DIY FPV MINI QUADCOPTER ON THE CHEAP

2015-02-28:  Update at the bottom of the post

This is a modified Eachines H108C, a clone of the Hubsan X4 H108C.  This series are sturdy, stable and have nice payload capacity.  Mine was a little over $40 from Banggood.com in China, where the specific model is no longer available, but the X4 is widely available for under $50.

I wanted to experiment with FPV and decided to modify the H108C.

Parts:

A similar quadcopter ($46)

120 degree lightweight VGA camera ($29)

TX5823 3.7v transmitter ($13)

100 mAh Lipo ($4)

5.8ghz micro clover leaf antenna ($10)

also added CL-0820-15 motors ($27)
and using these goggles ($30)

Pictures:

here i've removed the stock camera recording board and camera and cut away a portion of the front of the body to accommodate gluing in the 120deg camera.  i've wired up (in a manner meant to be temporary, but it's working and i've not even bothered to clean it up) a power jack to power the camera, with extra leads for the video transmitter.  initially, i had everything run off the quad's stock battery but of course there was expected interference.  i decided to just use an additional battery to separately run the fpv equipment since there's payload capacity to spare and i'll get more flight time.

here i've soldered (yes, a bit sloppily, but successfully) the antenna and other connections to the video transmitter board TX5823.  the channel selector pads can be left floating for the default frequency.  the solder pads are delicate.  i had a simple wire antenna rip off along with the solder pads on my last transmitter, so i had to replace it.  this antenna is more bulky so will require some relief.

here is everything laid down flat, which allows it all to fit below the stock battery tray.

i put the battery in the tray before screwing it in.  i put the cloverleaf a bit in the way, so i just leave the battery in the quad and charge it there.  the whole quad is so small it fits in a battery bag for safe charging...

after getting it all back together, i used a tiny wire to tie the antenna to a plastic tab on the body of the quad.  this provides some significant relief, to try to keep the antenna from ripping off the solder pad on the video transmitter when it gets bumped (which it will.  a lot)

extra lipo mounted on the back to power the vtx and camera.  it's not centered front-to-back in the pic, but it is best centered for balance, and i add some tape to keep it stuck there.

These are the goggles i'm using. Cheap, and work great.

Sample videos:

flying around the house

getting caught in a tree

flying around the playground

Thanks for checking it out!


2015-02-28 Update:

i have removed the external battery from the top of the quad and installed a Pololu 5v step-up regulator U1V10F5 between the stock power bus and the fpv equipment.  it fit, stuffed up in front of the transmitter in the base of the quad in completely bodged-together fashion, and seems on bench testing to have no real interference.  we'll see how testing goes, more to follow.  meantime, here's another video from before the bodge: