Before you buy

There are quite a lot of things that are important to know before even looking at actual products. In this article, I will at least try to list all of the important info you need to know when starting out.

Do your research

As is with buying a car, a PC, a phone, or any other electronic device, you should know what you’re buying, and what the basic names and terms mean.

Watch build guides (ideally not ones that are over 2 years old if you’re looking for parts recommendations as well), setup tutorials, and reviews to get an idea of what you need/want to buy. Just be careful about the price, there are many guides out there that promise extremely cheap builds, but they’re nothing more than bait to get clicks on affiliate links. $100 5” builds, $150 7” builds are simply not realistic.

I go into more detail about this a little further down, but you should also get at least 10h of sim time to see what kind of flight style you may prefer, to practice before flying in real life, and to see if FPV is even something you’d enjoy.

If you’re unsure about your findings, don’t know what something means, or just want opinions, it’s fine to ask. That leads us to…

Asking for help

A good rule of thumb is that if it can’t be found on Google in less than a minute, it’s probably something worth asking other people. There are many places where you can get help, be it forums, Reddit communities (r/fpv, r/multicopter), or Discord servers like Drone Community. Before you ask, there are a few things that you should know:

• Ask in the appropriate way and/or place - most forums/discord servers have dedicated places for specific questions. Putting your questions in the appropriate place will go a long way for the people that help out others.

• There are no stupid questions - it’s perfectly okay to not know something. Don’t be afraid to ask, or worry that you’re annoying others. It’s better to just ask what you want rather than just going in blind and spending a lot of money on bad equipment.

• There are good and bad ways to ask - First of all: https://dontasktoask.com/ is a great page to show how not to approach things. This basically means that you shouldn’t ask:

  hey guys can anyone help me with something?

  Instead, when asking, you should go straight to the point. Explain what you want to know, what you’ve done/found out so far, and any other ideas that you may have.

• On chat platforms like discord, don’t mention (multiple) people unless it’s specifically allowed. Don’t send direct messages out to people who offer help, don’t spam multiple channels with the same question - keep it in one place, and be patient if someone doesn’t immediately respond. Someone will eventually see your questions, it’s rude to be impatient at volunteer helpers, people have their own lives.

• Please pick a time when you’re available. It’s rude to start an entire help conversation and then just not reply back for hours on end, or when you don’t even have access to the equipment you’re trying to troubleshoot.

Choosing what to buy

Before you go invest your time, effort, and money into the hobby, making educated decisions goes a long way to prevent overspending/buying bad gear, and keeping your sanity

Stuff to stay away from

Luckily it’s easier to name the few patterns to avoid than to list the ones to look for.

• Eachine - with the exception of the EV800D goggles and some products that they only re-brand, most of their products are low in quality at best. Namely the EV100 goggles, and the Wizzard/Tyro series drones, which are unfortunately still the among the highest on banggood. The EV100 tend to overheat and go out of RF calibration, sometimes even melting the plastic shell and starting to burn. The Wizard/Tyro quads are often unreliable at best, the electronics are known to just stop working or even catch fire out of nowhere.

• IMAX B6 chargers (and their various clones) - The original B6 charger is already known to be more or less a fire hazard. The clones are even worse in this aspect. If you see a charger that looks something like this, it’s not worth it

• Unsupported electronics - The development teams behind open source FPV projects like ExpressLRS (ELRS), Betaflight and AM32 offer an official hardware support program, where manufacturers can submit their hardware for testing and approval. Hardware that passes gets an official firmware target, and a guarantee that it works as expected. You may run into products claiming to be compatible with this software, but not having an official target. You can run into issues with firmware flashing (no official target, having to hunt down 3rd party ones) or unexpected behavior in flight or on the bench.

  • No-name electronics - In recent years, there has been an influx of sub-par hardware, mainly on AliExpress. Ignoring low quality components and construction, these FCs and ESCs often use firmware targets from other manufacturers, taking the work of others and potentially breaking after firmware updates if the target is updated.
  • Brand-name but still unsupported - You’ll run into this with products such as the BetaFPV LiteRadio series, Jumper Smart, and the iFlight Commando 14. These controllers use their own implementation of ELRS and their own operating system that are often closed-source and largely undocumented. In addition to no official support, very few people will be able to help you with these products, and you’ll likely have to contact the manufacturer directly.

• Clone hardware - Usually clones of popular frames, usually the GEPRC Mark 4/Mark 5 frames. They generally use low quality carbon and have little to no quality control. Recently this has also started to affect popular flight control electronics, be wary of SpeedyBee F405 V3/V4 FCs on AliExpress, they’ve been officially discontinued by the manufacturer.

• BLHeli_32 - What used to be a very popular firmware for ESCs shut down around mid-2024. Given its closed-source nature, there are no new licenses issued, no new firmware releases, and no official support. Any new ESCs claiming to use BLHeli_32 are likely using dumped firmware, test/development releases, or even cracked/modified versions.

Those are just a few extremes off the top of my head, if you’re unsure about something, it’s always better to ask

Stuff to look for

I wouldn’t want to tell you what not to get and then just stop there. FPV is not all just caution about products, there are manufacturers that have a very clean track record:

• Radiomaster - Their controllers and other hardware is some of the best you can get across all price points, from the T8L and Pocket to the GX12 and TX16S MK3.

• Rush - High quality flight control and video transmission hardware. Their Tank video transmitters and Cherry antennas are some of the best you can get.

• TMotor - Great motors across all budgets, their FCs and ESCs are also very good, though a bit more expensive than other options.

• Foxeer - Mostly known for their wide variety of cameras, but they have branched out to video transmitters and FCs/ESCs, which keep the same quality.

• GEPRC - GEPRC make practically everything you’d need to build a whole drone, and they make use of it by making some of the best pre-built options out there.

• BetaFPV - While their low-range offerings aren’t all that good, their Air tinywhoop series and Pavo cinewhoop series lead the way in pre-built micro quads. Just wish they released something with open props again.

• HOTA - Great chargers across a range of prices, from simple one-port chargers that power from USB PD to large four-port chargers with built-in power supplies.

There are many more manufacturers that make good products, but these are the ones that I’ve had the most experience with. If you have any suggestions, feel free to let me know or make a pull request on the GitHub repo

What to actually buy

Now that you know what to avoid and what to get, it’s time to actually buy stuff. I will try to list the most important things that you need to get started, and then go into more detail about the different parts. Most of this info is also in the FAQ, but I will try to explain it in a short and concise way here, while also giving some specific product recommendations

1. A radio - The first thing you should buy when starting FPV is a good radio - it will allow you to put in some sim time while waiting for the rest of your gear. I would absolutely go with ELRS if possible. Nowadays I’d only consider using ELRS (an open source high performance control link system) - all of the radios listed in this guide have ELRS versions.

   Sim Time

   At least 10 hours of sim time is recommended. This can vary from person to person, so if you feel like you’re not making much progress, you can always do more. The more you practice, the better you’ll get. If you want to know what sim to use, you can find a couple of recommendations in the Sim FAQ

2. The drone itself - Based on what your budget allows and what kind of flying you enjoy in the sim, you can go on to pick a drone that fits your needs.

3. Tools, spare parts, and other accessories - You will need tools to build, maintain, and fix up your drone, and some spare parts and other odd bits to replace broken ones if needed. Allow at least 50% of the cost of the drone for accessories and spares.

4. Batteries and a charger - You can’t fly without batteries, and you can’t charge them without a charger. You’ll need batteries for the controller in order to fly in a sim, and you will need them to actually fly the drone itself.

5. Goggles - The whole reason why we’re here. You can do most of the setup without goggles, but to fly FPV you will kinda need them.

You can find some recommendations for different price points below. They may intersect with each other a bit, but some things just fit into multiple price ranges. Feel free to mix and match items from the different price ranges, to a certain extent. For example, you can get a cheap radio and a more expensive set of goggles, or a cheap set of goggles and a more expensive radio.

~$300

Some of the most basic things to get you started. Tinywhoops or toothpicks, and an inexpensive radio and goggles. You can get a lot of fun out of these, and they’re a great way to get into the hobby

1. Radios:

   • Radiomaster Pocket ($65) - The best budget radio you can get while still keeping all of the important features. Full ELRS and EdgeTX support make the whole setup process easy with the amount of documentation available.
   • Radiomaster T8L ($34.99) - An even cheaper option, if you must shave some money off the budget, I’d do it here. It’s fully supported by ELRS, but uses a custom operating system that requires access to a PC for further setup.

2. Goggles:

   • Eachine EV800D ($119.99) - The best (and likely only good) budget option at this price. They’re not the best, but they’re good enough for most people who are just starting out. Watch out for clones, the legitimate version is the only one you should buy, it can be identified by the Eachine logo on the front.
   • Skyzone Cobra S/X ($249.99) - The best box goggles on the market, but also the most expensive in this category.

3. Quads:

   • BetaFPV Air ($80.99-99.99) - Great options for 1s 65/75mm tinywhoops that are relatively competitive in weight and performance to dedicated self-built options.
   • Happymodel Crux3 ($118.99) - A good 1s toothpick, great for flying outdoors in your backyard or at a park. Being a 1s quad, it’s still pretty cheap to maintain. A little bit of soldering is required to upgrade the battery connector to BT2.0/A30, maybe XT30.
   • Happymodel Bassline ($123.99) - It’s a great option if you want something a little more nimble than the Crux3, and it’s even smaller! It runs on 2s batteries so you will need a proper charger for it though

4. Chargers:

   • ViFly Whoopstor V3 ($32.99) - Pretty much the best 1s charger you can get. Unlike with most 1s options, it comes with both PH2.0 and BT2.0 connectors, a discharge/storage option, an OLED display for voltage readout, and being able to power it from USB C
   • VIFly Toothstor ($33.99) - Very similar to the Whoopstor, but made for charging 2s batteries.

5. Batteries:

   Many manufacturers now use the same battery “folded cell” technology known under names such as “Z-folding”, it’s currently the best option for small 1-2s batteries. You’ll see them from BetaFPV as the Lava/Lava II series, and recent HV offerings from Dogcom, Tattu, WeBleed and NewBeeDrone

   • 65mm Tinywhoops - 260-320mAh 1s
   • 75mm Tinywhoops - 450-650mAh 1s
   • 1s Toothpicks - 450-650mAh 1s
   • 2s Toothpicks - 450-600mAh 2s

~$600

Starting to get into more expensive options, you start to see more performant quads, and higher-end equipment. Also a good place to start if you’re looking to fly with a small HD camera

1. Radios:
   • Radiomaster Pocket ($65) - Mentioned in the above section, but it still holds its weight in higher price ranges, even if as a secondary compact radio.
   • Radiomaster Boxer ($139.99) - A larger, more traditional controller with a higher output power, more inputs and larger gimbals. Still a gold standard for most reasonable setups.
   • Radiomaster TX15 ($139.99) - Very similar to the Boxer, but newer and with extra features such as a color touch screen and the ability to pick between 2.4GHz and 900MHz bands for ELRS.
   • Radiomaster GX12 ($169.99) - The GX12 a high-end compact radio, next to the TX16S MK3 with an internal Gemini Xrossband transmitter that can be used for 2.4GHz and 900MHz bands at once for increased range or data rates.
2. Goggles:
   • Skyzone Cobra S/X ($239.99) - The best box goggles on the market, with better ergonomics and a better screen than the EV800D, with room for easy VRX upgrades in the future
   • Skyzone Sky 04o Pro ($339.99) - Likely the best slimline goggles that still make sense, any higher and I’d really consider going digital.
   • HDZero BoxPro ($299.99) - HDZero’s budget box goggles that support both analog and HDZero video systems. Great option if you’re looking to try out both systems, or even just analog on its own since the analog video receiver is pretty good.
3. Quads:
   • Happymodel Crux35 ($144.99) - An extra half inch may not sound like much, but it’ll handle a standalone HD camera (Runcam Thumb Pro, Insta360 Go2, naked gopro) a lot better, and fly more like a regular 5” quad. Perfect for mid-size open spaces - backyards, parks, etc.
   • Self-built 3.5” - I really wanted to keep this list focused on pre-built options, but the truth is that there aren’t many good general 3.5” options. Outside of the Crux35 most pre-builts take a leap in weight, going over 250g and sacrificing performance. I don’t have a dedicated 3.5” build guide yet, but it’s coming soon… hopefully.
   • GEPRC Vapor X5/D5 ($236.99) - Fully-featured 5” pre-built quads like this one went almost extinct in the last few years, but now they’re making a comeback. The X5 is dedicated for freestyle, the D5 uses deadcat geometry for cinematic use - both can carry a full GoPro with ease and take a beating.
   • AxisFlying Manta 5 SE V2 ($204.99) - AxisFlying used to offer mainly more expensive options, but now they’re also selling a 5” at practically pre-2020 prices with high-end components. Like the Vapor, they come in a regular X and deadcat configurations, you may want to consider getting an improved analog camera like the Caddx Ratel 2, the stock one isn’t the best.
   • GEPRC CineLog 35 V2 ($286.99) - Many people were asking for cinewhoop recommendations, this is what I’d go with. If you’re looking to carry a full GoPro safely around expensive subjects, this is likely the best option.
4. Chargers:
   • Hota T6 ($34.99) - The best and really only charger I’d recommend below ~$80. It can be powered via XT60 or a reasonably powerful USB PD power brick, and charge 6s batteries comfortably.
5. Batteries Stick to Gaoneng (GNB), CNHL SpeedyPizza or Dogcom batteries. ~650mAh 4s for regular 3.5” quads, ~1300mAh 6s for the 5” quads and 3.5” cinewhoops. All ideally 100C or higher.

~$1000+

Now going firmly into the high-end analog or digital setups, you’ll find a range of radios going from budget to high-end, and nice slimline goggles.

1. Radios:

   • Radiomaster Pocket ($65) - Mentioned in the above section, but it still holds its weight in higher price ranges, even if as a secondary compact radio.
   • Radiomaster Boxer ($139.99) - A larger, more traditional controller with a higher output power, more inputs and larger gimbals. Still a gold standard for most reasonable setups.
   • Radiomaster TX15 ($139.99) - Very similar to the Boxer, but newer and with extra features such as a color touch screen and the ability to pick between 2.4GHz and 900MHz bands for ELRS.
   • Radiomaster GX12 ($169.99) - The GX12 a high-end compact radio, among the TX16S MK3 with an internal Gemini Xrossband transmitter that can be used for 2.4GHz and 900MHz bands at once for increased range or data rates.
   • Radiomaster TX16S MK3 ($199.99) - The most advanced radio from Radiomaster to date. A large color touch screen, all the switches and pots you’d ever need, onboard storage, dual band ELRS Gemini Xrossband transmitter, and more.

2. Goggles:

   • Skyzone Sky 04o Pro ($339.99) - Likely the best slimline goggles that still make sense, any higher and I’d really consider going digital.
   • HDZero BoxPro ($299.99) - HDZero’s budget box goggles that support both analog and HDZero video systems. Great option if you’re looking to try out both systems, or even just analog on its own since the analog video receiver is pretty good.
   • HDZero Goggle ($599.99) - Great for HDZero, surprisingly good for analog. They have a deinterlacer for the video feed, giving it a very nice image quality.
   • HDZero Goggle 2 ($649.99) - An improvement over their first gen goggles, bringing an integrated analog video receiver, WiFi connectivity and streaming, and better optics.
   • DJI Goggles N3 ($229) - DJI’s budget digital goggles, compatible only with the O4 system and limited to 60Hz. But for the price it seems fair.
   • DJI Goggles 3 ($499) - DJI’s latest digital goggles, compatible with the O3 and O4 systems, going up to 100Hz.

3. Quads:

   • Mostly the same as the ~$600 section, with the option to pick digital options instead of analog.
   • BetaFPV Pavo series (varies) - BetaFPV’s wide lineup of 2-3” cinewhoops, mostly intended to run DJI O4/O4 Pro Air Units without dedicated action cameras. Great if you’re looking for HD footage in a small package.

4. Chargers:

   • Hota T6 ($34.99) - The best and really only charger I’d recommend below ~$80. It can be powered via XT60 or a reasonably powerful USB PD power brick, and charge 6s batteries comfortably.
   • Hota D6 Pro ($124.99) - Likely the best charger you can get if you have the money to spare. An actual usable integrated PSU makes it one of the few good “AIO” chargers on the market.

5. Batteries:

   Stick to Gaoneng (GNB), CNHL SpeedyPizza or Dogcom batteries. ~650mAh 4s for regular 3.5” quads, ~1300mAh 6s for the 5” quads and 3.5” cinewhoops. All ideally 100C or higher.

After buying

Assuming that you have bought everything, it’s time to actually set it up. This is a very important step, and you should take your time to do it right. If you rush it, you may end up with a drone that is not safe to fly, or just won’t fly at all. I’ll try to go through the steps in a logical order, but you may need to go back and forth between them a few times if you’re stuck on something. If you’re having trouble, feel free to ask for help in the discord servers like Drone Community

Verify that everything works

• Charge up the radio and make sure that the sticks and other inputs work, and that it connects to your computer, optionally registering as a game controller. You can then open up a simulator, and get straight to practicing. My specific picks can be found in the FAQ.

• Plug the flight controller into your computer, and make sure that it connects to Betaflight and that the gyro works before soldering stuff if needed.

• Charge your goggles and make sure that they turn on and that the screen works/isn’t broken (if you have DJI, you can also update (and activate them) if needed)

• Plug the batteries into your charger and make sure that they came charged to storage voltage (around 3.7-3.85v/cell) if the charger supports voltage readout. If they didn’t come charged to storage voltage, you should request a refund/replacement. Once you know they’re safe to use, you can charge them to full if you know you’ll be needing them soon.

Assemble it

Most important for self-built quads, but at times even a pre-built quad will require some assembly, like soldering on your own receiver or other hardware. You should also always make sure that every screw and nut on the drone is tightened properly.

Setup it up

This is where you will set up the quad to fly. You will need to set up your radio, flight controller, VTX, ESC, receiver, and goggles to have them all communicate properly and see where you’re flying.

• Radio - You will need to bind your radio to your receiver, and set up the mixes to include the switches and sliders that you want to use

• Flight controller - You will need to set up the FC to have the right settings for your quad. This usually involves setting up the receiver settings so that it can read the radio inputs, checking if the FC/ESC spins the motors in the right direction and order, and setting up the VTX so that the FC can control its settings like output power and frequency. With the necessary settings out of the way, you can go make the more personal changes such as OSD layout, modes, and PID tuning (if you understand what you’re doing).

• ESC - If you have a BlHeli_S ESC, you should flash it with BlueJay firmware to get the most out of it with features that improve filtering and performance. If it’s an AM32 ESC, you should set the rough kv of your motors in the ESC settings.

• Goggles - If you’re on analog, the process is pretty simple. You just need to set them to the same band and channel as the VTX, as analog doesn’t need any kind of binding. If you’re on DJI, you will need to activate both devices, and then pair them up.

Fly it

So now you hopefully have it working, and you can finally go fly it! Yay! But not so fast, you should still do a few checks before you go out and fly

• Put the props on the right way, making sure that they’re not hitting anything, and that they’re on tight enough to not spin/fly off.

• Make sure that the battery is charged up fully (4.2v/cell for flight).

• Absolutely make sure that you’re in a safe area to fly, and that you’re not going to fly over people (remember, you are people too!) or anything like that if something goes wrong (wrong board orientation, bad PID tuning or bad motor/prop direction causing a flip on take off or even a flyaway, etc). Tinywhoops can be flown indoors, anything larger should be flown outdoors!

• If all of that is good, you can go fly! Have fun, and try to not immediately crash it

• If all of that is not good, continue reading further

It doesn’t fly, what to do?

There are a few things that can cause your quad to not fly, and you should go through them one by one to figure out what’s wrong. I’ll list a few common problems and how to fix them

• Motors won’t spin at all - Likely from the FC not being set up with the correct ESC protocol. It should be DShot300 or DShot600 for most setups

• Motors won’t slow down after applying throttle - This is likely because you don’t have the props on, answered here

• Motors spin up, but the quad doesn’t move as expected (flips/spins) - Often because the motors are spinning in the wrong direction, the gyro being misaligned, or the props being on the wrong way. You can change the motors in the motors tab in Betaflight. While you’re there, the FC also expects the motors to spin in a certain direction and order, make sure that’s correct and if needed, change it. Don’t forget to remove the props when messing about with motor settings. As for the gyro, you can change the offset in the Configuration tab