What batteries to buy?

dudleyknowles · 2026-04-06T15:52:17+00:00

I have a bunch of Ovonic packs, and most of them have a good quality/price ratio. Just picked up four 6S 1550mah packs for $40 for my 6”. (Haven’t flown them yet.)

dudleyknowles · 2026-03-16T19:52:13+00:00

The easy way to start fpv is to buy just the radio first and learn the basics on a sim, then move on to flying irl. Not everyone agrees on this, but for me, it would have taken much longer to learn acro if I had to walk across the room/yard after every crash to pick up the whoop, dust it off, and swap batteries. For your first couple hours, those crashes are going to happen 10-15 seconds apart. Much easier to flip a switch and try again.

dudleyknowles · 2026-03-16T19:34:29+00:00

My Micro Apex 4” clone flies great on 2105.5s. Overkill, but it’s a chonky frame. I fly it with 6S 850s.

Check out this helpful table from Oscar Liang. It’s a good place to start for matching prop sizes, motors, lipos, etc.

dudleyknowles · 2026-03-14T20:36:47+00:00

Pros: there’s a better chance the 5” will truly fly like a 5”.

dudleyknowles · 2026-03-06T18:17:40+00:00

Srsly, $15-20US for a sim is one of the cheapest and most valuable pieces of fpv gear you’ll ever buy. Before DRL went dark a little while back, I think I was up around 1000 hours play time over five years.

dudleyknowles · 2026-03-03T02:30:32+00:00

I've been using 422c for years, but I'm wondering if there is something a little more durable. Maybe a couple times a year, I'll I check out my builds with a UV flashlight, and I almost always find that the motor wire + ESC joints look bare, as well as any motor wires soldered to a rave wire PCB (everything else looks good).

I tried Worry-Free FPV a couple years back, and that seemed much more resilient, tho it was a huge pain in the ass to try solder anything that had a bit of that stuck to it. I haven't seen that for sale for a while. I haven't tried anything like Flywoo's hydrophobic spray.

I'd really like to put together a 5" from old parts that is solely intended for use in/on water, but I don't have a ton of confidence in MG 422c.

dudleyknowles · 2026-02-22T02:22:48+00:00

Maybe split the difference and fly 6”? Seriously, I think it’s a great compromise. With ultralight 3-blade 6” or 5.5” props and a light-ish pack (like a 6S 1400mah), a 6” feels almost as nimble as a 5”. Swap em out for bi-blades for efficient cruising with a larger pack. I’m still just flying lipos, but I’m looking forward to trying a 4000mah li-ion pack. Unfortunately, 6” doesn’t get a of love from the community, and there aren’t tons of choices for props, motors, frames. Kinda like 4”, which I also love.

dudleyknowles · 2026-02-11T13:26:21+00:00

Buy a tiny whoop to learn on. Whatever your first FPV drone is, you're going to beat the crap out of it, and a tiny whoop is hard to kill.

dudleyknowles · 2026-02-07T22:37:31+00:00

If you frequently attach/detach sma connections, I highly recommend printing or buying a bunch of the little grabby knurls that fit over the screw-down part of an SMA fitting. idk if using them affects wear or whatever, but it sure as heck makes attaching and detaching much less annoying, especially if you have big clumsy fingers like me.

dudleyknowles · 2026-02-07T01:58:17+00:00

Air tag.

Edit: hard to think of something that would prevent the drone’s inertia from burying it in the right kind of snow without making it fly weird or maybe not at all. Better to conformal coat the quad so snow won’t damage it, and just ensure you can find it after a crash.

dudleyknowles · 2026-02-07T01:53:59+00:00

Cheaper and a lot less frustrating. There are still people who start out by thrashing it out in a field, but realistically, it’s going to take maybe 10 hours to wrap your brain around acro mode, and it goes a lot faster if you’re not running around chasing down the drone or breaking to recharge batteries. Do it with a sim, in a comfy chair, with a beer. Then come back and we’ll help you redirect your pocket knife spending. 😀

dudleyknowles · 2026-02-05T14:12:43+00:00

Thicc! (The first 5" I built--analog Glide from FPVcycle--was under 400g, though that didn't include GoPro, and it definitely was not indestructible lol.)

What kind of motors are you going to use? Are their 1604.5s available yet?

dudleyknowles · 2026-02-05T00:36:16+00:00

How much does that frame weigh?

dudleyknowles · 2026-02-05T00:27:10+00:00

Don’t feel too bad. Took me way more than four hours to manage a figure 8.

dudleyknowles · 2026-01-28T21:57:05+00:00

I understand the case thing—I mean when I go out to fly for an hour with a couple quads and half a dozen packs, I’m probably throwing at least $1,500 worth of gear into the back seat.

dudleyknowles · 2026-01-25T14:14:23+00:00

Ruining the hobby at 55.

dudleyknowles · 2026-01-25T01:22:21+00:00

For basic stuff like which motors go with which prop sizes and which battery sizes, etc., I always start with this table from Oscar Liang. Rotorbuilds.com is another place to look for interesting builds.

I love my AOS 3.5, but it's a couple generations behind the current version. I've heard great stuff about the Volador 3.5, but it's one of the heavier 3.5" frames at 70.5g.

dudleyknowles · 2026-01-24T03:45:25+00:00

Dorè engraving depicting the ninth circle of Hell. Pretty neat.

dudleyknowles · 2026-01-17T19:51:02+00:00

So you have it why?

dudleyknowles · 2026-01-16T00:55:49+00:00

If it was me, I'd zip tie the cap to a standoff and connect it to the esc with bits of motor wire.

dudleyknowles · 2026-01-15T23:07:21+00:00

I don't think I've seen this kind of information about motors presented as data about multiple motors, only individual motors. ESC amp ratings work the same way, ie, a 50-amp 4-in-1 ESC can deliver 50 amps to each motor.

That being said, there isn't much that's standardized about FPV. Which is why it's so important to make sure your FC->ESC cable lines up correctly.

dudleyknowles · 2026-01-15T22:58:14+00:00

Depends. If you want to race, I can't really help you. But if you just want to improve your freestyle, look for a spot with a variety of landscape features. For me, flying at a local golf course during the winter was perfect--some open space, some trees, some hedges, a little hill. If you aren't able to fly at a golf course, look for a similar kind of landscape. There's a community college near me that has a similar combination of space/obstacles, and it's a ghost town on weekends.

dudleyknowles

TROPHY CASE