5" Custom FPV Drone Project
Ever since sophmore year of my college journey, after working with autonomous drones my freshman year, I wanted to design and build a drone by myself to gain a deeper understanding of how all the components work together. That is why during the summer of 2026, I did extensive research and hand-picked necessary parts to build a 5" FPV Racing Drone. The task was by no means an easy one, as I had to navigate the complicated hell of spec sheets and manufacturer documentation to find parts that would fit together to build a functioning drone.
- Motors configured @ 2207 1950KV
- Triblade propellors with a 5-inch diameter and a 3-inch pitch
- 6S 1300mAh Lithium Polymer Ion Battery with a 130C continuous discharge rating
- Flight stack containing the Corvon F405 flight controllers and a 4-in-1 45A rated ESC
- Frame design of the TBS Source One V6
- RadioMaster RP1 V2 ELRS telemetry radio
- Estimated Total Weight of 522 grams
With this configuration, I have achieved a thrust-to-weight ratio (TWR) of 9.2 with an estimated cruise time of 10 minutes @ 22% throttle with a theoretical top speed of 75mph.
As a first timer in the FPV space, I had some trouble figuring out how to assemble my drone. The TBS Source One V6 frame that I use it fairly new (~10 months old at time of construction) and so the supporting documentation for assembling the frame or YouTube videos walking through the assembly were non-existant. To overcome this, I had to closely follow the images of the frame from the official manufacturer and seek guidance online, which I primarly found through an FPV Discord server.
I was also a novice when it comes to soldering, and soldering the XT-60 battery leads only the ESC gave me quite some problems. My first soldering attempt resulted in a poor connection between the battery leads and their respective terminals, a dangerous situation that could lead to a short circuit or overheating if not addressed. To solve this, I removed the solder and started from scratch, focusing on pre-tinning the connectors and making a stronger connection between the solder pads and XT-60 leads.
