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I wanted to start with something cheap enough I wouldn’t get pissed if it suffers catastrophic pilot error.
At $1,350 for the wreckable part, this model fails miserably.
It is the cheapest model with a camera I can practically use, so the bet is on it surviving its own learning curve.
The plan is to add aerial photography to my “hype list” of skills and equipment I can offer a project, which means legally I’m stuck getting a license. In that regard, I’ve been irritated by the hyper-focus of most resources on the passing the test part of getting the license, which I think kinda misses the point.
Luckily, for now, I can still get away with flying under the hobbyist exemption, so next week I intend to give it a whirl. Settled on the forest preserve as my training grounds. Turns out it’s one of the few places around here where you can fly a drone without getting permission.
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Last edited by subego; Mar 17, 2018 at 03:17 PM.
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Hopefully I can shoot something fun next week. The forest preserve won’t look pretty right now, but all the naked branches will give the camera an extra noisy image to chew on.
Decided to play with the software on the remote from the comfort of a cozy chair in a warm apartment rather than standing outside where it’s still below freezing.
I got the model with the integrated smartdevice, rather that the BYOSD model.
Had I gone with an iPad Mini I’d have gotten...
1) Bigger screen (8” vs 5½”)
2) Third-party (supposedly much better) control software
3) Integrated Google satellite if I have cellular
4) iOS instead of Android
In exchange I’m getting...
1) One less component needing logistical support
2) Don’t have to buy an iPad
3) The screen is bright
4) Less weight
5) The smartdevice is really solidly built into the remote
6) It doesn’t look Frankenstein
I still think I made the right choice, but now that I’ve played with it, it’s less of a gimme than I thought. Number one on my list of pros is carrying most of the weight.
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Last edited by subego; Mar 21, 2018 at 07:45 PM.
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Also, I somehow got pushed the control app for BYO remotes, and not the integrated. This borks the mapping function, which isn’t the biggest deal because they’re not satellite anyway, but it took me a good 6 hours of effort ****ing with it before I realized giving up made more sense than fixing it.
My daughters boyfriend bought the same drone. Then he noticed that he lives right next to RAF (formerly USAF) Fairford and slap bang in the middle of a 10 mile wide no drone fly zone.
This space for Hire! Reasonable rates. Reach an audience of literally dozens!
The best advice I can give you as a micro helicopter pilot is to get a teeny micro drone to practice with. Really small ones cost about 40 bucks and usually don't break when crashed. You can run them into walls/windows etc without harm. A really fun to play with is Blade's MSR 4 channel helicopter.
The best advice I can give you as a micro helicopter pilot is to get a teeny micro drone to practice with.
This is good advice, which of course I’m not following.
Well, I’m sorta following it, but everything is kicked up a notch.
If I want offer aerial photography services for real, this is the equivalent of my micro drone. The “Windy City” thing is really a thing, and I’m going to need a $10,000+ hexacopter death-machine if I want to put up a consistent fight.
I’m imagining there’s so much distance between that and a micro drone, I may as well risk starting on a higher rung.
I’m hoping I can avoid a crash by resisting the impulse to hot dog with it.
Likewise, as a camera platform, I’m more interested in it as something that floats instead of something that flies, if that makes sense. This just isn’t the right environment to safely do all kinds of swoopy shit.
My daughters boyfriend bought the same drone. Then he noticed that he lives right next to RAF (formerly USAF) Fairford and slap bang in the middle of a 10 mile wide no drone fly zone.
It was very impolite of the USAF not to change it to kilometers when they left.
Here, a regular airport has a 5 mile no-fly zone around it, but I get the impression the FAA forces the control tower to play ball with anyone who follows the rules, even some rando joker like me. They’ll give me clearance if the proposal is reasonable.
I’m not sure how that changes with military bases. I’ve come across info, but didn’t commit it to memory because I’m pretty far from one. Instead, I’ve got the City Hall being a pain in my ass about where it’s legal.
Think of the mini-drone as “training wheels,” or maybe “learning to drive in your friend’s beater that can get smashed up without many repercussions.” Getting the flying thing down FIRST will save you a bunch of rotor replacements.
Pretty much all quad drones work pretty much the same way, so getting a gadget that can land on a paperback-sized spot will let you get the flying practice you need to avoid having to wait for replacement parts.
Here’s a $23 model with a WiFi controller app for iOS (or at least WiFi video to your phone). To me, “getting one’s wings” by practicing with something inexpensive that might crash is much preferable to learning on something that costs a lot more money...
They’ll give me clearance if the proposal is reasonable.
Probably not Fairford, although it's no longer a base (but does host the annual Air Tattoo, the worlds largest military airshow), for some reason they still get a lot of B52's, B2's and even U2's (which I thought were now out of service) in and out, hence the no fly drone paranoia.
This space for Hire! Reasonable rates. Reach an audience of literally dozens!
Think of the mini-drone as “training wheels,” or maybe “learning to drive in your friend’s beater that can get smashed up without many repercussions.” Getting the flying thing down FIRST will save you a bunch of rotor replacements.
Pretty much all quad drones work pretty much the same way, so getting a gadget that can land on a paperback-sized spot will let you get the flying practice you need to avoid having to wait for replacement parts.
Here’s a $23 model with a WiFi controller app for iOS (or at least WiFi video to your phone). To me, “getting one’s wings” by practicing with something inexpensive that might crash is much preferable to learning on something that costs a lot more money...
What causes quadcopter crashes though?
I get the impression it never has anything to do with them being difficult to fly, it’s always because the pilot flew like a dickhead. A micro drone can’t fix dickhead.
Don’t get me wrong, not being a dickhead for an hour straight while I learn how to fly it isn’t a trivial undertaking. I’m gonna need a nap afterwards.
Likewise, I give your advice the highest compliment, which is to say I originally came up with the same plan. It is therefore brilliant.
Probably not Fairford, although it's no longer a base (but does host the annual Air Tattoo, the worlds largest military airshow), for some reason they still get a lot of B52's, B2's and even U2's (which I thought were now out of service) in and out, hence the no fly drone paranoia.
On one hand, I can see that, because military.
On the other hand, if I’m 4 miles away and I only want to go 20 feet up, it’s kind of dopey to say no.
I’ll do this if someone can point out what I’m supposed to worry about in an empty, open area. Not to mention I can geofence the drone to stay in the area.
The only thing I can hit is the ground. Aren’t quadcopters good at not hitting the ground unless you tell them to?
I can be butterfingers at times, but is it that hard not to pull down on the altitude stick? I’ve used twin-sticks in video games for 20 years.
If this was a helicopter, or fixed-wing, I’d feel differently.
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Last edited by subego; Mar 24, 2018 at 02:21 PM.
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I get the impression it never has anything to do with them being difficult to fly, it’s always because the pilot flew like a dickhead. A micro drone can’t fix dickhead.
Don’t get me wrong, not being a dickhead for an hour straight while I learn how to fly it isn’t a trivial undertaking. I’m gonna need a nap afterwards.
Likewise, I give your advice the highest compliment, which is to say I originally came up with the same plan. It is therefore brilliant.
Aside from the dickhead factor - dickheads will crash because they don’t pay attention to the basics and, well, because they’re dickheads. Otherwise, crashes usually occur in one of three situations. This is from research since I’m still in the researching phase of my own drone purchase - more for goofs and giggles than anything serious.
Takeoffs and landings are the two most obvious crash-inducing situations. Taking off from a flat surface requires the right touch on the power control. You need to provide enough power to overcome the weight of the drone without pouring on all the power, but you can’t be too gentle either or it’ll “pop up” and scare some pilots, so they just cut power completely and the thing crashes. Landings are similar. The key is something called the “ground effect,” which is the flight envelope in which rotor airflow interacts with the ground which redirects the airflow and increases lift by quite a bit. Outside of this, flying rotorwings is (supposedly) easy-peasy, but you’ve gotta get past that ground effect to be able to take off, and you’ve got to land through it.
The third situation is when operating the drone around other objects once in flight. There’s a “bubble” of rotor airflow that changes depending on altitude and power setting. You need to keep the bubble away from other objects like trees, buildings, power lines, etc. Once that airflow bubble interacts with something else, the drone’s flight behavior will get weird.
So all three of those areas are where the learning curve zaps (non-dickhead) people. Once in the air, a drone should be super easy to get confident with. But with anything around it, particularly the ground, you need to be extra careful. Not that a cheap drone will exactly mimic your full-sized unit, but it will help you learn the technique. Just like the first manual transmission car you drove taught you what to look for and feel for, a cheapie drone can help you get the hang of the techniques you’ll need for you big, expensive drone.
Since my own purpose for a drone is things like inspecting my roof and playing chase with my dogs, I don’t need much more than remote WiFi video and a range of less than 100 yards. But I don’t want to need a subscription to a parts supplier, even for an inexpensive drone, either.
We humans have horible depth perception, and it causes trees to reach out and knock your craft to the ground. You will hear all the birds laughing at you.
Luckily, this has some nice “drone assist” going on. Sorta like the indicator in a first person shooter that you’re getting hit from the sides or behind, this throws up warnings as you approach objects.
In a shadow of what’s to come with self-driving cars...
I wasn’t going to try and land the thing myself. Holy crap, do I look crazy?
On the other hand, objects like the grabby trees are a huge concern. Not for when I’m getting the basic hang of it, that I’m going to do in an area with no objects, but as I move out of the “safe zone”.
It’s a tough call. There’s no question I’d learn something from the microdrone, but I think the risk it would also instill some false confidence is real. I just know I’d spend all my time past the first 10 minutes doing reckless things with it, and that will have a negative impact on my healthy fear of wrecking its big brother.
You make valid points there. May I suggest some well controlled practice around minimally grabby things (and at low altitudes) so you can see how the machine (and you) react?
Your thread boosted my interest in drones from mild curiosity about how I might use one for actual purposes other than chasing the cats (not to rule that out, of course), to a much more active interest. Unfortunately, my research has been frustrating, to say the least.
I've spent way too long looking for a non-bank balance killing drone that has a decent camera (not "0.3 MP") and offers some sort of way to do forward point of view on a screen I can actually see. So far, the best I've found is a (very) micro unit with a nice camera but so small a form factor that I would probably lose sight of it before it was out of controller range. Not the best choice for either learning to control or making sure I'm inspecting my own roof rather than my neighbors' roofs.
Price points go from $30-ish for oddly named stuff with sketchy product information, to $50-$70 for "better than that," to well over $100 for something that looks like I could use it. And I'm trying to not spend a bundle on a toy with limited applications.
The tiny drone, flown indoors as you practice practice practice will be blown around by air currents and as you get better at flying it in those conditions it will give insight to flying the larger one outdoor$.
Is anyone old enough to have that toy where you would lay out a plastic mat, and put this tower thing in the center, which had a long wire with a helicopter toy attached?
You could make the wire go around, or up and down, thus “flying” the helicopter.
My cheapie drone arrived yesterday. I guess it came from China by raft... Anyway it'll be an adventure to start using, since the manual is in Mandarin with BADLY translated English. There are pictures at least.
Speaking of pictures, I'll post some soon. The thing looks like it's supposed to be the little brother of a DJI Phantom, including a camera suspended underneath.
Unfortunately, for me, the whole “well controlled environment” you suggested has been the hang up. I haven’t been able to haul myself out to the forest preserve.
I’m not too irritated. It’ll mean it’s 20 degrees warmer when I’m doing it.
It has been unseasonably mild here in San Antonio lately. Unfortunately for me, that has meant gazing out the window at work and wishing I could be outside in the lovely mildness.
It also means it's more unpleasant that I can't be outside and playing with my drone (or whatever else) because of work.