Note: the acrobee "full" kit is $120 and includes everything, though only comes w/ 4 batteries.

There are cheapest ways to build a whoop (in particular, the "stingerpod" cam is quite pricey), but this is a nice kit for a beginner, as I was.

Motors

• Silver (0615 14,800 kv) is well suited to my tiny apartment.
• Black (17,400 kv) is tons of fun in larger indoor spaces.
• Haven't tried gold yet (19,700 kv).

Flight times

With black motors and batteries charged to 4.2V: ~3:30 of indoor flying brings the batteries to ~3.7V.

Still working out times when using HV batteries. Charging to 4.30V (a bit short of full HV 4.35V), I get about another minute (~4:30).

FPV cam sturdiness

I was worried about the whip antenna breaking, since upside-down crashes typically bend it back. I tried reinforcing it with hot glue, but didn't do a great job. Also, it seemed like the more rigid antenna would transmit the force to the camera/vtx component, and the board would get dislodged from the case often.

I eventually broke the dipole off completely. I replaced it with two lengths of wire (~13mm), one soldered to the top pad and the other to the bottom, pointed out to the side and in opposite directions. This is much more durable. Note that this antenna puts the null points at the sides of the whoop instead of above and below. Above and below makes more sense for typical flight, but I haven't noticed issues in practice.

One very strange issue: when powering on, often I don't see video even when the channels are left at the same values. When i increment the channel on the VTX and VRX, it appears to work. Also, when I press the side of the camera case when powering on, it seems to make the video start working immediately. I have no idea why this is happening.

(credit to Ronald Schwanz for sharing to the BeeBrain FB group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BeeBrain/permalink/683744735159203/ (FB login required, sorry))

TODO: rewrite with latest changes