I just wanted to say that I've just started building my first quad (also this is the first time I've even soldered anything) and things have been going pretty well so far. The reason things are going well and also the reason I've build up the confidence to take on this project is because of your build videos. I just wanted to take a minute and say thank you for for the videos you post and the knowledge you share with everybody.
I love the feeling of just staring at a quad right after finishing a build. That sense of accomplishment and value. Makes me want to build a new quad every week.
I appreciate your voice over over pretty much the whole 55 minute video!!!! Most people don't realize how time consuming it is to record all of that and edit it!
Awww, like a little kid again. The enthusiasm shined in your eyes. Congratulations on "YOUR" quad, and what an awsome treat you built for yourself. Thanks for sharing ♡ frickin JB quad with JB all over it. That build is a testimony, to how far you have come. 👏👏👏👏🤘
I did this a month ago (in my case a Talon clone with Emax 2207's). It just turns out what I imagined to be my dream quad is good but not as awesome as I had expected. So the hard part is to figure out what your dream quad actually is.
That capton tape tip for the receivers is gold. I'll be getting a roll of the tape and using that method from now on. Thank you Josh, I learned something today. LOL But in all seriousness thank you, that tip will make my life so much easier with the CRSF rx's. I've ruined 2 already and one was thanks to the shrink tube that was included. I was one of the folks that got hit with the lost resistors along the side from heat shrink that brought about the change of design of the receiver boards. more than a year ago.
i just bought a kakute f7 v1.5 and a 45amp 4in1 tekko 32 F3 ESC combo.. It was 100$ which was higher than i wanted to pay prior to staring at spec sheets for days trying to find the right parts to get,, but it seemed like a good combo so i went with it.. both parts individually seemed great on paper. I had no idea the hype these parts had over them before i got em. After buying them i watched a bunch of youtube videos on them and EVERYONE loves them. Which makes me more confident in the purchase. if the community loves em then i know theyre good. This was the first FC and first 4 in 1 esc ive ever bought. To put on my first ever drone ive ever built. I'm loving this hobby so far. It is exponentially more complex than i could have ever imagined, But thats part of the fun for me. youve become a staple of my research Mr. bardwell. Your work and wisdom are much appreciated!!
So getting back into fpv and have one of these in its package still. Nothing like some old stuff to get back into it. Time to binge your tubing videos again ;)
KESTER solder (#44) did more for my soldering skills and final results than my soldering iron.. Also dabbing after to clean up and flux that might be left over.. Also I use the fun-tack, to bind any loose wires together to stop vibration issues. and keep any unruly wires controlled.. Stuff is awesome! You know how many "CLONES" of this build will be in the air this summer! THANKS JB as always!
Phillip D. ...slap a “GetterBack” ( originally for rods and reels) on it....lol...I use them on my camera drones...would help ya fish it out up to 100 feet....WHEN it activates....of course it’s like hanging a JDAM off an F16...flight dynamics might suffer.... ; )
@@JoshuaBardwell Nice, should be enough to get through at least most of a day of flying lol. Any reason for not doing the LED's on (at least) one of them?
Your intro made this video actually inspiring. I see you more as a person with a passion and not a pigeonholed youtuber shackled to sponsors. Congrats on building your dream quad.
Finally had time to sit and watch the entire build. I Like it. Currently flying a 5" reverb. I Was thinking of building either the Ti, Marmotte or maybe even the 3" Gecko. Still undecided. I was on the fence about the RealPit VTX power switch, now I'm convinced we all need one. I don't push my wires through the hole when I solder. I put a ball of solder on the tiny pads, place my tinned wires to the pad laying down. With the Iron turned up, touch it quickly, I get a nice solder joint every time. I also need to get some of that tape. All of them. They all have their own applications that I can use for all sorts of things. Anyway, great job! Thanks for sharing your build.
Wow! How did you learn so much about building quads? I'm still learning how to solder correct, it blows my mind watching your build videos and also your 3 packs a day is helping me become a better fpv piolet, thanks for all your content and for being a cool guy too
@@JoshuaBardwell i start at summer since i have a little money problem right now, but i hope this config suite also for the Marmote. what battery do you suggest? BTW you are awesome 😁👍👍👍
3Sheek FPV Not talking about me, but some people just don’t have enough self confidence or knowledge to build a quad like this with these expensive parts.
3Sheek FPV that's stupid. So you're saying that if you don't know how to solder and build a complete quad you can't learn how to fly fpv? That's ridiculous. I have to assume you also build your own car then? Good BNF and RTF products are really what this hobby needs, thankfully it's getting better and better.
@@KnizzleHizzle If you buy a bnf or rtf you are going to crash eventually (usually 10 seconds after lift off...) and learn to solder and build. That's why everyone recommends building your first quad so you will know how to fix it. That being said I bought a bnf as well because I couldn't get myself to build a quad but it was a hard lesson to learn. If you consider flying fpv seriously you should build your first quad... Also the walkera is one of the worst rtf quads to buy :D And you should fly acro not angle, and I should stop writing :P
With different price options and cheaper, yet good quality, parts. I started out BNF and I'm better at diagnosing and replacing parts as they fail. I'm just now confident enough in buying my own parts. Knowing I'll be able to put them all together and have no problems with betaflight, means I wont have an expensive pile of parts or a sexy quadcopter that I can't figure out how to connect to betaflight when I'm finshed.
JB your the man. I bought everything except your camera. Sorry I already had a rotor riot Swift 2 a buddy gave me. Parts already started showing up. I want to thank you for all the knowledge you put out. I learn something every time. You have definitely earned a patron. I will let you know how it goes. From the northwest. Eric
45:00 What are these red arms?? :) Although the beginning and the end of the video there are led on it!! Otherwise it is nice quad and thank you for detailed build.
He used red electrical tape first but he didn't like the way it looked so he changed those to LEDs. What you're seeing is part of the footage where he still had the red electrical tape
Seth Bryan I’ve been traveling for work and plan to build in a few days. Being a noob, I’ve realized there’s a few items/tools in the video I did not have and it took me a little longer to gather all the parts. I plan to make a YT video on the build and everything I’ve had to order from the ground up. I decided to go with 4s 1500mah.
Excellent video ! I build this quad during the winter. Now in the first flights I realized that the feed is pretty noisy when the motors start spinning. The fix was to power the camera from the VTX. I left the real pit powered from the FC. Maybe this will help somebody else...
great video, a real work of love... a little tip i use when working with short ends of wire like with the motor connections, is to cut them a little longer so you are able to twist a good 8-10mm, which is far easier than just a couple of mm. I then tin them and snip to size. It also serves as a good double check when working with thick gauge wire that you've tinned fully....although you don't want to be doing this with 10 gauge unless you have some meaty snips!
JB, another great vid, love the Armattans. Just a quick tech tip sorta suggestion I thought I'd mention: I took a pair of old hemostats with very slender jaws, and put a small sorta dog-leg bend in one of the jaws, so that when I close them, the jaws are parallel, but just slightly apart (I know, this sounds counter-intuitive), and then dipped both jaws in Plasti-Dip. These are my dedicated wire-holding hemostats, and the rubber-ish Plasti-Dip really grips them well, and the slight bend in the jaws lets me use the locking clips on the handles without crushing the wire. And by using very slender, delicate hemostats, there's a little give in the handles, so even if I'm gripping thick battery wires, they don't get crushed when I lock them, but still provide a very secure grip. My friends say I'm OCD about everything, but I figure the better the tool, the better the result. I plan on doing a short video on a few small tool mods I have for quad building, but just haven't gotten to it yet. Kudos on building your JB Custom Chameleon!
Josh, if you care, hemostats are forceps. They are generally the locking variety. Also, thanks for these videos. Crazy helpful for the new guy. Probably pretty darned helpful for those who aren't new, for that matter!
Josh thank you so much!, I’m very new to the hobby it’s only been eight months where I bought my first drone which happened to be a Mavic pro 2 and most recently getting into and enjoying so much FPV your videos help me so so much I’ve learned incredible amount but keep up the good work thank you again
Just hover tested it flies only my 2nd build the first was your budget build the video didn't say anything about remapping Motors slow me down a few days to figure that one out thanks for all the wonderful videos
I used the kakute f7 on a 6 inch build with metal esc and have to say its awesome. F7 is so much easier to get all the peripherals working than the F4 fcs for me anyway. Keep up the good work JB cheers.
i feel like the best way to do this is just to buy the parts, sit down a full day and watch this video over and over... im not very good at figuring out what other parts to buy but i trust your expertise so untill i understand everything i probably will just build this. I want to be the first FPV drone person in Idaho lol idk any
I have this frame and the FC you made, cant wait to get enough money to do the maiden flight! Thank god for liftoff so I save money crashing there first ! Keep up the informative and good videos , I really appreciate it!
flight footage on the way I presume? ...treat yourself and build a couple spares just like it so you can keep ripping when you crash. love that you did this!!
i like the idea of the screws mounting down the ufl on the unify would seem to help for sure... I do like the idea of the leds on the arm and how you could tell a mosfet burned out by chance.
This was a great build and education for me. I love to build and fly RC. The video and his commentary mad this build so much fun. His list of components for this build were awesome. Now MY flying is another story. Thanks again JB for making my this video and hopefully we will get a chance to fly FPV the next time you come out to hawaii. #RICKRAYPOINT.
Nice to see a person who actually know how to solder. Seen a wide array of poor soldering skills in tutorials like this before. My last 5" quad building actually was very similar to this. But guys - don't imagine that you will be able to finish quad assembling in one hour ;) In reality it will take at least 4 hours and for beginners - maybe even 2 evenings until 4 AM ;)
I did this build three times in a row. For the 3rd one it took me about 3 hours start to finish including betaflight setup and testing motors and etc. I am not a super fast builder like some guys.
@@JoshuaBardwell I'm a slow builder too :) By the way the most time spent on build goes not to assembly, but planning how to put together this and that and how to have all parts together without free dangling and sticking out for better crash resistance. How to avoid overheating and noise from one circuit induced into another. That million $ question: how to put 4-in-1 ESC, FC with OSD and VTX together to avoid noise in FPV picture from ESC and from VTX. That took more of my time that soldering and screwing frame parts and boards together. Also some time goes to motor and ESC soldering. Because of what I fell in love with stackable modules, 4-in-1 ESC's. Less soldering and thinking where to put that damn VTX. Found that TBS Unify VTXes with only grounding at one side can be nicely glued on protection plate over FC with grounding at bottom side. That narrowed down modules chosen for build too and now I can build a quad in one evening.
Just a tip for soldering xt60 and xt30s plug male/female together before soldering it lessens the chance of the terminal post melting in the connector...
Currently planning a new build and I am getting a lot of inspiration from this build. Thanks JB! By the way, you need to let me know where I can get one of those Josh Bardwell stickers. Sticking your mug to some of my gear will really help my street cred...at least within the fpv scene
This looks really good! I am fairly new to drones and have built two small (90mm) drones to date. I think that for my next drone I will utilize some of your parts for this awesome build, especially the frame and the motors.
Just ordered the parts. I decided to maintain the gold/purple scheme of the motors and since the RR/JB camera isn't available anymore, I went with a purple Runcam Sparrow Pro 2 and a purple Foxeer lollipop for the antenna. Also going to add gold countersunk washers/screws along the frame to sexify it all.
First time I watched a quad build all the way through, I enjoyed your video. Not bad considering I build model planes with 26cc to 60cc gas engines along with some electric aerobatic ones! Your video was very interesting and informative. 😊👍.
Joshua, I love the Chameleon Ti. I have the original Chameleon and the ease of build is both easy and quick. I used to dread opening up the original Chameleon, but the "Ti" is so easy. Flies like a dream. If anyone is interested in Chameleon and Chameleon Ti flying. I am on youtube and redit.
I'm surprised your not using the TS100, I just bought one myself, and it made building fun again, it works great, and fits the hand nicely. I was using the 862d+ soldering station, and this little iron beats it in every way.
Little tip: Check your components before you solder the wires, AND after, in case of heat damage and whatever. I`ve had bad components and not found out until after I did my soldering, and it sucked every time lol. I`ll probably forget it several more times in the future though hehe..
Awesome Joshua... I'm really liking this build... thank you.gor taking the time to show this.... this is definitely on my list to get and put together.
Awesome build, nicely explained all the way through, but i do have comments about the soldering in general... NOT saying JB is wrong though, just soldering pointers from one nerd to another: The reason for not running you Soldering Iron at max temperature is the danger of delaminating the PCB. A multi-layered PCB can have several cobber joints through each hole, and they can disconnect if overexposed to heat, and the PCB itself might take damage, where the cobber layer might physically disjoin from the dielectric laminate underneath. The number of times you heat up a PCB, and the higher the temperature during each heat up, the higher the risk of delaminating and potentially destroying the PCB. In EU, the RoHS directive states that compliant PCB's should only use lead-free soldering, hence extra heat during soldering is required, just like JB said, but this only adds to injury and reduces the number of times you can heat up a given PCB before damaging it. Arguably you then should only pre-solder the wires and NOT the PCB, and use different Soldering Iron tip sizes for the various sizes of joints you solder, with the added bonus of being able to fit the wires through the holes of the PCB, which yields extra strength to the general build as well. I know pre-soldering is really convenient... but you can use a "helping hand stand" to do without. So If you take a look at 11:56, JB should have planned the order of soldering the other way around, ABC instead of what he did, CBA. You will see him heat up the C joint unintentionally during the pre-soldering of joint B. That's how you create unwanted bridging and blow fuses or even entire PCB's. JB didn't, and he would have most likely caught it before power up... cause he's SO cool... but I'm just saying that planning the solder order and choosing tips can really help get it right the 1st time around and avoid delaminating PCB's :-) Happy New Year to you all, and HUGE thanks to Joshua Bardwell for delivering such nice content ! sry for the TL/DR comment here.
Can you guys imagine being Bardwell and just being able to build any quad you want at any time and get it to fly exactly how you like without even busting a sweat? I would pay top dollar for his FPV knowledge to be installed in my brain.
Still watching but I have a question about the esc part. I am at 3:15. Have you looked at blackbox logs to see how many amps you are drawing? I have some f80 pro 2500kv motors on my chameleon and the amp limiting on the esc's wont let the motors pull more than 40 amps each. I am looking to get some 45 amp escs just for that head room like you said but was curious if you have hit the limiter with the esc on yours and how often?
Perfect timing for this video. I'm building a similar (but cheaper, because I'm cheap) quad on the original Chameleon frame that I got on sale ($75). But not too cheap: Bardwell 4-1, ESC, Bardwell FC, Bardwell/Runcam Eagle camera. 👍 Most all parts from knowitall.com. (yes I used the links) My past builds were on the Martian II frame. Now I can follow along, and do it all right. Thanks!
Here in 2020, would be great to see are new build. I think most people would like a less than 250gr, freestyle/all-rounder, 3inch 4s. At least, that is what I'm looking for as well haha. Love to start building a new one, based on JB's choices of parts.
It's like having a heroin addiction and not having enough money to buy new heroin, so you're watching someone else shoot heroin for 55 minutes... :D Soldering together a new quad is like the most zen thing you can do. When I don't have the parts for a new build, watching build videos is great and you always learn something new. Very nice kwad, Joshua! Quite similar to my own Chameleon TI, only I use single Wraith32 ESCs on the arms and a Betaflight F7 flight controller, which is my personal favorite. Happy flying, JB! :)
Hello. I just finished building this. One question though. In stand by just with the battery plugged in, it consumes 29 amps. Is it normal? Then in a few minutes I got a warning that the core temperature is 70 degrees. Thanks for video!
I'll answer myself to this. I checked the Amps straiht through the battery and it does not consume 30, but 0.7A in standby. So I think it is a matter of current sensor calibration. Mr. Bardwell has a video about that too, I will try it.
It was a year ago. What you think about this frame right now Mr Joshua? I own Armattan Chameleon Ti 5" since December last year and ...... there is a few little things but I'm curious what do you think after the time you've been flying This amazing piece of kit?
Those clracing led race wire modules are my next upgrade, I agree with his opinion on F7 flight controllers, I use OmnibusNXT F7 flight controllers for my builds and not having to worry about what uarts are inverted and uninverted is one less thing to worry about.
hello. this is indeed a very beauty quad..i am new in this nice hobby, never build a quad, but this will be my first one for shure, you make it soo much eazyer to understand and so..thank you so much Joshua B. Only 1 question; Where can this nice quad can be seen..i love to see how it preform..thank in advance..have a good nice day
While I watch a lot of Rotor Riots videos I was unaware that you create a channel. One recommendation I have for you would be to invest in some wire cutters as you can see at 22:37 you actually cut a lot of the wires and while you most likely dont see a difference it can actually affect the flow of energy and cause potential shorts.
hemostat is basically the same tool as forceps, but also has the multi notched "ratchet" style lock mechanism built into the handle for clamping and holding.
I'm just revisitng this video as I had stalled on the build due to multiple issues back in 2019. I am restarting the build now 3 years later. What temperature do you use for just regular soldering? I know you mention going to max on the power leads. I have a Hakko 870D and generally am running 750 but feel like I have trouble getting the solder to heat and flow properly. Maybe it's my tip because I don't use a very large on. I use a flat 3mm wide tip.
The main difference between forceps and hemostats is intended use. Since Hemostats are intended to close blood vessels the almost always ratchet closed.
If you hold the wirecutter the other way round (the flat side in the direction you unisolate) its easier to cut the Isolation. The way you use it its more likely to streak over the material, rather then get in the material. For Silicon wire this doesn't matter that much, but its much easier for harder Isolation.
Hey I got that same quad and at first I had a full size cam and it gave me a terrible cam angle so I switched to a runcam and still had a bad angle the bar blocks the cam from moving down if you want a better angle get a full size cam and use the u shape or open spuare (how ever it looks to you it's black) bracket it comes with you will be able to to move the camera more hopes this helps
I appreciate the incredible AUDIO quality of these build videos. You use a condenser and some compression right? Sounds so crisp clear and has great volume.
For the bench, I have a parametric EQ, compression, and de-esser. The mic is a Rode VideoMicro mounted on the overhead camera boom. I really hated it until I put the parametric EQ on it. It kills almost all of the room reverb and brings back the bass that I would normally expect from a good dynamic mic.
My new 2021 Perfect Freestyle Build is finally here! Build this one instead! ruclips.net/video/khLQmqjwr5g/видео.html
I'm not sure what I like better....building quads....or flying quads!
JB got that soothing Bob Ross quad building voice.
JB is my Bob Ross
"Now we'll just put some shiny silver solder on those happy little escs and there you have it....a happy little kwad."
@@XZLR8N lmao thats freaking great
same here :)
If you're looking for an RC Bob Ross, look no further than Josh from Flitetest :p
I just wanted to say that I've just started building my first quad (also this is the first time I've even soldered anything) and things have been going pretty well so far. The reason things are going well and also the reason I've build up the confidence to take on this project is because of your build videos. I just wanted to take a minute and say thank you for for the videos you post and the knowledge you share with everybody.
Gg
@@SPotter1973 1x6”, 2x5”, 1x3” :)
I love the feeling of just staring at a quad right after finishing a build. That sense of accomplishment and value. Makes me want to build a new quad every week.
Cotees, that is what makes me sorry that I dont live in your Country cause I would be doing the Dogg with those builds ,hahahaaaa.
I appreciate your voice over over pretty much the whole 55 minute video!!!! Most people don't realize how time consuming it is to record all of that and edit it!
I would love to see a new video like this, updated for 2020.
Much needed, and very timely!
I agree!
me too, since most parts are out of stock/ not found...
Yes Josh! New ultimate drone video!
would be very nice!!
Awww, like a little kid again. The enthusiasm shined in your eyes. Congratulations on "YOUR" quad, and what an awsome treat you built for yourself. Thanks for sharing ♡ frickin JB quad with JB all over it. That build is a testimony, to how far you have come. 👏👏👏👏🤘
Everyone needs to treat themselves to a dream kwad now and then. Very nice.
I did this a month ago (in my case a Talon clone with Emax 2207's). It just turns out what I imagined to be my dream quad is good but not as awesome as I had expected. So the hard part is to figure out what your dream quad actually is.
XZLR8N ,YUP.
That capton tape tip for the receivers is gold. I'll be getting a roll of the tape and using that method from now on. Thank you Josh, I learned something today. LOL But in all seriousness thank you, that tip will make my life so much easier with the CRSF rx's. I've ruined 2 already and one was thanks to the shrink tube that was included. I was one of the folks that got hit with the lost resistors along the side from heat shrink that brought about the change of design of the receiver boards. more than a year ago.
if this was two weeks ago i would have all the parts for this build now... Thanks again Joshua for helping me wire up my board
i just bought a kakute f7 v1.5 and a 45amp 4in1 tekko 32 F3 ESC combo.. It was 100$ which was higher than i wanted to pay prior to staring at spec sheets for days trying to find the right parts to get,, but it seemed like a good combo so i went with it.. both parts individually seemed great on paper. I had no idea the hype these parts had over them before i got em. After buying them i watched a bunch of youtube videos on them and EVERYONE loves them. Which makes me more confident in the purchase. if the community loves em then i know theyre good. This was the first FC and first 4 in 1 esc ive ever bought. To put on my first ever drone ive ever built. I'm loving this hobby so far. It is exponentially more complex than i could have ever imagined, But thats part of the fun for me. youve become a staple of my research Mr. bardwell. Your work and wisdom are much appreciated!!
would you consider doing a cinematic drone.. id like to see what you would choose ?!
I would like to see that too....
So would I. I’m very interested in Cinematic FPV. Is this drone able to do decent cinematically?
So getting back into fpv and have one of these in its package still. Nothing like some old stuff to get back into it. Time to binge your tubing videos again ;)
Whenever I see someone soldering, for some reason 😜 I get the urge to watch Terminator 2 lol
KESTER solder (#44) did more for my soldering skills and final results than my soldering iron.. Also dabbing after to clean up and flux that might be left over.. Also I use the fun-tack, to bind any loose wires together to stop vibration issues. and keep any unruly wires controlled.. Stuff is awesome! You know how many "CLONES" of this build will be in the air this summer! THANKS JB as always!
ummagrip, two battery straps, leds, a drone finder, crossfire, potentially gps, if you manage to lose this drone you're a damn legend.
Or a damn idiot
It still sinks.
@@Chrisdafer199 emergency inflatable cushion
Phillip D. ...slap a “GetterBack” ( originally for rods and reels) on it....lol...I use them on my camera drones...would help ya fish it out up to 100 feet....WHEN it activates....of course it’s like hanging a JDAM off an F16...flight dynamics might suffer.... ; )
Losing a nice quad in the water is so dissatisfying. I know.
Changing to a different quad at 44:55 and then back at 53:55 threw me for a second lol. Always nice to get ideas from how other people build!
I actually built three of these and spliced the videos together.
@@JoshuaBardwell Nice, should be enough to get through at least most of a day of flying lol. Any reason for not doing the LED's on (at least) one of them?
They hadn't come in the mail yet.
JB at his best 4:05
This one goes up to 11!
Your intro made this video actually inspiring. I see you more as a person with a passion and not a pigeonholed youtuber shackled to sponsors. Congrats on building your dream quad.
Beautiful work, Man! Great explanations as you go. Thanks!
Finally had time to sit and watch the entire build. I Like it. Currently flying a 5" reverb. I Was thinking of building either the Ti, Marmotte or maybe even the 3" Gecko. Still undecided. I was on the fence about the RealPit VTX power switch, now I'm convinced we all need one. I don't push my wires through the hole when I solder. I put a ball of solder on the tiny pads, place my tinned wires to the pad laying down. With the Iron turned up, touch it quickly, I get a nice solder joint every time. I also need to get some of that tape. All of them. They all have their own applications that I can use for all sorts of things. Anyway, great job! Thanks for sharing your build.
I always, *always* learn something new when I watch your videos, I wonder if you'll read this... 🙂
I read it.
I read it too
Everyone reads it 😎
Wow! How did you learn so much about building quads? I'm still learning how to solder correct, it blows my mind watching your build videos and also your 3 packs a day is helping me become a better fpv piolet, thanks for all your content and for being a cool guy too
Great Video Joshua, thank you!!
Why didn't you wait for the Armattan Marmotte to come out? What are your thoughts on it?
Thx!!!
I didn't know the Marmotte existed when I built this quad a month ago.
@@JoshuaBardwell i start at summer since i have a little money problem right now, but i hope this config suite also for the Marmote. what battery do you suggest? BTW you are awesome 😁👍👍👍
I'm considering returning to the hobby because of this video. In my view, this is the highest compliment an instructional video can get!
You should turn it into a bnf quad
But building it is half the fun!
3Sheek FPV Not talking about me, but some people just don’t have enough self confidence or knowledge to build a quad like this with these expensive parts.
3Sheek FPV that's stupid. So you're saying that if you don't know how to solder and build a complete quad you can't learn how to fly fpv? That's ridiculous. I have to assume you also build your own car then? Good BNF and RTF products are really what this hobby needs, thankfully it's getting better and better.
@@KnizzleHizzle If you buy a bnf or rtf you are going to crash eventually (usually 10 seconds after lift off...) and learn to solder and build. That's why everyone recommends building your first quad so you will know how to fix it. That being said I bought a bnf as well because I couldn't get myself to build a quad but it was a hard lesson to learn. If you consider flying fpv seriously you should build your first quad... Also the walkera is one of the worst rtf quads to buy :D And you should fly acro not angle, and I should stop writing :P
With different price options and cheaper, yet good quality, parts. I started out BNF and I'm better at diagnosing and replacing parts as they fail. I'm just now confident enough in buying my own parts. Knowing I'll be able to put them all together and have no problems with betaflight, means I wont have an expensive pile of parts or a sexy quadcopter that I can't figure out how to connect to betaflight when I'm finshed.
JB your the man. I bought everything except your camera. Sorry I already had a rotor riot Swift 2 a buddy gave me. Parts already started showing up. I want to thank you for all the knowledge you put out. I learn something every time. You have definitely earned a patron. I will let you know how it goes. From the northwest. Eric
45:00 What are these red arms?? :) Although the beginning and the end of the video there are led on it!! Otherwise it is nice quad and thank you for detailed build.
Wondered the same
He used red electrical tape first but he didn't like the way it looked so he changed those to LEDs. What you're seeing is part of the footage where he still had the red electrical tape
Just got an Armatan Chameleon TI 5" for my birthday today, and i was looking into picking components for it now. literally perfect timing!
muh1h1 how you finding it man?
That's we've all waited for✌️✌️Like always: great Video Joshua
Love the build and soldering. Great example of 1 million ways to use zip ties
Which batteries do you use in this build Joshua? :)
olenergy I’ve ordered everything for my first build, batteries is the last piece and not too sure what to get ha
@@anthony.xavier how has the build gone? what batteries are you using. 4 cell or 6 cell. looking to make this build in the future c:
Seth Bryan I’ve been traveling for work and plan to build in a few days. Being a noob, I’ve realized there’s a few items/tools in the video I did not have and it took me a little longer to gather all the parts. I plan to make a YT video on the build and everything I’ve had to order from the ground up. I decided to go with 4s 1500mah.
Excellent video !
I build this quad during the winter. Now in the first flights I realized that the feed is pretty noisy when the motors start spinning. The fix was to power the camera from the VTX. I left the real pit powered from the FC.
Maybe this will help somebody else...
Infel Gamothrate I noticed that he didn’t solder a capacitor to the ESC in the video. My ESC came with one (t-motor f55a). Umm, do I use it?
@@creepymouse1235 , absolutely. It cannot hurt definitely!
the forceps are called 'Kellys' and a smaller version are called mosquitoes
great video, a real work of love...
a little tip i use when working with short ends of wire like with the motor connections, is to cut them a little longer so you are able to twist a good 8-10mm, which is far easier than just a couple of mm. I then tin them and snip to size. It also serves as a good double check when working with thick gauge wire that you've tinned fully....although you don't want to be doing this with 10 gauge unless you have some meaty snips!
Props on the iron skills and advice JB, refreshing to see the professionalism ;)
6s not your thing?
6 S is over-rated.....from my experience!
6S is no good for the 2500kv JB motors
No I would go about 1800kv
Show us your 6s build.
6s JB motors out soon
JB, another great vid, love the Armattans. Just a quick tech tip sorta suggestion I thought I'd mention: I took a pair of old hemostats with very slender jaws, and put a small sorta dog-leg bend in one of the jaws, so that when I close them, the jaws are parallel, but just slightly apart (I know, this sounds counter-intuitive), and then dipped both jaws in Plasti-Dip. These are my dedicated wire-holding hemostats, and the rubber-ish Plasti-Dip really grips them well, and the slight bend in the jaws lets me use the locking clips on the handles without crushing the wire. And by using very slender, delicate hemostats, there's a little give in the handles, so even if I'm gripping thick battery wires, they don't get crushed when I lock them, but still provide a very secure grip. My friends say I'm OCD about everything, but I figure the better the tool, the better the result. I plan on doing a short video on a few small tool mods I have for quad building, but just haven't gotten to it yet. Kudos on building your JB Custom Chameleon!
IIRC a hemostat has a clamping locking action while forceps rely on pressure from the user. Learned a lot from your video, thanks.
Josh, if you care, hemostats are forceps. They are generally the locking variety. Also, thanks for these videos. Crazy helpful for the new guy. Probably pretty darned helpful for those who aren't new, for that matter!
Josh thank you so much!, I’m very new to the hobby it’s only been eight months where I bought my first drone which happened to be a Mavic pro 2 and most recently getting into and enjoying so much FPV your videos help me so so much I’ve learned incredible amount but keep up the good work thank you again
Glad to have you as a viewer!
Just hover tested it flies only my 2nd build the first was your budget build the video didn't say anything about remapping Motors slow me down a few days to figure that one out thanks for all the wonderful videos
Love your videos joshua! Got into fpv recently and I've learned a lot from your videos. Going to start building my quad soon..
I think we would all like to see the JB ultimate build.
Ummm isn't that this?
I’ve been wanting to watch a build video for a while and now I get to watch it from the one and only! Love your vids!!
I used the kakute f7 on a 6 inch build with metal esc and have to say its awesome. F7 is so much easier to get all the peripherals working than the F4 fcs for me anyway. Keep up the good work JB cheers.
i feel like the best way to do this is just to buy the parts, sit down a full day and watch this video over and over... im not very good at figuring out what other parts to buy but i trust your expertise so untill i understand everything i probably will just build this. I want to be the first FPV drone person in Idaho lol idk any
You saved my quad from the garbage can..your betaflght tutorial saved it and my sanity..thank you!
Awesome!
I have this frame and the FC you made, cant wait to get enough money to do the maiden flight! Thank god for liftoff so I save money crashing there first ! Keep up the informative and good videos , I really appreciate it!
Mind blowing. Can't help suggest. This is better than Mr. Steele's live stream 2 hour video
Im 16 minutes into this video ...let me say thank you. I'll probably build this given the detail provide. Wow
flight footage on the way I presume? ...treat yourself and build a couple spares just like it so you can keep ripping when you crash. love that you did this!!
Flight footage already posted. Look at the "black coffee drive" freestyle video from last week.
i like the idea of the screws mounting down the ufl on the unify would seem to help for sure... I do like the idea of the leds on the arm and how you could tell a mosfet burned out by chance.
This was a great build and education for me. I love to build and fly RC. The video and his commentary mad this build so much fun. His list of components for this build were awesome. Now MY flying is another story. Thanks again JB for making my this video and hopefully we will get a chance to fly FPV the next time you come out to hawaii. #RICKRAYPOINT.
Thank you so much Joshua, I am inspired to finish the armattan rooster I have with these links. Nice Video.
Diggy Dugit amor meu ❤
Nice to see a person who actually know how to solder. Seen a wide array of poor soldering skills in tutorials like this before. My last 5" quad building actually was very similar to this.
But guys - don't imagine that you will be able to finish quad assembling in one hour ;) In reality it will take at least 4 hours and for beginners - maybe even 2 evenings until 4 AM ;)
I did this build three times in a row. For the 3rd one it took me about 3 hours start to finish including betaflight setup and testing motors and etc. I am not a super fast builder like some guys.
@@JoshuaBardwell I'm a slow builder too :) By the way the most time spent on build goes not to assembly, but planning how to put together this and that and how to have all parts together without free dangling and sticking out for better crash resistance. How to avoid overheating and noise from one circuit induced into another. That million $ question: how to put 4-in-1 ESC, FC with OSD and VTX together to avoid noise in FPV picture from ESC and from VTX. That took more of my time that soldering and screwing frame parts and boards together. Also some time goes to motor and ESC soldering. Because of what I fell in love with stackable modules, 4-in-1 ESC's. Less soldering and thinking where to put that damn VTX. Found that TBS Unify VTXes with only grounding at one side can be nicely glued on protection plate over FC with grounding at bottom side. That narrowed down modules chosen for build too and now I can build a quad in one evening.
That's why most of the footage was taken from the 3rd build, after I knew where everything went and what order to do things.
Just a tip for soldering xt60 and xt30s plug male/female together before soldering it lessens the chance of the terminal post melting in the connector...
You need to get a solder pot for tinning wires when you are doing a build Joshua. It's so easy and fast.
Currently planning a new build and I am getting a lot of inspiration from this build. Thanks JB!
By the way, you need to let me know where I can get one of those Josh Bardwell stickers. Sticking your mug to some of my gear will really help my street cred...at least within the fpv scene
This looks really good! I am fairly new to drones and have built two small (90mm) drones to date. I think that for my next drone I will utilize some of your parts for this awesome build, especially the frame and the motors.
Just ordered the parts. I decided to maintain the gold/purple scheme of the motors and since the RR/JB camera isn't available anymore, I went with a purple Runcam Sparrow Pro 2 and a purple Foxeer lollipop for the antenna. Also going to add gold countersunk washers/screws along the frame to sexify it all.
Joshua, thanks for all the detail. Its really very much appreciated!
You look so happy at the beginning of the video. So nice.
First time I watched a quad build all the way through, I enjoyed your video. Not bad considering I build model planes with 26cc to 60cc gas engines along with some electric aerobatic ones! Your video was very interesting and informative. 😊👍.
Joshua, I love the Chameleon Ti. I have the original Chameleon and the ease of build is both easy and quick. I used to dread opening up the original Chameleon, but the "Ti" is so easy. Flies like a dream. If anyone is interested in Chameleon and Chameleon Ti flying. I am on youtube and redit.
What motors are you running on your ti? What size battery?
@@michaelclark5757 Here is my setup:
Quad:
- Frame: Armattan Chameleon TI
- Flight Controller: Riot Control F4
- ESC: DYS 35a Aria
- Motors: EMAX RS II - 2306-2600Kv
- Camera: Foxeer Monster Pro
- VTX: RDQ Mach 3
- Antenna: Strix Hoot-R, Foxeer Lillipop, FuriousFPV BigMac Antenna SMA - RHCP
- RX: FrSky R-XSR
- Props: Gemfan Flash Series (5149-3)
Video:
- GoPro Session 4
Transmitter:
- FrySky Taranis X9D+
@@michaelclark5757 I typically use 1500s for my flights...
John Hoinville Thanks John! Checked out some of your videos great progression and some awesome locations!
I'm surprised your not using the TS100, I just bought one myself, and it made building fun again, it works great, and fits the hand nicely. I was using the 862d+ soldering station, and this little iron beats it in every way.
Little tip:
Check your components before you solder the wires, AND after, in case of heat damage and whatever.
I`ve had bad components and not found out until after I did my soldering, and it sucked every time lol.
I`ll probably forget it several more times in the future though hehe..
Watching you do that soldering was very satisfying.
Oh, that drone is cuter! and I here crying for the death of the ESC of my x220s, greetings from Argentina!
Josh, you make my day perfect.
Awesome Joshua... I'm really liking this build... thank you.gor taking the time to show this.... this is definitely on my list to get and put together.
When I thought I watch all the videos u made I keep finding more and more lol u are the best my brother.
Awesome build, nicely explained all the way through, but i do have comments about the soldering in general... NOT saying JB is wrong though, just soldering pointers from one nerd to another:
The reason for not running you Soldering Iron at max temperature is the danger of delaminating the PCB. A multi-layered PCB can have several cobber joints through each hole, and they can disconnect if overexposed to heat, and the PCB itself might take damage, where the cobber layer might physically disjoin from the dielectric laminate underneath. The number of times you heat up a PCB, and the higher the temperature during each heat up, the higher the risk of delaminating and potentially destroying the PCB. In EU, the RoHS directive states that compliant PCB's should only use lead-free soldering, hence extra heat during soldering is required, just like JB said, but this only adds to injury and reduces the number of times you can heat up a given PCB before damaging it.
Arguably you then should only pre-solder the wires and NOT the PCB, and use different Soldering Iron tip sizes for the various sizes of joints you solder, with the added bonus of being able to fit the wires through the holes of the PCB, which yields extra strength to the general build as well. I know pre-soldering is really convenient... but you can use a "helping hand stand" to do without.
So If you take a look at 11:56, JB should have planned the order of soldering the other way around, ABC instead of what he did, CBA. You will see him heat up the C joint unintentionally during the pre-soldering of joint B. That's how you create unwanted bridging and blow fuses or even entire PCB's. JB didn't, and he would have most likely caught it before power up... cause he's SO cool... but I'm just saying that planning the solder order and choosing tips can really help get it right the 1st time around and avoid delaminating PCB's :-)
Happy New Year to you all, and HUGE thanks to Joshua Bardwell for delivering such nice content ! sry for the TL/DR comment here.
Dig that fresh work pad with your logo's. So stoked seeing your ultimate build.
Can you guys imagine being Bardwell and just being able to build any quad you want at any time and get it to fly exactly how you like without even busting a sweat? I would pay top dollar for his FPV knowledge to be installed in my brain.
I've never built a quad yet, but looking forward into doing it. Thank you for the very informative video, good quality content -> subscribed.
It is great fun and really satisfying when you get it flying well :)
Still watching but I have a question about the esc part. I am at 3:15. Have you looked at blackbox logs to see how many amps you are drawing? I have some f80 pro 2500kv motors on my chameleon and the amp limiting on the esc's wont let the motors pull more than 40 amps each. I am looking to get some 45 amp escs just for that head room like you said but was curious if you have hit the limiter with the esc on yours and how often?
Perfect timing for this video. I'm building a similar (but cheaper, because I'm cheap) quad on the original Chameleon frame that I got on sale ($75). But not too cheap: Bardwell 4-1, ESC, Bardwell FC, Bardwell/Runcam Eagle camera. 👍 Most all parts from knowitall.com. (yes I used the links) My past builds were on the Martian II frame. Now I can follow along, and do it all right. Thanks!
I got the new FPV flight club Bangkok in the mail today. It didn't come with armattans warranty but I think you'll like that frame
Here in 2020, would be great to see are new build. I think most people would like a less than 250gr, freestyle/all-rounder, 3inch 4s. At least, that is what I'm looking for as well haha. Love to start building a new one, based on JB's choices of parts.
Twisting those wires “to length”, while really you’re making sure you’re not missing a tie-off. I feel you.
It's like having a heroin addiction and not having enough money to buy new heroin, so you're watching someone else shoot heroin for 55 minutes... :D
Soldering together a new quad is like the most zen thing you can do. When I don't have the parts for a new build, watching build videos is great and you always learn something new. Very nice kwad, Joshua! Quite similar to my own Chameleon TI, only I use single Wraith32 ESCs on the arms and a Betaflight F7 flight controller, which is my personal favorite. Happy flying, JB! :)
I love you man I really do you do so much for helping people with this hobby and it’s very appreciated
I just built a Chameleon, It is my favorite rig!
Hello. I just finished building this. One question though. In stand by just with the battery plugged in, it consumes 29 amps. Is it normal?
Then in a few minutes I got a warning that the core temperature is 70 degrees.
Thanks for video!
I'll answer myself to this. I checked the Amps straiht through the battery and it does not consume 30, but 0.7A in standby. So I think it is a matter of current sensor calibration. Mr. Bardwell has a video about that too, I will try it.
JB, great video, love purple and gold colors, this is my next quad . thanks again.
It was a year ago. What you think about this frame right now Mr Joshua?
I own Armattan Chameleon Ti 5" since December last year and ...... there is a few little things but I'm curious what do you think after the time you've been flying This amazing piece of kit?
I am no longer flying this quad.
Not sure if it’s been mentioned but a small third hand is great for soldering xt60 connectors.
As long as they make them, the chameleon ti will be my go to freestyle frame, full stop.
Those clracing led race wire modules are my next upgrade, I agree with his opinion on F7 flight controllers, I use OmnibusNXT F7 flight controllers for my builds and not having to worry about what uarts are inverted and uninverted is one less thing to worry about.
hello. this is indeed a very beauty quad..i am new in this nice hobby, never build a quad, but this will be my first one for shure, you make it soo much eazyer to understand and so..thank you so much Joshua B. Only 1 question; Where can this nice quad can be seen..i love to see how it preform..thank in advance..have a good nice day
While I watch a lot of Rotor Riots videos I was unaware that you create a channel. One recommendation I have for you would be to invest in some wire cutters as you can see at 22:37 you actually cut a lot of the wires and while you most likely dont see a difference it can actually affect the flow of energy and cause potential shorts.
hemostat is basically the same tool as forceps, but also has the multi notched "ratchet" style lock mechanism built into the handle for clamping and holding.
The kakute f7 and your esc is probably my favorite set up right now.
I'm just revisitng this video as I had stalled on the build due to multiple issues back in 2019. I am restarting the build now 3 years later. What temperature do you use for just regular soldering? I know you mention going to max on the power leads. I have a Hakko 870D and generally am running 750 but feel like I have trouble getting the solder to heat and flow properly. Maybe it's my tip because I don't use a very large on. I use a flat 3mm wide tip.
The main difference between forceps and hemostats is intended use. Since Hemostats are intended to close blood vessels the almost always ratchet closed.
I am only 10min into this video and I already wish I could give it 5 more 👍👍👍👍👍
If you hold the wirecutter the other way round (the flat side in the direction you unisolate) its easier to cut the Isolation. The way you use it its more likely to streak over the material, rather then get in the material. For Silicon wire this doesn't matter that much, but its much easier for harder Isolation.
Hey I got that same quad and at first I had a full size cam and it gave me a terrible cam angle so I switched to a runcam and still had a bad angle the bar blocks the cam from moving down if you want a better angle get a full size cam and use the u shape or open spuare (how ever it looks to you it's black) bracket it comes with you will be able to to move the camera more hopes this helps
I appreciate the incredible AUDIO quality of these build videos. You use a condenser and some compression right? Sounds so crisp clear and has great volume.
For the bench, I have a parametric EQ, compression, and de-esser. The mic is a Rode VideoMicro mounted on the overhead camera boom. I really hated it until I put the parametric EQ on it. It kills almost all of the room reverb and brings back the bass that I would normally expect from a good dynamic mic.
@@JoshuaBardwell Awesome. Definitely adds to the production quality. Nothing's worse than great information, but terrible audio!