How fast drones are? FPV Racing drone in details
Did you know racing drones are also called first person view (FPV) drone? This is because the footage that you see by FPV goggles from these drones are in first person view and you see what the drone sees. These drones are fast and they can keep up faster as your desired visual moves.
Definition of drones are Unmanned Areal Vehicle(UAV), they're being used in so many cases and they comes in different varieties. However, the type of drone that we are going to talk about is Multi-rotor drone and more specifically Multi-rotor Racing drone.
About Speed
An average multi-rotor drone flies at a speed of 70km/h, among them some can reach 100km/h. These are the drones that are widely used for filming videos, surveying, monitoring etc.
However, when it comes to speed only, the racing drones mostly exceeds 160km/h. 265km/h is the average speed racing drone and on average they can reach up to 290km/h.
Fastest drone that holds the Guinness World record is "XLR V3 Red", design by Ryan Lademann(USA) which flies at a surprising speeds of 360km/h(224mph)!
The latest drone designed by Ralph Hogenbirk for high definition video footage of F1 cars, has a top speed of 350km/h(217mph).
These are the drones that can keep up with Formula 1 racing car. Isn't it amazing?! There may time come when you'll see drones become the fastest vehicle on the planet except rocket engine powered vehicles.
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| Photo by Yusuf Mia |
Why they're fast?
They're fast because of their structure, strength and better built quality. Racing drones features a durable and lightweight carbon fiber frame. If you know about carbon fiber you know they're strong and lightweight. They comes at a cost but they're durable.
Racing drone requires faster responsiveness. Here are some promising qualities that racing drones have.
Efficient Controlling: Racing drones requires advanced flight controlling system. Responsiveness in so important in this case. To gain faster responsiveness, well-designed structure is necessary so they take least time converting the energy from battery to motor to propeller. Efficient firmware design plays a big role here.
Skillful/Efficient Design: As said before, in order to gain the best desired output an artistical well-made design is necessary. The more skillful the design is the best desired output can be gained. This can be gained through advancement in designing of the drone like the frame, motors, electronics, batteries, propellers and other equipment.
High Energy Density Batteries: For speed you need the energy. The higher and faster the energy can be delivered the more speed can be gained through motor.
Batteries with high energy density who can store more energy in a compact volume are best choice for racing drones and as well as other type of drones.
FPV/ Racing drone batteries need rapid discharge ability so they can fill up high current demand of FPV drones. Required current demands for racing drone motors range from 1500mAh to 2000mAh. LiPo batteries are considered as best choice for FPV drones.
Structure of FPV Racing Drones
Propeller(props): Propellers come at different size(8,10,7,5,4,3-inches), however, 5-inch propeller drones are most popular for flexibility/agility and stability. They provides high speed while being compact in size. For indoor racing 3/4-inch propeller drones are common and for outdoors sometimes 6/7-inch propeller are preferred for more extreme racing.
Less vibration, smoothness ensures better propeller quality. Proper weight distribution in propellers are necessary. Gaining rpm and faster spinning up and slowing down are also important when it comes to make an efficient propeller. For more about props.
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| Props |
Motors: Number of motors in drone varies on different type of (multi-rotor)drone. In "Quadcopters" there are four(4) motors two clockwise and two counter-clockwise. Two different direction cancels the turning force produced by the propellers when they rotates.
Brushless DC motors(BLDCs) are typically used in FPV drones. BLDC motors (not traditional brushless) provide high power to weight ratio, they're efficient and reliable. Stator, Rotor and the ESCs are the three main components of these BLDC motors. ESCs(Electronic Speed Controllers) explained below.
Frame: Drone frame consists of two main parts the body and the arms. Body contains batteries, electronic components, speed controllers, FPV camera etc, and arm contains motors with propellers.
The frame FPVs are strong and lightweight, often made by Carbon fiber . However, to keep it lightweight for speed it's durability and features needs to be sacrificed.
Carbon fiber frames are mostly used in FPV drones as it is lightweight, durable, highly customizable and proper weight ratio with stiffness. For more understanding about frames and structure of FPV visit this page.
H, True-X, Stretch-X, Deadcat, Box and Plus are popular frame configuration of FPV.
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| Deadcat Frame |
Battery: LiPo batteries with C rating are often used in 5-inch(props) FPV drones. They're usually 1100mAh to 1300mAh for 6s(6 cells in series) and 1300mAh to 1500mAh for 4s(4 cells in series) depending on their need.
The more higher the propeller size the more s you need in batteries. For example, if your drone has 5 or 7-inch propeller then you need to look forward for 6s batteries, it is highly recommended. For more information about 4s 6s batteries, scroll down on extra information section.
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| Battery |
Flight Controller(FC): It is called the brain of the FPV drone. It makes the calculations and controls the flight. It's basically a circuit board that detects the movement of the drone with the sensors equipped in it(in the circuit board).
FC controls the ESCs(Electronic Speed Controllers) and the motors. Sensors, processors, transmitters, communication protocols are equipped in its circuit board.
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| FC |
Sensors: Four main sensors are present in FPV drones(Gyroscope, Accelerometer, Magnetometer, Barometer).
The rotation, angular velocity and tilts are determined by gyroscope sensors. Accelerometer sensor determines the linear movement along any axis. Magnetometer measure the changes of Earth's magnetic field to verify heading. By measuring the changes of atmospheric pressure with respect of sea level, barometer measures the height of the drone.
The other sensors present on FPV drones are GPS and Distance sensors.
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| Accelerometer Sensor |
Electronic Speed Controllers(ESCs): It allows the flight controller to adjust and control the speed of motors. ESC controls the voltage to be served to the motor which is controlled by the signal from the flight controller(FC). By controlling the voltage to the motor it indirectly controls the speed of the propeller.
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| ESC |
Power Distribution Board(PDB): It is also known as panel board which allows transferring the power from battery to ESC/motors. It divides electrical power feed into secondary circuits with protective fuse for each circuit in a common area.
It basically takes the output from the battery and convert into voltage required for the subsidiary system e.g. Electronic Speed Controller, FPV cameras and sensors payloads.
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| PDB |
FPV Camera: Micro and nano are two main FPV camera variant with size being used in FPV drones. As FPV camera transmits live footage to the receiver googles it gives an amazing experience to the pilot, and making it one of the most important part of the the FPV drone.
DJI, GoPro, Runcam, Insta360 and Caddx are popular FPV drone cameras.
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| FPV Cam & Transmitter |
Video Transmitter: FPV drones usually transmits its video with an analog signal broadcast on 5GHz wifi frequency.
Transmitter accepts the wired video signal through HDMI/SDI and converts it into compressed/uncompressed wireless signal, then transmits it over wireless frequency by antennas.
Unify Pro32 HV is considered as the best FPV video transmitter by so many people. FrySky, Caddx, Radio Master, Foxeer Repeater are also popular FPV video transmitter.
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| Receiver |
Receiver: It receives the transmitter's input which is later interpreted by flight controller(FC).
The same brand of receiver along with transmitter needs to be purchased in order to establish a good communication on the system.
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| Photo by Altaf Shah |
Some extra necessary information
More about 6s and 4s battery
4s and 6s contains 4 and 6 battery cells in series. 4s is also called 14.8V LiPo battery and 6s is 22.2V LiPo battery. Each cell contains 3.7V that makes a 4s battery 4*3.7V =14.8V(it can vary but usually their range is 12.8V to 16.8V) and 6s battery 6*3.7V =22.2V (it can vary but usually their range is 19.2V to 25.2V).
When it comes to efficiency, lower current is required for 6s batteries than 4s to produce the same power. For example, to produce 1000W it takes less than 40A in 6s battery, on the other hand to produce 1000W it takes nearly 60A on 4s battery.
What is FPV system in drones?
FPV system in drones is what gives you real-time flying experience. FPV(first person view) camera in drones captures the live moments and sends it at a specific frequency to head-set like goggles with receiver, where you can see and enjoy real time footage from the FPV drone.
Photo by Macx Converge
For more information checkout these reference links.
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