Drone

[braceysdad]

What's a decent hobby drone? Using it to scout out a gravel bar for bones and fossils...

[Szczerba]

Depends on your price range and what type of filming/picture taking or FPV'ing you want to do.

[braceysdad]

I have no clue what I want... Where should I start looking to learn? Wanting to fly over a 20 to 30 acre area and look for big stuff

[Szczerba]

I bought a Blade 200qx with a DX6 and Mobius 1080p video camera. About a $700setup. Limited to line of sight flying. ( in the for sale section actually)You can put an FPV setup on it but look to add another $500. Googles or screen will be the big cost item.

There are some cheaper FPV ready to fly quads but they are on the "cheapesh" side of things. The Hubsan X4 FPV quad is only about $180 but you get what you pay for.

I also have a DJI Phantom 2 Vision plus with Ground Station and 7" FPV screen but your talking $2800. Ground station Let's you fly a preprogrammed route that you make on the iPad/iPhone app. Autonomous flight.

The DJI's are really nice for beginners but they will cost $700-$3,000.

[Szczerba]

Blade 350QX would be a good setup as well.

[braceysdad]

Thanks that gives me a starting point

[Szczerba]

Originally Posted by braceysdad

Thanks that gives me a starting point

There are a lot of quads out there and like anything, money will be the limiting factor. I have only dealt with the Blade and DJI brands. You can custom build one up as well but I preferred to buy an RTR to get used to them.

Here is one of my first flights with the 200qx and 1080 camera. Camera is not on a gimbal. The Mobius is only $90 and the 1080p is pretty good.

Put on 1080p.

Blade 200 QX flying around with a Mobius - YouTube

[KJ10]

Originally Posted by Szczerba

There are a lot of quads out there and like anything, money will be the limiting factor. I have only dealt with the Blade and DJI brands. You can custom build one up as well but I preferred to buy an RTR to get used to them.

Here is one of my first flights with the 200qx and 1080 camera. Camera is not on a gimbal. The Mobius is only $90 and the 1080p is pretty good.

Put on 1080p.

Blade 200 QX flying around with a Mobius - YouTube

Wow, that's pretty stable for not having a gimbal!

[Szczerba]

Originally Posted by KJ10

Wow, that's pretty stable for not having a gimbal!

One of my first flights, so I was all sorts of fighting light winds, etc. The $90 camera quality is what surprised me.

Just cut some foam board, bought some anti-jello mounts and a zip tie or two. Two zip ties hold mount to landing gear (not pictured)

[BigBaller]

dji phantom 2 vision plus..then get a case, 3 more batteries and spare set of blades...$2000. Turn key, bada$$ for the money. It's worth it. You need an iPod, pad or phone to watch it. You're welcome. (Basically the same as the last part scuzerbutt said)

[Szczerba]

Originally Posted by BigBaller

dji phantom 2 vision plus..then get a case, 3 more batteries and spare set of blades...$2000. Turn key, bada$$ for the money. It's worth it. You need an iPod, pad or phone to watch it. You're welcome. (Basically the same as the last part scuzerbutt said)

I should have gotten the DJI camera setup on the phantom. Mine is just a go-pro with the nice gimbal. No rx controls for go-pro other than tilt up and down. At Disney, I sawer where Jason could take stills from his iphone app/dji camera setup.

[wings_of_fire]

This news might help generate some idea

Iran tests replica of US drone captured in 2011, state TV says | Fox News

[Szczerba]

Yea, that is a "drone".

I prefer to call the hobby aircraft quadcopters or 8 bladed ones, octocopters.

[C*H*U*D]

Originally Posted by braceysdad

Wanting to fly over a 20 to 30 acre area and look for big stuff

I figured you just ran everywhere now.

[Peaker]

My experience with this gained from my friends phantom 1.1 with gopro silver and fatshark FPV gear.

For strait up flying FPV the setup is useable without a doubt, but the wide angle lens on the gopro do distort Distances so things appear to be further avay then they are.

So using that or simmilar gear things have to be pretty darn big down on the ground to see them, or have a high degree of contrast to the souroundings witch i dont think fossils have.
Or you will have to fly low witch in its own present some trubles and danger, down low even with a wide lens you loose the spatial awareness so you might fly a little sideways just to hit a bush or tree you thoutght you had passed.

So for feed to the FPV googles he now use the little CCTV camera that came with the goggles, and then i have supplied him with a less wide angle lens so that its easy to judge distance to objekts.
Downside to that is a smaller field of view.

Here they have started to use areal photo / video a lot to find long gone houses and settelments in the crop fields, even a long gone little viking settelment stand out from the air.
PPL metaldetecting have started to use drones to look for tell tail clues of settelments from above, mostly using gopros and dji phantoms.



Bones might be a lot harder to spot among some stones, and i dont think you will get many hits from a drone flown by hand using LOS or FPV googles ( you wont see much in the goggles as they all are pretty sad low res images )

BUT ! i might have a solution for you,but its by no means dirt cheap, but then it do level up from the regular phantom or simmilar drone.

If you go for somthing like this F550 Arducopter GPS Hexacopter Fully Built - Hexacopters - MultiRotors

Then using a gopro with a less wide angle lens. ( can be quite expensive those megapixel lenses )

They come with APM 2.6 or pixhawk controllers witch let you plan a flightpath on your computer, using GPS it can execute a presise flight over a area of your choice, and at altitudes you plan.

Just remember the limited flight time of most quadcopters, so you will need somthing that can carry plenty of MAH around,
Just be aware that just becuz you douple your battery MAH dont mean you get 2X flight time with a quadcopter / drone.

No doubt you can find the same in the US, and maybe allso at a cheaper prize.

[road_rascal]

I have a 3D Robotics Iris (not the newer Plus+ edition). The programming can be a little confusing at first. Flies great and once you get the gimbal dialed in it takes great video/photos with a GoPro Hero3+.

[Flexin]

As much fun as the quads are ( and I have them), if you want to look at 30 acres for this type of information, you can use google. Some areas have more details than others, but it's an option.

Although flying yourself is a ton of fun.

Also, don't forget some quads will not include a radio, so you need to factor that in, unless you have at least a six channel radio already.

Unless you are looking to see something that is close to you, FPV is not a great option, unless you spend the money on high end equipment. You won't have great detail or range with low end equipment.

Depending on how far away you want to fly the craft, if you fly line of site, a smaller one will give you less range. I love my 200qx, however, it's small and difficult to see and orientate from far away. Just having a larger craft in size will give you more range. This holds true if you are trying to get film or video. A 350QX or Phantom will be easier to see. DJI has some other kits if you want to do a build.

[Duuuuuuuude]

Probably going to buy this:

AeroSky RC Quadcopter Drone 4 Channel ARF w/ LED, Motor, ESC, MWC Flight Control Board (Yellow)


Any experienced opinions here?

[Szczerba]

Originally Posted by Duuuuuuuude

Probably going to buy this:



AeroSky RC Quadcopter Drone 4 Channel ARF w/ LED, Motor, ESC, MWC Flight Control Board (Yellow)





Any experienced opinions here?

Looks like a decent entry level quad. Loom forward to see how you like it, if you get it.

I had the smaller Blade 200qx, it was fun for sport flying buy a tad too small. I still have my DJ Phantom 2 Vision Plus for filming.

[Duuuuuuuude]

Originally Posted by Szczerba

Looks like a decent entry level quad. Look forward to see how you like it, if you get it.

I had the smaller Blade 200qx, it was fun for sport flying buy a tad too small.

I was aiming for kind of the high end of entry level within a reasonable budget. I loaded the artf copter, a FS radio, and a handful of blades in the shopping cart this morning before I went to work so I would have the day to think about it. The actual purchase is imminent.

They guys at work have been eyeballing the Storm fpv racing quads, but its on the small side IMO and is more expensive. A larger size would AFAIK handle wind better, which in turn would bring more opportunities to fly.