Reflection
Why in the heck would you build a drone?
It’s incredibly fun to build your own drone, but you won’t be able to get it to fly right away. If you’re planning on squeezing in some airtime the same weekend you buy it, you’re better off getting a ready-made one.
But here is my 2 cents: the pleasure of seeing the drone you build with your own 2 hands, flying up in the air, is priceless.
It’s fantastic that you get to choose all the components yourself. Want heavier motors? No problem, just install them! Broke an arm off your frame? Don’t sweat it, get spare parts.
So what did building my own drone cost me?
You mean except from the pounds of chocolate I had to buy to bribe my girlfriend into spending the weekend with me, testflying the drone?
Not too much, in my opinion. Below you’ll find a list in which I tried to sum up all the things I used. Of course it doesn’t contain everything: materials, delivery fees, wrongly orderded pieces, … have all been excluded from the list.
Keep in mind that this is just a start. I’ve been working on my drone and adding/changing parts on the go. (e.g. I installed a new Flight Controller.)
Anyway, about that list:
| Description | Total |
|---|---|
| Frame | 17,03 EUR |
| Motors | 55,72 EUR |
| ESC’s | 31,64 EUR |
| Flight Controller | 19,44 EUR |
| Sender and receiver | 119,47 EUR |
| Power | 68,97 EUR |
| Total | 312,27 EUR |
A more detailed view.
1) Frame
| Amount | Description | p/p | Total |
| 1x | Hobbyking SK450 Glass Fiber Quadcopter Frame 450mm | 17,03 EUR | 17,03 EUR |
2) Motors
| Amount | Description | p/p | Total |
| 4x | Motor NTM Prop Drive Series |
12,26 EUR | 49,04 EUR |
| 4x | NTM Prop Drive 28 Series Accessory Pack | 1,67 EUR | 6,68 EUR |
3) ESC’s
| Amount | Description | p/p | Total |
| 1x | Power Distribution Board | 1,61 EUR | 1,61 EUR |
| 2x | PolyMax 3.5mm Gold Connectors | 1,45 EUR | 2,90 EUR |
| 4x | ESC’s | 5,99 EUR | 23,96 EUR |
| 1x | HXT 4mm to XT-60 Battery Adapter | 2,50 EUR | 2,50 EUR |
| 1m | 1m heat shrink (black) | 0,67 EUR | 0,67 EUR |
4) Flight controller
| Amount | Description | p/p | Total |
| 1x | Flight controller Multi-Rotor Control Board V3.0 (Atmega328 PA) | 14,03 EUR | 14,03 EUR |
| 1x | USBasp AVR Programming Device for ATMEL proccessors | 3,11 EUR | 3,11 EUR |
| 1x | 5.6mm x 21mm M3 Nylon Threaded Spacer (10pc) | 1,51 EUR | 1,51 EUR |
| 1x | 5.6mm x 6mm M3 Nylon Tapped Spacer (10pc) | 0,79 EUR | 0,79 EUR |
5) Sender and receiver
| Amount | Description | p/p | Total |
| 1x | Turnigy 9XR Transmitter Mode 2 | 61,29 EUR | 61,29 EUR |
| 1x | Turnigy 9XR Safety Protected 11.1v (3s) 2200mAh 1.5C Transmitter Pack | 12,80 EUR | 12,80 EUR |
| 1x | 10CM Male to Male Servo Lead (JR) 26AWG | 1,34 EUR | 1,34 EUR |
| 1x | FrSky DF 2.4Ghz Combo Pack for JR w/ Module & RX | 44,04 EUR | 44,04 EUR |
6) Power
| Amount | Description | p/p | Total |
| 1x | Turnigy 3300mAh 3S 30C Lipo Pack | 24,60 EUR | 24,60 EUR |
| 1x | Lithium Polymer Charge Pack 25x33cm JUMBO Sack | 2,40 EUR | 2,40 EUR |
| 1x | HobbyKing™ Lipoly Low Voltage Alarm (2s~4s) | 2,54 EUR | 2,54 EUR |
| 1x | Turnigy Accucel-6 50W 6A Balancer/Charger w/ accessories | 35,19 EUR | 35,19 EUR |
| 1x | HXT 4mm to XT-60 Battery Adapter | 2,84 EUR | 2,84 EUR |
| 1x | Turnigy Battery Strap 330mm | 1,40 EUR | 1,40 EUR |