Purchasing a mini quad racer

[Crazyflyer]

Hi Guys,
If anyone is interested in purchasing a mini quad, don't hesitate to contact me if you have questions.
I am part of a quad racing group that often has people selling used quads that are in good shape with great components at a much better price/quality than you would buy retail.
Please also note that you should always purchase a quad with a carbon fiber frame (minimum 3mm thick for durability), the plastic frames will break on the first crash and you will have wasted $300.
If you are serious about getting into quads, I would avoid getting the starter ones to save $100; you will quickly want to upgrade the escs and the motors. You just need to start on a 3s battery and move up to 4s once you are ready for serious speed.
(FYI someone in Niagara is selling a Vortex Pro 250 with lots of spare parts for $400CAD)

Stephan

[sihinch]

On this topic, Stephan, can you recommend a quad that can be flown outdoors, to learn on.  Something docile and forgiving - like the apprentice of Quads?

I have a Nano QX but it doesn't really handle outdoors well.

[Crazyflyer]

Hi Simon,
Quads work a bit differently from planes. The way to adjust the flight characteristics is through the settings of the flight control board (PID's). So really you can have a very high powered beast that can be very docile depending on the settings and battery you use...and more importantly your ability to control the left stick.

As a starter quad, getting a cheap one with the propellers in a cage is very good to learn the feel without breaking propellers every time you land. However if you will get bored quickly and want to move up.
The popular sizes go from 220mm to 260mm with 5" props. The smaller ones with 4" props are also good but the electronics are more tightly packed which means that it is harder to fix or change components.

I have a 250mm (measured motor to motor diagonally) with a Minion frame (lots of room for components, Naze32 flight controller (outdated but still works), 2204-2300kv motors (used to be the best for racing, now is basic), 20amp escs, and it was my starter quad.

If you want a quad that has all the settings done, I would suggest the Vortex Pro 250. The quality is good, the replacement components are plug & play (no or minimal soldering) but more expensive than other options.

Personally I would suggest getting a 250 frame with a bit of room inside, getting all the basic components at the best price, assembling it and once you crash you know how to repair them quickly (I can now build one from scratch in 3-4 hours). You can start out with a decent frame and cheap components and then change them as you want to go faster.
Generally the components you break and have to replace in the order of occurrence (at least for me): ESC's, VTx, Camera, Motors, Receiver, Flight controller, frame.
However they are generally very resilient, I usually crash at 60km/h into grass and walk away with a couple of broken propellers. Hitting trees or solid surfaces is when you do the damage.

If you want I am happy to lead a group build session and offer guidance when flying FPV at Rogo field.

[sihinch]

Ive built and flown 2 250-size quads already and in the end sold them both because I felt they were just too "zippy!"  I want something that flies nice and gentle to learn with, say no more than 10 degrees tilt.

But I think your other idea (of a group build) is fantastic and very generous of you. Let's see if people are interested. Thank you!

[Crazyflyer]

Simon, you can easily change that in the settings on the flight controller. Usually the level mode is 15 deg, but very easy to change on Baseflight, Cleanflight or Betaflight on the setup page to 10 deg.
You can also change the speed of the movements in the PIDs. I personally like them very twitchy (like a hummingbird that drank 10 cups of coffee), but it can easily be slow and smooth.
Look for the Roll rate, pitch rate and yaw rate (on the PID screen) and lower them (maybe 0.1) mine are at 0.5 to give you an example (closer to 1.0 is faster).

The biggest piece of advice I can offer newbies for flying FPV is to go forward. Staying level and in one spot is very disorienting, once you have forward momentum it feels more like a plane which you are familiar with. I practiced with Eric, as the spotter he would mention how far off the ground I was until I got the feel for where I was. Also having a wider angle lens (2.5) may also help a bit (narrowest I would suggest 2.8 and widest 2.1) Lenses are less then $10 ($5 from China direct).
And finally go "rate" (no gyro stabilization, like a plane) as soon as possible and your flying will become much smoother.