Building my first Multirotor Part 2
On March 22, 2015 I finally decided to pull the trigger and order parts to build a drone for my birthday. My first attempt to order parts from HobbyKing would have cost me $90 in shipping.
After doing some research I found out there were three warehouses for HobbyKing. International (In Hong Kong), USA East (Arkansas), and USA West (Washington). I took my order and bought as much of the parts I needed from the US warehouses. The parts from the US warehouses arrived pretty quickly, at the time of writing this I haven't received the parts from the International warehouse.
The Flight controller I wanted shipped from FPVModel.com. I misread the timezone and ordered from China instead of California. The previous weekend I went to a local hobby store to get more information on charging LiPo batteries, when I told the guy about my order at HobbyKing he told me that it could take up to two months for the parts from the International warehouse to show up. This really discouraged me.
On Monday March 30, 2015 I decided I would order a new motors, frame, and ESC (Electronic Speed Controllers) since my parts from Hobby Kings International warehouse could take forever. I ordered from Amazon, Banggood.com US warehouse and Ready Made LLC. Everything came in except for the Banggood parts.
I’ve never ordered from Banggood before. I’ve read both good and bad experiences from Banggood so far. My order claims to be UPS Ground, but turned out to be shipped via USPS Parcel Select Lightweight.
Lessons learned:
Avoid ordering parts from outside of the US. The Hobbyking parts are still on its way. The parts from Banggood's US warehouse are still on their way, their tracking number took forever to update.
The second time around when I tried to order parts for my drone I noticed that there isn't a lot of selection for US buyers to buy parts in country to save on shipping cost and time. The selection in China is far greater, but takes a long time to arrive.
The guy at the local hobby shop told me that If I order from HobbyKing's International site to make sure I pack on the weight to get the most for the money I am spending and to try to get a group of people to go in with me.
Plan ahead when ordering parts and if possible order extras so that if a part is defective or poor quality you won't be waiting forever to get replacement part
They say patience is a virtue, but I’m not much of a patient person.