What Is a Racing Drone?
We all know drones for a good camera tool: we can see DJI flying their drones at beaches, in movie scenes, and even just for selfies. Nevertheless, less known to all is that there is another type of drones in the world. People who know about is are crazy for it, because it is cooler, geekier and most importantly, thrilling to those who enjoy speed. We are talking about racing drones, the masculine thing that is open to customization with tools from a simple screwdriver to sophisticated multifunctional DIY tool sets.
Essentially, a racing drone belongs to the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) family, along with camera drones, agricultural drones and other drones. It is usually a quadcopter, meaning it is driven by four motors. A racing drone might be the smallest and lightest of them all, due to the purpose it is designed for.
Another outstanding character of a racing drone is that it can be easily customized. Its main frame, sometimes called the “chassis”, can be disassembled simply via some screws and locks. Opening the chassis will lead you to its core part: motors and propellers, control units, weighting units, etc. Buying such parts from DIY markets or even customize your own parts will make your racing drone unique from anyone else’s.
What You Need to Customize Your Racing Drone
While racing drones are designed for customization, doing it yourself is no joke. Here are the most important things you need before you can start racing drone customizing.
Basic aerodynamic and electronic knowledge
We are not talking about diplomas or certificates, but at least you need to make sure you can read and understand all the terms, guides and cautions you may find from YouTube, bestdroneforthejob.com, fpvdronereviews.com or other racing drone channels and forums. You can prepare yourself with extensive reading from Wikipedia, and you can also find open courses from famous institutions like Rice University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Hands-on experience with electronic products
Your racing drone can be very expensive. You definitely don’t want it to end up a mess. Try your hands with other simpler things first. You can start from your figure toys, your alarm clock, and your remote-control cars. Also you can try which levels of tools are most suitable for you: from the layman’s pocket screwdriver to the cool and handy DIY tool set.
Appropriate parts for your purposes
As soon as you have designed your plan, you can buy your parts. Typical parts for customizing racing drones include frames, propellers, motors, controllers and sometimes cameras. Famous brands or racing drone parts are AstroX, XNOVA, Falprop, Foxeer, among many others. When choosing your parts, beware of the sizes and allocation of screws and locks. For outer parts like propellers, make sure they are aerodynamically appropriate to your drone; for electronics, check if their electronic properties fit your drone. You should also consider the balance of weight. You don’t want your drone to flip over when flying it.
Tools might be less notable, but they can also be critical
Many would think best design plus good parts will make a perfect drone customization. This is true in some cases, but we do know some less fortunate cases where improper tools ruin everything. For example, using a blade too wide to modify your frame can sometimes cut off parts that you want. Monstrous drones with countless kinds of screws need numerous drivers to cope with. Therefore, a screwdriver with many function options are always desirable. On the one hand, We recommend a tool set for DIY, such as the E-design MT34 mini multifunctional DIY set. It comes with a handy and grippy mini multifunction handle to feature up to 30 tool options, from the 0.8 star-shape screwdriver tip to the 50mm FK blade. Use just one tool to fix them all: you can screw in and out all shapes and sizes of screws, or cut foams into various forms for better cushion, or even reach deep-inside of the drone with an H4x60mm extension bar. It can also extend as a drill using its in-box drill bit connector. This is a unique function and could be very useful when you need to adjust the soldering on a PCB. They also boast their electronic screwdriver series with Kinect adjustment feature. If you want to avoid the labor and get things done really fast, you wouldn’t want to miss them.
Always test your racing drones before you really fly them
Flying a newly customized drone can be tempting, but please refrain and do all the necessary tests first. For example, you need to make sure all the cables are correctly and firmly connected, and so are all the screws and locks. You also need to make sure your controller can receive your remote’s signal correctly and timely. Don’t forget to check if your battery has any leakage or bumping. Even if your racing drone is good to fly, you will still need to check its status every time you fly.
