You’ve binge watched FPV Quadcopter racing videos for the past few hours (or days) and now you’re ready to go from spectator to participant with your own quadcopter! In the following post I’ll describe the basic parts needed to build your own quadcopter and what they each do.
This is all based on my own research as I build my own first quadcopter. I’ve decided to go the DIY route primarily because I enjoy the process of learning and building new things. That’s probably my hobby more so than anything else. If you’re not sure you want to go the DIY quadcopter route, there are many ready to fly options available – start by checking out this post on getting started with quadcopters.
At first glance, quadcopters are deceptively complex – Flight controllers, ESC, TX, RX, KV ratings, Telemetry, BEC, Opto, 2.4 Ghz, voltage regulator, blah, blah, blah. High, the geek barrier to entry this hobby is.
Don’t let all the jargon dissuade you from getting started, it’s not nearly as complicated as it seems.
Just realize this: at the basic level quadcopters are extremely simple. You need some motors and propellers, something to control the speed of each motor (ESC), something to tell the motors what to do (Flight Controller), a frame to hold it all together, a radio (transmitter/receiver) to send and receive your commands, and a battery to power it. Six parts.
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