Multirotor, multicopter and quadcopter discussion - The Drone thread

Delvis · 12 Jul 2017 at 17:22

robgmun said:
Hi Guys,

I'm looking for some advice, i'm on the market for a Quadcopter to take some shots of our up coming wedding, our budget is about £150 and we're looking for the following features:

* FPV (this is a must)
* Decent camera, most in the price range are 0.3MP, we're were hoping for a bit more like 1080p
* Some sort of auto height control
* Fairly easy to learn how to fly and be stable

This seems to fit the bill but the camera is quite low res, i'm happy to pay a little more for a more decent camera but still has FPV

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Syma-Headl...qid=1499858991&sr=8-3&keywords=quadcopter+FPV

And this seems perfect but lacks FPV!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Remote-C...qid=1499858991&sr=8-2&keywords=quadcopter+FPV

So it seems difficult to have both under £150

Anyone have any advice?

The camera on the X8 series (stock) is terrible. You could get the X8 and attach say a Gopro on the bottom, but you'd have to angle it in such a way that it's pointing in the same direction as the fpv cam.

So, as well as the above you may get jello (shaky images) then you either need to set the gopro to take photos on a timer or have some other way of taking them remotely (Bluetooth or something????)

Really, your better bet would be with a second hand Dji phantom, but even then you'd be hard pressed to find anything above a phantom 2 for that cash.

AndyCr15 · 12 Jul 2017 at 22:47

I'd be very surprised if you can get anything from a £150 drone that isn't a bit of a waste of time and money tbh. You might be better asking if any of the guests have a half decent drone they/you could use?

Bradmax57 · 12 Jul 2017 at 23:01

I'm loving my P4, getting around 25 mins easy which is quite a bit of airtime, just need some time to get to fly it around some places so I can share some pics, put it in sport mode today for the first time and boy does it shift

Bradmax57 · 12 Jul 2017 at 23:02

double post

maj · 12 Jul 2017 at 23:54

Bradmax57 said:
I'm loving my P4, getting around 25 mins easy which is quite a bit of airtime, just need some time to get to fly it around some places so I can share some pics, put it in sport mode today for the first time and boy does it shift

With all the rules & regulations about where you can and can't fly, where do you go? Only asking as I'll be local to you. Saw a Parrot drone advertised locally on gumtree for £100 which I didn't think was too badly priced for a starting point as it would have been my first drone but sadly it sold before I could buy it.

teaboy5 · 13 Jul 2017 at 00:52

Is anyone on the mavic getting a little yaw drift with the gimball. Say after doing a quick left or right does it take 5 seconds or so for the camera to stop moving.

Bradmax57 · 13 Jul 2017 at 07:12

maj said:
With all the rules & regulations about where you can and can't fly, where do you go? Only asking as I'll be local to you. Saw a Parrot drone advertised locally on gumtree for £100 which I didn't think was too badly priced for a starting point as it would have been my first drone but sadly it sold before I could buy it.

That'll be the one I bought them

just sold it on again yesterday basically got my money back after buying some batteries and other bits. I've not really ventured far from home yet and have only gone about 50m high. Shame we live so close to an airport

maj · 13 Jul 2017 at 07:49

Bradmax57 said:
That'll be the one I bought them just sold it on again yesterday basically got my money back after buying some batteries and other bits. I've not really ventured far from home yet and have only gone about 50m high. Shame we live so close to an airport

What's the odds on that! It probably worked out better for me that I didn't get it anyway as I've since had two expensive car repair bills. There's some quite nice beauty spots/nature reserves although they tend to be busy with people most days. Plenty of nice beaches too which is always an option providing it's relatively quiet.

robgmun · 13 Jul 2017 at 11:35

Well we decided to stretch the budget and go for a P3 Standard.

Flukester · 17 Jul 2017 at 19:41

After the sale of my F550 two years back I have been UAVless.... just got a shiny new mavic and it's capabilities are that of my F550 200%

Here is a quick flight I grabbed at lunch. Gotta learn how to get best out of camera, like NOT leave auto WB on, and maybe pickup a ND32 for it.

bingham67 · 19 Jul 2017 at 13:20

Just stuck money down on the DJI spark 4-11 day wait for delivery but Im in no real rush a few questions though.

Firstly I use Instagram and post pictures of my travels would uploaded pictures I took from my drone be considered commercial purposes if uploaded to Instagram or only if I make profit direct from the pictures?

Secondly I live around countryside so plenty of options to fly in open space only problem one place I am looking to fly when I went for a walk the other week a Cessna type plane come really low down and would have been same height as the drone no doubt. Now I dont want to cause an accident but I really want to take pictures of the beautiful countryside I live around there is plenty of open space around here.

Also I read the drone laws but abit confused of the around people part if I am flying drone up and someone was to walk along country footpath / field I am in do I have to bring the drone back to me. I read it says 50m away so if the drone above 164 feet it considered fine to have the drone up or do I have to bring it back?

And finally sorry for loads of questions I dont need permission right to take off drone on a public footpath and take pictures correct? just I read you need permission from the owner of the land if you will take off or land on their property.

rhysduck · 19 Jul 2017 at 17:14

Any recommendations on a 250 ish size kit or parts list please?
Want something a bit different to the tricopter that I can just throw in the car.... needs to be 3s compatible as that's what batteries I have currently.

Delvis · 19 Jul 2017 at 18:00

bingham67 said:
Just stuck money down on the DJI spark 4-11 day wait for delivery but Im in no real rush a few questions though.

Firstly I use Instagram and post pictures of my travels would uploaded pictures I took from my drone be considered commercial purposes if uploaded to Instagram or only if I make profit direct from the pictures?

Secondly I live around countryside so plenty of options to fly in open space only problem one place I am looking to fly when I went for a walk the other week a Cessna type plane come really low down and would have been same height as the drone no doubt. Now I dont want to cause an accident but I really want to take pictures of the beautiful countryside I live around there is plenty of open space around here.

Also I read the drone laws but abit confused of the around people part if I am flying drone up and someone was to walk along country footpath / field I am in do I have to bring the drone back to me. I read it says 50m away so if the drone above 164 feet it considered fine to have the drone up or do I have to bring it back?

And finally sorry for loads of questions I dont need permission right to take off drone on a public footpath and take pictures correct? just I read you need permission from the owner of the land if you will take off or land on their property.

Well, other than you're not meant to be within 50ft of practically everything .....

Delvis · 19 Jul 2017 at 18:02

rhysduck said:
Any recommendations on a 250 ish size kit or parts list please?
Want something a bit different to the tricopter that I can just throw in the car.... needs to be 3s compatible as that's what batteries I have currently.

Just look up a parts list for a 250 quad really, eachine falcon for instance and Base it off that, or a 220 or 180.

Just need a frame (maybe pdb to make life easy)
Motors
Esc
Flight controller (whatever you're comfortable with)
Vtx
Receiver
Lots of spare cables...

AndyCr15 · 19 Jul 2017 at 21:18

bingham67 said:
...

Only bit I would comment. From what I see, the 50m is point to point, so if you're flying higher than 50m I think it's fine. The 150m to a built up area is along the ground from the point of the drone, no matter how high. As far as I can see anyway.

bingham67 · 20 Jul 2017 at 09:07

AndyCr15 said:
Only bit I would comment. From what I see, the 50m is point to point, so if you're flying higher than 50m I think it's fine. The 150m to a built up area is along the ground from the point of the drone, no matter how high. As far as I can see anyway.

Ok cool but how do you know what 150m is along the ground does the drone tell you or do you have to guage this manually?

wez130 · 20 Jul 2017 at 11:58

Gauge it manually

ArchAnGeL · 20 Jul 2017 at 12:31

Delvis said:
Just look up a parts list for a 250 quad really, eachine falcon for instance and Base it off that, or a 220 or 180.

Just need a frame (maybe pdb to make life easy)
Motors
Esc
Flight controller (whatever you're comfortable with)
Vtx
Receiver
Lots of spare cables...

Maybe not exactly this but something similar
http://www.banggood.com/Realacc-D21...-ESC-5042-Prop-F4-p-1150699.html?rmmds=search

Or
F4 flight controller. If you want an AIO perhaps the CL racing F4
Frame - I really like my frog race but it is a tight build. Martian 2 is a lot easier
ESC's I'd say 30a min (actually just saw you were on 3s but you'll end up on 4s). Makes sure they are DSHOT.
VTX - loads of options. If you went TBS unify or Immersion RC tramp you can control channel from the FC On screen display. A cheap one is TS5828S
Receiver will depend on your radio
Antenna's: Aomway cloverleaf are fine but do damage easy
Camera - Runcam swift 2 - no point skimping
Cheap props racerstar 5048
Motors. King kong 2205 2300kv are great cheap entry motors with plenty of power. Obviously there are far better motors out there but if you are starting out you don;t want to be regularly replacing £15+ motors when you bang them

bingham67 · 21 Jul 2017 at 20:30

First flight today with the Spark went to massive a field out in the countryside started with beginner mode.

Only issue that sprung up was I got "You are in a warning zone Class D airspace please take caution" now I am 8 miles from airport but 2 miles away from being outside of the zone on the Nats zone assist app any ideas if this is ok to fly aslong as you follow the drone code?

Delvis · 21 Jul 2017 at 22:16

Just use your head? There is potential for flying craft, so either be more cautious or just don't fly if it's in a zone.