Meet Mårten.
This was my first build and it was meant to be a cheap one just to learn how it's done. Built on a Morphite 180 frame, it carries some 1806 motors with an SP Racing F3 flight controller and an Frsky SBUS Rx. Since I'm not an expert I'm not going to give a detailed guide as to how I built it but I'll leave some comments below as well as some resources that I found useful.
General
To put it together, I relied heavily on this series by Painless360.
Flight controller
Anyone using the SP racing F3 flight controller will probably find this playlist, again by Painless360, useful. I bought a cheap chinese copy off banggood as this was my first build but given that the designer of this FC also is the (chief?) architect of Cleanflight I'll buy it directly from him in the future to support his work.
Radio
To get the radio to work with my Taranis Tx, this series by Project Blue Falcon. From the same source, this video might be quite useful.
ESC
Before calibrating the ESCs, three motors would spin at different speeds after arming at 0% throttle. Clearly that's not great so to calibrate them, I followed this guide.
Final thoughts
So, to wrap up, this was actually a surprisingly straightforward build. It's not actually completely done yet, I'm still waiting for some different stand offs so that I can position the VTx properly. It flies very well LOS, being very smooth. It's not very punchy but I suppose you can't really expect that from a quad this size running 3S batteries. As soon as the new stand-offs have arrived I'll post a AUW picture as well.
Photos
Part List
Show stores (7)
Just FYI, motor weights are more important in regards to motor response times s (due to inertia) rather than in keeping AUW down. Although on a 180, I suppose it could come into affect. There's a great article on motor weight at http://www.miniquadtestbench.com/how-do-i-choose-a-motor.html
I'm a newbie and planning on building a 180 myself. I had no idea you could get 3S batteries for 12 bucks! What's the catch?
Hey! I'm not sure, the turnigy batteries are fairly well-known. I really don't think it will deliver 90C (but I don't need that anyway, I only need (guess) ≈35C) but given that the price difference was essentially nothing compared to the 30C (https://hobbyking.com/en_us/turnigy-1000mah-3s-30c-lipo-pack.html) version then I might as well get the better one.
A really expensive (but good I think): https://hobbyking.com/en_us/graphene-1000mah-3s-65c-w-xt60.html
Guides & Reviews
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..
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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..
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I was thinking of attempting this as my first build since the price is so low and I still have to buy FPV goggles and Radio Controller as well.
Any suggestions before I attempt this? Or problems you have run into?
EDIT: I will definitely use the guides you mentioned above, but one last question I have is would you be able to mount a Go Pro, or any other camera, with this frame and build?
Hey! Sorry for being so slow, completely missed this. So, the only things I've noticed so far are that the way I've put the camera it's really easy to snap the video/power/ground cables soldered to the camera. So make sure you have enough cable so that it is relaxed. Other than that, I haven't had any issues yet. I'm planning on using it more heavily in the coming weeks though so that might change things...
As to the camera question, I haven't tried that (haven't had enough cash to by a GoPro/Mobius etc). The plan is to have a runcam2 (or possible 3) (http://www.banggood.com/RunCam-2-RunCam2-HD-1080P-120-Degree-Wide-Angle-WiFi-FPV-Camera-p-1017010.html?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=srm-sbgn-ds-allpages&utm_content=all). I think it's quite a lot lighter than the GoPro so it should be fine. GoPro may be so heavy that it becomes less fun to fly but maybe with a 4S battery instead of a 3S you can get around that.
Let me know if you have any trouble putting it together and I'll try to help!