Got a quad copter (video)

I have the hubsan version. It flies well, but you have to fly it. No gps.

The DGI phantom is incredibly easy to fly. They are gps based. If you get out of control, just let the controls center and it will maintain position and elevation till you are ready. If you fly it out of range, it will return on its own and land at your feet.
 
Tiltsta said:
I'd love to play with one of those, but I live in suburban high density tract housing, so flying something like that would be impractical for me. Still, damn thing is awesome if you have some space to play around with it.
Click to expand...

There are smaller palm sized ones you can putter around your house or backyard with: http://www.banggood.com/Cheerson-CX10-CX10-Mini-24G-4CH-6-Axis-LED-RC-Quadcopter-RTF-p-926614.html - $16 delivered from China. I think Amazon has 'em for a little more, maybe with faster shipping. There seems to be a bunch of options in the $30 or less range.

smurfco said:
How hard is it to fly?
Click to expand...

Not that hard, but it takes some getting used to. When it's facing away, the controls (left, right, forward, backward) make sense, but if you spin it (yaw), then things get switched around. I'm getting better at it, and I think a few days out in my field will help. For now, I'm pretty much keeping it facing away from me when maneuvering and that seems to be working.
 
telecaster911 said:
I have the hubsan version. It flies well, but you have to fly it. No gps.

The DGI phantom is incredibly easy to fly. They are gps based. If you get out of control, just let the controls center and it will maintain position and elevation till you are ready. If you fly it out of range, it will return on its own and land at your feet.
Click to expand...
I have to admit that I'm now eyeing higher-end quads. Don't really need another expensive hobby, but this little toy is a lot of fun to fly. There are a lot of options when you start spending upwards of $500 and more. I may (actually finances dictate that I WILL) wait it out a year before buying a higher end quad.

I take it you have the Phantom?
 
I did a project at work that required a quad copter to deploy some sampling media. The phantom is pretty dang awesome. I think it was $499 or something like that. Totally worth that asking price. Plus it came with a camera that you could wifi to your phone for a live feed. Incredibly stable quad. Don't even consider one that isn't DGI. You will be frustrated. We tried a non DGI hexacopter before buying the DGI. terrible results. Couldn't keep it from flopping over no matter how much calibration we did. The DGI will also land itself when the battery gets low so that your expensive quad doesn't come crashing down out of the sky.
 
telecaster911 said:
I did a project at work that required a quad copter to deploy some sampling media. The phantom is pretty dang awesome. I think it was $499 or something like that. Totally worth that asking price. Plus it came with a camera that you could wifi to your phone for a live feed. Incredibly stable quad. Don't even consider one that isn't DGI. You will be frustrated. We tried a non DGI hexacopter before buying the DGI. terrible results. Couldn't keep it from flopping over no matter how much calibration we did. The DGI will also land itself when the battery gets low so that your expensive quad doesn't come crashing down out of the sky.
Click to expand...
Very cool. Gonna play with the toy quads for a while before sinking any kind of coin into a good one. Another plus with waiting; like all things tech, the prices of these things keep falling.
 
Very fun and cool!

Oh, be sure to fly it in controlled airspace, especially airport approaches. Pilots and guberment people like that. :embarrassed:
 
telecaster911 said:
I did a project at work that required a quad copter to deploy some sampling media. The phantom is pretty dang awesome. I think it was $499 or something like that. Totally worth that asking price. Plus it came with a camera that you could wifi to your phone for a live feed. Incredibly stable quad. Don't even consider one that isn't DGI. You will be frustrated. We tried a non DGI hexacopter before buying the DGI. terrible results. Couldn't keep it from flopping over no matter how much calibration we did. The DGI will also land itself when the battery gets low so that your expensive quad doesn't come crashing down out of the sky.
Click to expand...

Forget if I mentioned this in another thread. I worked with a guy that had a really nice drone. Not sure of the specs but the entire rig ran him a few grand. He had two cameras (one straight down and one that gave a pilot's eye view). The latter was hooked up to some sort of head set (like an Oculus) so his view was basically as if he were sitting on the drone. The footage was amazing. He was using it for wetland survey work but then apparently ran into some sort of issue with the FAA. I don't recall the details, something about commercial use of a drone being a no no. He ranted so much about it, I just tuned out after a while.

But watching the footage from his drone was pretty amazing.
 
BlockInlay said:
F He was using it for wetland survey work but then apparently ran into some sort of issue with the FAA. I don't recall the details, something about commercial use of a drone being a no no. He ranted so much about it, I just tuned out after a while.
Click to expand...
I don't know the particulars, but I think the gist of it is you can't use unlicensed aerial vehicles for commercial work. People get around it by saying their charging for the post-processing of the video (stabilizing, editing, etc...) - probably a pretty thin line. I suspect with the increase in popularity, there will be some sort of licensing of these things at some point.

I really don't have an interest in going any further than just having fun flying it and taking pics/vids of my property. It is a lot of fun. I modded my quad last night to increase the range and took it back out to my camp. It definitely went up higher and I didn't lose control. Did some flying behind the house as well, which was tricky 'cause trees, and house and stuff. Here's today's camp video.

 
That's actually really fucking cool....

I want one now too and will look into that..

I'm pretty sure I seen rabbit tracks.................
 
tompetty said:
That's actually really fucking cool....

I want one now too and will look into that..

I'm pretty sure I seen rabbit tracks.................
Click to expand...
... and deer, and Turkey. Before I shot the first vid, there was a big Tom there when I walked in. He trotted about 10 feet and took off flying over those spruce trees. They aren't the most elegant flyers, but they DO fly (Mr. Carlson was right!).
 
wagdog said:
... and deer, and Turkey. Before I shot the first vid, there was a big Tom there when I walked in. He trotted about 10 feet and took off flying over those spruce trees. They aren't the most elegant flyers, but they DO fly (Mr. Carlson was right!).
Click to expand...
Sweet....I don't often envy but...............
 
Got an inexpensive model today. I'm jazzed. It's non-GPS so I'm going to be flying it close to the ground for a while. :grin: :embarrassed: :)
 
Steverino said:
Got an inexpensive model today. I'm jazzed. It's non-GPS so I'm going to be flying it close to the ground for a while. :grin: :embarrassed: :)
Click to expand...
Which one did you get?

I'm toying with idea of getting a dji phantom II, but can't get comfortable with idea of spending a grand on a toy that might fly away if I do something stupid (likely).
 
My dad bought a ice one of those to make videos of houses they were listing. He took it out on a lake front property and the wind caught it. It launched it into the woods and it got stuck in a tree. It took him months to find it and I don't think he has been able to get it down.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top