Building your first FPV Drone can be incredibly intimidating, especially if you know little to nothing about the process, have no tools, or know little on how to solder. It is a project! But an enriching one, because once you’ve got your FPV drone built…. you’ve got the coolest gadget in the world at your fingertips (it’s worth it!).
Think of it like your first born, or a pet if you’ve ever gotten one… okay maybe it’s not that similar — but it’s close! You go into it imagining it’ll be one way, but then once you have it, things are different. You can’t believe how much you love that person or pet! Well anyway, this is how I feel about FPV. I got into it after seeing some incredible videos on YouTube, thought I fell in love, and then got my first FPV gear. It was at that point that I actually fell in love…
This post is made to help you build your first FPV Drone, but before we get to that, there are a few things you’ll want under your belt.
Soldering
It can be your worst nightmare, trust me, it was for me too. I didn’t know what to do, how to do it, and I’m still not always happy with how it comes out. The first rule is to get decent soldering gear. You can absolutely get a cheapo iron off Amazon (I used this one for years) — but like a lot of things in FPV, you will buy and re-buy stuff as you find better products and as things break and wear out.
If only I got the TS101 back in 2018! If you have the spare cash, spend it on a better iron like this. At least you can plug a barrel connector in and either use wall power or an XT60 lipo if in the field.
Get decent solder wire too.
And practice! Get one of these solder practice boards. They’re so f***ing cheap — so many people dive into soldering with ZERO clue and they bust up $150 worth of stack electronics. No matter how rich you are, don’t do this!
Set the iron to the highest setting, usually about 300C or 700F, wet the tip of the iron, then go in for the kill!