USA One 5"

By fly.615 on Jul 12, 2020

3  197  0

Build for my brother-in-law after getting him hooked on FPV with my TinyHawk and 5" rig. Wanted a balance of good and inexpensive without resorting to low-quality components often found in the $99 China specials.

The EMAX eco motors are very torquey and have a lot of punch on 4s. I was really suprised how well these performed, although bearing quality may vary in production as 1-2 of them aren't as smooth as the others. However this build has already survived a few pretty hard crashes and still going strong!

I did have to troubleshoot a few gremlins, the first being a errant soldier ball that bridged a few pins on one of the chips, causing my camera feed to be black. The other was a strange death roll issue that plagued me every time it went inverted. Through diagnosis I initially suspected the ESC, and after moving a few motors around and powering the FC direct from VBAT was able to get clean power ramp-up on the bench. Still had the issue but only in airmode, which was eventually solved by giving the ESC and FC more space in the stack as well as adding some shielding to the top of the FETs. Flys like a dream now!

Get about 4:30 of fast cruise at higher throttle (new pilot) on a CNHL 1500mAh 4s

Photos

Part List

Frame

RDQ Source One V3 5" Freestyle Frame - 4mm V0.3 Arms (22 builds)
Racedayquads.com
$31.99

Flight Controller

CLRacing F4S V1.6 AIO 30x30 Flight Controller (144 builds)
Racedayquads.com
$74.99

ESCs

Spedix IS30 4-in-1, 2-4S LiPo DShot_600 BLHeli_S 30A ESC (2 builds)
Pyrodrone.com
$49.99

Motors

4 x Best Drone Motors for - RaceDayQuads (26 builds)
Racedayquads.com
$67.96

Propellers

5 Inch Drone Propellers for - RaceDayQuads (18 builds)
Racedayquads.com
$3.60

FPV Camera

Foxeer Razer Mini 1200TVL CMOS 16:9 PAL/NTSC FPV Camera (2.1mm) - BlackDefault Title (9 builds)
Racedayquads.com
$19.89

FPV Transmitter

AKK FX3 Ultimate Mini 20x20 25-600mW 5.8GHz VTX - MMCX & U.FLDefault Title (142 builds)
Racedayquads.com
$21.99

Antenna

EMAX Nano 5.8GHz 50mm Straight MMCX Antenna - LHCP (4 builds)
Racedayquads.com
$7.99

Receiver

FrSky R9MM OTA 900MHz Micro Receiver - ACCESS (87 builds)
Racedayquads.com
$23.49

Batteries

5 x CNHL G+PLUS 1500mAh 14.8V 4S 70C Lipo Battery
Chinahobbyline.com
$119.30

3D Printed

TBS Source One Front Bumper (4 builds)
Brain3d.co
$5.00

3D Printed

TBS Source One Session Mount (3 builds)
Brain3d.co
$15.00

3D Printed

TBS Source One Soft Mount Arm Guards (2 builds)
Brain3d.co
$10.00

Hardware

6 x Tools for FPV (57 builds)
Racedayquads.com
$41.70

Hardware

M3 x 7mm Anti-Vibration Flight Controller Soft Mount Standoff 4 Pack (32 builds)
Racedayquads.com
$3.05

Hardware

XT60 Pigtail 14AWG 4" - Choose Your Version and ColorBlack / XT60 (19 builds)
Racedayquads.com
$1.49

Hardware

RDQ 20x20 Mini Flight Controller Mount and Protector - FC Mount / Cover (5 builds)
Racedayquads.com
$0.99

Hardware

4 x M3 Knurled Standoff w/ Small Step (1PC) - Choose Your Color & Size (7 builds)
Racedayquads.com
$1.60

Hardware

8 x M3 Knurled Stack Standoff (1PC) - Choose Your Color & SizeRed / 4.5+6.5mm (4 builds)
Racedayquads.com
$3.20

Misc Parts

CLRacing Race LED/PCB Wire 4 Pack - Choose Your Color and Size (59 builds)
Racedayquads.com
$4.99

Misc Parts

ViFly Finder 2 Buzzer - Lost Drone Finder/Locater/Alarm (174 builds)
Racedayquads.com
$14.99

Misc Parts

Capacitor Vanity Label - USA (2 builds)
Racedayquads.com
$1.99

Misc Parts

Sticky EMF Blocker 4 Pack for 4in1 ESCs (Reduces Noise) (3 builds)
Racedayquads.com
$1.55
Show stores (4)

Discussion

Sign in to comment

Guides & Reviews

Jun 21, 2021

AirbladeUAV has done it again and this time they've brought long range to the 5" class! Based on the popular Transformer Mini, the new Transformer 5" Ultralight adopts a lot of the same design philosophies with larger props and more payload capacity. It can fly upwards of 20 minutes on a 4 cell Li-Ion battery pack and in ideal conditions it's got a range of over 4 to 5 miles. In this guide I'll walk..

Read more
Mar 04, 2021

With the release of the DJI FPV Drone cinematic FPV has become a lot more accessible, but you certainly don't want to crash a $750 drone! The QAV-CINE Freybott is a compact, lightweight cinematic FPV drone that can take a hit and keep going. It's a lot safer to fly indoors and around people. With a naked GoPro or the SMO 4k you can capture some great stabilized footage. In this guide I'll show you..

Read more