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Best Race Drone

Skyzone

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Hi Guys,
A new Bie, glad to be here. I have a naive question, please can anybody help me out?. Is it better to assemble a racing drone or to buy an assembled one? if I choose either, where should I go for it and what is the cost matrix associated with each option. Thanks
 
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Hi Guys,
A new Bie, glad to be here. I have a naive question, please can anybody help me out?. Is it better to assemble a racing drone or to buy an assembled one? if I choose either, where should I go for it and what is the cost matrix associated with each option. Thanks
Welcome @Skyzone to the forum!
And that sir is the million dollar question. Depending on your budget and your level of experience will drive an outcome for you. You’ve noted that your a newbie, so the consensus around here is to probably start with a smaller 2-3” quad (e.g. Diatone 339 or 349, Emax tinyhawk 2 or similar), a set of EV800D goggles and a Taranis QX7/S ACCST and you can get into the hobby/addiction/money pit without offering up a kidney ($700 AUD).
The main reason for going down this road is that if you are new to the quad scene, you don’t know yet what you don’t know and building a quad racer can either go really well or end up really badly (ka-ching). You can certainly go out and grab a 5” racer in a BNF kit, like many of us here did but in my case, it took me a long time to fly it reasonably well and I spent an incredible amount of time and money rebuilding them.
The smaller quads are nearly as quick as the larger ones, crash better (?) and are great to learn on. Having said that, I have a reasonable collection of quads (about 15 at the moment) and I have some great 5/6” rigs amongst them, but it cost me a lot of money and grief before I realised I was doing it back to front.
Finally, we are talking analogue quads, if you want to go to a digital setup, double the cost of pretty much everything. They are awesome quads but you have to be committed to run with it.
 
Welcome @Skyzone to the forum!
And that sir is the million dollar question. Depending on your budget and your level of experience will drive an outcome for you. You’ve noted that your a newbie, so the consensus around here is to probably start with a smaller 2-3” quad (e.g. Diatone 339 or 349, Emax tinyhawk 2 or similar), a set of EV800D goggles and a Taranis QX7/S ACCST and you can get into the hobby/addiction/money pit without offering up a kidney ($700 AUD).
The main reason for going down this road is that if you are new to the quad scene, you don’t know yet what you don’t know and building a quad racer can either go really well or end up really badly (ka-ching). You can certainly go out and grab a 5” racer in a BNF kit, like many of us here did but in my case, it took me a long time to fly it reasonably well and I spent an incredible amount of time and money rebuilding them.
The smaller quads are nearly as quick as the larger ones, crash better (?) and are great to learn on. Having said that, I have a reasonable collection of quads (about 15 at the moment) and I have some great 5/6” rigs amongst them, but it cost me a lot of money and grief before I realised I was doing it back to front.
Finally, we are talking analogue quads, if you want to go to a digital setup, double the cost of pretty much everything. They are awesome quads but you have to be committed to run with it.
Thanks Tevek, really appreciate this, it got me onto the ropes now. I will definitely put the suggestions to work. you mentioned something interesting about digital drones or something. can you shed more light, please.
 
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Thanks Tevek, really appreciate this, it got me onto the ropes now. I will definitely put the suggestions to work. you mentioned something interesting about digital drones or something. can you shed more light, please.
Yeah no worries, I mostly run analogue quad setups but I have dipped into the DJI digital space with both a 3” and a 5” quad. You need to get the digital goggles to go with them to bind to the air units on the quads (they replace the traditional Vtx found on analogue quads). I have kept my Taranis QX7S to standardise the receivers on all my quads so avoided the DJI controller ($300). The goggle experience is very, very good and with the recent DJI FW upgrade, I am flying in areas that would create a lot of problems with analogue with the standard 2.4Ghz I use. A lot of people run 900Mhz Crossfire setups but that’s another story for later.
To be honest, with the amount of digital quads coming onto the market, had I had been starting out in the hobby, I would have gone down that road. You are looking at approximately $1400 AUD to get into digital (as opposed to $700 for a small and reliable analogue setup), which is a fair chunk of money but that is the rabbit hole you go down with this hobby.
 
Yeah no worries, I mostly run analogue quad setups but I have dipped into the DJI digital space with both a 3” and a 5” quad. You need to get the digital goggles to go with them to bind to the air units on the quads (they replace the traditional Vtx found on analogue quads). I have kept my Taranis QX7S to standardise the receivers on all my quads so avoided the DJI controller ($300). The goggle experience is very, very good and with the recent DJI FW upgrade, I am flying in areas that would create a lot of problems with analogue with the standard 2.4Ghz I use. A lot of people run 900Mhz Crossfire setups but that’s another story for later.
To be honest, with the amount of digital quads coming onto the market, had I had been starting out in the hobby, I would have gone down that road. You are looking at approximately $1400 AUD to get into digital (as opposed to $700 for a small and reliable analogue setup), which is a fair chunk of money but that is the rabbit hole you go down with this hobby.
wow Tevek, this is getting more interesting than I earlier thought. alright I will weight my options a dive in. thanks again Tevek you are great
 
wow Tevek, this is getting more interesting than I earlier thought. alright I will weight my options a dive in. thanks again Tevek you are great
No worries, come back anytime if you have further questions. There are some very clever and experienced pilots on this forum that know way more than I do and are always willing to help.
 
Welcome to the forum@skyzone. Looks like Tevek has given you a lot to think about. Hopefully you can make some choices from that. Keep us posted.

Tom you have a serious quadblem, 15 birds. Hahaha lol
Hi there funny guy! You’re one of the crew that keeps me going.
Yeah it sounds a lot but I use them all (except the wizards as they worry me a bit) and the wife reckons it’s the only hobby that I’ve had that has lasted the distance. And that famous line I give to the mother in law occasionally when another parcel turns up.
I’ll never be a Mr Steele or JB, but I love flying and for an old bloke, sometimes that’s just enough.
 
Well you still fish also so not the only one but I hear you mate.
My boss always freaks when a parcel turns up at the door (how many drones do you need?)
Haha, don't think we will ever have enough.
Yep, as I told my wife Vic, the formula for drones is x + 1.
I currently have x.....
As for the comparison between Mr Steele and JB, I was generalising regarding the knowledge and flying skills of the two. Time to go and grab some Ethix gear and Bardwell boards to even the ledger.
On a lighter note, the weather here is rubbish, managed to get a quick pack in before the wind and rain picked up and brought yet another tree down on the block next door. Came inside, got the fire going, my turn to cook tonight, the weather has cleared up and now it’s too dark to fly.
 
Haha lol buddy, still in Sydney and it is about to go ugly weather wise so I get that. Hate it when you have to do stuff and just miss the light.
Maybe tomorrow?
Maybe, reading that Sydney is about to get pounded, 5 mtr seas and plenty of wind and rain. See how it goes tomorrow, I want send the digital DC5 on a trip and test the RTH on it. It works but the knees started shaking when I gave it a run last week. If you never hear from me again, it didn’t come back...
 
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