Kit VS. Phantom Vision 2+

[NewGuy01]

I am new to the hobby, and wanted a project.. I went to one of my local hobby shops in hopes to purchace a kit for a decent multi-rotor.. After talking to the guy, he was saying for me to build a comparable unit would cost me over $2500.00.. Or i could pay them $1300.00 for their DJI Phantom Vision2 +..

I was looking forward to building one of these from a kit to complete. But if I am going to spend double and then some for a unit I assemble.. I was hoping to make something superior to that witch is mass produced...

Any way I could get some pros, and cons from you experienced hobbyist?

I wanted to start out building a Hexacopter, was looking at hobbyking kits, but also, local hobby shop said the kits from there are very low quality.. Any and all input is appreciated..

Thanks in advance,
Peter

 

[Jason Smoker]

how about a f550 or f450 kit, mass produced and easy to replace parts if you crash

 

[Motopreserve]

An f550 hex can be built for a reasonable price (far less than the price your LHS quoted you) and will be FAR more flexible. Plus you get the knowledge and satisfaction from building it yourself.

Plenty of domestic retailer now have parts for good prices - so you don't need to deal with Hobby King if you don't want to.

 

[NewGuy01]

Price wasn't my big concern. I dont mind hobby king if their kits are of good quality. The massed produced ready to fly was what I was trying to steer cleAR of. If Im building my own machine. I was thinking I could make a higher quality for same budget. .

Has anyone here had any major issues with hobby king kits? The hobby store had stated quality of thwit product was much greater then the kits I could purchase online. As I am new to the hobby.. I have no opinion on this..

1 am here. Off To Sleep

Thanks again,
Peter

 

[bruce365]

Kits in general are not as tidy looking as a mass produced item like those from DJI or Walkera maybe Align, depends on what you want to accomplish. A home built suav (depending on your skills and patience) will mostly look untidy and home built (lots of wiring and electronics, camera FPV etc.).
A professionally designed and mass produced product will always look neat & tidy (with wires and electronics hidden) and perhaps perform better, parts are generally easily available, pricing due to competition between manufacturers is generally good (DJI has dropped prices).

If interested in filming in the air you can not do better than zenmuse from DJI integrated with the flight controller.

Hobbyking in my opinion have their place for those looking for Cheap, that does not mean all their products are rubbish but you have to know what you are looking at.

If you are a tinkerer buy a basic kit and build on it (you will be surprised how quickly you can break the $2,500 sound barrier), if you want something that looks good and works out the box without a lot of stuffing around well....

Regards - bruce

 

[Motopreserve]

Bruce is spot on. Hobby king has its place. Batteries, connectors, basic consumables etc. But I have found some their frame kits to be heavier than you'd expect (or need), and not much cheaper than some of the basic frame kits from DJI. An f450 or f550 is a cheap frame - but it's a proven design that has worked well for many. The HK knockoff of the same frame is not much cheaper.

While I understand Bruce's point about a prepackaged MR being neater, it also should be noted that they are often more "closed" to future adaptation and modification. I've built some MR that have stuff hanging out all over the place, and some that are as neat as can be. That's just part of the build and more importantly, the builder.

Then it comes down the the choice of kit. There are prebuilt packages that cost $20k. But there are obviously those that are sub-$1k. It's probably most important to decide what you'd like to accomplish. That will help narrow down your choices.

 

[NewGuy01]

Thank you. This information has been helpful. I think i am going to go with the ft 50 for my 1st build. Looking foward to getting started. Will put up pics when I am finished.

Thanks again,
Peter

 

[NewGuy01]

I replied on my phone earlier. Autocorrect fixed f550 to ft 50.. Again, thank you all for the information. Getting my orders in now. hopefully in a week or 2 i should be flying. Ill worry about a camera once I have finished.

Peter

 

[Old Man]

Good call. I think you'll end up a lot happier with the flexibility of a home built and end up with much better comprehension of how systems work this way .

One of the earlier posts reminded me of the lyrics to and old song; "if you want to be happy for the rest of your life, don't make a pretty girl your wife, from my personal point of view, get an ugly girl to marry you."


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Motopreserve]

One of the earlier posts reminded me of the lyrics to and old song; "if you want to be happy for the rest of your life, don't make a pretty girl your wife, from my personal point of view, get an ugly girl to marry you."

 

[bruce365]

Hi, I am not in any way nocking the home built, I started with a genuine DJI F550 and had lots of fun with it, but at that time there were fewer options, today the market has expanded considerably and NewGuy01 did say price was not a big concern, in that case I would have gone a little further up market (not a criticism). Having said that I am sure you will enjoy your F550 and you will grow out of it and move on as most of us have.
Regards - bruce

 

[Motopreserve]

I don't know that it's ever a bad decision to begin modest (both size and financially), especially in a hobby that can get expensive real quick during the learning process. Most people who get hooked will move on to bigger craft, but I think it's still nice to have a "beater" to test new things on.

 

[NewGuy01]

I think I'm kinda planning a f550 kit with the 50mm longer aluminum arms.. wanted to put e600's in. Been reading it should improve flight time. Still looking into flight controller and gps. There is a combo kit for 300 dollars but not Sure of quality. So, kinda doing a f550.. but starting with an upgraded version? Putting togather a list of parts now and should be ordering by weekend.. any suggestions or comments for the build are always welcome.. appriciate all the feedback thus far.

 

[Bartman]

welcome to the site Peter, enjoy that first build and feel free to ask whatever questions you have along the way.

The group build thread in the Beginners' Lounge has a lot of info on building an F450/550 with NAZA but if the search function lets you down we are happy to keep you going with whatever questions you might have.

Bart

 

[Bartman]

I think I'm kinda planning a f550 kit with the 50mm longer aluminum arms.. wanted to put e600's in. Been reading it should improve flight time. Still looking into flight controller and gps. There is a combo kit for 300 dollars but not Sure of quality. So, kinda doing a f550.. but starting with an upgraded version? Putting togather a list of parts now and should be ordering by weekend.. any suggestions or comments for the build are always welcome.. appriciate all the feedback thus far.

what's the long term goal? If you're not sure but want all of the bells and whistles then the NAZA-M V2 will keep you happy for a long time. If you're a less-is-more kind of guy, the NAZE 32 controller is inexpensive and has been getting a lot of attention lately. If you want to have the whole undergrad and graduate level experience available in one package then go with the 3DR Pixhawk.

3DR should make a bumper sticker, "My Pixhawk is smarter than your honor student"...just an idea, probably not a very good one, but an idea nonetheless

 

[Motopreserve]

Bart offers some good advice here. Not to confuse the topic, but I just set up 2 Naza Lite's for a friend and was surprised how well they flew on the f450 and f550. I had dismissed them when I first started dabbling with DJI (can't recall why) but they seem to be a good option right in the middle between Naze32 and Naza V2.

 

[Bartman]

there's a hack going around to convert a NAZA Lite to a NAZA V2....steve posted a link to the article somewhere....supposedly they're the same from a hardware perspective and it's just a matter of telling the Lite that it is a V2 and it will believe you and work like the V2

 

[Motopreserve]

Even better!

 

[NewGuy01]

I will post my entire order for the build, Once complete. And I would appriciate any feedback from you pros.

I'm a painter by trade, and was planning on making a body to cover up the center and part way along the arms. Will probably have questions once I start that process too. I plan on giving it a bad ass custom paintjob.

I'll post my build plans in a more appropriate forum. Sorry if I cluttered this one up.

Peter

 

[bruce365]

Hi NewGuy, I see you want to add aluminium extension arms to your F550 hex, my opinion just not worth it unless your getting them cheap cheap but at $50 a pair that's $150 just for arms?

Do yourself a favour and buy a carbon fibre Tarot frame (or some other brand) for the $200 your going to spend on a DJI F550 frame and go to a 680 or 810 size frame. Naza 2 is better because you can in the future (if you want) attach iOSD or iOSD mini. Tarot 680 frames start at $125!
regards - bruce