RC Model Reviews

Hey guys, so I talked myself into getting a quadcopter only problem is I have no idea what it should be made from.
I should also mention that I wish to make it FPV in the future because I already have the gear.
Any help would be great.

Thanks in advance, Miget.

What you make your quad from depends very much on what you have available and what tools you have.

Quads have been made using everything from wooden dowels through to hi-tech composite carbon tubes and frames.

There is also the option of buying a pre-made frame, some of these are very nice and can reduce the time it takes to get your quad into the air by quite a bit of time.

As you'll have seen in my latest video, I purchased a composite frame from China but I've also welded up an aluminum one.

The simplest DIY would be to use aluminum tubing and plywood plates.

It's interesting to note that most of the people around here who are doing FPV with multi-rotors have chosen the tricopter or Y6 layout for such activities. They seem more stable as a camera platform than the quads -- probably because, in forward flight, all the props are operating in "clean air" whereas with a quad, there may be some interaction between the front and rear props on each side.

Thanks so much I will look into those two types of multi-rotors then, I like the sound of it being more stable.
Now all I fave left to do is to find plans or a frame and the right electronics.
Thanks, you saved me a lot of money.

in what little experience i have with multirotors thus far my friends tricopter is absolutely impossible to get perfectly stable at this point while my supercheap quad has been supremely stable right off the bat both with the kk (which wasnt able to keep the tri in the air at all) and now with multiwii

i think the main reason to go with a y setup for fpv is the much greater unobstructed field of view that setup affords you

my advice for a first setup would be to buy one of the sub 10$ frames from hobbyking the kk board from hobbyking and some plush 10 based motor setup to get some experience and understanding of multirotors on the cheap
thus far this combination has worked amazingly well for me for what was probably about 100 dollar for the complete thing (it seems incredibly cheap until you realize you have to buy everything 4 times)

as for diy frames most seem to be made out of square aluminim tubes with pcbs missused as cheap glass fible plates for the centre
so essentially just 2 square pieces of glass fibre with 2 holes per arm each and 4 aluminium tubes with 5 holes drille into them (2 to mount them to the centre 2 to mount the motor and 1 for the motor shaft)

Ok now I am really confused on what to get. ????

ok i think ill have to redact my endorsement of those super cheap hobbyking frames
they work decently well but after a flip of death 2 arms broke off and one keeps disattaching itself over and over again at the previous breaking point
not that it cant be fixed but they are certainly not the most sturdy frames money can buy... not by a long shot
theyll get you in the air and are okay as a test platform but not useable for proper flying

to conclude my advice would be to got with a glassfibe centreplate + 4 aluminium arms with about 20-25cm from centre to motor

In my travels I picked up four carbon fibre golf clubs for about $4 each at second hand stores, then I moved and all projects stopped.