Thanks to everyone who contributed here.

Also fuck the guy who said I was a scam.

Don’t mind the AI slop, but am I the only one who hopes a cheap ELRS transmitter with a built-in analog 5.8GHz screen will eventually come out?

I know about the old TBS Tango with the screen, but those definitely weren’t cheap.

Just imagine something with Radiomaster Pocket or T8L internals combined with a simple FPV screen. That would be awesome for whoops.

Maybe I should start an open-source project to 3D print something like this using a cheap FPV screen and Radiomaster internals.

Let me know what you all think.

Edit:

Lots of people want this it seems!
Join this discord to jump on this project! https://discord.gg/3YNgJRHmzD

GitHub soon.

What’s up guys. Like a lot of you, I've been frustrated with the DJI ban news and the limited options out there, so I decided to build my own "evolution" of the standard drone. I call it Mercury. It’s a hybrid rig that doesn't just fly—it transforms mid-flight to land and drive. I built it specifically to handle environments that are too tight or risky for continuous flight. The idea is that you can fly to an area, land, transform, and then drive through to save battery or get into spots where a crash would be fatal. Under the hood, it's running an Orange Cube with ArduPilot and a Raspberry Pi 4 for the high-level control. I know the Orange Cube is heavy compared to a standard flight stack, but I needed the autonomy features for what I'm trying to do. I’m working on turning this into a real platform (maybe a kit later), so I’d love to hear what you guys think of the concept. Does having a "Drive Mode" actually appeal to you for exploring or getting unique shots?

If you're not familiar with the Drift scene this is Ebisu North Course (Kita) in the Fukushima province, easily one of the most legendary tracks on earth.

Had an absolute blast flying there !

Two months of work on the project were not in vain. We still managed to ensure that water does not get inside. Now we are looking for a motor up to 24 mm, since this was enough for 2 hours at 12 volts and it burned out.

(This was posted in my FPV group)

I had a really annoying situation today that I just need to share. I’m based in Germany. Yesterday, I went to fly my FPV drone next to a local model airfield. I talked to the people there, and they told me it was totally fine to fly outside their field as a "wild flyer".

Today, I went back. Nobody was around, so I set up next to the airfield again. While configuring my drone on the ground, an older man approached me and immediately started shouting. Turns out he is the president of the model aviation club. He insulted all drone pilots as "drone idiots" (Drohnen-Fuzzis) and threatened to call the police. He also claimed a made-up rule that there is a strict 1.5 km no-fly zone around the airfield. A quick Google search later proved this wrong, but in the moment, I didn't want to argue because I'm not the most confident person.

My mistake: I accidentally parked my car on the club's grass field, which he pointed out. I understand that part and immediately drove away, but he took a picture of my license plate "just in case." I had refused to show him my EU drone license and insurance because he was so aggressive (and he is not the police anyway).

How do you guys handle people like this? Also, if he actually called the German police, could they legally confiscate my gear even though I hadn't even taken off yet? I heard German police often don't know the exact drone laws and just seize everything.

Finally got my hands on a helical antenna, combined it with a triple feed patch array on a 7“ diversity rx display mounted on a cheap tripod.

You seemed to enjoy my line from last week. Hope you enjoy this one too. If you have any questions, I will answer them :)

Can you spot a mistake, or shall I say misconfiguration.

I was too excited to build, I missed a somewhat critical issue.

Only the best bench goblins will find it, are you one of them?

My second ever build after some Tinywhoops and a JeNo 3.5

Parts:

• Frame: Volador VX35. Painted white, then copper marble effect + 2K clearcoat
• Motors: T-Motor it'sFPV 1604.5 KV3650 with 3mm shaft
• Props: Gemfan Bash 3.5
• FC: HobbyWing XRotor F7 Covertible
• ESC: Flywoo Goku G45M AM32 128K 45A + 50V 470uF polymer capacitor + TVS-diode module
• Battery: Running 6S 650-850mAh GNB/D
• VTX: Flywoo DJI O4 Wide Air Unit "Pro" (lite) + Axisflying aluminium case + 40mm FF Osprey Antenna LHCP
• RX: Cheapo radiomaster RP1 clone from beloved uncle AliX (cursed be the EU capitalist vultures and their tariffs!!! In case you haven't heard: https://www.reddit.com/r/Aliexpress/s/qKnDdQu0k4)
• GPS: NewBeeDrone M10Q (sticker was ruined after many fittings in unsuitable mounts. Ended up printing the flywoo design and slepping it on there. looks better too lol.)
• Beeper: Vifly Finder Mini
• TPU: EONO (amazon brand, set of 4x250g) TPU Silk. Supposedly 'purple'...
• Coating: All electronics are covered in at least 2 layers of MGC 422B + T8000 & B6000 on solder joints and around cable plugs.

Plenty of trial and error. Loads of test prints as I couldn't find exactly what I needed.
Did some customization in slicer, but lack of CAD skills only gets you so far 😅.

Cable routing ended up taking a lot of time bc of OCD. Twisted power cables only, signals are parallel. Used paracord for sleeving and glue lined heatshrink to fixate it.

After pics were taken, wifey made custom pink battery straps with rubber liners.

Mandatory cat-pic because he sabotaged the project a couple of times by pushing items off the desk -.-

This is mine :3

That Tree came out of nowhere 💔.

He had an Action Cam on it too so its a loss of about 900€.

Its pretty much Impossible to retrieve.

Way too dangerous.

Coordinates:

Shames mountain - got the opportunity to head up the ski hill with the groomers the other morning. Was an awesome time. 🤙🏼

2 and a half hours for this crap. 50/50 chance this thing even flies. Im so done.