BETAFPV Cetus X // BEST Beginner FPV Kit Kit That's Not Crazy Expensive?

[@LoVeAmBiEnT]

Started a the Cetus. Then the pro. Then the x. Now I have 2 cinewhoops (flylens 85 w an 03 and a cinebot 30 analog) 5 inch ….3 1/2 inch , mobula 8 …air 75 and a meteor 65. Flylens 85 w an 03 …..Yeah it’s addicting, but they’re all fun and they all fly differently. Avata 2 and the dji fpv are also in my collection. So much fun. Out of anything I’ve ever done this is probably the most fun easily.

[@JohnCuppi]

@@LoVeAmBiEnT and this is why having one drone is impossible 😂

[@SaarKing71]

I bought the Cetus X kit last December and tried flying at home with zero simulator training. You can imagine how this ended... I was frustrated, put the drone in its case, put the case in the home office cabinet and literally forgot about it for some 9 months. I came back to it this August, did around 30 hours in the simulator and started flying that little monster out in the fields. Guess what, rarely I had so much fun with a "toy". And so many crashes and spare parts orders 😂 But the Cetus X is like a good old VW beetle from the 1970s: it forgives a lot, and when it's broken, you get it back in the air with affordable parts and easy repair work. I feel still a total noob, but I just ordered my second kit. This time I am going digital. But I still love the Cetus.

[@JohnCuppi]

@@SaarKing71 which digital system did you go with? nice!

[@SaarKing71]

@@JohnCuppi I chose Walksnail. Stuff like DJI is too expensive imho. I'm still waiting for the Ban99ood order to be completed :)

[@mariowit]

I’m still in the position of searching a kit to start with. A video like this helps a lot. Thank you for the advice

[@JohnCuppi]

Thank you. Let me know if you have any specific questions either about this kit or starting out in general.

[@pache11]

Just bought one on FB marketplace for $120. Tested before i bought and looks and flys like new. I haven’t flown acro yet so it looks like a great way to get started with little to no pucker. I am also learning collective pitch helicopters and looks like a good crossover with training. My helis aren’t fpv yet, perhaps after I get better flying collective.

[@CorrodedGalaxy]

thank you! i just purchased this drone (dont have it yet, coming tommorow) and i enjoyed this review because it covered everything i didnt understand in a very understandable way! Thanks!

[@JohnCuppi]

feedback like this is super valuable for me to take into consideration with beginner kits I check out in the future - thanks so much!

[@CorrodedGalaxy]

@@JohnCuppi i got it 6 days ago it is an amazing starter drone everything you said in the video helped me and was very factual i cannot thank you enough

[@JohnCuppi]

@@CorrodedGalaxyPretty good delivery time. Have you had any major crashes with it so far? How’s it holding up?

[@CorrodedGalaxy]

@@JohnCuppi its doing well but has a ton of scratches on the canopy and gaurds. i 3d printed a canopy gaurd to make sure i dont scratch it up any more. i noticed the props can come off easily when you crash. i struck a power line and lost a prop and the drone fell right into a bunch of muck. i cleaned it up and put a spare on and got it flying like new.

[@RonaldBrown59]

That seems like a nice kit, good for beginners. And thanks for explaining all the modes so well, this knowledge you will need if your just getting started. Great review, and thanks for sharing John.

[@JohnCuppi]

Glad it was helpful!

[@RDsRCReviews]

Great job John of describing the different modes and how to takeoff. That's very important for a beginner. I need to get back into FPV. I think I could fly this one with no problems.

[@JohnCuppi]

Thanks, yup, I think it helps to step through how each mode behaves -- I got lucky on the turtle mode demo, that was unplanned the way it happened!🤣

[@PeterneOlah-yp4yb]

It was an inspiring video and I like the drone too❤️!

[@Jacob0481]

As someone’s whos never flown a drone before, theres absolutely zero chance i would flip to acro mode off the bat. I just got my kit and learning to be stable in angle mode helps so much.

[@JohnCuppi]

@@Jacob0481 I’m one of the guys that goes “against the grain” so to speak though when recommending that people start out in stabilized mode, so thanks to help affirm my opinion on this. One of the reasons it sometimes isn’t recommended to fly in any stabilized mode is because you “get used” to that and it can become a crutch. I think that only happens if you allow it and choose not to attempt to graduate to full acro mode. So I really think the whole “do not fly stab mode, go full acro immediately” is wrong for most. Some can handle it, but anecdotally I’ve seen the majority when trying to teach cannot… I’ll almost always recommend everyone start in stab. I did and I turned out just fine! 🤘

[@Jacob0481]

@@JohnCuppi exactly, i just need to get my bearings in stable mode and learn the movement/controls of the drone first. I simply just dont even understand how to react yet to certain situations/conditions, so a little assistance guides me without being overwhelmed and lose control.

[@stickpilot]

cheers dude, great video! Got the standard Cetus coming tomoro but already looking to get the Cetus X....

[@JohnCuppi]

Hope you enjoy it! Have fun!

[@omega42587]

Thanks for the video. New to fpv and bought this a few months ago

[@JohnCuppi]

Glad I could help!

[@PERTHWESTOZRC]

Looks like a decent fpv starter kit imo, thanks for sharing John great review! 👍🏻

[@JohnCuppi]

Will get you flying for sure man and it's not crazy expensive. Then later on the goggles are good for ride-along.

[@CJNole87]

great information, keep doing what your doing :)

[@JohnCuppi]

Thank you, that's extremely kind!

[@willy03yo]

this was a great review

[@JohnCuppi]

@@willy03yo thank you! Any questions let me know

[@pestcontrolguys]

Took a shot to the leg! Glad you left that in.

[@JohnCuppi]

Thanks Ben! When that happened I knew, yep, that's gonna be my intro.

[@k6lsn]

Great straight up review John. Full Karen at the end was hella funny😊😅

[@JohnCuppi]

Ha thanks so much! You definitely did a full watch to see that part.

[@teacherpeterkanda]

Hi, first of all, awsome video. Coming from a camera drone, I don't get how the power loop works. Could you explain the details or movement on how to do it?

[@JohnCuppi]

Thank you! I think this video by Infinity Loops that specifically dedicates time to a full explanation of how to do them is better than I could explain here in a comment: kzbin.info/www/bejne/moq0pIWuaLd4haM

[@teacherpeterkanda]

@@JohnCuppi Thank you!! It was very helpful

[@FlyZoneFpv]

Let’s go John bro what a great tutorial. 👊🏻🤘🏻 I love Tiny whoops so much fun

[@JohnCuppi]

Hey thanks man, yeah, whoops are awesome for flying anywhere really and the 85mm size is great outdoors.

[@ixx_6809]

Does this dove have problems with drifting away in wind? What happens if the drone loses connection?

[@JohnCuppi]

In high winds, it will drift and could be harder to control due to the ducts. If it loses connection with the controller, the motors will just stop.

[@ixx_6809]

@@JohnCuppi Youre awesome! Thank you. I was really worried about loosing the drone because I had an older cheap drone that just continued flying after loosing connection

[@JohnCuppi]

@@ixx_6809 I’ve had a few crappy cheap drones fly away like that, too. A few that flew away during the review have been featured on my channel. 🤣 You can try testing it when you get it by powering off the remote while flying. It’ll just fly for a few seconds and drop. This is actually a setting that if you’re really that curious about you’ll find when you go down the rabbit hole of connecting it to a PC or tablet/phone to change settings in betaflight. The section is under “failsafe.” All set and configured for you though.

[@jeffmoon4944]

I just purchased this kit and extra batteries for 165.oo delivered .

[@angellua9707]

Just bought the Cetus x I had to return the first one because of an overheating issue just 2 days out the box now I just got the replacement and it’s having the same issue anyone have any fixes ?

[@angellua9707]

It’s the vtx that’s overheating even on 25 power same core temp warning

[@JohnCuppi]

@@angellua9707 Hey, ignore the core temp warning entirely. I’ve told betafpv they need to turn that off because it’s misleading. It’s an irrelevant warning because it’s just heat radiating from the vtx. And not dangerous. They said they would fix this and disable it but I guess they didn’t or maybe you got an older revision. The core temp warning comes on because the board is getting really hot from the vtx, this is totally normal. Disable the warning in betaflight in the OSD tab and tick the temp warning off.

[@JohnCuppi]

More specifically, to disable the “Core Temp” warning connect the Cetus X to betaflight configurator which you can download here: betaflight.com/download Then, once the Cetus is connected to betaflight software, go to OSD in the left menu. On the right hand side look for the “Warnings” table. Find the “Core Temperature” warning and turn it off. Then press the “Save” button in the lower right hand corner. Ready to fly. 😊

[@angellua9707]

@@JohnCuppithank you so much because the first one I had completely lost video entirely but thanks man I’m new to this so stuff like that lowkey scares me but awesome man thanks

[@JohnCuppi]

@@angellua9707 So what will happen is, when the video transmitter gets too hot, it will just shut itself off. But they do not burn and die in the process. All video transmitters even in 'low power' mode get hot. It totally makes sense to panic about this when you don't know because normally... hot electronics means something really bad is happening, LOL. I actually recall the first time I ever powered up a video transmitter over 10 years ago now on my first drone build and felt how hot that sucker got, I immediately thought I had done something wrong. 😆 Anyway... I also literally told BetaFPV in an email for feedback on this: **"I suggest disabling the core temp warning in the betaflight OSD version of Cetus X"**, specifically because of this exact reason! I just knew a customer would get it, and think something was wrong because of that. Now I'm regretting forgetting to mention this in the video but no one else has brought it up, so I think they /did/ fix this warning popping up but not for all batches. One of the issues is that the canopy design while very protective, doesn't allow for a lot of air flow, but on cooler days you may never see the warning. On hotter days even while flying I had noticed it did not go away. Especially if you're just taking it easy and flying slowly you'll have even less air flow.

[@jebrc]

i miss flying so much thanks for sharing

[@shogunemperor]

Looks great bruh! For a 3 in 1 kit, its really good as a starter!

[@JohnCuppi]

Thanks for stopping by! I'm surprised HM doesn't do stuff like this actually, we tend to only see kits like these from beta.

[@shogunemperor]

@@JohnCuppi iHAHA always a pleasure bruddah! I tried coaxing them a few years ago, but they wanna focus on BNFs and kits so people can tinker. 🤷‍♂️ oh well.

[@JohnCuppi]

@@shogunemperor That’s a shame, I think it’s a big missed opportunity for them. Ah well, more for betafpv then! 🤪

[@Thatoneguyg1zm0]

One question: How compatible is it if i want to use different goggles and / or radio? I'm eventually going to get some after I have progressed, but im just curious if i could try out different devices in the near future with this guy

[@JohnCuppi]

Extremely compatible. At 11:58 in the video I am flying the drone not with the included goggles, but my really nice $400 Skyzone Sky04x V2 analog goggles. Any analog capable goggle on the market connects to this drone. The on-board radio link is called ExpressLRS and you can purchase any ExpressLRS radio and bind it to this drone. The entire ecosystem this drone is built within is basically cross compatible with other hardware and the firmware is open source. That's exactly why I recommend the betaflight version to everyone; this is a drone that you will be able to keep flying or even just use the parts from when/if you do move on to bigger and better things in the hobby.

[@Thatoneguyg1zm0]

@JohnCuppi Thank you so much! 🤙🤙

[@SadHaremKing24]

Is that what it looks like in the googles? Or is it less clear?

[@JohnCuppi]

@@SadHaremKing24 That is indeed pretty much what it looks like in the goggles. The recording file was taken direct from the goggle DVR so you saw exactly what I did as far as video quality and breakup. The quality of the actual LCD display itself though is not the best, but not the worst either.

[@SadHaremKing24]

@ wow thanks for the super fast reply! I’ve basically gotten the itch for fpv for the last two months and have put many hours in on sim. I’m looking for my first setup, and honestly I’m stuck between 2 options. The tiny hawk 3 hdzero version kit with the goggle and radio, or trying to do a bind a fly and get the new walksnail L, with radio master pocket, and maybe the mobula 8hd ( I think that’s what it’s called) which would you recommend?

[@Indodapro]

Tysm great video

[@JohnCuppi]

@@Indodapro you’re welcome, thanks for commenting!

[@AngusBro]

@@JohnCuppiDo you think it would be worth it to but the new one with the better camera instead? The footage from the recording seems good enough but would better resolution help with things like depth perception?

[@Skeggyboi5000]

Mine for some reason wouldn't bind out of the box I have had it since Christmas and haven't been able to fly. I'm still trying to figure it out tho lol

[@JohnCuppi]

What do you see in your goggles? Does it say "RX LOSS" when you try to fly it with the controller on, or something else?

[@Skeggyboi5000]

@JohnCuppi I haven't gotten that far lol. I still haven't been able to bind it to my rc. But I have something to try today hopefully that works

[@blueflame2532]

Which has better range and power as well as flight time? Cetus x or Aquila 16?

[@JohnCuppi]

I have never flown the Aquila 16, but it is a bigger size drone with a larger battery and they say 8 minutes of flight time. The Aquila16 kit is probably the same in terms of range as the video transmitter power matches exactly to the cetus x and the radio is also Express LRS. I would still recommend the Betaflight version of the Cetus X over the Aquila 16.

[@whs5517]

That flop comment felt personal 😅 are you spying on me or something?

[@JohnCuppi]

It is sadly just too common and that section speaks to so many, it should change but I don't know what the answer is. I've actually tried to think about what the best way to solve it would be, but with so many different drones and configuration options out there, radio options, etc... it would be a huge task to write software to step through the whole process.

[@Mjk112]

Save your money. Look at the DJI mini 4K for the same price and a way better customer service. My cetus X went out just over the 30 day warranty period and they offered nothing but a 20% discount on the old FC board. This is nothing more than a toy that should be less than $100 USD. Video is horrible and the camera swivel moves after even minor flips. If you have to use turtle mode you’ll need to bring it back to readjust it. Props always chip and need to be replaced often or the flight is horrible.

[@JohnCuppi]

I get where you're coming from. There's nothing more frustrating than having an experience like this with FPV, and I'm sorry to hear this. But, lets also please not compare apples to oranges. The DJI Mini 4k is in a *completely* different class of drone -- that's a camera drone, *not* an FPV freestyle drone. You don't even get goggles with that kit. While you have gripes about crashing the drone and some of the effects that occurred, the Mini will not survive even a modest crash. BetaFPV didn't give you a replacement outside of the warranty for what sounds like a thoroughly crashed drone... and DJI wouldn't either. You would be expected to pay DJI for repair if you didn't buy their insurance for it. The DJI Care Refresh package will cost you. It's not that expensive, though, to get their insurance for the drone because DJI camera quads are not *made* to be crashed. Beta doesn't sell insurance or extended warranty, and neither does any other company that deals with hobby grade FPV like this... if it's dead on arrival they'll replace it, but once you've started flying it around and crashing it, there isn't a warranty on the drone itself. FPV is a crash/break/fix cycle that can not ever be totally avoided, but the ecosystem is designed for that as well. I sort of wish it wasn't like this but we're sending extremely cheap parts flying at 60mph through the air and smacking them around to be in this hobby. Sometimes I'm amazed that any of this exists at all with what I've seen in the field, lol. If you want to try FPV again in the future and you have a higher budget or more, and don't mind being locked in to DJI's setup, the DJI Neo fly more motion combo for around $500 might be what you're looking for if the Cetus X was attractive to you. It will not have the freestyle capability that this drone has, and it is not a way to graduate further into the 'traditional FPV' side of the hobby, IMO. You will not be able to learn acro. And, all of that gear will *only* ever work with the Neo and DJI's drones... buuuut, I have to say the motion controller is still a lot of fun! DJI Neo is a cute quad, super easy to fly with the motion controller too if you just want to cruise around and not do any freestyle/acrobatics.

[@Mjk112]

@ thank you for the feedback. Your first paragraph though is my entire point. You said the DJI drone is in a completely different class of drone. Yet the toy from betafpv charged me more for the Cetus x than I paid for the DJI mini 4k. Trying to show that you may want to move as you put it, UP to a better class, or if you like the smaller toy drones find one that matches what is is. Again if I had only paid $150 for the Cetus x I would never have made a negative comment. It is what it is, buy BETAFPV, is attempting to appear it offers serious drones when in fact they are toys. And also again the customer service was just horrendous. Their website shows support, however it’s for dealers not customers.

[@JohnCuppi]

​@@Mjk112 Maybe the word 'class' is not what I was looking for.. The Mini 4 is not "up" a class vs. the Cetus X because to me, that's like saying a hammer is better than a screwdriver. A hammer and the screwdriver are both tools... in the same way the Mini and the Cetus are drones... but the comparison really stops there. DJI Mini 4 is a GREAT camera drone (and it would be considered a very high quality hammer) and I would recommend it wholeheartedly to anyone looking to take awesome photo and video for photography. But it is not an FPV experience whatsoever. This Cetus X entire kit and video is based on FPV freestyle. It doesn't really matter what you buy, if you crash enough times when flying an FPV drone it is going to eventually break. Flight controllers are the luck of the draw and others will survive being beaten up for longer while others will die quicker. Mini 4 will break with even a modest crash type, and the thing will need shipped out DJI to pay for a repair. By the way, the drone by itself is actually only $129. You paid about $80 each for goggles and a remote that you can use with any other analog FPV drone on the market, not just the Cetus X. There isn't a more invincible or higher end drone that you can buy in this particular area that would withstand any beatings much better. And the price of the drone by itself pretty much right in line with other 85mm brushless FPV drones. Check out the Happymodel Mobula 8 analog... which would actually work with your goggles+remote (you would need to learn how to bind it) if you didn't want to give BetaFPV any more money, but you want to make use of what you have. Agree solidly that BetaFPV could still do better with customer service and support and communication. Totally with you there. Regardless of everything, you bought the kit, it crapped out on you, and you did not have fun. These are the comments that I will keep in mind. I wish you well and thank you for the constructive comments and conversation, I appreciate it!

[@jeffmoon4944]

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