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DIY FPV Drone
DIY FPV Drone
When building the FPV drone quad there are two main systems that need to be constructed: the quad-rotor, and the FPV camera streaming system. Each of these systems have components within themselves. Below is the list to what is needed for both systems.

DIY FPV Drone

Step 1: Components

When building the FPV drone quad there are two main systems that need to be constructed: the quad-rotor, and the FPV camera streaming system. Each of these systems have components within themselves. Below is the list to what is needed for both systems.

Step 2: The Electronics and Schematic

Most of the quad building has to do with plugging in wires and soldiering connections, therefore it is important that we know what components go where. The diagram above shows a schematic of the quad and will hopefully aid through the building process. Before we start, it is good to layout the components to make sure that there is enough space for them in the chassis. This will not only stop wires from potentially getting caught, but also improve the cable management of the quad-rotor system. Now lets heat up the soldering iron and begin!

Step 3: The Power Distribution Board

Soldering the Battery Connector

First we are going to want to get the PDB and solder the battery connector to the PDB. If you purchased the same PDB from the list, the battery connector would have been provided (the t-plug), however, some other PDBs do not come with the connector so make sure you purchase the correct kind for your battery (JST, XT60, etc.).

Soldering the ESCs

Once we have the battery connector soldered, we will start to solder the ESCs. Solder the positive end to the positive terminal and same for the negative. Also, make sure that you solder the ESCs in a place where it will be easy to manage cables.

Step 4: Motors

Now that the PDB is all soldered up, we can connect the motor leads to the ESCs.

Motor Orientation

Since we are using the CC3D flight controller, we need to orient the motors in a specific way so when we are setting up the controller, there are no issues. If we recall the quad-rotor schematic from the previous step, if the front facing portion of the quad is the top, then the top-left motor is read as motor 1, top-right as motor 2, bottom-right as motor 3, and bottom-left as motor 4. Also, make sure that your motor 2 and motor 4 are the counter-clock-wise (CCW) motors.

Soldering the Leads

If you purchased bullet connectors then simply solder the components to the motor leads, and the others to the ESCs. If not, just directly solder the motor wires to the ESCs. Later in the build, when we are configuring the flight controller, we may need to de-solder the connections as the motors might spin in the wrong direction, this is why the bullet connectors have an advantage in the configuration phase.