Who needs a DJI? This ultimate DIY drone hits 67mph and costs just $155 | Tech Radar

Overview

Who needs a DJI? This ultimate DIY drone hits 67mph and costs just $155

The ESP-Blast is DIY dynamite, and it's all thanks to a processor that costs less than a supermarket sandwich

Details

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Drone weighs under 5oz and hits a top speed of 67mph / 108kmh

$155 doesn't get you much when it comes to pre-built drones. But if you're not averse to breaking out a soldering iron and 3D printer and getting your hands dirty with some light DIY work, that's how much it'll cost you to buy all the components for the ESP-Blast – a tiny drone capable of hitting 67mph.

The ESP-Blast is the brainchild of You Tuber Max Imagination, who details the entire design, engineering and building process in the video below (you can also find a full tutorial on his Instructables profile). Even a cursory watch of the video reveals it to be a painstaking and laborious process, going through many tweaks and iterations along the way.

Thankfully you don't have to go through that protracted ordeal yourself, as Max has included links to all the components, 3D printer files and more. So, should you want to DIY the ESP-Blast, I'd say the hardest part has already been done.

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Why would you want to build it? Well, because this thing is seriously fast. Most cheap consumer drones are fairly limited when it comes to speed – with some help from a favorable wind, the £209 DJI Neo 2 (about $240) can reach an air speed of about 50mph in FPV mode, but you'll need to spend more on DJI Goggles and an RC Motion controller.

The ESP-Blast (which admittedly doesn't price an FPV headset or controller into Max's $155 total) hits 67mph due to its 136g / 4.8oz weight, 450m Ah battery and aerodynamic rocket-ship shape. Sure, it'll only fly for around five minutes on a full charge, but that's the price you pay for ultra-low weight and a tiny size.

The key components required for the DIY drone project (Image credit: Max Imagination / Autodesk)

Perhaps the most impressive thing about the ESP-Blast is the use of the EPS32 system-on-chip as its flight controller. This $5 chip is not intended to be used in such a role – it's commonly used in Internet of Things smart home DIY projects like modified coffee machines and security cameras. Max realised, however, that its 240MHz dual-core Xtensa LX6 processor and 520KB of RAM was ideal for his purposes – even if the chip's built-in Bluetooth and Wi-Fi antennas weren't required – and that it was also incredibly cheap.

He also picked PETG plastic over the more commonly used PLA for the 3D printed airframe, a choice which makes sense given PETG's advantages in flexibility, cold air resistance and shock absorption.

The ESP-Blast's 67mph top speed might not seem impressive compared to the record-breaking 430mph hit by Ben Biggs' DIY Blackbird drone in February 2026, but do bear in mind that that drone uses parts worth around $3,000 in total – which makes it more than 19 times more expensive than Max Imagination's drone. To achieve 67mph in such a cheap machine is quite the engineering feat, in my eyes.

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Sam has been writing about tech and digital culture for over 20 years, starting off in video games journalism before branching out into the wonderful worlds of consumer electronics, streaming entertainment and photography. Over the years he has written for Wired, Stuff, GQ, T3, Trusted Reviews and PC Zone, and now lives on the Kent coast in the UK – the ideal place for a camera reviewer to ply their trade.

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Key Takeaways

The ESP-Blast is DIY dynamite, and it's all thanks to a processor that costs less than a supermarket sandwich
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission
Drone weighs under 5oz and hits a top speed of 67mph / 108kmh
$155 doesn't get you much when it comes to pre-built drones