Specialist in Multirotor Tech & FPV Equipment
Learn about voltage regulation: Supplying your electrical components with the correct voltage is crucial for their operation. LiPo battery cells are rated at 3.7 volts per cell, therefore a range of voltages are available, leading from 3.7v (1S) to 44.4v (12S). A 3 cell 11.1v pack is widely employed as it provides a handy voltage for many electronics without the need to regulate.
Drones can be hazardous if operated incorrectly. As pilot you are ultimately responsible for your aircraft, so it's a good idea to be aware of the regulations before taking off. In the UK, the CAA set the rules relating to how and where you can fly your multirotor. The regulations may seems a little confusing at first, but in the large part they are just based on common sense and are designed to make flying safe for everyone. To that end, we urge all of our customers to adhere to rules when flying.
One of the main considerations when building or buying a drone is flight time. Our simple flight time calculator is designed to help you get a ballpark idea of what you can expect from your setup.
While most drones have a flight time of between 10 to 20 minutes, it is possible to achieve much greater duration with careful planning and component selection. Here is our layman's guide to efficiency and how to achieve long flight times.
While it's generally agreed that quadcopters are easier to fly than traditional RC helicopters, they still do have somewhat of a learning curve. Depending on your choice of multirotor, the nature of the challenge will vary greatly. The extremes range from highly sophisticated, expensive platforms, which can essentially fly themselves but require programing knowhow; to the most elementary cheaper copters, which are more like regular helicopters. This guide is aimed at the beginner and will therefore focus on the latter.
In theory multirotors aren't complicated; the only moving parts are the motors. In reality, there is far more to them. To build a drone from scratch requires at least a basic understanding of physics, maths and technology; and practical skills such as engineering, wiring and even coding. To then fly the things requires further skill and experience. Obviously the degree of knowledge and skill required increases with the sophistication of the UAV. Some multicopters come in plug 'n' play kit form, which means you side step a lot of the technical challenges. My aim here to is to help reduce the learning curve for you, by providing some useful tips that will keep you on track or at least save a headache.
The drone world is full of abbreviations, acronyms and confusion. We can’t even decide what to call the flying things; Drones, multirotors, multicopters and quadcopters are the main ones, but there are plenty more. Our aim here to is to provide a useful reference to help beginners get to grips with the subject.