Racing drone recommendations for drone photographer

[Paul Seal]

Hi!

 

I'm looking to buy a ready to fly racing drone kit for someone with drone experience.

My friend has a dji mavic air which he uses for photography work but would love a racing drone for fun, I'd like to buy him a ready to fly kit with everything included. Also it would be a huge bonus if it came with goggles that could be used with the mavic air but that isn't essential.

 

I was looking at the Emax TinyHawk but i'm worried it's more for beginners? He can fly the mavic very well but can't risk damaging it.

Any help would be great, thanks in advance

[m4inbrain]

As someone who has both, there's "racing drone", and there's "mavic". 

 

The only thing in common is that both have a battery and some spinny fingerslicers. That's it. A Mavic quite literally flies itself, a race drone is something else entirely. Unless you want to fly it in horizon mode, in which case you might as well get a "beginners drone". 

 

You will also not find third party goggles for the mavic, since basically everything DJI is proprietary. You'd need to use DJIs own goggles (if you have the cash for them). 

 

https://www.banggood.com/IFlight-X-DJI-Jointly-designed-TITAN-DC5-6S-w-DJI-Air-Unit-PNP-BNF-DJI-FPV-HD-Goggles-FPV-Racing-RC-Drone-p-1594480.html?rmmds=search&ID=62815096281448&cur_warehouse=CN

 

This one at least comes with DJI goggles, so in this case they could get used with the mavic air.

 

Generally, as a budget pick that is widely considered a great one:

 

https://www.banggood.com/EMAX-Hawk-Pro-5-Inch-4S6S-FPV-Racing-Drone-PNPBNF-F405-FC-35A-Blheli_32-ESC-Pulsar-2306-1700KV2400KV-Motor-CADDX-Ratel-Cam-25-200mW-VTX-p-1566651.html?rmmds=search&ID=5233996274377&cur_warehouse=CN

 

Needs radio gear and video equipment on top, but pretty much every single racing drone does. Until somewhat recently, you had to build them from scratch. The problem here seems to be though that i think that you're not entirely sure what you want to get your mate - race quads usually are 5 inch frames. The TinyHawk isn't a racing drone, it's a "whoop", or "tiny whoop". Great stuff for beginners and indoors, but nowhere near a racing drone. If you have to buy everything from scratch, you gotta plan with at least £400 (ish) for radio gear, some budget goggles and a racing quad. You can maybe shave a little off of that by getting the parts and building/soldering yourself. 

 

edit: for reference.. 

 

https://www.dji.com/uk/dji-goggles?site=brandsite&from=nav

 

These are the goggles you need for a Mavic. Or these, they're the "racing version":

 

https://www.dji.com/uk/dji-goggles-re?site=brandsite&from=nav

 

£350 at the very least. DJI stuff is expensive, and as mentioned, proprietary. 

 

 

Best way to do it would be to make clear what your budget is, and people can suggest the best drone/set/kit for that kind of cash. 

 

Edited December 5, 2019 by m4inbrain

[Paul Seal]

Wow! Thanks so much for taking the time for such a detailed reply, really helpful.

The 5" Hawk looks great, I'm guessing the Mavic controller won't work with it?

Can you recommend a controller?

 

I don't have a specific budget but I don't want to go crazy!

[m4inbrain]

No, the Mavic Air controller won't work with it. 

 

With the Hawk Pro 5 i'd recommend getting the 4s version (it'll plenty do as the first race quad), as a BNF - meaning it already has a receiver in it, so you only need the radio. In that case it comes with a Frsky Tiny D8 receiver, which works with pretty much all FrSky radios. Which is good, they're good radios especially for the price. There's two really good options:

 

A: the one i have, which is the FrSky Taranis Qx7. 

 

https://www.banggood.com/FrSky-ACCST-Taranis-Q-X7-Transmitter-2_4G-16CH-Mode-2-White-Black-International-Version-for-RC-Drone-p-1196246.html?ID=521800&cur_warehouse=GWTR

 

That's if you like "classical" radios. 

 

Or, if you want something more portable:

 

https://www.banggood.com/FrSky-Taranis-X-Lite-ACCST-2_4GHz-Radio-Transmitter-with-18650-Battery-Black-Caps-for-RC-Drone-FPV-Racing-Muliti-Rotor-p-1257443.html?rmmds=search&ID=513344&cur_warehouse=GWTR

 

Very important: you have to buy the international versions of either, otherwise the protocol that the Hawk uses isn't supported (D8). 

Though, this seems to work as well. 

 

https://airjacker.com/blogs/guides/how-to-get-d8-mode-on-an-eu-lbt-taranis

 

I personally would (and did) go with the Qx7 though. After that, you need (obviously) a battery, in this case a 4s pack at around 1500mah. Like this one:

 

https://www.banggood.com/TATTU-Funfly-14_8V-1550mAh-100C-4S-XT60-Plug-Lipo-Battery-for-Emax-HAWK-5-FPV-Racing-Drone-p-1395955.html?rmmds=buy&cur_warehouse=CN

 

And with that, the quad is ready to fly. It has FPV gear already mounted, so if you want to fly FPV, you only need to get goggles on top. Hard to recommend something here, the range is from around £80 to £400. 

 

https://www.banggood.com/Eachine-EV800D-5_8G-40CH-Diversity-FPV-Goggles-5-Inch-800480-Video-Headset-HD-DVR-Build-in-Battery-p-1180354.html?rmmds=search&cur_warehouse=CN

 

These are a good pick for starting out. Bit unwieldy, but it's a diversity receiver (in very simple terms, it has a better video link due to having two different kind of antennas). It's actually not uncomfortable, i got a pair of those as well. 

 

If you want to spend a bit more, have a look at "Aomway Commanders" (£180-300) or basically the "go-to" for actual racers, Fat Shark (Dominator, not Attitude). But those are even more expensive.

 

If i missed something let me know, kinda hard to keep track lol.

 

[Paul Seal]

Thanks so much for your help, this has given me a lot to think about, in a good way of course!

[m4inbrain]

No problem mate.

[Madmini]

Just to chime in here.... the only goggles that will work with ANY dji drone and a race drone are the dji Race edition goggles. The new dji hd fpv goggles do not work with the mavic or anything other than the air unit. 
 

the best advice possible for anyone starting out with race drones is a controller and a sim.

 

as has already been said flying a race quad and a dji quad is chalk and cheese. If you expect otherwise your in for a very expensive learning curve.

additionally to what I just said unmannedtech do a few bundles That might be of interest (and I like banggood you get proper support)

 

 

Edited December 9, 2019 by Madmini

[fnknan]

On 05/12/2019 at 13:23, m4inbrain said:

 you gotta plan with at least £400 (ish) for radio gear, some budget goggles and a racing quad. You can maybe shave a little off of that by getting the parts and building/soldering yourself. 

More like half the price. I'm building a race quad for £150 (including radio and goggles) and it's not like it's a bad quad. Id say it's perfectly good for someone who only has experience with a mavic

Edited December 10, 2019 by fnknan

[m4inbrain]

2 hours ago, fnknan said:

More like half the price. I'm building a race quad for £150 (including radio and goggles) and it's not like it's a bad quad. Id say it's perfectly good for someone who only has experience with a mavic

 

I paid more for my 3" stunt whoop, homemade, all chinese special.

 

Not saying you can't do it, i know you absolutely can, but a 5" racer including radio AND goggles for £150 is bottom of the barrel. A decent F4/F7 FC stack is already like what, £80? The cheapest i'd go there would be an F4 Kakute AIO, and that's around £65 delivered. Doesn't leave much for a 5 inch frame, motors, tx and rx. Oh and of course a somewhat decent CCD cam since flying with CMOS is absolutely nauseating - another £25. Again, you sure can do it, but on a race quad where precision is quite important since you don't have all the DJI gizmos to keep you out of trouble, i wouldn't cheap out. At least not to that extent. 

[fnknan]

5 hours ago, m4inbrain said:

 

I paid more for my 3" stunt whoop, homemade, all chinese special.

 

Not saying you can't do it, i know you absolutely can, but a 5" racer including radio AND goggles for £150 is bottom of the barrel. A decent F4/F7 FC stack is already like what, £80? The cheapest i'd go there would be an F4 Kakute AIO, and that's around £65 delivered. Doesn't leave much for a 5 inch frame, motors, tx and rx. Oh and of course a somewhat decent CCD cam since flying with CMOS is absolutely nauseating - another £25. Again, you sure can do it, but on a race quad where precision is quite important since you don't have all the DJI gizmos to keep you out of trouble, i wouldn't cheap out. At least not to that extent. 

I understand that but as a beginner it's perfectly fine. The drone itself only cost 80 (got a deal on the tx and goggles) which is great if you wanna dip your toes into fast fpv without breaking the bank. I'm gonna be using the mamba f405 stack which I've heard is great in terms of bang for buck and I've seen some really quick drones running it. Only £35 shipped. I am gonna use a CMOS at first just because it's so cheap but you can spend £15 on a half decent ccd if you know where to look. In terms of someone who doesn't have much experience flying drones, it's perfect just because replacement parts won't cost you much. As a beginner you're gonna need a lot of them 🤣🤣.

 

Then again I'm a complete noob to drones, this one I'm gonna be building will be my first so what do I know 🤷🏻‍♂️

Edited December 10, 2019 by fnknan

[m4inbrain]

If that works for you, all the power to you mate, i'm not saying it's stupid. 

 

I'm saying, going through all this, this isn't the approach i'd personally be taking. Except for the CMOS cam. That's always a bad idea. I heard they got better, but they're still vastly inferior to CCD in terms of lag - and that's where motion sickness comes from. You get disoriented faster too. What racing quad goes for £80?

[Madmini]

1 minute ago, m4inbrain said:

If that works for you, all the power to you mate, i'm not saying it's stupid. 

 

I'm saying, going through all this, this isn't the approach i'd personally be taking. Except for the CMOS cam. That's always a bad idea. I heard they got better, but they're still vastly inferior to CCD in terms of lag - and that's where motion sickness comes from. You get disoriented faster too. What racing quad goes for £80?

most current cams are ccd not many old school cmos cams left.

 

radio wise forget the frsky stuff it’s all but been put out to pasture by the jumper t16pro £130 binds to almost anything (Frsky eu and international, spectrum, futaba nearly anything else)

 

best advice for anyone starting out regardless of what you want to do longer term is get a controller and spend some time in the simulator it will save you hundreds of pounds on broken parts. Fpv quads are tricky to fly and even harder to fly well. I heartily recommend watching some stuff by Joshua bardwell and Painless360 as they will teach you loads. 
 

[m4inbrain]

Jup, those are where i started as well. Especially Bardwell. 

[fnknan]

1 hour ago, m4inbrain said:

If that works for you, all the power to you mate, i'm not saying it's stupid. 

 

I'm saying, going through all this, this isn't the approach i'd personally be taking. Except for the CMOS cam. That's always a bad idea. I heard they got better, but they're still vastly inferior to CCD in terms of lag - and that's where motion sickness comes from. You get disoriented faster too. What racing quad goes for £80?

Yeah I've heard mixed things about CMOS. I don't usually ever suffer from motion sickness so hopefully that's not an issue. If it's that bad then I'll just swap it out. Just realised I only bought 1 motor instead of 4 🤣🤣😩. So it's actually a £100 ish drone. It's a custom build so I guess it's cheaper than a kit

 

£18 frame

£35 stack

£32 motors

£8 vtx

£8 camera

£2 props

 

Adding my own reciever

Edited December 10, 2019 by fnknan

[m4inbrain]

When i built my 3", everything came together greatly until i realised - after assembly and soldering - that i was missing the vtx. And that was a pain in the neck on this frame lol.

 

[fnknan]

I saw that frame and I really like the look of it but I thought it was better to start with a 5" because I'm a complete novice, I had a micro quadcopter when I was 12 and I wasn't particularly good with it.

 

Yeah I'm definitely gonna make sure I do it all properly first time so I don't have to take it apart.

 

Where would I mount the vtx? I saw videos where they screwed it to the top of the stack but the one being shipped to me doesn't have any holes so I'm not sure what I'd do with it.

[m4inbrain]

Yeah i already had a few 5", wanted something to go ham with in smaller fields. Less racing, more "stunting" though i do suck at it big time lol.

 

If you look at the picture, the top PCB (with the copper antenna) is my vtx, mounts to the stack. What vtx you got - one of these that come with an antenna screw mount? 

Edited December 11, 2019 by m4inbrain

[fnknan]

5 hours ago, m4inbrain said:

Yeah i already had a few 5", wanted something to go ham with in smaller fields. Less racing, more "stunting" though i do suck at it big time lol.

 

If you look at the picture, the top PCB (with the copper antenna) is my vtx, mounts to the stack. What vtx you got - one of these that come with an antenna screw mount? 

I yeah it's got an antenna mount but I've got no idea where I put it lol

https://banggood.app.link/OHzXytOek2

 

[m4inbrain]

4 hours ago, fnknan said:

I yeah it's got an antenna mount but I've got no idea where I put it lol

https://banggood.app.link/OHzXytOek2

 

 

Oof. Ahm.. Double sided tape, mayhbe? That antenna mount has to go through a hole, so you gotta drill the frame. You also need an SMA antenna for it, something like this one.

 

https://www.banggood.com/Foxeer-5_8G-3dBi-TXRX-RHCP-Omni-FPV-Antenna-RP-SMASMA-p-1069903.html?rmmds=search&ID=226514094&cur_warehouse=UK

 

In case you haven't ordered one. Small sidenote, whatever you do, the small connector for the antenna mount, hot glue it to the board. You'll fry it if it comes lose in flight. The usual stuff applies, don't power the VTX without antenna either - result is the same, it'll destroy the VTX. 

Edited December 11, 2019 by m4inbrain

[fnknan]

3 hours ago, m4inbrain said:

 

Oof. Ahm.. Double sided tape, mayhbe? That antenna mount has to go through a hole, so you gotta drill the frame. You also need an SMA antenna for it, something like this one.

 

https://www.banggood.com/Foxeer-5_8G-3dBi-TXRX-RHCP-Omni-FPV-Antenna-RP-SMASMA-p-1069903.html?rmmds=search&ID=226514094&cur_warehouse=UK

 

In case you haven't ordered one. Small sidenote, whatever you do, the small connector for the antenna mount, hot glue it to the board. You'll fry it if it comes lose in flight. The usual stuff applies, don't power the VTX without antenna either - result is the same, it'll destroy the VTX. 

Yeah I was gonna heatshink part of it and cable tie it to the frame unless I found another way. I already ordered some sma antennae too but thanks

 

Yeah I've heard stuff like that before, how do I prevent it frying if it breaks off when I crash? Is there a way of making it break at a different point?

[m4inbrain]

Don't crash.

 

edit:

 

@fnknan hot glue usually is sufficient, as long as the VTX is mounted securely and can't fly out the drone in a crash (remember, the antenna itself is screwed to the frame in your case). Just a fat blob straight onto the connector and surroundings for surface area, done.

Edited December 11, 2019 by m4inbrain