This article is very outdated. Small brushless quadcopters are readily available now. Such as the Hoverbot Nano [1] mentioned in another commment, or a Eachine Lizard [2], and lots more.<p>And you can go even smaller, such as a pepperfish [3]<p>This is a small brushless quad with 0703 motors with a 1 cell battery. <a href="https://i.imgur.com/EdFFfsc.png" rel="nofollow">https://i.imgur.com/EdFFfsc.png</a> / <a href="http://rotaro.no" rel="nofollow">http://rotaro.no</a> 54mm in diameter<p>[1] <a href="https://hoverbot.io/" rel="nofollow">https://hoverbot.io/</a>
[2] <a href="https://www.banggood.com/Eachine-Lizard95-95mm-F3-FPV-Racer-BNF-4-in-1-10A-ESC-OSD-5_8G-48CH-25MW100MW-VTX-600TVL-Camera-3S-p-1141589.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.banggood.com/Eachine-Lizard95-95mm-F3-FPV-Racer-...</a>
[3] <a href="http://fishpepper.de/projects/pepperf1sh/" rel="nofollow">http://fishpepper.de/projects/pepperf1sh/</a>
The brushed designs have been completely outclassed by the new breed of micro brushless quads. The Hoverbot Nano is one of the best examples of lightweight brushless design.<p><a href="https://hoverbot.io" rel="nofollow">https://hoverbot.io</a>
<a href="https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?2806620-HoverBot-Nano-40g-Brushless-90mm-Quadcopter" rel="nofollow">https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?2806620-Hover...</a>
with the recommended parts, minus the camera/vtx combo ($20), your total is roughly $70. for $60 you could get an eachine qx90 which is almost identical.<p>or you could even get much, much better quality/control out of a brushless build with the babyhawk, which goes for around $100<p>if you're new to flying drones, i wouldn't recommend this at all
When seeing the components the first thing that came to my mind was "outdated", afterwards I saw the article is from 2016.
If someone is interested in a more sophisticated approach he might want to check out the RotorX Atom:
<a href="https://rotorxracing.com/products/rx122diypr-atom-diy-kit-with-rx1306-motors" rel="nofollow">https://rotorxracing.com/products/rx122diypr-atom-diy-kit-wi...</a>
How does this compare to the Crazyflie 2.0? (See: <a href="https://www.bitcraze.io/crazyflie-2/" rel="nofollow">https://www.bitcraze.io/crazyflie-2/</a>).