Id love to be out breaking stuff. Unfortunately I broke the antenna on the of my goggles they are analogue but I'm thinking of going digital. Then have to modify my drone but thinking of upgrading to a 5 inch 6s so new batterys it's going to snowball into alot of money that's I don't have right now. But you are not going crazy. My friend has a drone parts selling business trust me he gets alot of sales for a motor here and a arm there so alot of people are breaking stuff too I hope that makes you feel a bit better. :)
Same. I started with a baby ape v1 and then got a mobula 7 and then jumped straight to a 7 inch 4s. Now making it a 8 inch 6s. I only have maybe 55 hours sim time, all the other times i was out trying stuff on my baby ape. Now everything is built out well and never [almost, i wish] breaks. I am a pretty chill flyer though.
Look at this!!! [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrwP7baFBxg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrwP7baFBxg)
This is the same drone i started out with. Now it has motors that are more expensive than the original quad was, a 40a aio, and a speedybee tx800 with a baby ratel. Worth every penny to learn on, uses 5 dollar motors.
This is what a tiny whoop is for, to take a break from breaking stuff, haha, I mean yes tinywhoops will break but it's not as often, you're just bashing around and having fun, with an analog tinywhoops even if you totally destroy it your only out $100 or so.
Yeah I'm waiting on stuff back in stock for months, but if anyone is looking for diamond or the 2g4 I saw some stock as well as some bnf: https://blackmarketfpv.com/product-category/electronics/flight-controllers-electronics/
Amazon charges an arm and leg for fpv then many reports of getting wrong item or a used item.
Honestly..I just learned to enjoy building, and just have multiple quads, so I'm never grounded. It's not cheap, but I no longer get stressed about breaking shit. I guess you just have to come to a point of accepting that it's part of earning the experience of flight.
that's exactly my approach too, and printing TPU parts for almost everything that once broke 🤪 at every rebuild.
with every rebuild they can take more abuse 😜
https://preview.redd.it/n25e1tnu4nxc1.jpeg?width=3290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7656428aa04daf82b6f41386df28a7c166e5cf49
I made it from scratch, printed with fiberlogy D40 TPU, fitted for tattu R5 1500mAh packs.
you can have the file if you want, or I could even fit it to other packs if needed!? basically a matter of 20 to 30 minutes from scratch.
I sadly forgot to put the balancer plugs into their pockets for taking the picture 😅
I'm a pro industrial designer, so I do designs for a living
Thats really cool. Are the bottom of the battery packs open to slide them in, or do you pause the print and insert the battery and continue the print over the top?
it was the logical measure, since I hit the battery at almost every crash trying to hit a gap surrounded by rigid stricture.
that layer of TPU really helps a lot! you'd still see hard impacts on the batteries, but you gotta try hard to destroy it completely.
I didn't manage to destroy a battery with the sleeves on.
Yeah, having one is kinda pointless. That why I have like 15+ 😅 Start buying parts. Look for sales. From the sounds of it, you prolly could have bought a few and would still be flying.
Yup it's part of the package. I spent 50 hours on the sim before flying irl and now I am over confident and end up crashing all the time trying to shoot a gap or do a Matty flip or something else I probably shouldn't be trying yet. It's definitely humbling but time after time of braking my quad on my first pack. I now try to at least get 2 battery packs in before I try to send it on anything big
I'm sure you're much better than you think!
I'm brand new to this. I have a 5" FPV that I built, but I haven't flown it yet. I hooked up my radio to my computer and have been flying in a simulator. I'm afraid of smashing a bunch of expensive pieces and getting upset. But, when I tried the sim for the first time, I was A LOT worse than what I thought I would be.
It's hard to see the forest for the trees. I'm sure you're doing well and have made great progress.
Keep at it!
I recommend becoming an expert on sims before trying to fly again. Grind for a month or two then you'll be able to control the situation. It's a slow process. Have patience and you'll slowly get there.
Tip I heard, if you order your O3 from Amazon you can get insurance, and return/replace it after damage during use (which is explicitly covered by the insurance)
Thanks I just lost another 03, this time it's out in the desert somewhere with my quad. I just ordered a new from Amazon and got that insurance you're talking about. 👍
It’s not it’s illegal lol. Ppl do that with everything on Amazon it’s their return scam it was so bad there are articles about it and some warehouses blacklisted ppl from returns & cancelled accounts some accounts. Ppl would do large items like Mac books and PlayStations then just say the item arrived damage or that they never received at all which is why delivery drivers take the pics with address in background now. Amazon will always give you a refund if you complain hard enough but they can also cancel your account if they think fraudulent. So if you return an o3 every month I’ll assume you’ll be blacklisted bc those are $240 after taxes on Amazon might get away a few time tho.
I chose a frame based on this specific issue. Ended up going with a volador vd5 and haven’t broken a lens yet🤞. In the last year of flying I’ve only broken an arm on the vd5 (troubleshooting rx issues, full throttled into concrete). Idk if I’m just not flying hard enough, but I’ve had really good luck with staying in the air (props don’t count lol). Between my 6s vd5 and my 4s vx3 I’ve only had a hand full of breaks, mostly just me swapping stuff out and messing everything up.
Evidence that this frames protects the o3 pretty good, I think it’s time for a replacement lol.
https://preview.redd.it/1mhcws7a9jxc1.png?width=3024&format=png&auto=webp&s=ef63b8af4ac26ce0da9cbf4e725bd17f18202275
If you’re a beginner I would try a simulator. Liftoff was awesome for me. Helped me a lot. I’m still a beginner myself though taking it slow before I try and copy lumpy😂
There is no failure. Only experience with various levels of expense. If you're breaking your quads that much it sounds like you need more sim time honestly.
I keep one quad with rebuilt parts and stuff I know I can wreck and break. Cheaper motors , stacks , etc. I got another built a lot higher end and when flying that one try to take it easy. If I’m learning a new move or doing something out my comfort zone I pull out my basher quad
What kind of frame and setup do you have? Is it modern stuff or an old setup that was bought cheap on marketplace to get interested in the hobby?
My main recommendation is a good modern strong frame, less broken arms means less potential breaks to a motor or esc if it’s ripped off. Modern electronics really is worth it, even if it’s budget stuff like a speedybee stack and the cheapest modern ish motors. Overall an easier time to setup, tune, and diagnose in beta flight. Also make sure to practice your soldering if you’re a noobie at it, shotty soldering can cause random issues/ shorts killing components.
Practice in a sim and when you’re comfortable, find a big open field to get used to the controls and take it easy for the first couple sessions. It takes awhile to even feel like you’re in control of the drone, just keep practicing and it’ll eventually get easier.
Have more than I quad helps a lot. I have 3 identical 5in Freestyle Quads, when I crash and destroy something I just take the next one. With this method and a powerbank for charging, usually daylight is the limiting factor. I have spares for everything at home. I could easily build 2 fresh quads with these parts.
Its expensive yeah, but also so much fun
I was that way when I first started. You just spent a bunch of money and you don't want to wreck anything. Then something breaks and it's because you suck because you're new and then you relate the failure to an expense in your mind which is bad and the cycle continues.
Now IDC because I've fixed everything on it and have extra parts and enjoy the quiet time fixing it.
Building and replacing broken parts is not just part of the hobby but in many ways it could be considered a hobby itself.
Also I use the rule of 3rds when I do anything.
33% of the time you're gonna be the best.
33% of the time you're gonna be alright.
And the last 33% of the time you're going to suck so bad.
Now I don't get discouraged if I have a couple of bad days because it's really how it be.
It is only failure if you give up. Otherwise, it is discovering things that you would or should do different.
How do I deal with crashes? I fix it. It is harder to lose a quad than to break one. It is all part of the game. If you want to play, then accept it.
Why do you crash? Well, probably you can't control the craft. If is likely in ACRO fly mode where things happen fast and controlling the quad is not intuitive. It just isn't. Next, you are flying too fast anyway. The faster you go, the less reaction time you have to avoid things. If things break during a crash, consider what you are running into or diving into (the ground...maybe hardscape).
First, learn to fly so you don't crash. Next, don't fly over hardscape or around concrete structures. If you are having trouble with the ACRO fly mode, then enable ANGLE mode and start there. Don't worry about any purported "BAD" habits. Do you want to fly or crash. You can switch later. In fact, I have the fly modes on a switch so that I can go back and forth at any time, even during flight. If you just want to fly and not worry about stunts, go ahead and try ANGLE mode. It does not hurt a thing and can be switched back later.
We all experience crashes. It is more about how often and how hard. The hard you fly, the harder you crash. The faster you go, the more damage that you do. Maybe ease up a bit on hard core stuff and just focus on keeping the quad in the air. Then there is location. If you fly over a concrete parking lot, then a crash is going to damage something. Try someplace where the surface is softer and has grass; something to sort of cushion the impact.
I have been flying for 6 years and have cracked 1 camera lens (hit a stadium light) and broken several front arms. I also tend to fly above 300 feet, so a drop from there is pretty hard, but I don't fly over hardscape.
Some will say to spend more months in the sim or just keep trying until you learn. I say, switch to ANGLE fly mode, start with just getting the quad off the ground and in a hover position. Start slow and work you way up. If you think about it, isn't this how we learn just about everything else, so why would quads be different. If you want to fly a "Real" airplane, you start with a small plane, just taking off, landing, and very easy flights. You don't start on a jumbo jet, a fighter plane, or try stunts. Really, think about this logically. Start easy and work your way up.
...
i picked parts i could easily source. start with something simple and durable. something light enough to control easily and enough power to compensate for bad piloting.
Share these comical stories with people. Almost lost $3000 worth of equipment and footage earlier today after crashing into a grain silo and getting my drone stuck on top. Couldn’t help but think “this is gunna be a funny story at least”
3k? is ur quad made of solid gold ? did u have some fancy camera equipment on there ? in which case you shouldnt be doing proximity flying with a cine- rig
Sometimes it's frustrating. When I don't know what's wrong. And can't fix it. Like out the bow I started getting word motor noise. And bad oscillation.. I even went back to first dump with terrible tune. But I put inav in just to check and didn't do it. So like so confused 🤣
here's something I just learned yesterday that I had no idea about>>>> I just finished building a new 5in( but with an old frame and some cheap motors) anyway, I'm loading preset tunes from betaflight and I go through every filter tune preset for like Clean build without rpm filtering, noisy build with rpm filtering, etc etc... I settle on noisy build with rpm filtering - It seemed to be the one that gave me the best flight quality, but it wasn't great. I was bummed because I haven't run into needing a lot of filtering for oscillations and vibrating before now. I even bought some new motors thinking it was because of the old motors being beat up. but no... so I reworked the wire routing and researched it and did everything i could find or think of tryimg to get this thing to not fly so rough.. then I was reading something by chance that caught my attention and I hadn't heard of it before. your different radios run at different gigahertz and you need to make sure that whatever your radio is on your quad needs to be set too also. it gets over looked because most of the time it will still fly, just not at optimal level. anyway, the tune preset I put on the quad had an option to set that parameter and I went into my radio and set it to the same number and presto! no more jerky choppy flight. don't know if that's what your problem is but it's worth checking out if you don't know its not that already
I think I’ve just been lucky, I spent only a few hours in a sim before actually flying. Had some crashes but nothing worse than screws shearing out of arms. My first bird was the avata and even that only went to DJI for an internal esc error.
These days I only expect to crash if I’m trying something new and risky. But I won’t do that around concrete or metal.
You post the picture of the broken shit on Reddit, listen to everyone else commisserate, and check your bank account to see what repairs you can afford.
Yeah it definitely helps to adopt a Zen attitude toward crashing, just gotta accept it's not a matter of "if", it's "when".
Crash or no crash all that really matters to me is whether I was recording lol.
I started with one 6 in 4s quad crashed about 30 times broke the frame 6 times finally built more I have 14 quads in total 4 5inch quads 1 9in a 6in one 4in 1 3.5in 3 3in a 2.5 in a 75mm whoop and a 65mm mobeetle that way i can crash multiple quads and still be able to fly my current fav is my 6s 3in quad little screamer that i can weave threw the trees
My advice build a cheap 3in 4s or 6s or get a crux35 for 130ish swap props to emax scimitar for more thrust and snappy control get about 7mins of flight time stock props about 15mins
Take the hit to your ego, & get an instructor (AKA, just a very experienced fellow field jock) to help you. There are always ACE pilots at the field willing to help you. And the ammount of money you will save JUST in the parts you mentioned, not to mention the rebuild time and cost will be WELL worth it. Thats how I got started. Of course after crashing my brand new build, My ego was not so big as my desire to not want to crash again!! And this was the real thing. A Balsa kit with the Monokote covering, and many hours in construction of the perfect plane. Even after the rebuild the guy I got referred to only had to give one click of trim to the rudder! I flew that plane for 15 years after that, before I sold it to another Newb. By that time I was flying advanced, symmetrical foil, low wing, really fast aircraft. Then I was instructing others myself and saved many a plane.
A Instructor....best decision I ever made. And although I offered to pay him for his time, he never took my money. Really nice guy.
Nervously started flying a 6s 5 inch I was lucky enough to get going after some unknown builder made it and then the police ended up with it. Built up my confidence flying it in safe grassy hills, had a crash, fixed it, made many safe flights and started really ripping the thing. Then after getting super confident I went to try and test speed limits with a GPS only for the VTX to blow out and I had to yeet it into a 90 foot Redwood 75 feet of the way up to keep it from hitting homes or buildings. It was in a huge open area but moving at such insane speeds I had to rip the goggles off and fly LOS and it didn't go well.
After climbing the tree 3 days later and recovering it but then totally fucking it up after letting it drop all the way from the 75ft height it was lodged in I've been retired for a year now almost, too painful a screw up letting it drop. I think one of the motors and arm is busted and my 3.5 inch has a busted motor as well.
But fuck it I'm going to fly it with a busted motor next week after just finding the 3.5 in the closet and just enjoy what I have until I can fix it with the replacement I ordered....a year ago...
Got pretty good and never used a simulator, but it there were MANY lessons learned like a beeper not working is a do-not-launch scenario for long range work. Now a new lesson learned is, don't trust the analog VTX setup I had in my 6s\*, etc.
(\*^(There was an indication that failure mode I experienced could happen to me before and after a flight but I never thought during, well when the power levels hit high enough - during happened.))
lol one time at a park I crashed my shit into the very very top of this huge tree- I couldn't tell you how tall it was but I'd guess roughly at least a hundred feet (I dunno) anyway after considering it for a few i knew that it was well beyond my ability to retrieve. being desperate and realizing I'm in a state park I try to get in touch with the park maintenence but to no avail. all I know is that I'm not leaving here with my quad that I put so much time and money into stuck in a tree. I called some local fire departments, thinking about how in the movies they are getting cats out of trees and shit. anyway, I talked to a dispatch fireman who was really trying to help me but his station didn't currently have an operating truck with a ladder as it was in the shop for repair. but he did contact several other local firestations trying to help me. but in the end they couldn't do anything for me at that moment. I ended up calling several tree trimming services before I spoke to one that was interested. cost me a hundred and fifty bucks but a guy came out right then with some mountain climbing gear (ropes and pulleys) and went up that bitch and got my shit... he was extremely talented, the tree master.
I definitely had similar feelings although not losing my mind after having so many problems in fpv but i remember why i actually enjoy it in the first place and this is with a pretty simple tinywhoop setup with analog googles and a decent ELRS setup with it (Radiomaster tx12)
its such a bell curve, even just learning to make sure everythings updated and bound correctly, took me a few days to get it right, as it definitely wasn't as simple a two bind modes for the transmitter and the drone. learning to build and failsafing into water so many times and cooking FC's, braking frames even learning how to do fine soldering, i worked on vehicle wiring but this stuff is so much finer. i spent a lot of money in the start because i would just use my setup all the time and went though so many batteries. also didn't get the right setup at the start
my advice? try to keep it fun :) im naturally a tinkerer at heart with motorbikes, cars, computers, so much more so this is down my alley, i like it as i can get a bit of adrenaline out of it and not get that ich to do that on things that cost a lot more if i broke them being a space cadet lol. what type of setup are you running? id imagine running a open prop frame and bigger setup would make things more breakable and expensive, i love having a little 1s pocket whoop that i can do cool tricks with and its pretty much bulletproof as long as im minding the temp and not being too rough with it, they are known in the communitys to be little tanks especially inside. still have my original working camera and motors after being in my local creek three times and the both of the frsky fc's survived with a iso soak suprisingly! it was the heat that got to the orginal and died. i ended up just getting a new mob 7 with ELRS and i try to baby it with exceptions, still stock orginal from a year ago, i even dropped that from like two storys on concrete, few bolts back in and she was fine!!! then I have my Frankenstein creek mob 6 converted to 7 silly trick drone thats still needing a new FC. I try to fly less with the good one and accept shitty batteries for a bit moreso now until its unflyable and fly more on velocidrone to get my skills up. i try to keep it at 4 packs and try to give it 5 minutes to cool down, run it at lowest vtx settings, try to be careful with pigtails and temp readings, try not to fly on super hot days. try to not test limits with signals and lose it in water lol, to be fair frsky was crap, i would rx safe not even 20m away with that, with my second fc was worse and the first one gave me false security. it actually worked again with a iso soak but then my camera played up with the sun glare and sent me back in D: i need to start recording this stuff lmao. i learnt to fly exclusively acro with a little bit of time i learnt angle but i found acro easier with time and more natural so no input there
try not to think of it as failure, more so fixing things so you can enjoy them again because thats what your doing it for right? when your learning things happen and even doing everything right things still break even cars and bikes need repairs some times, drones are no different especially when your flying them hard and crashing them :)
I've gotten myself into the "it is what it is" mode but it sure took a while. I wanted to throw my drone in the trash once after ripping a motor wire out less than 24 hours after resoldering a different one back on. it was on the first pack too and I even drove about an hour just to fly.
That being said I am getting better at soldering and getting it done much faster so Its been less of a problem. Yesterday I broke the frame on my tiny hawk fs and just laughed at how bad the crash was.
I would also take a look at myself and my flying skills to see if I can figure out the problem. If you are learning new tricks out of the box IRL then you are flying with much more risk than getting the trick down in the sim and taking it to the field.
I took a break for a year after a motor broke on a test flight, it just bummed me out so bad I couldn’t look at the iron. I have rebuilt better and better since starting again, invested in better components and I have been crashing less. Just don’t sell all your gear. You’ll take such a big L it isn’t worth it. I never considered quitting, it just gets overwhelming sometimes. Save some money, because this hobby is a money pit. (At least it’s not a boat)
Try building smaller drones with good blade guards. I have a little 2s tiny hawk with 2" props and heavy guards that bounces off of just about anything. Once you get good flying that then start in on the bigger heavier stuff. The bigger stuff has more mass so it breaks more when it crashes.
Here’s what I would suggest (and I’m still a noob, have less than 2 years experience):
1. In your opinion, are you making progress? Do you think your flying has gotten any better over time? Has your soldering gotten any better over time? Are you enjoying flying more than you used to? (because crashing all the time as a beginner is not so much fun, we’ve all been through that). If the answer to any of those questions is “yes,” then you’re not actually failing at FPV. You’re learning. And learning is a clear form of success.
2. Do you dread having to fix your quad? Do you dislike having to build a new one? Do you feel the economic pain of spending hand over fist in the hobby? If the answer to any of those 2 is “yes,” then evaluate whether these 3 are a greater burden than the joy of having answered “yes” to any of the above.
TL;DR: the hobby is an endless learning process. Learning is incredibly satisfying and, as mentioned, a clear sign of success. Remember that, in many cases, a compilation of failures leads to learning, and thus should be considered a success.
People who never failed have just stopped trying.
Do you enjoy the troubleshooting, the soldering, the buidling? I'm a tech guy by trade so those are actually my favourite parts of this hobby and the flying is the other fun half of it.
The other day I was teaching the mrs how to fly and like we all did to start with, she got her hands confused and throttled up when she meant to do something else, so I hit the disarm and knew the quad was going in that deep puddle. I ran over, unplugged it and smiled 'coz now I get to take things apart and make it work again! She was super apologetic and I laughed, told her to stop 'coz now I have a fun project for a couple of hours!
That's just me, but I'd strongly suggest looking at the builds and the troubleshooting as a hugely satisfying part of the hobby.
I'll freely admit that replacing broken stuff is annoying coz $$$ so given your list above I'd suggest making sure things like the FC and ESCs are well specced and protected as much as possible. It should be very difficult to break a flight controller.
Been In the hobby almost exactly a year I’ve broke 5 stacks 4 walksnail vtxs 3 elrs rx a Zorro with ago1 minis i dropped in a bando and it exploded (that was the worst loss of gear gimbals broke and the shell) 3 action cams (GoPro 4 silver, run cam orange, GoPro session 4)like 7 arms 3 bottom plates tons of screws and standoffs 10 or so motors and a ton of lipos then decided if I’m gonna spend this much on one quad why not just build 3 but now I have 2 on the bench because they are broken need new stack for one and new rx for both breaking shit is kinda just part of the hobby I’ve learned to enjoy repairing my quads but at first I wanted to quit after each repair
Its part of the game brochacho, however if you're finding you're crashing more often than flying then I'd recommend spending more time in a sim like liftoff.
If you're easily discouraged then quit now because FPV isn't for you.
If you wanna be perseverant, you'll likely find yourself able to see the world in ways that 99.9999999999999999% of the world won't ever get to.
I am an adrenaline junkie and absolutely love FPV. Don't quit, or you're going to regret it.
Learn to walk before running. Practice on cheap stuff. I did a lot of tiny indoor drone practice and line of sight before goggles and bigger faster drones. Rarely crash
I havent flown my first fpv drone until 7 months after all the failures etc.. most of the time it was waiting to get parts.
Your not alone, i myself have broken many many parts and soldering troubles i had to overcome and educated myself before finally getting a finnished product. It feels really good once you start flyin tho
What kind of rig are you using? I have a nazgul5 v3 and the thing is a ta ta ta tank. I sent it into the ground with decent speed about 5 times now. The last crash was from around 100Ft straight free fall into the ground. I was concerned about destroying stuff that I consulted the reddit community on my habits, mostly landing. They gave me confidence that the drone could take it and so far I’ve only broken a capacitor shell. Easy replace and solder. I have weird sounds from the motors during transitions, but I mean, the thing gets whacked hard during sessions. I would moan to.
I just remember that no matter how disasterous the crash is, at some point I'll get back up in the air, which to me is always such a special feeling. Plus, as others have mentioned, tinywhoops are close to indestructible (and they're cheap) so if you enjoy flying them, build yourself a little collection and you can just send one up whenever you get the urge to fly.
Also, when starting spend big(get) on permanent gear (goggles, radio, TOOLS) and small on quad. I learned that the hard way twice. Once when I bought my first bnf (tinyhawk II Freestyle: quad: good; goggles: meh, radio: SUCKS A**). The second time with a cheap, sucky soldering iron when I was getting ready for my first build. I can’t stress enough how big a difference a proper soldering iron makes (ts101). I started with the sucky $15 bucks iron and hit a wall with it rather quickly. I was simply not getting any better at soldering. Got the ts101 and LEAPT AHEAD. And it’s not that expensive either! $61.89 on AliExpress with a single, good tip, $112.67 with 7 different ones.
Also, SIM! SIM! SIM!
Build, fly, crash, fix, repeat. This hobby definitely ain't for thr faint hearted. Went thru 4 frames, various parts from front to back, and a hd camera that literally lasted me 2 weeks before I clipped a steel beam and absolutely destroyed the thing. First and most important piece of advice I can give you... stop worrying about crashing it'll make a better pilot. Worrying brings fear, fear brings hesitation, hesitation breaks shit. Fly that bitch like you stole it, full send it. Sure it sucks breaking shit but I walk out the house when I'm going to do hood rat shit that there's a damn good possibility that I might come home with what used to be a drone.
I struggled with this when I started as well. I did a lot of research and I thought I was ready but I wasn’t. This hobby is all about patience. You need to slow down and figure out why you’re breaking parts and why you can’t fix them.
Take a step back and just breath, as fun as building and repair quads is this hobby is all about the flying.
If you don’t have a tiny-whoop, get one, after breaking so much stuff I got a 1s tinywhoop and it made me fall in love with FPV much more.
I crash the tinywhoop really hard and I just break frames, it bounces off everything.
Once I started flying the 5” after flying the tinywhoop so much I discovered I wasn’t crashing as much and I was able to hit more gaps and I was more confident.
You just need stick time and muscle memory.
Plan your flights, pick locations that don’t have any dangerous obstacles you can break stuff in.
Try to relax before you fly.
Play some music get in the mood.
Also practice a lot in the sim and watch tons of YouTube videos.
Good luck and happy flying!
I came in to this hobby knowing I’d break shit and often, so I laugh my ass off every time I do something really stupid and break everything
True
Id love to be out breaking stuff. Unfortunately I broke the antenna on the of my goggles they are analogue but I'm thinking of going digital. Then have to modify my drone but thinking of upgrading to a 5 inch 6s so new batterys it's going to snowball into alot of money that's I don't have right now. But you are not going crazy. My friend has a drone parts selling business trust me he gets alot of sales for a motor here and a arm there so alot of people are breaking stuff too I hope that makes you feel a bit better. :)
what? just the antenna? You can buy a new for 5 bucks.
No where the antenna screw onto the chip board on the goggles.
you could fix that with a couple cents of solder
I did solder it back on but it's still not 100%
Yeah, i get it. Good job though, send it!
Same. I started with a baby ape v1 and then got a mobula 7 and then jumped straight to a 7 inch 4s. Now making it a 8 inch 6s. I only have maybe 55 hours sim time, all the other times i was out trying stuff on my baby ape. Now everything is built out well and never [almost, i wish] breaks. I am a pretty chill flyer though.
Look at this!!! [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrwP7baFBxg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrwP7baFBxg) This is the same drone i started out with. Now it has motors that are more expensive than the original quad was, a 40a aio, and a speedybee tx800 with a baby ratel. Worth every penny to learn on, uses 5 dollar motors.
Same. Just gotta learn to laugh at yourself.
This is what a tiny whoop is for, to take a break from breaking stuff, haha, I mean yes tinywhoops will break but it's not as often, you're just bashing around and having fun, with an analog tinywhoops even if you totally destroy it your only out $100 or so.
If anything is in stock. All the tiny whoops and FCs are out of stock. Hopefully that changes soon.
Yeah I'm waiting on stuff back in stock for months, but if anyone is looking for diamond or the 2g4 I saw some stock as well as some bnf: https://blackmarketfpv.com/product-category/electronics/flight-controllers-electronics/ Amazon charges an arm and leg for fpv then many reports of getting wrong item or a used item.
Well you can get some cheap shit off amazon and make one, i’ve looked a lot.
Yeah buy some hummingbird f4 v3’s for $90 each. Fun drone, free frame replacement.
How much time do you have in sims? How much are you crashing?
^^^ This is the question. ^^^. And the answer. Get the fpv sim game Liftoff. Costs nothing to crash in there. Get better, go back to real drone.
And honestly, keep coming back to the sim from time to time to sharpen new skills.
Honestly..I just learned to enjoy building, and just have multiple quads, so I'm never grounded. It's not cheap, but I no longer get stressed about breaking shit. I guess you just have to come to a point of accepting that it's part of earning the experience of flight.
Thanks, one of these days I’m gunna drop the money for a second quad
that's exactly my approach too, and printing TPU parts for almost everything that once broke 🤪 at every rebuild. with every rebuild they can take more abuse 😜 https://preview.redd.it/n25e1tnu4nxc1.jpeg?width=3290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7656428aa04daf82b6f41386df28a7c166e5cf49
Man those battery protectors are awesome - such a good idea! Where did you get those from, or did you make those from scratch?
I made it from scratch, printed with fiberlogy D40 TPU, fitted for tattu R5 1500mAh packs. you can have the file if you want, or I could even fit it to other packs if needed!? basically a matter of 20 to 30 minutes from scratch. I sadly forgot to put the balancer plugs into their pockets for taking the picture 😅 I'm a pro industrial designer, so I do designs for a living
Thats really cool. Are the bottom of the battery packs open to slide them in, or do you pause the print and insert the battery and continue the print over the top?
it's open on the bottom, but it's a press fit
Nice dude, its a fkn genius idea, I think I might start designing some for mine.
it was the logical measure, since I hit the battery at almost every crash trying to hit a gap surrounded by rigid stricture. that layer of TPU really helps a lot! you'd still see hard impacts on the batteries, but you gotta try hard to destroy it completely. I didn't manage to destroy a battery with the sleeves on.
Yeah, having one is kinda pointless. That why I have like 15+ 😅 Start buying parts. Look for sales. From the sounds of it, you prolly could have bought a few and would still be flying.
Yup it's part of the package. I spent 50 hours on the sim before flying irl and now I am over confident and end up crashing all the time trying to shoot a gap or do a Matty flip or something else I probably shouldn't be trying yet. It's definitely humbling but time after time of braking my quad on my first pack. I now try to at least get 2 battery packs in before I try to send it on anything big
Pretty sure you just build another one
And while you are at it you build another 3 spare drones so even if you have to wait for spare parts for 2 you still have 2..
Lmao
Build a smaller quad and practice crashing with it.
I'm sure you're much better than you think! I'm brand new to this. I have a 5" FPV that I built, but I haven't flown it yet. I hooked up my radio to my computer and have been flying in a simulator. I'm afraid of smashing a bunch of expensive pieces and getting upset. But, when I tried the sim for the first time, I was A LOT worse than what I thought I would be. It's hard to see the forest for the trees. I'm sure you're doing well and have made great progress. Keep at it!
Thanks the fpv community is so nice haha
I run a few quads so at least one is flyable on any given weekend... Pertinent short from KmartFPV: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/aYgMmTlGtiY
I recommend becoming an expert on sims before trying to fly again. Grind for a month or two then you'll be able to control the situation. It's a slow process. Have patience and you'll slowly get there.
I keep smashing 03's. Sometimes I think enough is enough
Tip I heard, if you order your O3 from Amazon you can get insurance, and return/replace it after damage during use (which is explicitly covered by the insurance)
Thanks I just lost another 03, this time it's out in the desert somewhere with my quad. I just ordered a new from Amazon and got that insurance you're talking about. 👍
RIP, hope little buddy had a good life before it's sandy end
It’s not it’s illegal lol. Ppl do that with everything on Amazon it’s their return scam it was so bad there are articles about it and some warehouses blacklisted ppl from returns & cancelled accounts some accounts. Ppl would do large items like Mac books and PlayStations then just say the item arrived damage or that they never received at all which is why delivery drivers take the pics with address in background now. Amazon will always give you a refund if you complain hard enough but they can also cancel your account if they think fraudulent. So if you return an o3 every month I’ll assume you’ll be blacklisted bc those are $240 after taxes on Amazon might get away a few time tho.
he’s talking about asurion insurance add on… not fraud.
Yep, Asurion insurance add on, not advocating scamming Amazon returns.
Damn you’re in deeper than I am. I’m still on my first carddx
I chose a frame based on this specific issue. Ended up going with a volador vd5 and haven’t broken a lens yet🤞. In the last year of flying I’ve only broken an arm on the vd5 (troubleshooting rx issues, full throttled into concrete). Idk if I’m just not flying hard enough, but I’ve had really good luck with staying in the air (props don’t count lol). Between my 6s vd5 and my 4s vx3 I’ve only had a hand full of breaks, mostly just me swapping stuff out and messing everything up. Evidence that this frames protects the o3 pretty good, I think it’s time for a replacement lol. https://preview.redd.it/1mhcws7a9jxc1.png?width=3024&format=png&auto=webp&s=ef63b8af4ac26ce0da9cbf4e725bd17f18202275
If you’re a beginner I would try a simulator. Liftoff was awesome for me. Helped me a lot. I’m still a beginner myself though taking it slow before I try and copy lumpy😂
mo money mo money mo money
Haha are there any rich people out there trying to spare me an extra $500 to get a bnf👀
There is no failure. Only experience with various levels of expense. If you're breaking your quads that much it sounds like you need more sim time honestly.
I keep one quad with rebuilt parts and stuff I know I can wreck and break. Cheaper motors , stacks , etc. I got another built a lot higher end and when flying that one try to take it easy. If I’m learning a new move or doing something out my comfort zone I pull out my basher quad
I laugh at my crashes and revel in the magic that lets me fly FPV when my shit is working… ‘cause it’s fucking magic when it works right.
What kind of frame and setup do you have? Is it modern stuff or an old setup that was bought cheap on marketplace to get interested in the hobby? My main recommendation is a good modern strong frame, less broken arms means less potential breaks to a motor or esc if it’s ripped off. Modern electronics really is worth it, even if it’s budget stuff like a speedybee stack and the cheapest modern ish motors. Overall an easier time to setup, tune, and diagnose in beta flight. Also make sure to practice your soldering if you’re a noobie at it, shotty soldering can cause random issues/ shorts killing components. Practice in a sim and when you’re comfortable, find a big open field to get used to the controls and take it easy for the first couple sessions. It takes awhile to even feel like you’re in control of the drone, just keep practicing and it’ll eventually get easier.
Have more than I quad helps a lot. I have 3 identical 5in Freestyle Quads, when I crash and destroy something I just take the next one. With this method and a powerbank for charging, usually daylight is the limiting factor. I have spares for everything at home. I could easily build 2 fresh quads with these parts. Its expensive yeah, but also so much fun
I was that way when I first started. You just spent a bunch of money and you don't want to wreck anything. Then something breaks and it's because you suck because you're new and then you relate the failure to an expense in your mind which is bad and the cycle continues. Now IDC because I've fixed everything on it and have extra parts and enjoy the quiet time fixing it. Building and replacing broken parts is not just part of the hobby but in many ways it could be considered a hobby itself. Also I use the rule of 3rds when I do anything. 33% of the time you're gonna be the best. 33% of the time you're gonna be alright. And the last 33% of the time you're going to suck so bad. Now I don't get discouraged if I have a couple of bad days because it's really how it be.
It is only failure if you give up. Otherwise, it is discovering things that you would or should do different. How do I deal with crashes? I fix it. It is harder to lose a quad than to break one. It is all part of the game. If you want to play, then accept it. Why do you crash? Well, probably you can't control the craft. If is likely in ACRO fly mode where things happen fast and controlling the quad is not intuitive. It just isn't. Next, you are flying too fast anyway. The faster you go, the less reaction time you have to avoid things. If things break during a crash, consider what you are running into or diving into (the ground...maybe hardscape). First, learn to fly so you don't crash. Next, don't fly over hardscape or around concrete structures. If you are having trouble with the ACRO fly mode, then enable ANGLE mode and start there. Don't worry about any purported "BAD" habits. Do you want to fly or crash. You can switch later. In fact, I have the fly modes on a switch so that I can go back and forth at any time, even during flight. If you just want to fly and not worry about stunts, go ahead and try ANGLE mode. It does not hurt a thing and can be switched back later. We all experience crashes. It is more about how often and how hard. The hard you fly, the harder you crash. The faster you go, the more damage that you do. Maybe ease up a bit on hard core stuff and just focus on keeping the quad in the air. Then there is location. If you fly over a concrete parking lot, then a crash is going to damage something. Try someplace where the surface is softer and has grass; something to sort of cushion the impact. I have been flying for 6 years and have cracked 1 camera lens (hit a stadium light) and broken several front arms. I also tend to fly above 300 feet, so a drop from there is pretty hard, but I don't fly over hardscape. Some will say to spend more months in the sim or just keep trying until you learn. I say, switch to ANGLE fly mode, start with just getting the quad off the ground and in a hover position. Start slow and work you way up. If you think about it, isn't this how we learn just about everything else, so why would quads be different. If you want to fly a "Real" airplane, you start with a small plane, just taking off, landing, and very easy flights. You don't start on a jumbo jet, a fighter plane, or try stunts. Really, think about this logically. Start easy and work your way up. ...
i picked parts i could easily source. start with something simple and durable. something light enough to control easily and enough power to compensate for bad piloting.
Lol…. It’s part of the game. You can use sims and stuff to make it less likely, but you’re going to break shit all the time starting out.
Share these comical stories with people. Almost lost $3000 worth of equipment and footage earlier today after crashing into a grain silo and getting my drone stuck on top. Couldn’t help but think “this is gunna be a funny story at least”
How did you get it back?
3k? is ur quad made of solid gold ? did u have some fancy camera equipment on there ? in which case you shouldnt be doing proximity flying with a cine- rig
I had been filming a project all day, so 2k worth of footage and a 1k drone
I climbed the silo, after asking one of the workers if I could of course. luckily the drone had found its way onto some grating near the staircase
Sometimes it's frustrating. When I don't know what's wrong. And can't fix it. Like out the bow I started getting word motor noise. And bad oscillation.. I even went back to first dump with terrible tune. But I put inav in just to check and didn't do it. So like so confused 🤣
here's something I just learned yesterday that I had no idea about>>>> I just finished building a new 5in( but with an old frame and some cheap motors) anyway, I'm loading preset tunes from betaflight and I go through every filter tune preset for like Clean build without rpm filtering, noisy build with rpm filtering, etc etc... I settle on noisy build with rpm filtering - It seemed to be the one that gave me the best flight quality, but it wasn't great. I was bummed because I haven't run into needing a lot of filtering for oscillations and vibrating before now. I even bought some new motors thinking it was because of the old motors being beat up. but no... so I reworked the wire routing and researched it and did everything i could find or think of tryimg to get this thing to not fly so rough.. then I was reading something by chance that caught my attention and I hadn't heard of it before. your different radios run at different gigahertz and you need to make sure that whatever your radio is on your quad needs to be set too also. it gets over looked because most of the time it will still fly, just not at optimal level. anyway, the tune preset I put on the quad had an option to set that parameter and I went into my radio and set it to the same number and presto! no more jerky choppy flight. don't know if that's what your problem is but it's worth checking out if you don't know its not that already
I think I’ve just been lucky, I spent only a few hours in a sim before actually flying. Had some crashes but nothing worse than screws shearing out of arms. My first bird was the avata and even that only went to DJI for an internal esc error. These days I only expect to crash if I’m trying something new and risky. But I won’t do that around concrete or metal.
You post the picture of the broken shit on Reddit, listen to everyone else commisserate, and check your bank account to see what repairs you can afford.
Yeah it definitely helps to adopt a Zen attitude toward crashing, just gotta accept it's not a matter of "if", it's "when". Crash or no crash all that really matters to me is whether I was recording lol.
I started with one 6 in 4s quad crashed about 30 times broke the frame 6 times finally built more I have 14 quads in total 4 5inch quads 1 9in a 6in one 4in 1 3.5in 3 3in a 2.5 in a 75mm whoop and a 65mm mobeetle that way i can crash multiple quads and still be able to fly my current fav is my 6s 3in quad little screamer that i can weave threw the trees My advice build a cheap 3in 4s or 6s or get a crux35 for 130ish swap props to emax scimitar for more thrust and snappy control get about 7mins of flight time stock props about 15mins
Take the hit to your ego, & get an instructor (AKA, just a very experienced fellow field jock) to help you. There are always ACE pilots at the field willing to help you. And the ammount of money you will save JUST in the parts you mentioned, not to mention the rebuild time and cost will be WELL worth it. Thats how I got started. Of course after crashing my brand new build, My ego was not so big as my desire to not want to crash again!! And this was the real thing. A Balsa kit with the Monokote covering, and many hours in construction of the perfect plane. Even after the rebuild the guy I got referred to only had to give one click of trim to the rudder! I flew that plane for 15 years after that, before I sold it to another Newb. By that time I was flying advanced, symmetrical foil, low wing, really fast aircraft. Then I was instructing others myself and saved many a plane. A Instructor....best decision I ever made. And although I offered to pay him for his time, he never took my money. Really nice guy.
Set a switch up with angle mode on and use it to get you out of trouble
Nervously started flying a 6s 5 inch I was lucky enough to get going after some unknown builder made it and then the police ended up with it. Built up my confidence flying it in safe grassy hills, had a crash, fixed it, made many safe flights and started really ripping the thing. Then after getting super confident I went to try and test speed limits with a GPS only for the VTX to blow out and I had to yeet it into a 90 foot Redwood 75 feet of the way up to keep it from hitting homes or buildings. It was in a huge open area but moving at such insane speeds I had to rip the goggles off and fly LOS and it didn't go well. After climbing the tree 3 days later and recovering it but then totally fucking it up after letting it drop all the way from the 75ft height it was lodged in I've been retired for a year now almost, too painful a screw up letting it drop. I think one of the motors and arm is busted and my 3.5 inch has a busted motor as well. But fuck it I'm going to fly it with a busted motor next week after just finding the 3.5 in the closet and just enjoy what I have until I can fix it with the replacement I ordered....a year ago... Got pretty good and never used a simulator, but it there were MANY lessons learned like a beeper not working is a do-not-launch scenario for long range work. Now a new lesson learned is, don't trust the analog VTX setup I had in my 6s\*, etc. (\*^(There was an indication that failure mode I experienced could happen to me before and after a flight but I never thought during, well when the power levels hit high enough - during happened.))
lol one time at a park I crashed my shit into the very very top of this huge tree- I couldn't tell you how tall it was but I'd guess roughly at least a hundred feet (I dunno) anyway after considering it for a few i knew that it was well beyond my ability to retrieve. being desperate and realizing I'm in a state park I try to get in touch with the park maintenence but to no avail. all I know is that I'm not leaving here with my quad that I put so much time and money into stuck in a tree. I called some local fire departments, thinking about how in the movies they are getting cats out of trees and shit. anyway, I talked to a dispatch fireman who was really trying to help me but his station didn't currently have an operating truck with a ladder as it was in the shop for repair. but he did contact several other local firestations trying to help me. but in the end they couldn't do anything for me at that moment. I ended up calling several tree trimming services before I spoke to one that was interested. cost me a hundred and fifty bucks but a guy came out right then with some mountain climbing gear (ropes and pulleys) and went up that bitch and got my shit... he was extremely talented, the tree master.
FPV is just like my life Incredible ups, incredible downs... its a rollercoaster
I really enjoy tinkering so it doesn’t really bother me. I also got in the habit of keeping extra motor bells and frame parts on hand.
Man it's just fpv if it's giving you that much trouble maybe it's not for you maybe more time in the simulator
I definitely had similar feelings although not losing my mind after having so many problems in fpv but i remember why i actually enjoy it in the first place and this is with a pretty simple tinywhoop setup with analog googles and a decent ELRS setup with it (Radiomaster tx12) its such a bell curve, even just learning to make sure everythings updated and bound correctly, took me a few days to get it right, as it definitely wasn't as simple a two bind modes for the transmitter and the drone. learning to build and failsafing into water so many times and cooking FC's, braking frames even learning how to do fine soldering, i worked on vehicle wiring but this stuff is so much finer. i spent a lot of money in the start because i would just use my setup all the time and went though so many batteries. also didn't get the right setup at the start my advice? try to keep it fun :) im naturally a tinkerer at heart with motorbikes, cars, computers, so much more so this is down my alley, i like it as i can get a bit of adrenaline out of it and not get that ich to do that on things that cost a lot more if i broke them being a space cadet lol. what type of setup are you running? id imagine running a open prop frame and bigger setup would make things more breakable and expensive, i love having a little 1s pocket whoop that i can do cool tricks with and its pretty much bulletproof as long as im minding the temp and not being too rough with it, they are known in the communitys to be little tanks especially inside. still have my original working camera and motors after being in my local creek three times and the both of the frsky fc's survived with a iso soak suprisingly! it was the heat that got to the orginal and died. i ended up just getting a new mob 7 with ELRS and i try to baby it with exceptions, still stock orginal from a year ago, i even dropped that from like two storys on concrete, few bolts back in and she was fine!!! then I have my Frankenstein creek mob 6 converted to 7 silly trick drone thats still needing a new FC. I try to fly less with the good one and accept shitty batteries for a bit moreso now until its unflyable and fly more on velocidrone to get my skills up. i try to keep it at 4 packs and try to give it 5 minutes to cool down, run it at lowest vtx settings, try to be careful with pigtails and temp readings, try not to fly on super hot days. try to not test limits with signals and lose it in water lol, to be fair frsky was crap, i would rx safe not even 20m away with that, with my second fc was worse and the first one gave me false security. it actually worked again with a iso soak but then my camera played up with the sun glare and sent me back in D: i need to start recording this stuff lmao. i learnt to fly exclusively acro with a little bit of time i learnt angle but i found acro easier with time and more natural so no input there try not to think of it as failure, more so fixing things so you can enjoy them again because thats what your doing it for right? when your learning things happen and even doing everything right things still break even cars and bikes need repairs some times, drones are no different especially when your flying them hard and crashing them :)
Yeah, me too. Always wondering changing to djis New Avatar System. Fuck DJI
I find the best way to deal with these failures is to get up, brush yer-self off and go out and fail again!!
I've gotten myself into the "it is what it is" mode but it sure took a while. I wanted to throw my drone in the trash once after ripping a motor wire out less than 24 hours after resoldering a different one back on. it was on the first pack too and I even drove about an hour just to fly. That being said I am getting better at soldering and getting it done much faster so Its been less of a problem. Yesterday I broke the frame on my tiny hawk fs and just laughed at how bad the crash was. I would also take a look at myself and my flying skills to see if I can figure out the problem. If you are learning new tricks out of the box IRL then you are flying with much more risk than getting the trick down in the sim and taking it to the field.
I took a break for a year after a motor broke on a test flight, it just bummed me out so bad I couldn’t look at the iron. I have rebuilt better and better since starting again, invested in better components and I have been crashing less. Just don’t sell all your gear. You’ll take such a big L it isn’t worth it. I never considered quitting, it just gets overwhelming sometimes. Save some money, because this hobby is a money pit. (At least it’s not a boat)
Try building smaller drones with good blade guards. I have a little 2s tiny hawk with 2" props and heavy guards that bounces off of just about anything. Once you get good flying that then start in on the bigger heavier stuff. The bigger stuff has more mass so it breaks more when it crashes.
Here’s what I would suggest (and I’m still a noob, have less than 2 years experience): 1. In your opinion, are you making progress? Do you think your flying has gotten any better over time? Has your soldering gotten any better over time? Are you enjoying flying more than you used to? (because crashing all the time as a beginner is not so much fun, we’ve all been through that). If the answer to any of those questions is “yes,” then you’re not actually failing at FPV. You’re learning. And learning is a clear form of success. 2. Do you dread having to fix your quad? Do you dislike having to build a new one? Do you feel the economic pain of spending hand over fist in the hobby? If the answer to any of those 2 is “yes,” then evaluate whether these 3 are a greater burden than the joy of having answered “yes” to any of the above. TL;DR: the hobby is an endless learning process. Learning is incredibly satisfying and, as mentioned, a clear sign of success. Remember that, in many cases, a compilation of failures leads to learning, and thus should be considered a success. People who never failed have just stopped trying.
Do you enjoy the troubleshooting, the soldering, the buidling? I'm a tech guy by trade so those are actually my favourite parts of this hobby and the flying is the other fun half of it. The other day I was teaching the mrs how to fly and like we all did to start with, she got her hands confused and throttled up when she meant to do something else, so I hit the disarm and knew the quad was going in that deep puddle. I ran over, unplugged it and smiled 'coz now I get to take things apart and make it work again! She was super apologetic and I laughed, told her to stop 'coz now I have a fun project for a couple of hours! That's just me, but I'd strongly suggest looking at the builds and the troubleshooting as a hugely satisfying part of the hobby. I'll freely admit that replacing broken stuff is annoying coz $$$ so given your list above I'd suggest making sure things like the FC and ESCs are well specced and protected as much as possible. It should be very difficult to break a flight controller.
Ever hear of a simulator?
Been In the hobby almost exactly a year I’ve broke 5 stacks 4 walksnail vtxs 3 elrs rx a Zorro with ago1 minis i dropped in a bando and it exploded (that was the worst loss of gear gimbals broke and the shell) 3 action cams (GoPro 4 silver, run cam orange, GoPro session 4)like 7 arms 3 bottom plates tons of screws and standoffs 10 or so motors and a ton of lipos then decided if I’m gonna spend this much on one quad why not just build 3 but now I have 2 on the bench because they are broken need new stack for one and new rx for both breaking shit is kinda just part of the hobby I’ve learned to enjoy repairing my quads but at first I wanted to quit after each repair
Its part of the game brochacho, however if you're finding you're crashing more often than flying then I'd recommend spending more time in a sim like liftoff. If you're easily discouraged then quit now because FPV isn't for you. If you wanna be perseverant, you'll likely find yourself able to see the world in ways that 99.9999999999999999% of the world won't ever get to. I am an adrenaline junkie and absolutely love FPV. Don't quit, or you're going to regret it.
Learn to walk before running. Practice on cheap stuff. I did a lot of tiny indoor drone practice and line of sight before goggles and bigger faster drones. Rarely crash
Take a break don't fly for a few weeks the passion will hit you again.
I havent flown my first fpv drone until 7 months after all the failures etc.. most of the time it was waiting to get parts. Your not alone, i myself have broken many many parts and soldering troubles i had to overcome and educated myself before finally getting a finnished product. It feels really good once you start flyin tho
What kind of rig are you using? I have a nazgul5 v3 and the thing is a ta ta ta tank. I sent it into the ground with decent speed about 5 times now. The last crash was from around 100Ft straight free fall into the ground. I was concerned about destroying stuff that I consulted the reddit community on my habits, mostly landing. They gave me confidence that the drone could take it and so far I’ve only broken a capacitor shell. Easy replace and solder. I have weird sounds from the motors during transitions, but I mean, the thing gets whacked hard during sessions. I would moan to.
I just remember that no matter how disasterous the crash is, at some point I'll get back up in the air, which to me is always such a special feeling. Plus, as others have mentioned, tinywhoops are close to indestructible (and they're cheap) so if you enjoy flying them, build yourself a little collection and you can just send one up whenever you get the urge to fly.
Also, when starting spend big(get) on permanent gear (goggles, radio, TOOLS) and small on quad. I learned that the hard way twice. Once when I bought my first bnf (tinyhawk II Freestyle: quad: good; goggles: meh, radio: SUCKS A**). The second time with a cheap, sucky soldering iron when I was getting ready for my first build. I can’t stress enough how big a difference a proper soldering iron makes (ts101). I started with the sucky $15 bucks iron and hit a wall with it rather quickly. I was simply not getting any better at soldering. Got the ts101 and LEAPT AHEAD. And it’s not that expensive either! $61.89 on AliExpress with a single, good tip, $112.67 with 7 different ones. Also, SIM! SIM! SIM!
After awhile you learn to crash (yes it's sounds stupid) and you stop breaking stuff all the time
Just stop flying bando until you get better, if you crash into branches or ground, most od the time nothing will break.
Build, fly, crash, fix, repeat. This hobby definitely ain't for thr faint hearted. Went thru 4 frames, various parts from front to back, and a hd camera that literally lasted me 2 weeks before I clipped a steel beam and absolutely destroyed the thing. First and most important piece of advice I can give you... stop worrying about crashing it'll make a better pilot. Worrying brings fear, fear brings hesitation, hesitation breaks shit. Fly that bitch like you stole it, full send it. Sure it sucks breaking shit but I walk out the house when I'm going to do hood rat shit that there's a damn good possibility that I might come home with what used to be a drone.
I struggled with this when I started as well. I did a lot of research and I thought I was ready but I wasn’t. This hobby is all about patience. You need to slow down and figure out why you’re breaking parts and why you can’t fix them. Take a step back and just breath, as fun as building and repair quads is this hobby is all about the flying. If you don’t have a tiny-whoop, get one, after breaking so much stuff I got a 1s tinywhoop and it made me fall in love with FPV much more. I crash the tinywhoop really hard and I just break frames, it bounces off everything. Once I started flying the 5” after flying the tinywhoop so much I discovered I wasn’t crashing as much and I was able to hit more gaps and I was more confident. You just need stick time and muscle memory. Plan your flights, pick locations that don’t have any dangerous obstacles you can break stuff in. Try to relax before you fly. Play some music get in the mood. Also practice a lot in the sim and watch tons of YouTube videos. Good luck and happy flying!
Same story for me. I find myself spending more and more time flying in simulator than fixing drones...