Multirotor, multicopter and quadcopter discussion - The Drone thread

I got an Archos DVR from ebay at the weekend to record the video feed from my goggles with OSD. It's amazing you can get them for <£40 now, when new they were hundreds, such is the progression of technology I guess :)

At least now if I crash I'll have a recording in my pocket of the last moments with GPS coordinates.
 
I tried to set up my Phantom with the Taranis and X8R today. I failed.
I know what's up now though so I'll sort it tomorrow.

Very nice tx. I'm quite impressed.
 
Oo, just noticed this thread. That's a nice looking gimbal pazza. We've just bought a Phantom and are still trial and erroring with reducing jello and general movement.

Which model gimbal is it and where did you buy it from?
 
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PinkFloyd said:
I've got a Racer's Edge Surecharge 2010 off of a workmate at the moment. It's really nice, but it's also a £100+ charger that I can't even see in stock in the UK!

The imax (or one of the similar style ones from other manufactures) is what I'd been considering. I was looking to get the B6AC so I can plug it straight to the wall, but seems Hobbyking have stopped stocking that in the UK sadly. Wish the spec lists were more clear on what sort of power supply I need, ideally I'd like one with a laptop style plug straight in - which I know the GT Power chargers on Giantshark have. Seems Hobbyking doesn't specify what power supplies are compatible with which chargers too. But many of them are just a pair of cables with clips on the end which is just gonna be messy :p

I think the problem is, there are too many different chargers to chose from. Amazed at how many companies all basically rebuild the exact same charger!
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I use a ansmann xmove 2.0 ultimate with a 200watt power supply got it on special offer from http://www.kingslynnmodelshop.co.uk/

Its pretty good, i can balance charge 2 x 5000 mah 4s batteries in an hour,it runs upto 10 amps,cost £60 for power supply and charger,i dont think they sell it anymore though.

I also have a GT Power from giantshark b606 i think the number was,it works ok with a decent 5amp power supply and thats the max it will charge at,it gets very hot.
 
Russinating said:
Oo, just noticed this thread. That's a nice looking gimbal pazza. We've just bought a Phantom and are still trial and erroring with reducing jello and general movement.

Which model gimbal is it and where did you buy it from?
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Thanks,its called a Beholder lite and its ideal for the phantom,though it does take a lot of tuning to get it working well.

I bought it here:

http://ehobby.cn/

If you want a plug and play gimbal i would highly recommend the Tarot gopro Gimbal:

http://www.foxtechfpv.com/gopro-twoaxis-brushless-gimbalwith-gyro-p-1096.html

Worked without any tuning at all.
 
Rilot said:
I tried to set up my Phantom with the Taranis and X8R today. I failed.
I know what's up now though so I'll sort it tomorrow.

Very nice tx. I'm quite impressed.
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For the price its an awesome piece of kit,im going to buy more X8R'S and change all my quads over.

Got mine setup just right.
 
Think I'm going to go with the GT Power A606 from Giant Shark.
From what I can find pretty much all of the Lipo chargers around that price range with the 2 line LCD and 4 buttons are near enough the same. Looks to have a decent lot of reviews and I'm seeing much less negative comments about it than some of the IMax ones on Hobbyking.

I'll look at something higher end in the future perhaps when I've got more justification for it.
 
Russinating said:
Thanks pazza. This looks pretty good, but the product description isn't that detailed; it says it comes with a gyro but does it come with a remote control etc for it too?

Do you have one do you or just used it?
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The remote control will be your transmitter, however if you want full control you'll need two spare channels that you can assign to two pots, one for each axis.
 
Can you do that pretty much out of the box? I had assumed controlling the tilt/pan of a gimbal would have been a bit of a pain in the rear to set up! Definitely something to keep in mind for the future.
 
its not that difficult to do, just a case of connecting a few pins on the board to a spare channel on your reciever then setting up the same channel in your transmitter to control it.
 
Having no experience with RC aircraft at all and being impressed and interested in the quad rotor + camera stuff I'm seeing, would it be fair to say that the DJI Phantom would be a reasonable unit to buy as my first RC / quad machine? (I'd quite like to add a camera in the near future so I figured one that already came with an attachment would be best rather than going for a really cheap unit with no attachment to practice with first before spending again on another...)
 
Mat said:
Having no experience with RC aircraft at all and being impressed and interested in the quad rotor + camera stuff I'm seeing, would it be fair to say that the DJI Phantom would be a reasonable unit to buy as my first RC / quad machine? (I'd quite like to add a camera in the near future so I figured one that already came with an attachment would be best rather than going for a really cheap unit with no attachment to practice with first before spending again on another...)
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You could go for the Phantom Vision. It has a camera built in which can be controlled from a smart phone. Image quality appears to be pretty good too.
It's expensive though. For the same money as the Vision you could buy a Phantom, a GoPro H3 Black and a gimbal.
 
I was looking at those this morning and they do look good but as you say, they are expensive, at least for a first buy. I think having a separate Go-Pro would be a bit more versatile than a built in unit.

Can you get attachments and gimbals that are controllable in the same way as the camera on the Vision or are they typically set before take off?
 
PinkFloyd said:
Can you do that pretty much out of the box? I had assumed controlling the tilt/pan of a gimbal would have been a bit of a pain in the rear to set up! Definitely something to keep in mind for the future.
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It's quite simple to connect up the Rx channels to the gimbal controller from what I've seen, the tricky part seems to be tuning the PIDs.
Not tried it myself though as I don't really need a gimbal for what I do.

Mat said:
Having no experience with RC aircraft at all and being impressed and interested in the quad rotor + camera stuff I'm seeing, would it be fair to say that the DJI Phantom would be a reasonable unit to buy as my first RC / quad machine? (I'd quite like to add a camera in the near future so I figured one that already came with an attachment would be best rather than going for a really cheap unit with no attachment to practice with first before spending again on another...)
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If you can I'd recommend building your own. Some people don't have the time, hate tinkering or just want to fly without the building stage and I can understand that, the Phantom is great if you fall in those categories.

However if you have the skills to put a PC together you can build a quadcopter, sure you need do a little soldering but it's not hard fiddly stuff.

Not only will it be a nice project it's also a good introduction to RC and helps you understand the components. When (not if) you break something you'll know how to fix it as you put it together in the first place.

also the feeling you get when something you built flies is amazing too :)
 
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+1 build your own, much better in the long run imo. I haven't lost a £500 model (yet) but I can imagine it being a bit **** :p Fact is, you will crash and an expensive quad will disintegrate equally well as a cheaper homebuild will.

Side note, got my second Hubsan X4 today, this one is the V2 model. I've noticed it takes more throttle to lift off and hover, generally feels a bit more sluggish than the V1. Anyone have the same experience of the two?

Also, the LEDs are beyond silly, it has white LEDs at the rear of the craft FFS (white props at the front for orientation).
 
Anyone for a man sized Octodec-coptor for their commute to work or just general fun?
See here for details.

Not sure what they really gain over a helicopter for genuine transport, but cool to see anyway :)
 
Went for the Tarot T-2D gimbal and although it got delivered yesterday we've been out on shoots. We're looking to use it tomorrow but considering we've only got maybe 4/5 hours split between this evening and tomorrow morning to mount it/install it/extend the legs etc of the Phantom, how likely is it that we'll have it functioning (at least as a gimbal, not the gyro)?
 
Just strap it to your phantom and away you go,the only issue you might have is vibration and jello,have you balanced your props?
 
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