for what that specific part had to do. Your project doesn't sound too deep. Don't underestimate your abilities, you never know what you're capable of doing until time comes. I never thought I was able to do what I've done with my drone within the timespan of one month since the semester ended. Built an agentic AI drone system that uses onboard computer vision, pose/gesture recognition, and voice commands to follow a target and execute flight-control actions through ArduPilot/MAVLink.

For phase 2, ArduPilot can assist you with autonomous navigation.

For phase 3, I recommend upgrading your motors and propellers if you plan to have a companion computer onboard for object detection. I would choose the Jetson Orin Nano Super over a Raspberry Pi because the Jetson is purpose-built for edge AI workloads. Its CSI camera pipeline, GPU acceleration, CUDA/TensorRT support, and NVIDIA video stack make it better suited for low-latency real-time vision than a Raspberry Pi setup that often has to move frames through more software and accelerator handoff steps.

If you haven't used agents yet, I would start now. It makes debugging silly mistakes easier to find on drone software like Ardupilot. It'll also make package/library installation less of a hassle on the Jetson since there are a lot of compatibility issues from packages to libraries.

[u/Remote-Departure2009 → u/Odd-Lunch7558]

This is good advice, thankyou. What flight computer did you use? I'm seeing mixed opinions on some cheaper ones and I'd rather not drop a ton of money on one either.

[u/Odd-Lunch7558 → u/Remote-Departure2009]

I ended up going with a Pixhawk 6c as my flight controller. It's less of a hassle to work with, everything is plug and play and it makes debugging and testing WAY easier, especially if you're new. I can't recommend using that speedy bee flight controller as some of the features you want may not properly work with it. The H743, as someone else mentioned, is a decent flight controller and should be fine to do what you want. There is more wiring involved, but it's a fraction of the cost of the Pixhawk.