An FPV Beginner's Guide: What I Learned When Getting Started

so you're thinking about getting into @pv but like me you have little to no knowledge of electronic components you've never really soldered before you don't have much time to learn and maybe even have little to no interest in learning how some serious enthusiasts might say well this isn't a hobby for you however I disagree I think no matter what your reasoning is for getting into the Hobby there is a simple way to get started without much prior knowledge upfront and that's what I want to share with you guys today [Music] when I first got hooked I went down a rabbit hole of research I used to be today well what's up guys we're gonna run right my name's Alex hey I'm Jesse Birdwell however the more I learned the more questions I had and the more I realized that this wasn't gonna be as easy as I originally thought because the truth is for somebody who really wants to get invested in the hobby there is so much to learn if you're only willing to invest the time personally I just wanted a quality product that I could take straight out of a box and fly and I think whether you're a casual hobbyist with a full time job and not a lot of time a filmmaker looking to use fpv as a tool for your videos or just somebody looking to buy an fpv drone is a fun gift for somebody else there's a lot of you in the same boat so is it possible to get into fpv without a lot of effort and technical knowledge yes so how do you do it I think no matter who you ask an almost universal response will be that step one is downloading a simulator [Music] why simulators well flying fpv drones is very difficult even if you're coming from a cinematography background and you're used to flying photography drones there's going to be a steep learning curve see unlike other drones FPV quads don't stop to avoid obstacles they don't maintain their elevation and you can also tell to turn them in any direction meaning you can completely flip them upside down because of that it's unavoidable that when you're first starting out you will crash a lot even if you are an avid gamer and comfortable with a controller the controls are not going to be very intuitive for you by getting a simulator you can learn to fly without the headache of breaking your drone if you crash in the sim you instantly restart if you crash in real life well your quad might be out of commission for a while also if you get frustrated and decide to quit you can leave with the satisfaction knowing that you only invested $20 on the hobby and move on to something else so which simulator should you buy the most popular simulators on the market are velocity owned and lift up out of the to lift off requires a higher end computer to run but both of them will give you a pretty good at VV experience I don't want to get into the minor differences between the two but which one you choose is ultimately up to personal preference now a lot of people say that when you buy a simulator you shouldn't use a gaming controller but instead you should invest in a real RC radio personally I'd say use what you have the RC radio will give you a better experience and you will need one eventually but I'd say don't buy one until you know that you want to commit to the hobby also you might end up buying a drone and a radio bundled together so until you know what you want to buy just wait now a couple days have passed you're starting to fly well on the simulator you like it and now you really want to get started for real so what made equipment are you gonna need to get started in that PV the main components of your fpv setup are going to be a drone a radio transmitter fpv goggles a battery charger and batteries now you will need multiple batteries a typical drone battery lasts between 2 to 7 minutes depending on size and there's no real way around them drones use a lot of power and you're not gonna want to wait for your one battery to charge every time after 3 minutes of flying so I do recommend you buy multiples of these and I will link the ones I recommend below now you know what equipment you need but which model should you buy how much money should you spend on each item how do you make sure that everything is compatible and how do you make everything work all of these are valid questions because not all the components available are going to be compatible with each other however there is a simple solution to this luckily there are a few solid options of ready-to-fly kits that will make this choice a lot easier to make these are great quality drones that come ready to go straight out of the box the drones come preassembled and they also come bundled with a radio the radio receiver which you would normally have to buy separately and solder into your drone yourself also comes pre-installed not that now depending on your budget your interest level and your needs i've selected two ready-to-fly kits and a third slightly different option that you can choose from so here's step 2 choosing your drone [Music] the first drone on my list is the Emacs tiny Hawk now this one here is the tiny Hawk s with my own custom paint job but it looks pretty similar to the original now although these are a lot smaller than a full-sized fpv drone they shouldn't be considered or disregarded as a toy in fact they have a lot of power and they come surprisingly close to handling the same way a full-size drone would with the goggles on the experience is pretty similar also their size actually makes them better in a few ways than a standard sized drone first of all because they're so small in light you can crash them and beat them around quite a bit and still feel confident that you won't need too many repairs when you're first starting out you can also easily fly them indoors and through tiny gaps that you could never fly a full-size drone through it makes you start looking at objects in your house as potential gates or obstacles and setting up racetracks around the house is pretty fun the propellers on the tiny Hawk are also surrounded by bumpers which not only sometimes let you bounce off of objects but also protect both the propellers and the object that you hit from getting scratched or damaged although many people would prefer to take their drones outside if you live in a place with a lot of bad weather this could be a great option for you also if you live in a country with very strict drone laws like Canada has this could also be a great option don't quote me on these numbers but currently flying a drone outside without a proper license in Canada could get you up to five thousand dollars in fines this could go up to seven thousand if you're flying in unapproved spaces if this is something you have to deal with well this might be a way around that the greatest benefit of buying this package though is that altogether it costs one sixty five ninety-nine and besides a few extra batteries it comes with everything you need you will get the drone a controller fpv goggles a battery and the battery chart honestly as a casual user you might not even feel need to ever upgrade if you're on a budget this is definitely the place to start and if you decide that it's a hobby that you actually really enjoy you can slowly start upgrading your equipment piece by piece if you decide to upgrade your radio transmitter or want to buy a new set of goggles if you do a little bit of research they will most likely pair with the tiny hawk and you can enjoy them together while you save up some money to buy the rest of your gear now what this drone isn't made for is freestyle and cinematics although you can have a great time racing these with your friends it doesn't really have the components necessary to do the complicated maneuvers that a professional freestyle rig would have also even though it's been done before it would be incredibly impractical and difficult to mount an action cam to this so if you're planning on using your fpv drone to do some filmmaking you're probably going to need something bigger so this is option 2 [Music] now I'm gonna jump first from the cheapest to my most expensive recommendation because I want to talk first about the TBS oblivion now the oblivion has the size and the power of a full-sized racing drum is incredibly easy to pick up and use and also takes away all the skills necessary to fix a drone yourself just like the tiny hawk the Oblivion can be bought and a ready to fly kit that you can instantly take out of the box and use what makes this drone great though is it's the only full-size drone that comes with a modular design where any piece can be taken out and swapped with the replacement without ever having to solder anything that's why I'd say if you're coming into the Hobby from the filmmaking world or simply have more money and less time this is the option for you it will give you the best performance while requiring the least amount of technical knowledge it even comes with a GoPro mount so you really don't have to worry about anything it's as close to a no-fuss option as it gets the first downside of the squad is that you would be mostly limiting yourself to TBS parts they're modular design is unique and made solely for their own products but hey they work pretty well the only time I would ever see this being a problem for the average person is if a product wasn't in stock you wouldn't really have any alternatives like I said this is also the most expensive option of the three for the drone controller battery and charger it costs $600 and this kit does not include a pair of goggles luckily any pair of analog goggles will most likely work with this drone however it is an extra cost on top of an already expensive product the footage that I've seen people get with this though [Music] yeah it's it's great now there are a few full-sized budget-friendly quads that come in complete kits similar to the Oblivion however a lot of the most popular options come set up as what is called bind and fly bind and fly drones come completely assembled but it's up to you to buy your own goggles charger radio and a receiver that works with your radio and then pair them together the inconvenient part of this route is that not only equipment on the market today is compatible with each other so it does take a little bit more research to make sure that the things you buy are going to work together also if you take this route you have to be completely committed to troubleshooting learning about the hobby fixing your drone and learning the ins and outs of the hardware and software that make up your drone even though these drones are still really easy to set up it's inevitable that eventually you will crash some people would even say that if you're not crashing you're not really pushing yourself and therefore not really learning the difference between the Oblivion and the average binding fly drone however is that if something breaks you're most likely going to have to solder on the replacement part yourself this is why I'd only recommend this option to the serious hobbyist because if you take this route you're definitely committing to the long term of learning about the Hobby so if you're ready for that this is the gear I recommend the drone I personally use is the nozzle 5 4s overall this is a great quality drone that I would recommend to any beginner the build quality is fantastic and it flies incredibly well I have nothing against the 6s version of this which is a little bit more powerful and I've heard great reviews on that one as well however this is the one I own and the one I feel a little bit more comfortable talking about I'm not gonna go into the details of the nozzle 4 or the nozzle 5 if you want my full review I'm gonna link it above you will also need a radio transmitter the one I use is the taranis QX 7 which is an affordable yet pro level transmitter that you will probably never need to upgrade now although this isn't the highest end model in the line Tyrannis radios are generally known to be the bread and butter of RC controllers and this one has all the features you need as a beginner and probably well into the future it's all so easy to find receivers that are compatible with this radio and will let you use almost any drone or RC vehicle you want to use in the future the NAS will five comes with the option of having an Rx SR or XM plus receiver pre-installed both which will work with the Tran is QX 701 quick disclaimer for some reason this radio doesn't come with a charger included so if you do decide to go with this radio make sure to buy the charger separately again I'll link it down below alright next the one thing that makes fpv what it is are the goggles now the ones I chose to get are the Eocene evie 800 DS and at 86 dollars these are probably as cheap as you can go without sacrificing too much quality now the box goggles are definitely much bigger and bulkier than dual-screen goggles like the popular Fatshark HD OS or now the HD o tubes however the great thing about these is first of all the screen is great the field of view is great on these and if you ever choose to upgrade the screen actually pops out of these and can be used as an external monitor for your friends and family if they ever want to watch a long as you fly other solid options for goggles are the fat shark attitude v5 s and the fat shark HD o tubes there's also the DJI digital fpv system which is the only set of digital goggles and we'll give you an image in Full HD which ones you choose are probably going to be up to your budget now the DJI system is also gonna require a little bit more research and tinkering on your part so make sure you're comfortable with the installation of those if you decide to go for them next something a lot of beginners don't realize is you're also gonna have to invest in a charger now there are some cheap options available however charging lipo batteries can be pretty dangerous and there is a better and worse way of doing it so investing in something a little bit better can save you money in the long run possibly prevent you from burning your house down and we'll also make charging a lot fast and more enjoyable the charger I use is the hobby mate d6 duo which is a little bit pricey and if you're on a budget I will include some cheaper options down below however what I like about this one is it doesn't require an external power supply but simply plugs into the wall and surprisingly a lot of chargers do require you to buy a power supply separately and I don't know I just I kind of just prefer everything to be integrated and simple so I I really like this one also remember that no matter which option of fpv drone you decide to buy you will need extra batteries the tiny hawk runs off of one cell or one s batteries and the non-school v and the Oblivion both run off of four cell or four s batteries that is unless you buy the 6s version of the nozzle in which case it will run off of 6 s batteries there are also a lot of tools and accessories that are useful and sometimes necessary to have when starting at an fpv however that's going to be a whole other video for now the options above should be a good starting point and that's it so no matter what your needs and budget are there is an easy way to get into fpv and i hope this video made your first purchase at least a little bit easier honestly flying fpv drones can be an incredibly fun rewarding hobby however sometimes I just think it can be a little bit overwhelming also if I was to add a step 3 to this list it would be to keep learning as much as you can this video is going to be the first in a series of beginner fpv videos that i'm working on so if you enjoyed this content please make sure to LIKE and subscribe and I'll have more videos for you guys soon I really do appreciate all of you guys watching and I'll see you guys in the next one peace

Channel: Matt Pochwat

Views: 574,477

Keywords: How to FPV, Beginner FPV, How to get started in FPV?, Easiest way to get started in FPV, best quadcopter, fpv drone

Id: DLJHdM4-LuI

Length: 17min 6sec (1026 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 15 2019