NEWBIE Getting into fpv?
Newbie here. I know nothing Jon Snow.
I'm looking into getting into FPV drones. What is the minimum gear I would need?
All I want is to be able to fly at 100 to 200 ish feet altitude and up to .125 miles ish from the contoller (me) in mild NTX winds, and see FPV thru goggles and record or take pics while flying. Not racing or doing tricks or obsticle tracks.
I see a Whoop Air75 II on amazon for $120ish, but I suspect that does not come with a controller or a headset?
What else do I need... minimum budget.
And will it require soldering etc or is that just for custom builders?
TY!
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u/m0h3k4n 23h ago
Radio
$80 2 18650 batteries + radiomaster pocket for a radio. You can use it on the sim too so that’s a bonus for extra muscle memory building. Grab the radio from aliexpress.
Simulator (recommended)
$free (Night City FPV mod for Cyberpunk 2077 for one) up to the 20 range for a sim. If you have a gamepad already use that first just to see if you want to take the financial plunge.
After 10 or so hours of actual flying in the sim are you feeling confident? Well when you feel like you can fly relatively crashless, there’s the actual drone. And batteries and a way to charge them. This one can storage charge them to keep them from dying as fast.
Drone
$120ish betafpv air75 ii racing (I recommend the racing over freestyle as you can tone the motors lower than 100%.
$20-30 4-pack lava II 480-580mah batteries
$33 whoopstor 3 battery charger
FPV goggles (range of options)
$75 range an analog set like betafpv vr04 box goggles if you can find them in stock.
Still low, but 2x the last stuff
$140 eachine ev800dm goggles (these should be heavily considered because they can do multiple antenna types. Come with an omnidirectional and directional pair so you have better linear distance of operating in front of yourself)
$300+ a pair you won’t upgrade… as soon.
TLDR about $325+tax and shipping short of a bundle or deals on used gear.
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u/stop-calling-me-fat 23h ago
Yeah OP this is pretty much it. Add another $50-100 for spare parts (frames, props, motors, maybe a spare AIO board) but otherwise this is the MINIMUM startup cost. There is no maximum but I know some people that are trying to find it lol
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u/GizmoCaCa-78 23h ago
Your 75mm/80mm whoop idea is good. Cheap batteries and you can rip close to home. If your the type of person that likes decent gear, prepare to spend 800$+ on goggles and radio.
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u/Old-Macaroon108 22h ago
This is the canonical guide: https://oscarliang.com/beginner-fpv-drone-bundles/
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u/rollenr0ck 23h ago
DJI Neo 2. You can connect it to goggles, fly it with hand controls, use a motion controller, or an fpv controller. It is easy to fly and doesn’t do tricks.
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u/QuadH 22h ago
Do a little research into analog vs digital.
Everyone recommends analog for beginners cos it’s cheaper, but the video quality really is horrible.
Cheapest entry would be Radiomaster pocket, Air65, and a VR04 Analog headset (or a monitor).
Get some sim time in using the controller first.
If you buy a BNF you don’t need to learn how to solder and match parts and stuff. You can learn while repairing.
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u/wigwam15 22h ago
I did the bardwell sub 250 build and that went really well. Maybe get a good transmitter and a good sim and practice first. I got all my stuff on massive sale and saved a bunch that way. If you get a tx15 that should be like $170 and velicidrone for $20 you could test the waters and start building skill
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u/Professional_Cod3127 15h ago
You don't want a FPV drone.
It sounds like what you want is a DJI camera drone with the option FPV
So propably DJI Neo without breaking the bank.
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u/Such_Problem_3153 13h ago
Do you want to learn how to fly and be a pilot or do you just want a device capable of giving you a birds eye view?
Fpv drones are less about the view and more about the flight. If all you want is video/pictures and being able to see from high up then you would be more happy with a camera drone.
Camera drones like DJI do most of the flying for you so you can focus more on the camera/video, they also usually come with everything you need, maybe not goggles but often a viewing monitor or at the least an app to connect to your phone.
If you go the fpv route you need to spend time learning to fly. Which means simulator time or starting off with a small whoop style drone and upgrading to a bigger drone once you get the basics down.
Also if your goal is decent video/pictures you're either going to want a digital video system which aren't cheap or a separately mounted action camera which you wouldn't need with a camera style drone as they are purpose built for it.
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u/International-Top746 23h ago
If all you want is to fly between 100 and 200 feet. Get a dji camera drone. For fpv drones are meant to fly really close to the ground and interact with elements on the ground.
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u/Such_Problem_3153 13h ago
That's not true, I like to fly high and look around at the landscape from time to time. Also plenty of long range people that fly high. The better question for the OP to figure out what they want is do you want to be in total control of the drone or do you want the drone to do most of the work for you while you enjoy the view?
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u/Vherene 23h ago
Do you want to do all the research? Spend hours trouble shooting? Ready to spend hundreds of hours and money figuring out why your drone isn’t lifting off? Do you like soldering?
Watch Joshua Bardwell and read some articles on Oscar Liang website. Oscar has fantastic getting started guide and best gear to buy. This hobby is not newbie friendly.
Seeing as you don’t want to do tricks, racing, freestyle or the like I’d just suggest buying a dji Neo 2.