Multirotor, multicopter and quadcopter discussion - The Drone thread

Draeger · 16 Jul 2016 at 21:08

Now and again I've been having orientation issues when flying further out. Tried a few things like LED bike lights etc but they weren't directional enough. Found these online by pure chance - Strobon 'Standalone' LED navigation strobes. These things are utterly visible in the daylight and will burn your Retina's out if you look at them directly. £9 a pop. Awesome. Fitted to my P3:-

Draeger · 16 Jul 2016 at 21:37

Also, got my DJI Inspire tablet mount this morning. Awesome mod for the Phantom, allows you to use the windsurfer range extender with no problem at all. Rock solid too. Chuffed.

Cyclone · 17 Jul 2016 at 00:21

Nice setup Draeger. I have the Inspire tablet mount (or similar) on my to buy list. Im constantly tightening the one I have so my tablet doesn't wobble.

spookywillow · 17 Jul 2016 at 19:28

Well I went out for a proper flight with the new Kiss fc and ESC's and it really is something else, It is so much faster now that I'm going to have to change my camera tilt and it flips and roll perfectly.

I did have a mishap straight away, I'm so used to betaflight and airmode I completely forgot the Kiss FC doesn't have it so when I went to do my first roll it just dropped out of the sky. Duffed a motor up so it now vibrates a bit a low rpms but is fine in normal flight. Went home to repair and to setup a throttle up switch and went back out. Thought I had fixed my mobius from the last crash but it must have died again today as it no longer turns on again so I have no videos

Money money money but it's just so much fun

sprite1275 · 17 Jul 2016 at 22:26

Never had a quadcopter and don't know much about them but thinking of getting a dji phantom.

Would a P2 with Zenmuse H4-3D be a good buy for around £400? Or is a P3 standard a better choice at around £450?

Bigpops · 17 Jul 2016 at 22:33

spookywillow said:
I did have a mishap straight away, I'm so used to betaflight and airmode I completely forgot the Kiss FC doesn't have it so when I went to do my first roll it just dropped out of the sky. Duffed a motor up so it now vibrates a bit a low rpms but is fine in normal flight. Went home to repair and to setup a throttle up switch and went back out. Thought I had fixed my mobius from the last crash but it must have died again today as it no longer turns on again so I have no videos

Money money money but it's just so much fun

I did the same thing, well, except the crash part.

I took it on the garden for a test flight, and dropping the throttle quickly (to test the active breaking) it would drop on one corner. Much reading later, and I found out how to turn on airmode on the Kiss. Set min command to 1000, and make sure arm/disarm is on a switch (if this isn't how you already fly, I highly recommend it) and enjoy.

Draeger · 17 Jul 2016 at 22:49

sprite1275 said:
Never had a quadcopter and don't know much about them but thinking of getting a dji phantom.

If you have never flown a quad before, I'll go out on a limb and offer up this advice - consider 'learning to fly' with an inexpensive drone first. I bought a Syma X8C at the start of the year and learned how to fly it. The Syma along with lots of 'toy' or budget quadcopters on the market, has no altitude hold function at all so you really need to pay attention when flying it. I found it stood me in good stead for when I upgraded to my Phantom 3. Even though the P3 is very technically advanced and pretty much flies itself if you want it to, if something goes wrong and you need to switch from PGPS mode to ATTI mode to recover it, if you've flown something more basic before and learned on it, you should have no trouble flying a P3 manually as it were and getting yourself out of trouble. Worth considering.

Better to cut your teeth on a £50-£100 quad and crash it a few times (which will happen, trust me

) than fly a £450-£1200 Phantom into the ground.

Oh.....and I still enjoy flying my little X8C, its great fun!!

spookywillow · 17 Jul 2016 at 23:29

Bigpops said:
I did the same thing, well, except the crash part.

I took it on the garden for a test flight, and dropping the throttle quickly (to test the active breaking) it would drop on one corner. Much reading later, and I found out how to turn on airmode on the Kiss. Set min command to 1000, and make sure arm/disarm is on a switch (if this isn't how you already fly, I highly recommend it) and enjoy.

I just jumped straight in the deep end and went for flips, it got half way and that was that

Arm is already set to a switch then I have a 3 position switch for level, acro and acro plus airmode.

Sprite1275: Bigpops offers good advice, I started with a hubsan and worked my way up.

Delvis · 18 Jul 2016 at 09:43

Only issue with having arm on a switch is people occasionally flick it off by accident

sprite1275 · 18 Jul 2016 at 14:23

Draeger said:
If you have never flown a quad before, I'll go out on a limb and offer up this advice - consider 'learning to fly' with an inexpensive drone first. I bought a Syma X8C at the start of the year and learned how to fly it. The Syma along with lots of 'toy' or budget quadcopters on the market, has no altitude hold function at all so you really need to pay attention when flying it. I found it stood me in good stead for when I upgraded to my Phantom 3. Even though the P3 is very technically advanced and pretty much flies itself if you want it to, if something goes wrong and you need to switch from PGPS mode to ATTI mode to recover it, if you've flown something more basic before and learned on it, you should have no trouble flying a P3 manually as it were and getting yourself out of trouble. Worth considering.

Better to cut your teeth on a £50-£100 quad and crash it a few times (which will happen, trust me ) than fly a £450-£1200 Phantom into the ground.

Oh.....and I still enjoy flying my little X8C, its great fun!!

spookywillow said:
I just jumped straight in the deep end and went for flips, it got half way and that was that

Arm is already set to a switch then I have a 3 position switch for level, acro and acro plus airmode.

Sprite1275: Bigpops offers good advice, I started with a hubsan and worked my way up.

I might look into getting a syma then. Which one would you folks recommend?

Regards my other question above about the DJI phantoms, which one would be worth going for as I'm monitoring prices on them.

Bigpops · 18 Jul 2016 at 15:46

Delvis said:
Only issue with having arm on a switch is people occasionally flick it off by accident

Which is why my arm "switch" is a combination of two switches. Both are 3 positions, both have to be in one of the 3 positions to arm.

Draeger · 18 Jul 2016 at 17:27

sprite1275 said:
I might look into getting a syma then. Which one would you folks recommend?

Regards my other question above about the DJI phantoms, which one would be worth going for as I'm monitoring prices on them.

The Syma X8 is physically about the same size as a Phantom and physically resembles one too. There are a few versions of the X8. The X8C is the base model, but flies very well - it comes with a 2mp camera which is a bit crap but you can retro fit a Runcam/Foxeer Legend or Mobius easily enough. The X8G comes with a reasonable quality Syma 8mp camera and has slightly uprated motors to carry the extra weight of the different camera. It's more expensive though so the X8C is probably the best compromise if its just being purchased to learn to fly with. The X8W is the FPV equipped wifi model but the wifi range is pretty poor and it doesn't get particularly good reviews. Finally there is an X8HG which has an altitude hold feature meaning if you let go the throttle up stick, it will hover and maintain its altitude. But its the newest model in the range and its expensive. So I'd say an X8C would be a good shout. Check out the bay and Banggood for prices.

As far as the Phantom question is concerned, its pretty straightforward - buy whatever is within your budget. I know that sounds obvious but the P3 Standard is a superb quad (that's what model I have). It has all the functions of the other Phantoms but uses Wifi rather than DJI 'Lightbridge' to connect between the quad and the Tx. This means it has a longer range (although in the UK you should always have LOS when flying if you are abiding by the guidelines). Standard has a 2.7k camera which I've found takes fantastic footage so far. Phantom 3 4k is the same as the Standard but has a 4k camera and the Vision Positioning System. Then you have the Pro and Advanced which both have Lightbridge and the Vision positioning system which means indoor flying is much easier compared to the Standard. The Advanced has a 2.7k camera and the Pro a 4k.

So basically, if you can stretch to a Pro or Advanced, go for it. I wouldn't say the Phantom 4k quad was worth the extra premium over the Standard just for the camera and Vision positioning system. But certainly the Pro and Advanced are worth stretching to just to get Lightbridge. I was on a strict £400-£500 budget so the Standard was my choice. I plan on perhaps upgrading to an Inspire 1 at some point a couple of years down the line.

spookywillow · 18 Jul 2016 at 17:29

Never had that problem yet lol.

Sprite1275, It all depends what you want to do with it, I want it for filming and photography and knew I would be gutted knowing there's better one if I got anything but the professional.

Speaking of which, It arrived today along with my Taranis so it's a busy night for me

IvanDobskey · 18 Jul 2016 at 18:21

I won a s-idee 01251 Quadrocopter S183C HD Camera on a football tipster competition at work

Now, I have no clue about drones or flying them, so I wondered if anyone could give me some advice?

Is this particular drone any good? Is it easy to fly for a total beginner? What's it worth?

spookywillow · 18 Jul 2016 at 21:17

Just trying to setup my Taranis and noticed it wont work with my D4R-II aparently, How do I get around this without buying a new receiver?

Edit, Nevermind I sorted it

Lisapete · 19 Jul 2016 at 15:34

Bigpops said:
Flying beyond unaided line of sight is illegal.

Now that's out of the way. No, not seen anything. Why not just pay full price? £50 is pretty standard for any full featured Rx from Futaba/JR/Jeti/Spektrum/Multiplex/Graupner.

It is if you don't have the right exemptions. I use FrSky Taranis but I need more range. I wouldn't use such above radios on anything.

Delvis · 19 Jul 2016 at 17:22

Lisapete said:
It is if you don't have the right exemptions. I use FrSky Taranis but I need more range. I wouldn't use such above radios on anything.

Exemptions lol, yes.....pretty much in professional circumstances or you own the land.

What range do you have now? Anf what quad again?

Mark_D · 19 Jul 2016 at 17:37

Aargh I shouldn't have opened this thread! Got the itch for a Phantom 4 now

cainer · 19 Jul 2016 at 18:04

ive seen quite a lot of footage taken from the Phantom 4 on Youtube.. wow is all i can say!

sprite1275 · 20 Jul 2016 at 00:32

Draeger said:
The Syma X8 is physically about the same size as a Phantom and physically resembles one too. There are a few versions of the X8. The X8C is the base model, but flies very well - it comes with a 2mp camera which is a bit crap but you can retro fit a Runcam/Foxeer Legend or Mobius easily enough. The X8G comes with a reasonable quality Syma 8mp camera and has slightly uprated motors to carry the extra weight of the different camera. It's more expensive though so the X8C is probably the best compromise if its just being purchased to learn to fly with. The X8W is the FPV equipped wifi model but the wifi range is pretty poor and it doesn't get particularly good reviews. Finally there is an X8HG which has an altitude hold feature meaning if you let go the throttle up stick, it will hover and maintain its altitude. But its the newest model in the range and its expensive. So I'd say an X8C would be a good shout. Check out the bay and Banggood for prices.

As far as the Phantom question is concerned, its pretty straightforward - buy whatever is within your budget. I know that sounds obvious but the P3 Standard is a superb quad (that's what model I have). It has all the functions of the other Phantoms but uses Wifi rather than DJI 'Lightbridge' to connect between the quad and the Tx. This means it has a longer range (although in the UK you should always have LOS when flying if you are abiding by the guidelines). Standard has a 2.7k camera which I've found takes fantastic footage so far. Phantom 3 4k is the same as the Standard but has a 4k camera and the Vision Positioning System. Then you have the Pro and Advanced which both have Lightbridge and the Vision positioning system which means indoor flying is much easier compared to the Standard. The Advanced has a 2.7k camera and the Pro a 4k.

So basically, if you can stretch to a Pro or Advanced, go for it. I wouldn't say the Phantom 4k quad was worth the extra premium over the Standard just for the camera and Vision positioning system. But certainly the Pro and Advanced are worth stretching to just to get Lightbridge. I was on a strict £400-£500 budget so the Standard was my choice. I plan on perhaps upgrading to an Inspire 1 at some point a couple of years down the line.

Very helpful post. My budget is around your lowest so £400. I feel like im going to go straight in at the deep end and get the phantom. If i get the syma then that £100 could have gone towards the phantom.

I know im risking it not learning how to fly first but i think ill just take it easy and really take my time learning the phantom.

So with my budget it looks like either a P3 standard or a P2 with h4 gimbal. If the camera is good quality on the P3 then i suppose that has to be the better option.