What advice and/or product recommendations would you give a beginner? What websites do you buy your parts from? What software do you use?
I’m super late to this thread, sorry.
Honestly where to buy depends a lot on where you’re located. There are plenty of Chinese sites that have good deals and descent products. e.g. hobbyking banggood. Finding a retailer that ships products you’re interested in from your continent is ideal. What to buy if you’re new to the hobby really depends on you. Buy something that looks fun. This is very much a you get what you pay for type hobby. So for example a <50 dollar RC boat is likely to be less fun and durable than one that is >200.
If there is a particular type of RC vehicle that you’re after and you’re willing to share your region I can probably provide a more specific answer.
As for software drones without auto-leveling can be tricky. As can fixed wing aircraft via LoS. Simulators can help build muscle memory. Otherwise there is a considerable amount of relatively proprietary software used to configure various bits of hardware involved.
No worries. This community was super small when I joined. Just trying to get the content started.
Anyway, I’m located in the US.
Specifically, I’m interested in building quadcopters, planes, and maybe a blimp further down the line.
I’ve seen enough videos to know what parts are involved but I don’t know what the reputable brands are for motors, speed controllers, FPV cameras, etc. I don’t know what controller to get that has most of the bells and whistles that I need. I don’t know how interoperable these parts are.
Is ardupilot good enough or is it lacking features that maybe another software has?
Basically, I don’t want to spend money on something just to find out, had I spent $20 more on it, I’d have gotten a 2x better product.
I fly FPV drones mostly.
I order often from: getfpv.com, readymaderc.com, and racedayquads.com. I’ve also ordered from quite a few other sites but try to pay close attention to delivery estimates If I want something quickly.
For the most part there is pretty good interoperability on parts. Transmitters will speak one or more protocol, make sure to get compatible receivers there. Video systems are similar, analogue hardware is fairly interoperable, but if you get a digital video system you need corresponding video transmitter/camera. Not all motors are equal but even pretty cheap motors can get the job done. From a power standpoint you want to make sure any speed controllers you’re using are reasonably matched to your motors.
Ardupilot is probably best for automated systems, waypoint missions, position hold, or otherwise photography platform like activates. Ardupilot also gets extra points for being versatile planes/drone/boats, etc from one controller. If you want to actually pilot a performance drone you’d probably want to lean more toward betaflight and its forks/competitors.
When it comes to aircraft, if you’re new, expect to crash and break them. They can be fairly durable but really when I buy something I’m thinking about it’s flight characteristics and features more than it’s cost. $20 isn’t going to make a big difference here. Transmitters and Video equipment are much better investment opportunities. A nice transmitter with quality gimbals can last a decade. Quality FPV goggles will last also and improve QoL. These are where you want to invest.
That said a really cheap transmitter and some crappy box goggles are better than not flying at all.
Planes differ from drones in that they can be flown without a flight controller (direct PWM to servos). Though a more purpose built (fixed wing) flight controllers can make the job a bunch easier by trying to help hold orientation. I’m pretty new at the whole fixed wing thing.
A blimp sounds like a great time, on a really still day, or in a gymnasium or something. I’ve also seen RC paramotors that look like they might be groovy!
If you’d like to learn about multi rotors (quads/drones/etc) or even fixed-wing stuff, I’d suggest checking out the following on YouTube:
- Joshua Bardwell
- Painless360
I just got back into the aircraft side of the hobby after being gone for a decade and these two channels were able to get me back up to speed. They both have really great reviews/tutorials/in-depth technical videos.