Hey guys

I'm looking to build my first multi copter, so I decided to stay local and help the local shop... Their price is fair and pretty compatible with online shops... Plus he is also the closest dji dealer we have in my city.

I said I wanted to start building a hexacopter, with a wookong board, a futaba 14sg, and dji f550 frame...

When I said that, he started bashing the frame, saying its rubbish, heavy, the plastic was really fragil, and would break very easy, plus said the dji was a good controller manufacture, but they know nothing about aero dynamics, and they only did this frame to sell the Naza boards that were not selling... So they were giving the frames free with the naza boards.... He said the frame has really bad aerodynamics, and the arms are not rigid enough... So he wouldn't sell me a f550 frame, but if I bought the s800 frame he would give me an f550 for my kids to play... Really? Sure! Spend $2k on a frame and I'll give you a $50 frame for free...

So he suggested me, I should spend an extra 300 on the quad frame he manufactures, which it's a carbon frame, better aerodynamics, it can be converted from a quad to hex, or octo.

I'm on a short budget here, so extra 300 is no good for me, as I could use that on batteries and chargers...

The only reason I'm spending the extra money on the wookong, is because in the future I'd like to upgrade the frame to the s800 to have a bigger payload capability.

I've read a lot on the f550 fram and can't see people complaining about all those thing the guy mentioned, plus if I do break an arm on that frame, it's really cheap to replace, and it's easy to find...

So my question is: should I flick the switch on trying to help the local shop and get the parts and frame from an online store somewhere else? Or the guy from the local shop was actually right and I should spend the extra 300 and get a better carbon frame?

Cheers
Dan

The f550 type frame is one of the most popular frames used for testing/first timers mainly because its fairly durable, its cheap as heck to buy a new arm if it breaks in a crash and assembles quickly and has a built in power distribution system.

There aren't a whole lot of aerodynamics to a flying brick so I'm not sure what he is talking about there.

I would say most LHS people know nothing/very little of multirotors. Mine doesn't but the owner at least admits it and knows what customers of his to ask for advice. Might want to tell him to read up on the f550. As you've seen his opinion is very different from the majority here.

That said I recommend Robert at UAVProducts if you decide not to go with your LHS, he has awesome support and its needed when dealing with DJI because they use their dealers for their service so you'll want to choose a good dealer.

That's one of the reasons I'd like to stick with my local guy, as the first thing he said is, if I don't buy it from him, he will not give me support... But I'm really disappointed he wouldn't sell the frame I want.... It think he just wants to push people to buy, his frame, which in a way I don't blame him, but on the other hand, he will be losing lots of customers with that attitude...

Everything said about the F550 frame in OP is true.

Originally Posted by dank13

So my question is: should I flick the switch on trying to help the local shop and get the parts and frame from an online store somewhere else? Or the guy from the local shop was actually right and I should spend the extra 300 and get a better carbon frame?

Cheers
Dan

Go with what your gut tells you! If you feel like the guy just wants to sell you his frame, screw him and go somewhere else! If you feel like he is honestly trying to help you, go with him! What was your first gut feeling?! Obviously that you do not trust him, right?!

Originally Posted by whocares2001

Go with what your gut tells you! If you feel like the guy just wants to sell you his frame, screw him and go somewhere else! If you feel like he is honestly trying to help you, go with him! What was your first gut feeling?! Obviously that you do not trust him, right?!

I don't know, if I should trust him or not? It's my first copter, I'm completely new to this, but he is the only one that had bad things to say about the dji frame, he did said that I'll crash and will break things, but I'm pretty sure it will be cheaper to replace plastic parts than carbon ones... He seem to be an honest guy, and had good intentions of helping, but, I'm looking for a cheap entry level copter, which is easy to build, and cheap to fix, god knows what frame I'd get as my next upgrade... It could be even one of his octo frames full carbon... Why not? I just wish he gave me the option to choose... Like: "ok I can get you the f550 frame if you want, but you would be better of spending a bit more on my frame for those reasons..."

But he didn't gave me this option, all he did, was: "I wouldn't sell you this frame... Just buy mine instead... But I'd give u one if u buy a s800"

Why not just say I'd give you one if u buy the $1000 wookong board? Than I'd be a stoked customer heheheh...

I might get the wookong, transmitter and other things with him and just go get the frame elsewhere if he really doesn't want to sell me. At least I'll still support the local shop and make everyone happy

I'm not here to said bad thing about the guy, as I'm not even saying name here, not the reason I created this post, as he could be a nice guy and, just trying to help me. All I wanted to know is, if the frame is as bad as he says it is... Or if I should follow my gut feelings and keep my choice of frame.

Cheers Dan

Originally Posted by timecop

Everything said about the F550 frame in OP is true.

It's a timecop!

He sounds like a good salesman. You are very right on one thing, the plastic arms cost almost nothing to replace.

Take the advice from the guys in here.

I never trust salesmen.

I recently discovered quads/hexas and have now built a F550. Already had my first crash and smashed two arms, the cost of replacements was not a lot in fact delivery was nearly as much as the spares. I am going to get a complete frame as spares for the future. Go with an F550 to keep the stress levels down.

>>I said I wanted to start building a hexacopter, with a wookong board, a futaba 14sg, and dji f550 frame...<<

Your local hobbyshop sales person is trying to do you a favor.

How can you be on a short budget when you are willing to buy a $1,100 WooKong and want to save money by buying a $50 frame. The parts don't go together well.

Originally Posted by SeismicCWave

>>I said I wanted to start building a hexacopter, with a wookong board, a futaba 14sg, and dji f550 frame...<<

Your local hobbyshop sales person is trying to do you a favor.

How can you be on a short budget when you are willing to buy a $1,100 WooKong and want to save money by buying a $50 frame. The parts don't go together well.

That's another first for me, never heard the wookong won't go well with the f550, the 14sg was also something the local shop suggested me instead of the 8fg, I took his suggestion the as the difference is not much, and the 14sg is a better radio...

But can you give me more info on why the wookong is not good with this frame? There are lots of shops that sell this combo... As I said before I'm on a budget, but thinking on the longer range of things, like replacing parts, and ability to upgrade frames at a later stage, and use the same wookong for it....

Cheers Dan

Turnigy 9XR : $40
Beater frame from HK: $20-30
Motors, escs, crap from HK: < $100
flip/acroafro/kk2/whatever= <$25
lrn2fly first before wasting $1000s on expensive plastic toys.

Originally Posted by timecop

Turnigy 9XR : $40
Beater frame from HK: $20-30
Motors, escs, crap from HK: < $100
flip/acroafro/kk2/whatever= <$25
lrn2fly first before wasting $1000s on expensive plastic toys.

yes i went that way before, got a cheap $80 RTF ladybug drone, not the tiny one but the one that is a bit bigger....

it's really hard to fly that thing, at least to learn on, i actually went through 2 of those, what got me in to thinking a bigger frame, with better board might make things easier...

• more stability
• wind resistant (as i had to fly my little ones indoor as they wouldn't cope with any wind)
• auto pilot
• return to home
• altitude and position hold

so i can learn with all those things on and gradually start turning them off as the confidence and skills grow.

the problem with the little ones most of the time i was flying indoors, which there is not a lot of space, and whenever i taken them outside on the park they ended up getting damaged buy crashing because of wind conditions..

i'm afraid getting the setup you suggested me, might just cause more frustration than good.... i know the transmitter would be a lot better than the crappy RTF that came with the ladybug, but the rest of it would be pretty much the same thing.

And since everyone says how easy is to fly the phantom, which has all the above features, i though why spend $700 if in the end i'll need to buy a whole lot of stuff again to build something decent that will be able to hold a camera and a gimbal.

so i decided, to go with something a bit more flexible in terms of upgrades at a later stage...

good controller board (should handle anything i can decide to have later on)
good radio (has all features i need to upgrades to come)
and the rest is upgradable, so cheap frame for now, and when i stop crashing, get something decent, that will hold a good camera with a gimbal so i can get some decent footage. Which is what i'd like to do in the end.

cheers dan

Dan, sounds like the best thing for you would be a phantom, those minis to me are very easy to fly and learn on and more durable than larger scale ones... So to say you had troubles with them and want to just into a $1500+ multirotor is asking for more trouble a loss of money and back to square one. If your worried about out growing the phantom, look around they hold their value very well in this hobby for a reason, their worth it. A smashed up f550 with crashed Dji wookong isn't worth as much.

The Futaba 8 FG has the same amount of channels as the Futaba 14SG...The only difference is the display....When someone starts a sales pitch comparing multirotor frames using aerodynamics as a comparison then it is time to look for another hobby store...The wookong m and the Naza with GPS have the same functions unless you get the radio waypoint upgrades for the wookong...