quad copters

[hidetheelephants]

Ray Luxury-Yacht said:

rxtx said:

I don't know, but quadcopters seem to have a quicker public take-up than planes/helicopters (which I believe are harder to control, real ones I mean rather than the stuff you get from firebox or wherever), and being relatively cheap in comparison plus more people buying them out of the R/C hobby usually means lowest-common-denominator reactions.

Sadly I totally agree.

I reckon these are gonna be the new 'laser pens' of this generation. I reckon legislation will be coming our way pretty soon.

If kids were happy to shine lasers into aircraft cockpits, then how long before they start sending one of these up instead and there's an accident with a real aircraft?

Imagine if one got sucked into an aircraft turbine...

Why is it that when something new like this appears and there is a perceived risk of idiots, the first reaction is that there will be/must be more legislation? The scenario you outline is already covered perfectly well by the law, people doing stupid and illegal things that endanger life will have the book thrown at them; the same hysteria appeared when cheap RTF ducted fans came on the market, yet miraculously the world did not end. The prospect of Joe Chav launching 5kg of ducted fan model capable of 80mph+ into the air is far more alarming to me than quadcopters, yet no bloodbath ensued.

[Ray Luxury-Yacht]

hidetheelephants said:

Ray Luxury-Yacht said:

rxtx said:

I don't know, but quadcopters seem to have a quicker public take-up than planes/helicopters (which I believe are harder to control, real ones I mean rather than the stuff you get from firebox or wherever), and being relatively cheap in comparison plus more people buying them out of the R/C hobby usually means lowest-common-denominator reactions.

Sadly I totally agree.

I reckon these are gonna be the new 'laser pens' of this generation. I reckon legislation will be coming our way pretty soon.

If kids were happy to shine lasers into aircraft cockpits, then how long before they start sending one of these up instead and there's an accident with a real aircraft?

Imagine if one got sucked into an aircraft turbine...

Why is it that when something new like this appears and there is a perceived risk of idiots, the first reaction is that there will be/must be more legislation? Etc...

Because I live in a country that is full of hand-wringing neurotic worriers, who generally shout for more Government intervention and legislation at the merest whiff of something like this - which is normally then further advocated and fuelled by some rag of a 'news'paper when they get hold of the story, and sensationalise it into some massive national crisis?

Sound familiar?

Don't get me wrong, I wasn't calling for legislation - far from it - but I can see it coming if something did happen.

Like you, I think it is already adequately covered.

[hidetheelephants]

Nothing like agreeing furiously with someone.

[AKT]

These look awesome....
http://www.parrot.com/usa/products/bebop-drone/

I'm hoping they work as well as the demo video.

A

[Chicken Chaser]

The cheap FPV ones dont seem to have very good footage to be able to fly by view only? I always think the limited flying time always spoils it. I guess you need to spend more to get better quality

[NDA]

Davie_GLA said:

Dammit. I knew this thread would deliver!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hubsan-Quadcopter-Camera-R...

Goodbye Crual world (THe wife is going to go mental)

David.

Ooops. I may have ordered one too.

Shame about the month delivery though

[CAPP0]

Davie_GLA said:

Dammit. I knew this thread would deliver!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hubsan-Quadcopter-Camera-R...

Goodbye Crual world (THe wife is going to go mental)

David.

How big (approx) is this model? Now sub-40!

[Jon1967x]

CAPP0 said:

How big (approx) is this model? Now sub-40!

It's about 15cm x 15cm

It's worth noting the really cheap ones like this are the older version with the 0.3 mp camera. There's a newer version with a 2mp camera.

[Du1point8]

Im toying with the idea of these

http://www.banggood.com/Wholesale-FPV-Video-Goggle...

http://www.banggood.com/Wholesale-FPV-Video-Goggle...

http://www.thepocketdrone.com/

or maybe an oculous rift head set...

looks like fun

[CAPP0]

Jon1967x said:

CAPP0 said:

How big (approx) is this model? Now sub-40!

It's about 15cm x 15cm

It's worth noting the really cheap ones like this are the older version with the 0.3 mp camera. There's a newer version with a 2mp camera.

I guess at that size it's going to struggle outdoors then?

[Jon1967x]

CAPP0 said:

Jon1967x said:

CAPP0 said:

How big (approx) is this model? Now sub-40!

It's about 15cm x 15cm

It's worth noting the really cheap ones like this are the older version with the 0.3 mp camera. There's a newer version with a 2mp camera.

I guess at that size it's going to struggle outdoors then?

If windy yes, but its not too bad... and I've since been a lot higher although I nearly lost it!

Screen capture of video from the 2mp version

[Gazzas86]

Just thought I would add my experiences to the thread, This is the first Quad I build,



It was built from scratch with the sole purpose as being used as a sports quad (very good P/Kg), The flight controller board was used from the internals of a WII Nunchuck and an I phone Compass, this gave it good stability when flying. The frame is Carbon Fibre, It has the same manoeuvrability as this Quad.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QP0QjIsTTM

However i'm not quite that good yet.

This is my new quad i've been building over the past week,



Specs are I'm using the DJI F450 Flame Wheel Frame, I've reduced the prop size down to 8 Inch as wont be needed as much power as the first quad, I've also gone for the DJI Naza V M2 Flight Controller, It's the same FC as whats in the DJI Phantom 2, It has a very accurate GPS & Bluetooth, This quad is going to be used as an aerial photography quad. So next to be added to it is a 3D Brush less gimball in which my Gopro will be attached to it, (it's a good bit of kit as it gets a Gyro feed so it's 100% stabilised), And then i will be adding another First Person View camera to it in which i can use some goggles and fly it around FPV. I've set the quad up with a fail safe so should i lose control of it, or it goes out of range, the quad using GPS will 'go home' and land itself. It can also be controlled by my Ipad.

[Davie_GLA]

Top work mate. Can I ask if this is what you do. I mean electronics etc. Or could the layman pick up the bits and bolt it all together?

[Gazzas86]

Davie_GLA said:

Top work mate. Can I ask if this is what you do. I mean electronics etc. Or could the layman pick up the bits and bolt it all together?

Sure, i'm a Chief Technician (Weapons) in the Royal Navy, anyone can do it, as long as you know what you need to build one, the frame i have is fairly common and theres plenty of build videos on youtube, have a look at Quadcopters.co.uk, thats a site devoted for building your own drone pretty much. Im taking the quad down the field tomorrow to give it a blast and see how it handles, no doubt i will need to tweak the settings somewhat.

[Gazzas86]

Finally received my H3-3D gimbal and fitted correctly, here's what she looks like now..



And heres the first video of the very first time she has been in the air.... I set a limit in the settings so it wouldn't go above 40m high or 60m away

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdogzbVMql8&fe...

Next to be fitted is First Person View (FPV) so i can basically be up there with it, and fly up to 2 miles away.

[CAPP0]

Wow, the stability on that is amazing! I went ahead and bought the cheapie Chinese jobbie and I'm pretty impressed with how it flies for £40-odd but it isn't like your vid. Also, when you move forward, backward, or bank, whatever, the camera angle changes. Is your cam gimbal-mounted? I'll try to upload some of mine when I get a moment. All very amateur stuff at the moment. These things are great to fly though.

[simonrockman]

A friend shot this video of me in the new Fiesta: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rISZwB_5IA

[Gazzas86]

CAPP0 said:

Wow, the stability on that is amazing! I went ahead and bought the cheapie Chinese jobbie and I'm pretty impressed with how it flies for £40-odd but it isn't like your vid. Also, when you move forward, backward, or bank, whatever, the camera angle changes. Is your cam gimbal-mounted? I'll try to upload some of mine when I get a moment. All very amateur stuff at the moment. These things are great to fly though.

Yea mine is Gimbal mounted, its stablized on 3 axis, roll, pitch and yaw. I have control of the pitch from my controller, so i can basically pan up and down. The gimball gets fed signals from the flight controller board, it should be even better tomorrow, ive just updated the firmware for thei gimbal itself, which basically makes the yaw movement smoother. Ill post a new vid tomorrow.

[NDA]

simonrockman said:

A friend shot this video of me in the new Fiesta: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rISZwB_5IA

That's great....

I guess the days of needing a full sized helicopter and film crew are at an end!

[Byff]

ViperDave said:

hidetheelephants said:

rxtx said:

I completely agree, I'm going to order some prop guards, I haven't taken it out of the garden yet (even when up in the air) and I certainly wouldn't fly it near people or animals.

These are going to be regulated sooner or later I think.

R/C aeromodelling has managed to exist without much CAA interference for 40+ years; why are they going to wade in now? The current weight limits seem pretty sensible to me, and anyone flying anything in public is well advised to get some PL insurance, which is readily available and not expensive.

For most of that 40 years there was another 0 on the end of the price tag and they were flown in far off fields by responsible adults, now every teenager (and younger) gets one for Christmas and is flying it out of their housing estate back garden, not only that but they now have cameras fitted raising the privacy concerns of neighbors and also likely flouting the CAA's FPV flight rules.

I bet within 12 months there will be a big hoha over one of these, either filming something not welcome or injuring someone innocently going about their business.

Read the Sunday Mail yesterday and the scaremongering has started, double page spread on the invasion of privacy with flying drones. Full of sensationalist bks, papparazzi using them to spy on celeb's which I don't doubt but using drones to supervise children walking to school - really?

It's not exactly secret that the military use them, but I'm sure the term quadcopter is more than adequate when refering to Joe Bloggs using one to have a little gander of his back garden or local landmark from an elevated position.