Custom 220mm bird?

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I have seen the 220mm carbon fiber quadcopter frames on EBay, among tons and tons of components to build with. Has anyone made their own yet on here? Pros and cons would be appreciated!


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Hi there!

I've made a couple in my time so far and I can tell you they are great fun! A 220mm frame a a pose to a phantom is completely different however so be ready for a big learning curve. If you think you have read a lot of manuals and watched a lot of videos on phantoms buckle up... that's just the beginning!

As for pros and cons;

Pros
-MUCH faster...! (than a phantom)
-Capable of flips rolls etc... (with practice)
-You will learn a lot more about the hobby having built this up from scratch, so you will be able to fix many more problems yourself.
-Option to build exactly what you want. You don't have to abide by what a manufacturer wants to supply.
-More interesting to fly. You need to be much more involved with what you are doing. Get ready for at least a few crashes!
-More enjoyable FPV experience.

Cons
-MUCH faster...! Its a pro and a con... going faster means that a bad, fast crash if more likely to cause damage. Also makes flying one harder than a phantom.
-You have to build it yourself. While I love building these things, if you have never used a soldering iron before it can be a challenge. Nothing too serious though so don't be put off!
-You WILL crash this more than once! Be ready for repairs.
-Little to no assistance depending on what control board you opt for. The Naza spoils us with gps hold and rth. Dont expect these features on a small racer.

That being said I would very much recommend building one of these little quads. They will help you be a better pilot for your phantom and will add a whole new dimension to your hobby. There is a lot out there though so a lot of research will be needed, so feel free to PM me or reply on here. What I started with myself was a CC3D control board with a ZMR250 frame with 12A escs (research into BECs and their alternatives) and emaz mt2204 2300kv motors.

Hopefully I have been a bit of help but feel free to contact me if you have any questions etc. If you want give me a budget and I'll send you a bunch of links as to what will work well together, but the best way is to research yourself as it will involve you much more in the hobby and you will be 10x the wiser!
 
Would you like to advise on what control board and esc for this transition please ? I hear many are based on a naze 32 control board.


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When I dream about racer quads I wake up terrified about analog FPV quality and I fire up my Phantom Assistant -> Select the 3rd option for S1 to be MANUAL and I go and fly 2-3 batteries then I can get back to my spoiled NAZA with GPS altitude hold and position hold.
 
That is full manual mode and it's very hard to fly ! Even the fpv quads can have some level of fly by wire


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Would you like to advise on what control board and esc for this transition please ? I hear many are based on a naze 32 control board.


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I fly them a lot - pretty much gotten away from the Phantoms except for specific AP jobs. The small ones are much more fun. Crashing is a given. You will hit hard many times. I've broken arms, motors, many (many) props. Start in acc mode (different names for it but whatever the acc mode is for your Flight Controller) and fly FPV and then try to wipe the grin off your face.

Most popular control board is NAZE32 (not NAZA) or one of its many derivatives. I also use the Graupner GR-18 which is quite simple to use but isn't quite as responsive as the NAZE32 (at least it isn't for me). It requires a Graupner tx, though. For a medium racer, use 2204 motors of at least 2000kv and 20A opto ESCs and 3s batteries. Get a power distribution board for your frame that also gives 5v out. If you decide to go to 4s then you will need 30A ESCs. Get the small blheli one shot optos. Don't use full size ESCs, there isn't enough room in most cases (if you go to 30A). If you use Spektrum then get an OrangeRX R620 and use CPPM out (one connection) to the NAZE32. Use S-Bus if using Futaba (make sure your Flight Controller will handle S-Bus). Use SUMD if Graupner (or use a GR-18 like I do). The single wiring hookup simplifies the build considerably. Learn about all this on YouTube. Most popular beginning frame that is still plenty fast is a 250mm ZMR. It is a bit larger so the build is easier. Smaller frames are a challenge when packing all the crap into them. I started with a ZMR250 and still fly it.

I'm not a racer but I have fun. Here is a video of a 180mm Goby that I built. I've hit pavement with this at least four times at high speed and mostly straight down. Destroyed two batteries but the frame survived every time. The frame has a limited warranty! .Range on these is probably about 3/4 mile at low level. However, you REALLY don't want to fly out that far. I have a couple of times and when it dropped 2.4 I had a heckuva time finding it. We usually put beepers on them so we can find them if they drop in tall grass - they disappear easily. The Graupner has telemetry built in and I've used the rx strength reading to find it several times. Another great starting quad is a Vortex - which is expensive but has OSD and can be configured as a sane flyer or an insane racer. I know several who race them successfully.

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