okay so ive been flying ready-to-fly quads for about two years now and i think its finally time to do a proper custom build. i want a 5inch freestyle setup, nothing crazy, just something solid that i can learn to tune and actually understand whats going on under the hood for once.

my issue is the stack. i keep going back and forth between the SpeedyBee F405 V3 stack and just grabbing an Aikon or Mamba stack. the SpeedyBee seems like a no brainer for beginners because of the bluetooth app for betaflight but i honestly dont know if thats just marketing fluff or if it actually makes tuning easier in practice. the price difference isnt massive so its not really a budget thing.

for the build itself im leaning toward a TrueX frame, something like a Source One or Apex, with 2306 motors around 2450kv. running 4s. camera probably a Walksnail or DJI O3 depending on what i can still find at a reasonable price. i have a Radiomaster Boxer already so thats sorted.

anyone done a build recently with the SpeedyBee stack and have opinions? also open to totally different suggestions if theres something obviously better at that price point that im missing

the SpeedyBee bluetooth thing is actually pretty useful when youre starting out, not gonna lie. being able to tweak rates and do basic PID adjustments from your phone without dragging a laptop to the field is convenient. that said once you get comfortable with betaflight configurator you probably wont use it that much. its not fluff exactly, just more of a nice-to-have.

for the motors on a freestyle 5inch i'd push you toward 2306 2750kv if you're staying on 4s. the 2450kv is fine but you'll feel a bit more punch with the higher kv, especially for snap rolls and that kind of thing. depends on your flying style i guess but most of the freestyle guys i know running 4s have gone higher kv in the last couple years.

Source One is a solid choice, cheap and easy to find replacement arms. Apex is nicer to build but pricier and the arm screws can be a pain if you're crashing a lot early on. which you will be, so maybe start with the Source One honestly

i did almost exactly this build like 6 months ago, went with the Mamba F405 mk2 stack and 2306 motors on a Source One v5. one thing i wish someone had told me is to get the 30x30 stack instead of trying to fit a 20x20 in a 5inch ? gives you so much more room to work and heatshrink your ESC properly. sounds obvious but i spent like an hour rerouting cables on my first attempt because i thought smaller would be cleaner and it really wasnt