- ESP-Blast drone parts cost a total of $155
- The drone weighs under 5oz and reaches a top speed of 67mph / 108kmh
- 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 breaking out a soldering iron and 3D printer and getting your hands dirty with some easy DIY work, here’s how much it will cost you to buy all the components for the ESP-Blast — a tiny drone capable of hitting 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 cursory viewing of the video reveals that it’s a painstaking and painstaking process that goes through many tweaks and iterations along the way.
Look at
Fortunately, you don’t have to go through the lengthy ordeal yourself as Max has included links to all the components, 3D printer files and more. So if you want to DIY ESP-Blast, I’d say the hardest part is already done.
The article continues below
Why do you want to build it? Well, because this is seriously fast. Most cheap consumer drones are pretty limited when it comes to speed – with a little help from a favorable wind, the £209 (about $240) DJI Neo 2 can reach an airspeed of around 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 at Max’s $155 total) hits 67 mph due to its 136g / 4.8oz weight, 450mAh battery and aerodynamic rocketship shape. Sure, it’ll only fly for about five minutes on a full charge, but that’s the price you pay for ultra-light weight and small size.
Cheap as chips
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 isn’t meant 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. However, Max realized that its 240MHz dual-core Xtensa LX6 processor and 520KB of RAM were 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 chose PETG plastic over the more commonly used PLA for 3D-printed airframes, a choice that makes sense given PETG’s advantages in flexibility, cold air resistance and shock absorption.
The ESP-Blast’s top speed of 67 mph might not seem impressive compared to the record-breaking 430 mph hit by Ben Biggs’ DIY Blackbird drone in February 2026, but keep in mind that that drone uses about $3,000 worth of parts in total—making it more than 19 times more expensive than the Max Imagination. Achieving 67km/h for such a cheap machine is quite an engineering feat, in my eyes.
Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews and opinions in your feeds. Be sure to click the Follow button!
And of course you can too follow TechRadar on TikTok for news, reviews, video unboxings, and get regular updates from us on WhatsApp also.
The best drones
