Good day and welcome back theTMac FPV - your home for your "Journey to Better" FPV
fun, flights, and racing stuff! This is Episode #2 of our FPV Boot Camp designed
to help you get started with FPV the right way and make a well-informed
decision as to what FPV gear is best for you so you can save both time and money
and have more fun sooner. If you missed Episode #1- How Quads Fly go ahead and
check it out at the card up above or through the link in the video
description below. At the end of this short FPV Boot Camp
series we'll be giving away one free enrollment to our Fast Track FPV Course
which goes into much more detail of not only these topics but everything you
need to know to get started in this FPV hobby to include a coupon code which can
be used multiple times for a big discount on gear purchases for the
remainder of 2019. To qualify for the giveaway, either for yourself or someone
you know, make sure to check out the rules in the description below. Last time
we covered how quads fly, this time we're going to take a look at what makes quad
fly. We'll do that with a general overview of their main components. With a
better understanding of the different parts of your quad you'll eventually be
able to create your own custom build and also troubleshoot any issues which may
come up due to, shall we say, unintentional durability tests. Let's get
started! There are seven main components which we'll go over and the first one we
want to take a look at is the quad copters frame. The purpose of the frame
is to house and protect all the other quadcopter's components. It's usually
made up of carbon fiber because that material is both strong and lightweight.
For an FPV quadcopter to perform well ideally you want to have a large thrust
to weight ratio which just means you'd like your quad to be lightweight with a
lot of power from your motors. So the lighter your frame the better. However if
you go too lightweight with carbon fiber material that is too thin to effectively
withstand the weight of the other components, the frame itself may break
when involved in a crash. Usually for smaller quads or micro quads which spin
two to four inch props the bottom plate and arms of the frame are two to three
millimeters thick. For larger quads or mini quads which spin five inch props
and also tend to be much heavier the frames are usually at least four
millimeters thick. The length of the arms on your frame, or more precisely the
distance the end of the arm is from the rest of the frame, will determine the
size of the props your quad can spin. There's different frame styles for
different types of flying which are depicted here.
Normal X frames are in the shape of an X and have the distance from motor to
motor in the front the same as motor to motor in the rear.
These true X frames are usually good for both freestyle and racing. Stretch X
frames, like this one, have a narrower distance between the arms side to side
than they do front to back. These are usually better for racing than
freestyle. Then you have hybrid frames like this in which the distance between
the front arms may be narrower than the distance between the motors in the back.
You also have H frames which are in the shape of an H. One advantage to this type
of frame is there are no props in view of your camera while you're flying. These
are good for cinematic videography. The type of whole pattern at the end of your
quads arms will determine the size of motors you can install. Some micro quads
have a nine millimeter hole mounting pattern whereas some have twelve
millimeter mounting patterns and mini quads spinning five inch props can have
16 millimeter mounting patterns. For more information on frames check out my video
on micro FTV Quadcopter Parts 3-inch Frames in the playlist at the card up
above or through the link below. The second component we'll look at is the
electronic speed controller or ESC for short. Although quads can have separate
ESC's for each motor, the type we're gonna look at is called a 4-in-1
ESC which has all four ESCs on one board. The main function of the ESC is to
tell your motors how fast to spin based on instructions from the flight controller
which are directed per your transmitter control stick inputs. Consequently, all
four motors of your quadcopter are physically connected to the ESC usually
through solder joints. Your power source or LiPo for your quad is also usually
connected to the ESC. ESC's are rated based on the amount of current they can
provide your motors both continuously and in bursts. So you're gonna need to
get an ESC which is rated appropriately for the type and size motors you're
gonna be using on your quad. If you get an ESC with an insufficient rating for
your motors your ESC will overheat, fail, and at times emit the magic smoke which
means you're gonna be grounded until you're able to replace it. Next we'll
take a look at your quads motors. There are many different size and types of
motors you can choose from. In general the larger the motor the heavier it is
and the more power or thrust it has. Motor sizes are usually described in
terms of four numbers. The first two numbers represent the width of the motor
or the stator diameter and the last two numbers describe the height of the motor or
the stator height. Both of these dimensions are in millimeters. There are numerous factors to consider when choosing motors for your quad and I
could do an entire video just on motors. In fact, I have!
For more specific details on motor parameters check out the video at the
card up above or the video description below. The fourth component we'll look at
is the brain of your quad or the flight controller. It contains the micro
controller and the micro processing unit or the MPU to include the accelerometer
and gyroscope or the gyro. It also includes certain types of interfaces
which allow you to connect other devices to it. These interfaces are called UARTs
which is short for Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter. Your
flight controller is connected to your ESC so it can send information to it
which allows the ESC to control the speed of your motors. There are a ton of
different types of flight controllers out there with different features for
different types of builds. I go over these features more in-depth in my Flight Controllers & ESC's video available up above or in the link below.
The two flight control stacks I compare in that video I still use today for most
of my builds because they've proven to be both effective and reliable. The next
part we'll look at is our receiver. The receiver gets your commands from your
transmitter control inputs and passes those signals on to the flight controller.
So it's important that your receiver and transmitter speak the same language or
protocol. That seems obvious but the reason I bring it up is different brand
transmitters and receivers have different protocols and sometimes even
within the same company's brand their transmitters and receivers use different
protocols. Some transmitters are able to communicate with most types of receivers
through the use of multi protocol modules either internally installed or through
an external connection in a module Bay. The Jumper T16 is a good example of that
type of transmitter. Usually the communication between transmitter and
receiver is done at the 2.4 gigahertz frequency band but you can also get
receivers and external modules which work with them that operate at the 900
megahertz frequency band such as the TBS Crossfire or the FrSky R9M systems. I've
got a video on using 900 megahertz which you can check out above or at the link
below. With a 900 megahertz band you can fly farther and through and around
obvious without losing your control signal more so than you could when using
the 2.4 gigahertz band. Just make sure before you purchase a transmitter and a
receiver you know which protocol you want to use. Your FPV camera is the next
part we'll take a look at. It's basically your eyes in flight. The view of your FPV
camera is the same view your gonna have in your goggles. So if your FPV camera
has a 120 degree field of view so will you. If
it has a 160 degree field of view, you will also. FPV cameras come
in different physical sizes. Some are 22 millimeters, some are 19 millimeters, and
some are 14 millimeters. You want to make sure that the FPV camera you choose fits
the camera mount of your frame. The aspect ratio of the video your FPV
camera captures is something else to consider. Your options here are 16:9 and
4:3. Some cameras are switchable between the two aspect ratios and some are not.
What's important to remember here is the aspect ratio of your camera should match
that of your fpv goggles since some goggles are switchable between the two
aspect ratios and some are not. There are many different brands of FPV cameras on
the market to choose from. Picture quality, reliability, cost, and latency (or
the amount of delay you encounter with the image processing) are important
parameters to consider when choosing an FPV camera.
The final component we'll take a look at is the video transmitter or the VTX.
The main function of the video transmitter is to do just that - transmit
the video back to your goggles. Most commonly used VTXs transmit in the
5.8 gigahertz range on five bands and eight channels within each band. The
precision at which the VTX operates at your desired channel along with its
power output options in physical size and weight are important parameters to
consider, along with cost of course. Some VTX's have more capabilities than
others and parameters which I consider to be important are covered in various
VTX review videos within the Micro FPV Drone Parts Playlist mentioned earlier.
Now you have a basic understanding of the main parts of an FPV quad and what
they do. This should help guide you in making well-informed decisions for not
only what components to buy for your own build but also troubleshooting things as
they come up - and they will, that's just part of the hobby! Remember to check out
the rules for the Fast Track FPV enrollment giveaway in the description
below. Like the video and share it with your friends. Subscribe and click on that
bell below to get notified of future videos. Thank you for your time and we'll see
you next video. Clear Skies friend!