[Closed] Drones - Quadcopters: What are you flying (or hovering)?

[url= https://hexoplus.com/ ]My drone isn't here yet[/url], but I will be using my GoPro Hero 3 until the GoPro Hero 4+/5 is released. They seem to be the best picture quality of all the action camera's.

I am using the one that GrahamS recommended a while ago. It was only 30 quid from Amazon, but I've seen the same model in Selfridges for 100. I have to say that flying it is not as easy as it looks. Next time I go in a helicopter I will have new respect for the pilot.

Depends really how much you want to spend. DJI Phantom 2 Vison+ at work for inaccessible inspections avoiding big scaffolds or rope access.

As I'm embarrassed about some pricey repairs after crashing it, I bought a Hubsan H107L so I can practice with less cost risk, which is ace, don't just go straight for an expensive setup straight off.

Knowing what I do now, I'd recommend a DJI setup but without the proprietary camera which is £500 to replace and not very robust. Heliguy in the North East have been a decent supplier for me, talk to them about options rather than just picking off their website. Plenty of scope for upgrading in future too.

Black out FPV racing quad 8) not flying it yet, still building it. It's four to be frickin' AWSUMZ!!! It'll have a möbius for video capture.

I've nearly finished building my TBS discovery at the moment. I'm using a dji flight controller with a GPS. Once I've got it flying my next step will be fitting some Fpv kit and having a go with that!

was about to get a blackout equivalent racing quad. then saw a vid of a racing hex. tempted, but I expect I'll be needing a standing order of spare props.

tricopter sounds like more of a fun challenge.

oh and they're multirotors, not drones. drones are what the military use for bombing IS.

ZMR250 blackout clone 😉

[url= https://farm1.staticflickr.com/527/19558626266_4fc8cbeb4f_z.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm1.staticflickr.com/527/19558626266_4fc8cbeb4f_z.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/vNk5bf ]100_6682[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/47773257@N04/ ]Biscuit Powered Biker[/url], on Flickr

The racing quads do look awesome. I'd like to give FPV racing a try, with the goggles, I don't know why, but I think that looks more straight forward than standard flying, like a driving game on a console. Willing to accept I may be very wrong though due to the speeds involved.

learn to fly it line of sight before fpv. when fpv fails you have to recover via traditional controls (or crash and put others at risk).

Still got a Mikrokopter Hexa XL at the shop, an uncollected customer order. Flew it a few times when I first built it, keep thinking I should take it home to play with some more. It's a big beast, can carry 2kgs happily.

Anyone lost one in Fleetwood CU's I found and its a big one as well.

Spotted this one the other day. Could easily go in a backpack for quick aerial shots on rides.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/micro-drone-3-0-flight-in-the-palm-of-your-hand--2#/story

[img] https://flic.kr/p/vPr3ij [/img]

[img] https://flic.kr/p/vR91Cy [/img]

The hexacopter is a s550,the quad an s500 the blue and white 250 is my new Gravity 250, and the other a Pure carbon 250 , both 250's are kitted out for fpv racing now

😉

Phantom 3 Pro

This looks interesting.

[url= https://www.lily.camera/ ]https://www.lily.camera/[/url]

Building one at the moment - will post pics soon but cost (excluding remote) is around £80 and its going to be a beast.

Personally I wouldn't pay £££ for a pre built one but it does require a bit of knowledge to set it all up (all required knowledge available if a) you have the Internet and b) you can read).

That indiegogo one looks ace. Might have a punt at that, especially with the gimbal, that really makes a difference when using for filming.

And the firefighters on youtube - 😆 😆 😆 😆

I've been looking at getting one but couldn't justify the cost, can someone point me in the direction of some information on building my own rather than a ready made?

Firefighters not wanting publicity. What sort of crazy parallel universe is that?

mooseface - Member
I've been looking at getting one but couldn't justify the cost, can someone point me in the direction of some information on building my own rather than a ready made?

What is it that you want to do? Aerial photography? Aerobatics? FPV racing?

@mooseface. The actual building is fairly trivial, it's setting up the flight computer that's the (slightly) tricky part.

Look up OpenPilot and their CC3d flight computer board and software. Very cheap from Banggood.com and the online documentation is excellent. Follow it step by step and it sound just work.

I should just clarify the above. You need to understand the basics of RC flight and how a quad flies and is controlled by the flight computer to set one up.

Not to build one though-just bolt airframe together and screw on motors and attach the electronics.

May post a build thread once mine is finished (hopefully tonight)

I'm going to have a look at one this week that I may be able to use for certain work applications on a call out basis.

Not sure we can justify buying our own at £55k!

Just bear in mind that for commercial use you need a license from the CAA and they are beginning to crack down on unlicensed use.

Note also, strictly speaking, a lot of FPV flying is illegal as hobby quads have to kept in unaided sight.

The CAA rules are here: https://www.caa.co.uk/default.aspx?catid=1995

They are pretty understandable and for once pretty much common sense. Note a 2kg plus quad dropping out of the sky will hurt if it hits someone so not allowing FPV flying for eg or 'out of sight' gps guided flights is pretty sensible.

I have been following the CAA's stance on this for a while (I fly RC choppers as well) and it seems they are happy to keep regulations to a minimum for hobbyists so long as people are sensible. If accidents start happening, property starts getting damaged etc they will start to clamp down.

I think the operators are suitably qualified. 🙂

@atparry got some good advice on the phone from one of the drone shops and that was to learn to fly before you go fpv. I bought and lost a hubsan h107chd, bought another one and am getting my skills... Now building up to purchasing a phantom or something like an Iris+ or Lily that can follow you at trail centres...

..not in the woods mind you!

DJI Phantom 2 with ZenMuse gimbal and GoPro Hero 4 Black edition.

I've passed 'ground school' and submitted Ops manuals, just waiting on getting a flight test to get my PFAW from the CAA.

Recreational flight - dannybgoode has it above. I'd also recommend BMFA membership to get a bit of free liability cover if you're flying something with a bit of weight.

EDIT: - danny - be interested in what you are brewing up? Fancy building one up for myself and the boys (under supervision!)

danny - i'd be interested too! I used to fly heli's a while back (.30 size), been considering some kind of quadcopter project but matching esc's, motors and batteries all seems a bit of a mystery.

I'm not after anything super high end, just something to carry a FauxPro.

Question for the STW hive mind - what would you do if a quad copter was hovering over your garden at about 30m height at 11pm on a Saturday night?

Said quadcopter was making slow passes over several people's houses to the annoyance of several neighbours. The "pilots" were found about 400m away in a public space but behind several tree lines each of which is around 40m high.

They were flying using some kind of remote video but didn't have line of sight control and deleted the video they were taking when the police and a super irate neighbour turned up. Ironically, when we tried to take a photo of them they were immediately into "you can't photograph us in a public space" / "you're invading our privacy".

Views from mates range from "i would have smashed it up" to "there's no harm but invading privacy is well out of order". What would STW do if a drone was hovering over your garden at night and being controlled by persons unknown?

What would STW do if a drone was hovering over your garden at night and being controlled by persons unknown?

Same thing I do when it's the police helicopter again - mutter to myself and go get a beer.

I was up on the roof cleaning out the gutters yesterday - most neighbours said hello, but the ones behind us who put up a Better Together sign during the referendum scowled at me instead.

I'd be more bothered about a large quad falling out of the sky and damaging someone or something rather than the privacy issue.

I'd have gone and had a word with the pilots if I could have found them, as it sounds like happened here. If I couldn't and it became a regular occurrence I might resort to what the fire bobbies did, (into an area where I know wouldn't [i]cause[/i] damage and let them come to me.

"you can't photograph us in a public space" / "you're invading our privacy"

Question for the STW hive mind - what would you do if a quad copter was hovering over your garden at about 30m height at 11pm on a Saturday night?

I'd send out the big drone to find the owners with an ED-209 recording

"you can't photograph us in a public space" / "you're invading our privacy"

I would have pissed myself laughing at the point they said that.

Drone over garden being annoying: If it was low enough, I'd get the hose out. As well as line of sight, it sounds like they were breaking CAA regs on proximity to people and structures too.

you can't photograph us in a public space

?? That's a bit confused. Do they think you are only allowed to photograph them in a [i]private[/i] place??

@justin5 - they're breaching all kinds of CAA rules. See my link on previous page. Report them to the CAA if you're concerned about what they're up to.

As others have said, I wouldn't be too bothered about the filming aspect but getting hit by the thing. Trust me, you would not want a face full of quad.

Imo, flying fpv at those kind of ranges and with no visual contact is pretty stupid and just the sort of thing that will cause the likes of the caa to tighten the rules up.

A quad is on my possible to do list for the summer so glad this thread has come up.

Question - I'm mainly interested in the filming aspect of owning a quad. Is FPV a big deal for this for getting quality footage or not necessary?

2nd question - best website for a beginner to get to understand the basics? Straight into a nerdy STW equivalent quad forum might be too much.

Convert - will do a build thread very shortly. For ideas and reading RCGroups.com is where I'd start.

Fpv not necessary for filming most stuff.

Cheers, thanks.

FPV, as in some of those flashy goggles that transmit right into your face, not necessary for filming, but having the feed beamed back to a small screen, (most likely a phone or tablet) is useful for framing shots, controlling the vertical position of the gimble etc.

And like I said on page one, buy yourself a small, cheap one now to learn with. [url= http://www.amazon.co.uk/HUBSAN-X4-H107-Quadcopter-LEDs/dp/B009M1PO7W/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1436822483&sr=8-1&keywords=hubsan+h107l ]Like this one from Amazon[/url].

I've got an F450, self built. Naze32 flight controller running openpilot and a Hitachi action cam Velcro'd underneath. It's been pretty robust so far and has survived a good few rather bumpy landings!
Once i've properly got the hang of LOS flight I'll try out FPV, it's great fun 🙂

Currently this beast:

[img] [/img]

Carries a GoPro for 30m-40m depending on battery, full control of the gimbal from the TX, follow me mode available by connecting it to my phone. Currently flying it on 5S and 6S batteries.

It's about to be reconfigured as I've finally managed to source a 960 Hexactoper frame for a steal. I'll be moving the motors ands ESC's to the Hex to lift a Nex 5 and rebuilding the quad with some lighter 4S capable motors and then probably selling it.

I'm also selling a 250 quad, and shortly a 550 Hex followed by a 450 Quad, the 250 quad is complete with transmitter and FPV ready with LED's etc. If anyone's interested please give me a shout.

[img] [/img]

I also have a 330 Hexacopter that is mid-build, that will be complete with a Mini APM flight controller to do all the follow me that the large quad can do at the moment. Should be perfect for following bike/skate action with a goPro.

All these home-built affairs are making me think I really should do something with the iFly 4 I bought cheap off e-bay. Think one of the ESC's is duff, so I never managed to make it work successfully but reckon it would make a decent basis for a winter project.

Really could do with that build thread dannybgoode!

There are some pretty good step-by-step builds on YouTube.

Here's a nice one of a FPV racing quad:

(33 minutes)

And here is an even more in-depth build of a low cost FPV miniquad:

(in 5 parts - over 3 hours!)

Mine*:

[url= https://farm1.staticflickr.com/499/19501234749_5046db8a37_z.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm1.staticflickr.com/499/19501234749_5046db8a37_z.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/vHfVFk ]Untitled[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/cycleologist/ ]Ben Cooper[/url], on Flickr

*for a given value of "mine" - the person I built it for has vanished off the face of the Earth.

Did they pay beforehand?! Seems nuts to have something that size built and never collect it.

Yup, paid in full - about £3500. Not sure what to do with it, to be honest!

On holiday in Dubrovnik this week. Didn't bring my little quad with me as I'm waiting on some spare props, (practising controlled flying in small areas) but yesterday there was a familiar razzing sound coming from upstairs.
[img] [/img]
DJI Phantom 3. Bloke flew it completely out of sight, just used his iPad as an FPV screen.