- ESP-Blast drone parts cost a total of $155
- The drone weighs less than 5 ounces and reaches a top speed of 67 mph / 108 kmh
- Complete self-build instructions available online
$155 doesn’t get you much when it comes to pre-built drones. But if you’re not averse to pulling out a soldering iron and a 3D printer and getting your hands dirty with some light DIY work, this is how much it will cost you to buy all the components for the ESP-Blast – a small drone capable of reaching 67 mph.
The ESP-Blast is the brainchild of YouTuber Max Imagination, who details the entire design, engineering, and construction process in the video below (you can also find a full tutorial on his Instructables profile). Even a casual viewing of the video reveals that it is a painstaking and painstaking process, requiring many adjustments and iterations along the way.
Look on it
Luckily, you don’t have to go through this lengthy ordeal yourself, because Max has included links to all the components, 3D printer files, and much more. So if 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 really fast. Most cheap consumer drones are quite limited in terms of speed – with the help of a favorable wind, the £209 (around $240) DJI Neo 2 can reach air speeds of around 50 mph 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 cost a headset or FPV controller in Max’s $155 total) hits 67 mph due to its 136g/4.8oz weight, 450mAh battery, and aerodynamic rocket shape. Sure, it’ll only fly for about five minutes on a full charge, but that’s the price you pay for ultra-low weight and tiny size.
Cheap as chips
Perhaps the most impressive thing about the ESP-Blast is the use of the EPS32 system-on-chip as a flight controller. This $5 chip isn’t intended to be used in such a role — it’s commonly used in DIY Internet of Things smart home projects, like modified coffee machines and security cameras. Max realized, however, that its 240 MHz dual-core Xtensa LX6 processor and 520 KB of RAM were ideal for his needs – even if the Bluetooth and Wi-Fi antennas built into the chip weren’t necessary – and it was also incredibly cheap.
It also chose PETG plastic over PLA, more commonly used for the 3D printed airframe, a logical choice given PETG’s advantages in flexibility, cold air resistance and shock absorption.
The ESP-Blast’s top speed of 67 mph may not seem impressive compared to the record 430 mph reached by Ben Biggs’ DIY Blackbird drone in February 2026, but keep in mind that this drone uses parts worth a total of about $3,000, making it more than 19 times more expensive than Max Imagination’s drone. Reaching 67 mph with such a cheap machine is quite a technical feat, in my eyes.
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