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I’ve tried to think of my non-US visitors throughout this whole Shopping List. This page is one where I’ll struggle with that. Most of these supplies, I source locally or from U.S. Amazon. And I won’t recommend a potentially-inferior product that I can’t vouch for. If you’re not from the U.S., I hope that you can find local equivalents. If you know of international dealers for any of these products, please contact me.
ELECTRICAL TAPE
3MTM SUPER 35
I’ve tried a lot of different electrical tapes and this is hands-down my favorite. It molds snugly to the object it’s wrapping almost like heat-shrink. It sticks securely to itself and seldom comes loose. It’s perfect for taping ESCs to quadcopter arms, and that’s the main thing I use it for. (Incidentally, don’t use electrical tape for covering wire splices, except in a pinch. Heat shrink is the right material for that.)
I’m showing the red tape above, but it’s available in a bunch of different colors. The purchase link takes you to a search results page that shows them all.
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DOUBLE-SIDED FOAM TAPE
3MTM 110
Foam tape has two uses. The first use is (obviously) to stick things together. The other use is for vibration isolation and padding. I always put this tape underneath my ESCs so that they’re not directly against the quadcopter arms, where they’d get knocked around. I also commonly use it to stick my receiver on top of my flight controller. Finally, I’ll sometimes make a little stack of this tape to help snug something loose up against a zip tie.
I prefer the 1-inch wide version of this tape.
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KAPTON TAPE
BCP POLYIMIDE HIGH TEMP TAPE
Kapton tape is like translucent, non-stretchy electrical tape. Technically, its defining characteristic is that it isn’t affected by high temperatures, but that’s not why I use it. I use it basically any time I want to protect something electrical, but I still want to be able to see it. A great example is the receiver, which has LEDs and buttons that would be covered up by regular electrical tape.
If you’re well-prepared, you’ll use clear heat shrink instead of Kapton tape, but here’s why I don’t: because you have to know what size heat shrink to order before-hand, and I never seem to have the right size on hand. With Kapton tape, I can wrap up whatever I need.
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SUPER STRONG MOUNTING TAPE
3MTM 4011
4011 is commonly referred to in modeling as “servo tape”. It’s so strong that you can mount a servo with nothing else and it’ll hold basically forever. 4011 is so strong that it can be used to mount bathroom mirrors to the wall, if you have enough of it.
4011’s strength is also its weakness. It’s so strong that I’ve had it literally pull parts off of a circuit board when I was trying to remove it. In fact, if you’re going to use it on electrical parts, I suggest using it sparingly so that you can safely remove the tape later if you need to.
The other disadvantage of 4011 is that it seems to refuse to stick to certain surfaces. I’ve never really been able to figure out the common link between what it will and won’t stick to.
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WIRE HARNESS
FABRIC TAPE TAPE
This tape is originally designed for wrapping wire harnesses in automobiles. But FPV pilots like to use it to hold motor wires to the arms of their quadcopters. The fabric texture looks attractive, while the black color blends in with most builds. It’s designed to tear easily by hand, but it’s still reasonably abrasion-resistant. When removed, it leaves no residue. One major downside of fabric tape is that it doesn’t stretch at all, so if your quadcopter arms are very curved or tapered, it won’t conform to them like electrical tape; and it’s no good at all for wrapping objects like ESC’s.
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ALIEN TAPE
SUPER STRONG MOUNTING TAPE
This is the strongest, most versatile mounting tape I’ve ever found. It sticks to damn near everything and just doesn’t let go. It’s even reusable if you manage to peel it off in one piece (just rinse with water to remove dirt and dust). I seldom trust double-sided tape to hold all by itself, and usually back it up with a zip tie or a loop of fabric tape around the thing I’m sticking down. But if there was going to be a double-sided tape I’d trust without any backup, this would be it. This is my favorite way to stick large digital video transmitters down.
Definitely do NOT use Alien Tape on bare electrical components though. It sticks so well that it might rip off tiny capacitors and resistors if they’re not soldered down well. Only use it on components with cases, or that are wrapped in heat shrink.
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3MTM THERMALLY CONDUCTIVE
TRANSFER TAPE
This tape is designed for mounting heat sinks to electronics. It’s made of a thermally conductive material, so heat passes through it quickly. So why is it useful in FPV? Because video transmitters get very hot! Especially digital video transmitters like DJI, HDZero, and Walksnail. If you mount the vTX to your frame with this tape, the heat from the vTX will quickly pass into the carbon fiber frame (which is also very conductive). This can extend the time it takes your vTX to overheat and shut down.
Ciotti likes this tape for use on his cinema rigs because he often has to fly from his position to a “staging” position, then land and wait for the director to start the take. The usual methods of preventing overheating, such as reducing the power of the vTX, aren’t acceptable, since he has to be ready to go at a moment’s notice.
This tape isn’t the absolute best at being sticky and holding things down–you might want to back it up with screws or zip ties to keep your vTX attached.
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BEST BATTERY PAD
UMMAGRIP
Why do you need a battery pad? Because without one, your battery will slide out from the battery straps in a crash. Ummagrip is a proprietary polymer blend, tuned by Ummagawd himself to be just sticky enough to hold onto your battery, and just firm enough to keep your battery from squishing into screw heads and being damaged. When it gets dusty, it can be restored to like-new simply by wiping it with a little bit of water.
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Solder comes in several different blends, also known as alloys. 60/40 solder, which contains 60% tin and 40% lead, is the most commonly used. The newer 63/37 alloy is hands-down superior for the type of soldering we’re doing, and that’s all you’ll find on this page.
All of the solder on this page is also rosin-core. This means it contains a tiny bit of flux in its center so that you don’t have to apply any flux separately to the joint. You can just tin the pad or wire and know that the joint already contains the right amount of flux.
You’ll also notice that all of the solder on this page is leaded. Lead-free solder is harder to work with and produces worse results than leaded.
Is leaded solder bad for you? NO. Soldering temperatures are far, far too cold to vaporize lead. The fumes you see when soldering is the flux burning off (don’t breathe that). The main risk of lead exposure from soldering is lead particles on your hands. You can mitigate this simply by washing your hands after soldering. And don’t lick the solder.
BNTECHGO 63/37 ROSIN-CORE
IF YOU ONLY NEED A LITTLE
This is a fine solder, but it’s neither the highest quality nor the cheapest per gram on this list. So why is it even here? Because sometimes you’d rather pay $10 for a 4 oz roll than $25 for a 1 lb roll, even if the 1 lb roll is a better deal. And hey: it ships with Amazon Prime.
The product listed above contains several different sizes and amounts of solder. The 0.8mm thickness is great for basically everything you would want to do on a quadcopter.
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KESTER 63/37 ROSIN-CORE NO-CLEAN
HIGH-QUALITY, BULK PRICING
Kester makes high-quality soldering products, used by huge manufacturers and hobbyists alike. This solder has a no-clean rosin core. Normally, after soldering, you’re supposed to clean flux residue off the board with a Q-tip soaked in alcohol. No-clean flux is safe to leave on the board, which saves a step. (To be honest, many hobbyists skip this step anyway.)
This solder comes in a 1 lb roll, which means it’s way cheaper per gram than 4 oz rolls, but it’s more expensive upfront.
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FLUX PEN
GREAT FOR REWORK
Flux is essential to a good solder joint. That’s why the recommended solder on this is rosin-core. For most joints, the flux that’s built into the rosin-core solder will be sufficient. But for re-work, you’ll often do best to add a bit more flux.
That’s where this flux pen comes in. Imagine that you’re putting a new set of motors onto your quad, and the ESCs have left-over solder on the pads. If you just try to solder the new motor wires to the old solder, it’ll try to stick to the soldering iron tip and form pointy peaks when you remove the iron from the joint. Put a little dab of flux onto the joint from this pen, and that problem is solved. Smooth, shiny, perfect joints.
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MG CHEMICALS SILICONE CONFORMAL COATING
PROTECTS AGAINST MOISTURE
Silicone conformal coating paints onto your solder joints and dries to form a waterproof coating. If you ever land in dew-soaked grass, or if you might crash in the snow, you need this stuff. The beauty of silicone conformal coating is, if you ever need to solder over it, it burns off cleanly, so rework is a breeze.
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Heat shrink tubing covers electronic components and keeps the electricity from going where it isn’t supposed to go. A well-stocked quadcopter builder will have several different sizes on hand. My recommendation is that you start off by buying an assortment and then figure out which sizes you use the most of, and buy a 100′ roll of those sizes.
Heat shrink comes in different shrinkage ratios. So a 1″ pre-shrinking heat-shrink would be 1/3″ if it was 3:1 shrink raito, and 1/2″ if it was 2:1 shrink ratio. When you buy heat-shrink, the post-shrinking diameter is what you care most about. So make sure you’re buying what you expect.
SUMMITLINK 415 PCS
THE BEST ASSORTMENT
I was so thrilled to find this heat shrink assortment because it covers sizes up to 30mm (a little more than 1″). Every other assortment I could find stopped around 3/8″, which simply isn’t large enough for everything you might want to heat-shrink on a quadcopter (most notably, ESCs).
Please note that this heat shrink has a 2:1 shrinkage ratio. So the fully shrunk size will be between 0.5mm and 15mm.
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SWITCHME 198 PCS
RED-AND-BLACK ASSORTMENT
This heat shrink assortment includes equal parts red and black. Lots of people like to use red heat shrink on their positive wires, although having a red wire with black heat shrink isn’t the end of the world. Another good use for red heat shrink is if you use all the same color wire on your build, marking the positive wires with red can help prevent you from accidentally wiring things up wrong.
The disadvantage of this kit is that it’s 3x the price of the Summitlink kit, for about half as many pieces. So it’s way more expensive. But hey… you want red? You got red.
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FOR ESC AND RECEIVER
CLEAR 25MM 2:1 SHRINK RATIO
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You can’t just grab any old copper wire for use on a quadcopter. Quads are subject to massive amounts of vibration, shock, and handling. Regular copper wire will quickly work-harden, stiffen, and break off. For use on quads, you want fine-strand, silicone-insulated wire–commonly referred to as “silicone wire”. The fine strands allow the wire to flex without hardening. The silicone insulation can take the heat of soldering without melting.
What the proper wire gauges are for each different power train (battery/motor/ESC) is a topic that’s up for debate but we’ll give you some guidelines here which you can scale up if you’re concerned about electrical resistance or scale down if you’re concerned about extra weight.
Flight Controller to Camera/VTX/ESC/Receiver – 30AWG is all that’s needed here and will allow the FC to free float on its rubber grommets absorbing as many vibrations as possible BEFORE they get into the gyro (heavier gauge wires hooked up to the FC tend to “hard mount” it which is bad)
Motor to ESC – For 5″ Freestyle rigs 20AWG is the industry standard and then for Sub 250 3″ Micros 24AWG is typically plenty.
ESC to Capacitor – Wire gauge isn’t the only consideration here, length also comes into play, a max length of 30mm is recommended with 18AWG wire for 5″ Freestyle rigs and then 24AWG for micros where the smaller ESC’s tend to not have enough on-board capacitance
Battery to ESC – 14AWG is the standard for 5″ freestyle and 20AWG for Sub 250
FOR LOW CURRENT AND SIGNAL WIRE
STRIVEDAY SILICONE WIRE ASSORTMENT
This assortment of thin-gauge silicone wire is great for nearly anything you want to do on a quadcopter. The box comes with an assortment of colors so you can color-code your applications.
Ultra-thin and light 30-gauge is best for very-low-current applications like signal wires, FPV cameras, and receivers. 26-gauge is better for applications up to about 2 amps, such as higher-powered video transmitters.
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FOR ESCS, MOTORS, AND BATTERY LEADS
BNTECHGO SILICONE WIRE
Thicker wire is necessary for ESCs, motors, and battery leads, because of the high current that they carry. 14-gauge is commonly used for battery leads. 12-gauge is used on high-performance quads that will draw LOTS of current, but be aware that it’s thicker than many components, including XT60 connectors, are designed for. It can be made to work, but it’s a little tricky. 20-gauge is almost universally used for ESC power wires and motor wires.
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M3 SCREW ASSORTMENT
CAP HEAD
Almost all screws on mini quads are M3 size, so you’ll get a lot of use out of this assortment. A set of standard nuts is also included, although I prefer Nylock-style when I can get them. These steel screws are a bit heavier than aluminum ones, but my experience is that aluminum ones shear off in crashes, and the heads strip too easily, so I prefer steel.
We’re including links to two different varieties of screw. My preference is the 12.9 black oxide variety, which is harder than the stainless one. These screws resist stripping out and are tougher in crashes. But it’s not always easy to find 12.9 black oxide, so there’s a link to a stainless steel version as well. And shiny stainless steel is sometimes nice too.
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Purchase at Amazon – Stainless Steel
Purchase at Amazon – 12.9 Black Oxide
M3 SCREW ASSORTMENT
BUTTON HEAD
Most screws on mini quads are M3 size, so you’ll get a lot of use out of this assortment. The screws are in sizes from 6mm up to 25mm. A set of standard nuts is also included, although I prefer Nylock-style when I can get them. These steel screws are a bit heavier than aluminum ones, but my experience is that aluminum ones shear off in crashes, and the heads strip too easily, so I prefer steel.
We’re including links to two different varieties of screws. My preference is the 10.9 black oxide variety, which is harder than the stainless one. These screws resist stripping out and are tougher in crashes. But it’s not always easy to find 10.9 black oxide, so there’s a link to a stainless steel version as well. And shiny stainless steel is sometimes nice too.
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Purchase at Amazon – Stainless Steel
Purchase at Amazon – 10.9 Black Oxide
M2 SCREW ASSORTMENT
CAP HEAD
M2 screws are most commonly used in 20mm-sized FC/ESC stacks, especially on smaller quads like 3″ and below. However, many 20mm stacks use M3 screws, so don’t assume! Some smaller frames use M2 screws as their frame screws as well. M2 screws are almost always cap head, which is just fine with me, since it’s more durable than the alternatives.
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T-MOUNT PROP SCREWS
M2 X 7MM
T-mount style props (mostly used on smaller and lighter aircraft) use M2 screws to hold the prop onto the motor. But there’s a problem: they’re usually 7mm long, and typical screw assortments don’t include that size. And you’ll need eight of them for a single quadcopter! That’s why I suggest buying a batch of 100 M2x7mm screws exclusively for this purpose.
When shopping for these screws, be careful. I’ve seen listings selling 20 screws for $20 and I’ve seen listing selling 100 screws for $7. Make sure you’re not over-paying!
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MERCURY ADHESIVES
THE BEST CYANOACRYLATE (SUPERGLUE)
You know this adhesive as SuperGlue (TM) or Krazy-Glue (TM). Its generic name is cyanoacrylate. Cool kids in the RC hobby just call it “CA”.
We recommend Mercury Adhesives CA because it’s top quality. But I won’t ask you to take my word for it. What if I just told you that the bottle and cap are designed so that they won’t clog up?
If you’ve only bought CA from the hardware store, you might be surprised to learn that it comes in various viscosities, from so thin that it wicks into hair-line cracks to gel-thick. Links above are to thin, medium, and thick viscosity. Medium is most similar to what you’re likely to be used to. Thick is for when you want to put a blob in place and not have it go anywhere. Thin is for when you want it to spill out of the joint and go all over your carpet, leaving a crackly spot that’s still there a year later ask me how I know.
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MERCURY ADHESIVES M68DB DEBONDER
THE BEST FOR REMOVING CA
If you’re the kind of person who can use CA without gluing your fingers together, then …
… well, good for you, you jerk.
How do you do it?
For the rest of us, there’s CA debonder. This stuff dissolves CA. Useful for cleaning up messes, repairing mis-aligned joints, and yeah… un-sticking your fingers from each other.
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MERCURY ADHESIVES BRUSH-IN-CAP BLUE
THE BEST THREAD-LOCKER
Thread-locker is an essential part of building a quadcopter. It’s especially important on motor screws, but any screw can back out under the constant vibration of a mini quad’s motors. Mercury Adhesives blue thread-locker is unique because it comes in a bottle with a brush under the cap, so it’s easy to apply.
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E6000 ADHESIVE
E6000 is one of the most useful, versatile adhesives for use with FPV drones. It’s similar to rubber cement or Shoe Goo if you’ve ever used them. It goes on tacky and sticks well even to smooth surfaces like carbon fiber. It dries slowly, so you have plenty of time to get the pieces positioned exactly how you like them (but you’ll need to hold them in place for a few minutes before they’ll stay on their own). It’s thick, so it’s decently good at filling gaps, and won’t flow where you didn’t place it. And best of all, when you’re done with it, it’s relatively easy to peel away–at least from carbon fiber–leaving no residue.
My preferred use for this adhesive is sticking down beepers, capacitors, and other semi-permanent objects where velcro or double-sided tape might not be secure enough. It’s also great for re-installing a battery pad whose adhesive has worn out or been pulled off. I’ve seen people use it for gluing antennas into 3D prints, and one pilot even glues his FPV cameras into his camera plates, although that’s a bridge too far for me.
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BALANCE CONNECTOR REPAIR KIT
It’s probably happened to you already: you finished flying and found that your battery balance lead got chopped by your props. These JST-XH 2.54mm connectors are the replacement part. If you need detailed instructions about how to replace the plug (and make sure the wires are in the right order!), I’ve linked a video below.
Incidentally, my approach to keeping the balance lead from getting chopped in the first place is to put a rubber band around my battery that holds the balance lead out of the way. Battery long-wise holding the lead down means the pack is charged. When I land, I turn the rubber band sideways on the battery with the balance lead loose to indicate the pack is discharged.
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