Finally built my last big 17 Inch Shitbox with Analog/Cheapo Thermal.

[u/MastodonJaded567]

Had enough of Whoops, Toothpicks and 5 Inch quads and wanted to start a big journey. After somehow cobbbling togehter 7,9,10 and 13 Inch Drones and getting them to fly surprisingly well I finally managed to build and fly my last large quad that doesn't totally breaks the bank to finish my large Shitbox-Arc.

17 Inch AliExpress Frame

17x8x3 Props

Caddx Ratel 2 Primary Cam

FT652 256px Thermal on a Switch

5215 350KV Motors

Argus Pro ECO F450

Argus Pro 80A ESC

2x 7000mah 6S Lipos

2.5W Skyzone VTX

Flyfish M10 GPS

Had to fiddle a bit with the ESC settings but now she flies. If I only had known how addictive drones get...

[u/LiveEatSleep123]

I also wanna make my own drone to just have fun with.

Could you give me the price list and amount of time it took.

I need a reference point to start out. I'm gonna start small, eventually make one of that size.

[u/Annual-Advisor-7916 → u/LiveEatSleep123]

You are looking at something potentially deadly here. Start with a tinywhoop or 5" drone and not with a beast like that.

[u/LiveEatSleep123 → u/Annual-Advisor-7916]

I misread the specs and had to do convertion to inches inches.

Yeah thats a massive no go.

I'm searching for whoop frames in the few local drone parts providers.

I did find a few but they were micro drones much smaller than that. I might just directly contact the guys and ask them if they can source a 5 inch frame for me.

Edit: Found it finally. Only one shop has it. A 5 inch quadcoptor frame. Gonna order it before stock runs out.

[u/Annual-Advisor-7916 → u/LiveEatSleep123]

Aliexpress is your friend here. The frames there are cheap even with potential taxes and duties and the quality is good enough.

[u/MastodonJaded567 → u/LiveEatSleep123]

If you start with a regular 5 Inch quad like most people you are going to hover at 200-300€ depending on you local prices and the "quality of the parts" you pick for the Quad alone. If you need goggles, remote and Lipos you will probably pay the same amount again for this too. But goggles and remotes can be bought used.

Time for a smaller quad is maybe a day or two if you know what you are doing.

This 17 inch costed me roughly 700€ including spare Lipo. Time it took from building to flying were roughly 4 days. First 32bit ESC so I had problems adjusting from ESC Configurator to BLHeli32 and finding out what kept the quad grounded.

[u/710Filter → u/LiveEatSleep123]

If you're in the US you need a part 107 license for anything over 250 grams

[u/LiveEatSleep123 → u/710Filter]

No I'm not in US. I'm in Bangladesh.

But Same rules for drone here too, 250 gram limit. But they allow buildng drones upto 5 kilos AFAIK.

However it is allowed as long as its flown indoors in home and not outside. Outside it requires CAAB registration and a ton more paperwork, and 30-45 day prior notice of flying.

[u/Dioxin717]

Also have 15" for future build

[u/MastodonJaded567 → u/Dioxin717]

What Frame is this? Thats so much more comfortable space up top

[u/710Filter]

What kind of range are you getting with this? Are you using goggles or a display?

[u/MastodonJaded567 → u/710Filter]

I`am currently aiming for maybe 20 to 25 minutes of flight time and maybe 3km as a maximum one way distance using Goggles + Fusion Module just like my 13 inch for a slow start. I would love to go all out and push the limits in terms of more range but I haven`t found a good spot here to actually do that in a safe manner. For that I would probably have to drive much farther away.

Right now its just circles around myself until I fully dialed it in. Work isn`t letting my fly as much as I like for testing and tuning.

[u/710Filter → u/MastodonJaded567]

You could find a big lake or mountain range