Drone kit advice and other questions

I have built and flown r/c airplanes for over 30 years and over the last 6 have gotten into drones. I have several DJI drones (mavic 2 and mini 2) but now wanting to build my own for special purposes such as

  • dabbling in drone light shows
  • using a drone for some lightweight lifting such as low voltage wires
    Not quite sure where to start or what platform to choose. I’ve read a little about holybro x500 V2 PX4 but I then I’ve read that it also supports the raspberry pi. Not sure what that would be used for. Is this a good platform to start and is it expandable?
    Some questions and any other guidance would be appreciated.
  1. Does the kit come with a camera? If not, what cameras can be used.
  2. Does the kit come with a remote id module? If not, what do you recommend?
  3. I have an airtronics rds8000 (2.4ghz) transmitter and several matching receivers? Will I be able to use this or what radio/receiver combo do you recommend?
  4. If I were looking to test doing drone light shows, what would you recommend for lighting for it? Or do you have a recommendation for a different kit for drone light shows?
  5. I would like to add some kind of hook for light lifting of low voltage lighting, is this strong enough for a payload of that type?
    Looking forward to ordering a kit and getting to building!
    Thank you!
    Craig
1 Like

Hello Craig, those use cases are quite different, and I’m not sure one drone kit could flex into both roles. I’ve answered your questions mainly with the lightweight lifting option in mind as I think a drone light show kit would be a different drone build.

For the lightweight lifting you could look into the holybo x500 dev kit. Keep in mind that you can get an ARF (almost ready to fly) version and use your own flight controller.

  1. The kit does not come with a camera. Most use-cases that involve a camera usually have a raspberry pi or jetson nano and then stream the camera video over wifi.
  2. Kit does not come with RID module but holybro sells one that is compatible with the 6c/6x
  3. For the receiver, I would read up on the px4-supported protocol and see if it’s compatible: Radio Control Systems | PX4 Guide (main)