okay so ive been flying whoops for about a year and finally decided to do a proper 5inch freestyle build. bought a iFlight Titan DC5 frame which i really like the feel of but now im completely lost on the ESC/motor situation. everyone online seems to just assume you know this stuff already.

so my question is basically - if i go with 2306 motors rated at like 2450kv, what ESC am i looking for? i keep seeing people say match the amp rating but i dont really understand if that means per-motor or total. been looking at the Tekko F4 45A 4in1 but is that 45A per motor or is that the total across all four? and does it matter that the flight controller i picked (the Kakute F7) needs to be stacked with it? i bought them separately before i realized they might not be compatible physically.

also - is the soldering on a 4in1 ESC any easier than doing four individual ESCs? i've done some basic soldering but nothing crazy.

45A on a 4in1 is per motor, not total, so you're fine there with 2306s - those motors will rarely pull more than 35A continuous even if you're going ham on the throttle. the Tekko F4 45A is a solid choice, ive run a couple builds on it without issues.

the Kakute F7 and Tekko stack together no problem, they're both 30x30 mounting pattern so just check your standoff height and you should be good. pretty sure iFlight sells a stack of those two anyway so the physical fit is a known thing.

and yeah 4in1 is way easier to solder than four separate ESCs, you just have one board to deal with, four motor solder pads on the corners, and one main power input. way less wire management headache. the only time individual ESCs make sense is if you blow one and want to replace just that one without desoldering everything, but honestly for a first build just go 4in1.

i did basically the same build a few months ago, also first 5inch after whoops. the soldering honestly isnt bad, the hardest part for me was the battery lead because the pads on the ESC get hot really fast and i kept lifting one of them. just make sure you tin both the wire and the pad before you try to join them and dont hold the iron on there too long.

oh and get some flux, like proper rosin flux in a pen or a little jar. makes everything way cleaner. i didnt use it on my first attempt and it was a mess.