Multirotor, multicopter and quadcopter discussion - The Drone thread

Difficult, probably not. Recommended? Probably not :) Depends on what you want, if you want fun, fly fast with FPV gear learn and build a 250 size quad. If you want a filming platform and don't want to learn to build / maintain a multirotor go for it, but won't be cheap if you crash.
 
I would go down the building a dji f450 or f550 or if you want to save some money go for a replica build q450 or h550.

Or if you want an aerobatic racer rather than stable filming then 250

It would be better than buying prebuilt,especially if something happens as you know the ins and outs of how it went together
 
Tonights practise session, still in horizon mode, no acromode yet, find myself getting disorientated in direction a lot on these things with line of sight. Hard to see which way its pointing when its too far out.

Had around 16-17 mins flying time only took the two batteries with me

Flying through rugby posts and goal posts in last half



 
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The Phantoms are popular because they are relatively easy to fly and have features designed to stop you crashing.

A Phantom 3 is a very expensive way in though. A Phantom 2 would be a better first quad, or you can build your own and learn some new skills. What are you aiming to do with it?
 
Hey all, my f450 kit has arrived, now I just need some advice regarding batteries and a charger.

This is all I have at the mo, maybe with the intention of sticking my gopro on there at a later date.

Included with the F450 Flamewheel:
1x Frame set.
4x 15 Amp E300 Speed controllers.
4x E300 2212 920kva Motors
6x E300 9" Self tightening props (cw/ccw)
DJI Naza v2 FC with GPS
Extended landing gear
Xt60 connectors

Im after a couple of batteries and a charger that will be suitable for the kit above, with a budget of about £50-£100.
Any advice please guys:)
 
Dj my first 250 was a cheap HK X frame, I added green LEDs strips to the front half, blue to the be back half, superb for LOS, was flying big circles around 200-300 meters no problem that way. Give that a go. You can even make the strips remove able witth JST connectors and some thin Velcro straps. These things are small, orientation is a pig at any distance :)
 
You would be forgiven for not recognising my QAV250 anymore ;)
IMG_20150408_165115_zpsb8ztvtmf.jpg

IMG_20150408_163907_zps2qf3uzae.jpg
 
Genoma said:
Dj my first 250 was a cheap HK X frame, I added green LEDs strips to the front half, blue to the be back half, superb for LOS, was flying big circles around 200-300 meters no problem that way. Give that a go. You can even make the strips remove able witth JST connectors and some thin Velcro straps. These things are small, orientation is a pig at any distance :)
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Yeh I will have to get some small strips, although are these any good in the day? specifically when its sunny on a summers day. Are they still that visible out at a little distance?

I did have an LED pcb strip that soldered on to the front and rear of the model via an in build LED strip contacts but tbh they were rubbsih, not the easiest to solder and a crash would rip off the LED strip and the PCB power contact.

So will have to get a few strips and wire them to the power terminals and just use the connectors.

Its only with LOS anyway for when its a bit further out, wont be so bad when its FPV.


Kanifee - Looking good :)



mingeroonie said:
Hey all, my f450 kit has arrived, now I just need some advice regarding batteries and a charger.

This is all I have at the mo, maybe with the intention of sticking my gopro on there at a later date.

Included with the F450 Flamewheel:
1x Frame set.
4x 15 Amp E300 Speed controllers.
4x E300 2212 920kva Motors
6x E300 9" Self tightening props (cw/ccw)
DJI Naza v2 FC with GPS
Extended landing gear
Xt60 connectors

Im after a couple of batteries and a charger that will be suitable for the kit above, with a budget of about £50-£100.
Any advice please guys:)
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I fly my F450 with 4S 5000mah 25C, I think it cost me around £30, gives me around 17-18 mins flying time with F450 with aftermarket landing skids (around 350gms as apposed to the white legs 90gms), mobius camera, GPS flight controller, FPV.

I am going to get another one of these to have a spare.

For a charger I am using an Imax B6 although only a 5amp charge rate on these, so if you want more your going to have to cough up.

I just be a little patient, if I know I am going out, I will just stick them on charge early.

Imax B6 will charge a 3S 1300mah 25-50c racing quad battery from low to full in around 10-13 mins,

Imax B6 will charge a 4S 5000mah 25c battery from low to full in around 60-70mins I find, so decision is yours.



Speaking of charging batteries, if I buy a charging adaptor for my imax and stick 2 x 5000mah 4S batteries on charge, will it charge at half the rate if you were charging one? IE as it has to do double the work at the same time?
 
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Assuming your already charging at the max output of your charger, yes. If your not and you have headroom then times will be less for 2 than running 1 at a time.

The B6 is a great cheap charger for 250 size batteries. If your looking at larger batteries and more of them then you definitely want something beefier.
 
On the LED front yes, blue and green leds are the strongest IMO and I could see them in the day, but the cheap HK X frame was literally covered all round :) I'm going to rebuild this rig specifically for LOS acro and keep the main CF 250 frame for FPV.

I shrink wrapped the LED strips with clear tubing and made it much more resilient. On the FPV rig I just have a small strip and a strobe led on the back to help if I need to LOS land (and it looks cool...) the strobe also helps a bit if the quad lands upside down.
 
DJMK4 said:
Yeh I will have to get some small strips, although are these any good in the day? specifically when its sunny on a summers day. Are they still that visible out at a little distance?

I did have an LED pcb strip that soldered on to the front and rear of the model via an in build LED strip contacts but tbh they were rubbsih, not the easiest to solder and a crash would rip off the LED strip and the PCB power contact.

So will have to get a few strips and wire them to the power terminals and just use the connectors.

Its only with LOS anyway for when its a bit further out, wont be so bad when its FPV.


Kanifee - Looking good :)





I fly my F450 with 4S 5000mah 25C, I think it cost me around £30, gives me around 17-18 mins flying time with F450 with aftermarket landing skids (around 350gms as apposed to the white legs 90gms), mobius camera, GPS flight controller, FPV.

I am going to get another one of these to have a spare.

For a charger I am using an Imax B6 although only a 5amp charge rate on these, so if you want more your going to have to cough up.

I just be a little patient, if I know I am going out, I will just stick them on charge early.

Imax B6 will charge a 3S 1300mah 25-50c racing quad battery from low to full in around 10-13 mins,

Imax B6 will charge a 4S 5000mah 25c battery from low to full in around 60-70mins I find, so decision is yours.



Speaking of charging batteries, if I buy a charging adaptor for my imax and stick 2 x 5000mah 4S batteries on charge, will it charge at half the rate if you were charging one? IE as it has to do double the work at the same time?
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Hey Dj,

Did you not get the strips I sent out to you? If not, I will go have a look around in our post-room. We've got a new girl on the front desk and she's pretty ditzy (as well as being pretty in general!) so that might explain things a little!
 
Genoma said:
I have the FPV insurance. I do wander how much it's worth though. Using your example if you hit someone at full pelt with a 250, they could argue you shouldn't be flying within 50 meters of anyone to start with and deem the claim void?
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I'm no legal expert, but the way I read it, FPV insurance is only valid if the following criteria are satisfied:

  • Your spotter maintains LOS to the craft at all times (you have a spotter, right? :p)
  • You fly within the proximity guidelines (so how did you hit said person?)
  • You are flying from a designated flying field (written or implied permission from the land owner)

I have FPV UK insurance, but I have little faith it will pull me out of the muck should it all go south. Anyone who does speak legalese who cares to correct me, I am all ears ;)
 
Anything with a camera (so FPV) is restricted, so yeah, 30m away from third parties during take off and landing and 50m during flight. You would be covered (I presume) if you could prove it was a fly away for example, but not if you were under control and hit someone.
 
gandhi said:
Hey Dj,

Did you not get the strips I sent out to you? If not, I will go have a look around in our post-room. We've got a new girl on the front desk and she's pretty ditzy (as well as being pretty in general!) so that might explain things a little!
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No I didnt get them :p I was going to ask but I assumed you had forgot but I didnt want to seem like I was chasing something you were kindly sending :p

Sorry haha.

Ok let me know how it goes, if not im going to get some at some point anyway so no worries
 
Has anyone got a good guide for what components make up a quad copter and how to build one?

From my Googling I am getting the impression that building a quad is similar to PCs in that you have a few categories and subcategories (like AMD or Intel. then LGA1150 or 1155, then Z87 or H81...) you base your quad on and only certain motors etc will work with certain frame / electronics? Is this correct?

I'm not planning on jumping into building one yet but I don't like knowing how it works!
 
almoststew1990 said:
Has anyone got a good guide for what components make up a quad copter and how to build one?

From my Googling I am getting the impression that building a quad is similar to PCs in that you have a few categories and subcategories (like AMD or Intel. then LGA1150 or 1155, then Z87 or H81...) you base your quad on and only certain motors etc will work with certain frame / electronics? Is this correct?

I'm not planning on jumping into building one yet but I don't like knowing how it works!
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All depends on what you want out of it, if it's a 250mm FPV race quad see the video below, it's a build by Charpu who is by far the best out there for 250 quads.

This is based on a QAV250 which is expensive and can be done much cheaper but it's a good guide on components and what's required etc. Something to keep in mind is quad components are almost like PC components, they're are constantly bringing out better parts with better firmware.
 
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