Building a mini quadcopter for FPV

I’d like to report here some details of my last personal drone build, a mini quadcopter for First Person View (FPV) flight.

A manually assembled mini quadcopter for FPV
A manually assembled mini quadcopter for FPV

Weight: 360 gr w/o battery. With 2200 mA 2S battery: 487 gr.

Size: The 4 motor centers form a square with a side of 17,5 cm and a diagonal distance from front motor to back motor of 25 cm.  So the quad is in the 250 class.

Build components

Build steps

The frame with the nylon supports for the control board fitted
The frame with the nylon supports for the control board fitted 
KK2.1 board in place
KK2.1 board in place
Landing gear glued and zip-tied in place
Landing gear glued and zip-tied in place
The X-Aircraft cable used as power distribution
The X-Aircraft cable used as power distribution
Wiring of the ESCs, detail
Wiring of the ESCs, detail
Motors in place
Motors in place
A detail of the KK2 board and Hitec Optima 7 receiver, mounted to the side of the frame with two zip ties
A detail of the KK2 board and Hitec Optima 7 receiver, mounted to the side of the frame with two zip ties
A view from below. A velcro strap is now in place to hold the battery
A view from below. A velcro strap is now in place to hold the battery
With FatShark video transmitter and wide angle mobius camera
With FatShark video transmitter and wide angle mobius camera
Camera now connected to the transmitter. Power filter for the video system in place, will plug straight into the battery balance cable
Camera now connected to the transmitter. Power filter for the video system in place, will plug straight into the battery balance cable
Fully assembled mini quadcopter for FPV
Fully assembled mini quadcopter for FPV
The receives side of the quad. Note the HobbyKing discovery buzzer tied to a leg of the landing gear
The receiver side of the quad. Note the HobbyKing discovery buzzer tied to a leg of the landing gear
The 5.8 GHz FatShark video transmitter with polarized antenna
The 5.8 GHz FatShark video transmitter with polarized antenna
A small 3 white leds strip was fitted on each front arm
A small 3 white leds strip was fitted on each front arm. These strips should run at 12V however I am getting quite a decent lighting for the 7-8 V of the 2S batteries used in this setup. The leds are powered through one of the leads of the X-Aircraft connector used for power distribution.
Strobo green leds under the back arms
Strobo green leds under the back arms

Hope that these photos and details will inspire you to build your own personal drone so as to join the fun. Feel free to post below if you have any question of comment!

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Stay tuned on the Personal Drones blog for the latest multirotor and quadcopter news!

9 thoughts on “Building a mini quadcopter for FPV”

    1. Hello Droneguy!

      The costs, let’s make a rough estimation:

      – 1x frame 25$
      – 1x KK2 board 30$
      – 4x T-motors 160$
      – 4x flashed ESC 60$
      – mobius camera 80$
      – Video TX 250mW 50$
      – Bluebeam antenna 25$ (set of 2: 50$ at RMRC)
      – Landing gear: 10$
      – Discovery buzzer: 2,5$
      – Bolts, nuts, wiring cable: 15$

      Total excluding receiver, battery and components shipping: 457,5$.

      Will do my best for a video, weather not helping lately, rain and cold. It will come! Thanks for your comment.

  1. So I some how wound up creating a build close to yours. I wasn’t really planning on it but your site was one of the firsts I found a few months ago when I started with quads.

    I have two questions, one about antennas if you would recommend the SpiroNET antenna set in addition to the bluebeam’s you used. I was hoping to get something with more protection and a bit cheaper.

    Also what sort of flight times are you getting? I know my setup is a bit under powered it seems, I used the parts from my two crashed turnigy micro quads, with the JST battery connection. Even with my 2S 1300 mah batteries I can barley break 4.5 mins. without all of the fpv gear. With it I’m sure it is less even though I haven’t flow fpv yet with it.

    Thanks

  2. Hi G2B, thanks for posting !
    I do recommend spironet indeed. The only reason I used the bluebeam is size, however I would guess that as far as performance is concerned, the spironet are top class. Cannot really tell about flight times as I still have to properly fly the quad. At 360 gr without battery, I found it can fly very well with a 3300 mA 2S, so I really hope to get around 8 minutes at least, but I really cannot tell right now. 1300 is really lower limit for this weight I think. How much does yours weight? Which frame did you use?

    1. I’m not really sure the weight of it I don’t have or scale or anything to weight on of it’s size. I’ll have to look everything up and get back to you with an estimated weight.

      As for the frame, I have the same as yours, the SSHquad frame but I used the the landing gear from polakium. The only other main difference I have from your setup is Turnigy 2900kv motors, and 6 amp esc’s. My fpv setup it the fat shark teleporter v3 camera and receiver.

      Thanks for responding.

  3. very and very nice because I wanted to make this kind of copter since 2011 and I thank you for your help but I’m not ready to start making it now but I hope you’ll be by my side

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