Hidden Costs in FPV: What You REALLY Need to Get Started 

hey, not bad advice, some sstuff i would add is heatshrink, and to use heatshrink/ziptie combo to mount radio antenna, which is best best in an 'L'' shape , one straight up at the back and one straight out the back, vtx antenna usually in between. this is good because you can arrange ziptie to bend only in one direction, ie. away from props leaving only the active element unsupported by zip tie. next i would say a box of assorted m3 nuts and bolts and a box of nylon standoff/nuts/bolts, next would be thin 3M double sided stickyfoam (thin) nd i would suggest the main concept of buying spaares is to build a second quad, its really hard to go somewhere exotic and fly knowing one crash is the end of the session, evrybody carries two. ps. hot glue gun

You overpaid for your charger by about $100.

I want to buy but dont know were to begin

@@justamyfpv7422 you really need to decide a budget first, then decide if you want to build your first quad, or buy the iflight cidora or nazgul 5... building is very easy, and set up is very easy if it all goes to plan, it gets tough if you have to troubleshoot, so you should watch a bunch of reviews on goggles and radios and budget builds, you should seriously consider buying the dji hd camera and radio, but more importantly you should budget for two quads, buy spares along with your first quad and order all the parts till you can build a second quad, identical is best but, you can look at other frames in terms of durability and ease of build (loads of space to fit components) playing around on a sim might help you decide what kind of flying you want to do,

Matt Pochwat i’m new to all of this I only have a Mavic and a Mavic mini I’ve watched above 200 RU-vid videos and narrowed it down to you and Mr. Steele My hope is you see this message in reply. How much would it cost me to get a beginners package RTF from you? You speak a lot about budget I’m just wondering what a basic package you have to offer. I suck at soldering and I’m not a computer engineer LOL I’m just a Puerto Rican from Boston with a few bucks to spend thanks for your videos man

I did this and have learned so much in just a couple of months!

Hi, is flying DRL Simulator close to flying a real drone? I will finish my first Drone build within the next weeks and flew in the simulator the last weeks, is it comparable?

Its not as close as Velocidrone or Liftoff, but it's totally fine. The main thing you're trying to do is understand how yaw, pitch and roll all work together along with throttle management so you can confidently take off, turn, and land without crashing. Make sure you've been flying in acro mode too.

@@benezderking I can recommend liftoff, have been flying my eachine wizard x220 for a few months and also been training on and off with the sim and it's really accurate.

BeneBengt I actually found FPV freerider more realistic as drl is very floaty. The1stJesusMachine is right in saying though that you’re learning the principles of the controls

It's because he says "eckcetra" instead of "et cetera". Like the hidden costs of fpv drones, I see many RU-vidrs being held back by this hidden barrier to sub growth.

Oliver Lardner 😂🤣🤣🤣🤣😂

RU-vid algorithm has changed a lot and many good channels are stuck and not growing because of visibility given by the platform.

he's almost there :-)

He has 49,8k now

Haha same

Lol I literally watched videos for about 5 years on and off before I successfully got in the air with a 5 in. I bought the parts and still didn’t get everything to work until over a year later. Remember the red bottom emax motors?

I then proceeded to get it stuck on a power line 😂😂

lol i bought a tinyhawk as well and now i have 2 quads 2 controllers and have spent over a years worth of allowance on 2 pairs of fat sharks and have spent like 2500$ and im only 14 haha..... im going to go broke:)

Haha it's not even about breaking the truth, just hopefully making the hobby more accessible and enjoyable. Thanks man.

Cant agree more! Don't click "buy" on the first item that looks cool because some fancy fpv youtuber has that same item. Do some research, compare prices, maybe another shop gives for a few bucks more an extra battery with the transmitter. And also a lot of these things you don't need to buy just to start the hobby. Gopro? you dont need that from the start to have fun with FPV (unless you do it to impress your friends with nice HD footage) So that saves you a SD card and GoPro/Runcam/Foxeer + a mount Some Flight controllers come with eeprom, so they write the Blackbox data there. Saved another SD Card (yes it's not a lot of space but should be enough to troubleshoot.) As an electronics hobbiest, I didn't had an function generator, oscilloscope, bench power supply, reflow station, etc. Same with FPV drones. Do research, see what you really need and start flying and then maybe buy a HD camera or some other item.

The issue is that a lot of video's talking about getting into FPV and what not only talk about the drone, same with articles. It's basically a case of "you need to know this information that you can't know", unless you know people already in the hobby this information is hidden. Been in the hobby for something like a year now and it still annoys me to no end that a lot goods don't show their true cost. It's like going to do an ebay search for some item, searching on cheapest, thinking "hey this one is a good deal" only to find out it's one of those awful multi-listings where they have some wire for a high price and the item you wanted an higher price. Even before you get into the hobby itself it requires you to do a lot of research that that doesn't make sense unless your in the hobby. It's basically a vicious cycle of ignorance until you take the plunge and even then a lot info is so technical the average person doesn't understand it. I'm a hobbyist electrical engineer focusing on computers for nearly 2 decades and most of my life, certainly more knowledgeable on electronics than the average joe, and it was still confusing as fuck buying my first quad with the hobbies alternative naming not to mention all the weird protocols. And some specific terminology for motors still baffle me, like I understand the whole sizing naming scheme but what does it affect? I don't know, I just buy what seems common and that has worked. What does KV ratings do to a quad, I only know it's basically rotations per volt and not even fully sure about that. My point is, the information about the hobby is poor and decentralised at best and not understandable at worst especially for when you start. And it doesn't help that most people that focus getting people into the hobby all use fancy DJI or fatshark systems with fancy high end equipment and rarely show entry level stuff, simply because it isn't as sexy. EV800D's certainly aren't as sexy as some new fatshark or even something mid-range like a Skyzone, but they make amazing starter googles and great backup and even spectator goggles.

Can you help me get started in FPV?

Hey Jerry! I'm finding out the hard way about the discrepancy between my budget and what I actually spend. It all adds up fast!

Thanks man!

I think starting with a whoop is a great idea. I'd say if you get enough practice with that you can safely jump straight to the 5 inch if that's your end goal. It'll vary from person to person!

I think the most cost-effective way would be to fly the sim till you're skilled at that and then just go and buy a 5in

If you can fix a whoop, you can fix any quad. Build skills need to be "good" if not slightly mediocre to survive this hobby and you learn a lot trying to fix TINY electronics.. I went through 2 FC'S (80$) BEFORE I understood that I was using the wrong solder, wrong temperature, and bad technique.. a TBS smokestopper and a multimeter are essential to my toolkit for these reasons. Either way, whoop or 5inch, beginners need to understand how to BUILD.

i started off with tinywhoops, now with the new bf versions it may be easier, but as it was for me, tinywhoops are more difficult to handle and just as easy to damage when crashing. Cause most parts are not very durable and with the plastic frame it may also cause some bad flight characteristics. I would rather start with sim, then a 2-2.5inch toothpick and next is a 5 inch. A toothpick like the Sailfly-X are pretty durable and the flight feeling is about the same as a 5 inch, also props are very cheap and batteries too. With one spare set of a frame and a bag of props you are good to go and can have plenty of crashes.

@@CorrexPoE the toothpicks are def a good idea because of how similar they fly to a 5 inch, sometimes i switch between the two and almost forget what im flying

Yea, you're right! I think whether or not you have to replace the antennas right away depends on the goggles that you buy, but most people do. At the time I saw it more as an upgrade and not a necessity, but it's a good recommendation!

Lol it's a black hole for your money if you let it be

@@MattPochwat So why dont people make a video outlining EXACTLY what you need - every cost included - with a shopping list/links.... it cant be that hard

@@jameswilsonmusic7749 the issue is that a lot of equipment is very limited in it's availability. A lot of things you could buy half a year ago aren't available now anymore, not to mention those list also exasperate the issue as a lot of items will than be near permanent sold out (at least that's my experience with the 100 dollar drone build from a few years back when I got into it). And on top of all that a lot of equipment advances really fast, most equipment is already outclassed a year later for the same price (though works fine of course but you don't really want to recommend dated parts). Remember a decade ago in this hobby most equipment where repurposed parts from other electronics, like a old CCTV cam for a camera, RC plane flight controllers and ESC, wooden frames, converted ski goggles or a literal box with a screen mounted in it, etc, etc. On top of all that a lot of different people have a different level of where they want to get in. I got in on 200 dollars and buying the most budget of budget options while others get in for 1k and instantly go for DJI with a drone with high quality parts and a top of the line radio.

Haha no judgment here at all. Just the awkwardness of being in front of a camera.

That’s where I’m at. I didn’t realize I purchased an analog then a digital. Now I guess I’m going to get digital goggles and possibly add to make it compatible with analog. I feel so dumb.

what exactly do you mean by that?

Thanks my dude.