The PERFECT FPV Setup? This is What I Recommend!

You’ve seen me do a lot of reviews on pre-built drones that you can buy from the store. They come to you, and you only need to bind them to your remote controller. Then, you’re good to go and can start flying straight away, which is great. I still highly recommend most beginners give that route a go because building a drone is not as easy as it sounds.

There are a lot of tutorials nowadays that you can follow online, but still, it’s a little bit nerve-wracking. I don’t recommend beginners to go that route straight away. I think it’s better to wait until gaining more confidence, repairing your quad a few times, and then you can start trying to build your drone.

Perfect FPV Setup Video

In this відео, I’m going to talk about a drone that I personally built myself because this is a topic that I don’t talk about too much on this channel, and I feel like I really need to focus on that a little bit more as well.

So, this is a drone that I recently built myself, and I want to go a little bit more in-depth about the components that I used, the particular style of flying that this quad can give me.

And I want to give you a little bit more information about all the cameras I use, all the accessories, what remotes I use, and all the stuff that I feel could be beneficial for someone looking to upgrade to better components when it comes to flying FPV. So hopefully, this video will be interesting and informative.

Starting out with the drone first, as you can see, we are heavily into the green and silver theme. I really like the look of this drone, which is something that, of course, is not the most important thing when it comes to FPV but is also a very important part of building your own quad, picking out the components, and making it look the way you want it to look.

Quadmula Siren F5 frame

So, this is the Quadmula Siren F5 frame. This is one of the best freestyle frames out there currently, and I was really debating which frame to use when I wanted to build this new quad. But since I’ve heard so many great things about the Quadmula frames, I decided to give them a go, and I couldn’t be happier with the way the frame looked when it was brand new: the packaging, the hardware, the little additional components that you get for your action camera, the bumpers to protect the motors on each arm – all the little details that are already included in the frame made it look and feel that much more premium.

So this is a frame that I definitely recommend. It is a very rigid frame, and although I haven’t really crashed it that many times yet, I’ve seen a lot of videos about it, I’ve seen a lot of comments about it, and people are crazy about the Quadmula Siren F5.

So, I’m really happy to have it here as a part of my arsenal. It is a great-looking, very lightweight frame that is also very durable. And as I said, it’s made specifically for freestyle, but of course, when it’s made for freestyle, you can use this for many other things. However, freestyle is this frame’s strongest suit.

Now, because this is a TrueX frame, that means you will have some parts of the props visible on your FPV camera. So if you want to record with the O3 Air Unit, which is the VTX that I’m currently using on this frame, keep in mind that you will have at least a part of the front of the props visible in the shot. Make sure that it’s not something that bothers you before you buy one of these frames.

Personally, it doesn’t bother me, as I have decided to use this frame with a GoPro on it, so I don’t want to rely on the DJI O3 Air Unit. This is going to be my main frame that I’ll be using for cinematic flying, freestyle, and all sorts of things. This is my go-to quad currently, so I will be using it mainly with a GoPro on top.

Using the DJI O3 Air Unit

Now, I do have a couple of basher drones that I can use in case I want to record strictly on the O3 Air Unit. In case I don’t want to risk a GoPro, I can use another drone and just keep that only for a GoPro or for training, or for those videos, that I really don’t need the footage from the O3 Air Unit.

So, like I said, the O3 Air Unit is already here. I’m using a very interesting stack on this drone, and this is the SpeedyB F7 V3. This is a 30×30 50A stack that is solder-free. It comes with all sorts of different connectors, so if you want to keep your build clean, or you don’t want to solder at all besides soldering your motors to the ESC, you don’t have to do anything else. Everything is connected by plugs, and this is the way I have connected the O3 Air Unit.

This is the way I connected my Crossfire receiver. Pretty much everything is connected by plugs, and that makes the build very clean. That keeps most of the wires tidy and neat, and you don’t have to deal with soldering at all, which is something that I definitely appreciate.

As FPV is evolving, I think it’s great to have more options available, and this stack definitely gives you a lot of options to connect all of your components, whether it’s LEDs, the camera, VTX. All sorts of different components can be connected via a plug, and you don’t have to solder to the stack.

Now, speaking about the stack, something else that is really interesting about it is that since it’s made by SpeedyB, you might be aware that SpeedyB has amazing support for configuring your stack from your phone. Meaning that when you install their SpeedyB app on your phone, you can fine-tune and configure all sorts of settings about the quad from your phone.

The only thing you need to do is turn on the quad by powering it up with a battery, and then connect the drone to the app itself. It will be recognized straight away, and you’ll have all sorts of options to configure, very similar to what you do on your computer.

So you can use Betaflight to configure the direction of the motors, you can add new modes, you can fine-tune your rates, you can add new features. And you can even flash new firmware straight from your phone, which is great if you want to fine-tune your quad when you’re on the go and you don’t want to bring your computer with you.

You can quickly adjust all of those things from your phone, and it’s happening without the need for any cables; it’s just by Bluetooth. So this is a great stack to use if you want to really dial down the settings and make the quad feel perfect for your exact needs. You want to really play with the settings and finetune them. I highly recommend you check out this stack.

The motors that I’m using for this build are by T-Motor, and they are 1950 KV. They’re great for freestyle and also great for cinematic flying. They’re not the most powerful motors out there, of course; however, I feel like they give me a great balance between power and efficiency.

My FPV Setup

Since I’m not the biggest freestyle guy, I prefer to use them mostly for cinematic flying with a little bit of acro here and there. I think they work great for this build since it’s very lightweight and, like I said, very powerful. So that gives me a great balance of all the things I need in a build.

Like I said, I’m using Crossfire, and I’ve been using Crossfire for many years now. I don’t plan to switch to anything else since it works so well for me. Because I use Crossfire, I also have the Crossfire antenna here on the radio, which is the RadioMaster Boxer.

This is a radio that I’ve been using for the past couple of months, and it’s quickly become one of my favorite radios that I’ve ever used. The smaller form factor and portability factor are great because they’re very important to me, as I tend to carry a lot of gear with me. So it’s important to have a small footprint for the things that I need.

This radio is, I would say, the smaller version of the TX16S, which I’ve been using before. But I feel like this is more my style because it’s just more comfortable to hold in your hands. It’s a little bit smaller, so it doesn’t take up that much space, and it’s also a little bit more comfortable because it’s easy to reach all the buttons. All of the switches and everything is just a little bit easier and a little bit smoother on this radio, I feel. So, that’s the reason why I have decided to use that as my main radio.

On it, I currently have the AG01 gold gimbals from RadioMaster once again because these are amazing. They are super smooth and compared to the regular gimbals that the Boxer or the TX16S come with, it’s a night and day difference. They are much smoother, more precise, and just more comfortable to use. It’s buttery smooth to perform acro maneuvers with them because they move up and down very smoothly. It’s a significant difference compared to the original gimbals that come with all these new radios nowadays.

So I highly recommend you check out the AG01 gimbals if you are looking for a little more satisfaction out of flying your drones. It’s a lot smoother and just feels better in your hands.

DJI Goggles 2 to fly FPV

For my goggles, of course, I use the DJI Goggles 2, and these are the stock goggles. I’m currently waiting for the TrueRC patch antennas for these goggles. It’s taking a long time to get them because they are coming straight from Canada with the slowest delivery option available. So, I’m waiting for these antennas to see whether they will massively improve my signal or not.

But even with this stock antenna setup, I feel like I have the portability factor covered, and I don’t think I’m really missing out on any signal boost. The signal coming out of this setup with the O3 air unit and the Goggles 2 is amazing. It’s definitely a lot better compared to my previous setups, so even without any super long antennas or patch antennas, I’m still enjoying the signal strength, as it’s a powerful signal that I’m working with most of the time.

So far, I haven’t had any significant issues with fail-safes or lack of signal when I’m flying my drones with this setup, so I’m quite happy with it. I know with the True RC Patch antennas, I will lose some portability because of the way they fold up, and I won’t be able to do that anymore when I attach the new antennas. But I will keep you updated on that; as soon as they arrive, I will try them out and see whether they massively improve the signal or not. So for now, I’m using the stock antennas on the DJI Goggles 2.

GoPro Hero 11 Black action camera

Now, turning to the other side of the table where I have my cameras, you will see it’s a very simple setup. I have the GoPro Hero 11 Black, and you know me, GoPro is my number one choice when it comes to flying FPV and deciding which camera I want to use on top of my drones.

They always deliver the best quality possible compared to all the other cameras that I have. Of course, I still use my other cameras, but I use them for different purposes. So when I’m going for maximum quality, I always choose the GoPro Hero 11 Black.

And I use these Enduro batteries. These batteries are great because they last a little bit longer in cold weather and also in very hot weather. As you know, GoPro has this battery drain issue where the battery goes flat very quickly, so these Enduro batteries are great to have.

So far, I haven’t had any big issues with fail-safes or lack of signal when I’m flying my drones with this setup, so I’m quite happy with it. I know with the RC through RC patch antennas, I will lose some portability because of the way they fold up, and I won’t be able to do that anymore when I attach the new antennas. But I will keep you updated on that; as soon as they arrive, I will try them out and see whether they massively improve the signal or not. For now, I’m using the stock antennas on the Goggles 2.

Now, turning to the other side of the table, where I have my cameras, you will see it’s a very simple setup. I have the GoPro Hero 11 Black, and as you know, GoPros are my number one choice when it comes to flying FPV and deciding which camera I want to use on top of my drones. They always deliver the best quality possible compared to all the other cameras that I have. Of course, I still use my other cameras, but I use them for different purposes.

So when I’m going for maximum quality, I always choose the GoPro Hero 11 Black, and I use these Enduro batteries. These are great because they last a little bit longer in cold weather and also in very hot weather. You know, GoPro has this battery drain issue where the battery goes flat very quickly, so these batteries are great to have—the Enduro batteries. I always have some spare ones available with me, so I can quickly swap them and continue to fly without worrying about not having enough battery.

8 x 7 aspect ration and ND Filters

Another big reason why I use the GoPro 11 as my main FPV camera is the 8×7 aspect ratio that the camera offers, which allows me to shoot just once and have my footage usable both for YouTube in 16×9 and also in 9×16 for Instagram, YouTube shorts, or TikTok. This small feature is a game-changer for content creators, and it really does make a big difference.

Now, I do have this GoPro Hero 10, which I have as a backup camera in case I break one or need to shoot something else. This is the camera I mostly use as a backup. I forgot to mention, of course, that luckily, since we have the same system on the front for GoPros since the 9, I’m using these Polar Pro ND filters. This is the Shutter Collection, and these Фільтри are my go-to filters when it comes to installing them on a GoPro. I’m not using anything else.

These are just amazing for achieving that amazing motion blur that FPV is capable of delivering when flying very close to an object. So the ND filters from Polar Pro are the ones that I’m always using on my cameras when I’m shooting in manual camera mode, which is 99% of the time.

Now, I do have the Insta360 X3, and I’ve been using this camera a lot in the past couple of months, and I’ve been really enjoying it. This is a camera that I not only use on my drone—I do that occasionally when I want to capture that front look of the drone because I feel like it’s a great perspective to have—but I’m not only using it on the drone itself.

I’m also using it as a BTS camera sometimes when I want to not worry about the angles, and I want to record how I set up things or how I do things. Maybe I can vlog with it here and there occasionally. So this is another camera that I tend to have with me everywhere I go when I’m trying to capture some footage for you guys.

Because this camera gives me some peace of mind knowing that I can just set it on a tripod and start recording, I can then adjust the angles without worrying about missing a shot.

These are kind of like my essentials when it comes to FPV. Of course, I’m missing a lot of other small things like tools, batteries, and all sorts of other items that I carry with me in my backpack. But you guys are familiar with those, as I’ve made similar videos in the past, and they have not changed since then.

Those things will not disappoint me because I’ve been using them for some time now, and I’ve been getting great results with them. So, I’m quite happy with this setup, and I will list everything in the description below. If you want to order one of these parts yourself, make sure you check the description.

And ask me anything you want to know about this setup or any other setup in the comment section below. I would love to give you more feedback and share my knowledge in case I can provide you with an answer. Make sure you ask me everything you want to know because I’m also thinking about making a series when it comes to FPV. Sharing more of my knowledge because there are a lot of things that I haven’t discussed on this channel that I feel I can share as information with you guys to hopefully help you get better. Or just be more informed when it comes to things you don’t know yet.

That’s pretty much it, guys. I really hope you enjoyed this quick little overview of the things I use when it comes to FPV. Like I said, the Quadmula Siren F5 with the Speed V3 stack is my go-to setup right now, which is delivering great results, and I couldn’t be happier with it.

With that being said, thank you so much for watching. I hope you enjoyed this video. This is Mike from Перевага безпілотників; take care, and I’ll see you in the next one. Ciao! Thank you.