Multirotor, multicopter and quadcopter discussion - The Drone thread

MadMossy said:
To which I replied, how many people have been killed or injured by drones this year then?
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It's only a matter of time imho. Airprox reports by pilots against drones appear to be on the rise. Had one just the other day at 6000 feet, Missed by about 50 feet.
 
Unless that drone was a General Atomics MQ-1 Predator, there is no way on earth any consumer drone could make it to 6000ft let alone be visible to an aircraft travelling at hundreds of miles per hour. It's possibly a drone had malfunctioned and just kept going up but then either the battery would have run out or it would initiate failsafe/return to home when reception is lost.

There was an apparent drone incident a while ago with a Boeing 777 at 20,000 feet. Plastered all over the papers as it had nose cone damage.

A 700,000lb object travelling at 400+ mph would obliterate a drone if it got anywhere near, even a large bird (goose or turkey vulture etc) would barely dent the body work, although likely cause engine troubles if they entered one, but then aircraft are designed to operate still even with an engine down. Could a drone also cause that problem sure it, is it likely to happen. Nope, the probability is miniscule.

Just like the chance of being struck in the head by a falling meteorite, can it happen sure, will it likely kill you, most likely. Should we ban all meteorites from falling out the sky? Don't be daft.
 
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Just because firmware prevents a drone from going that high, doesn't mean it's not possible, and I have seen footage from an aircraft cockpit of a drone near miss and believe me, they are visible. A bird can destroy an engine if ingested and they don't have metal parts and batteries. Like I said, it's only a matter of time, I'll repost on this thread with a "told you so" when the inevitable happens :p

Also, I never once mentioned banning drones. But preventing them from flying at 6000' and near airports would be a start. Fortunately, airports appear to be upping their game with anti-drone technology.
 
Decided to sell my Mavic Air. I've enjoyed the portability of it but I'm a little frustrated by the range and battery life compared to my original Mavic Pro. I'm not likely to use the Air much between now and October when I'm next overseas on my bike, so I'm counting on the Mavic Air 2 being both out by then and substantially better.
 
neodude said:
Just because firmware prevents a drone from going that high, doesn't mean it's not possible, and I have seen footage from an aircraft cockpit of a drone near miss and believe me, they are visible. A bird can destroy an engine if ingested and they don't have metal parts and batteries. Like I said, it's only a matter of time, I'll repost on this thread with a "told you so" when the inevitable happens :p

Also, I never once mentioned banning drones. But preventing them from flying at 6000' and near airports would be a start. Fortunately, airports appear to be upping their game with anti-drone technology.
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They are already prevented from flying at 6000ft, the regulations mean your restricted to 400ft MAX, just like there are laws preventing you from driving at 100mph on the high street, doesn't mean people don't do it.

As for I told you so, it hasn't happened yet and with regulation in place and due to have an even larger impact towards the end of the year. I'll be amazed if it ever happens, and with the likes of DJI adding air craft tracking to their drones, it won't take long for the rest of the market to catch up.

The only exception will be custom build drones which are as of now not yet even remotely close to the level of automation DJI drones can do and are nearly always limited by their video transmission range which is not even remotely close to the distances required to interfere with commercial airlines unless near an airport, seeing as your limited to 25mw output power, even a 1w 5.8Ghz transmitter would struggle to keep video clear over 1-2km.
 
I have wanted to build a foam wing for a couple years but never felt like I could put the money into all the kit until now.

Decided I cant ignore quads too, so looking at radios to get going but it's a proper rabbit hole. FrSky are getting some flack at the moment it seems due to pushing suppliers to not stock the Jumper T16 however not sure I quite care as the T16 doesn't seem as quality as it could be, and may never be well supported.

Decided I wanted a QX7S however when heading towards £200 an X9D SE seems a better investment but seem hard to come by. Anyone know if it's due for replacement and worth waiting?

Plan is to run simulator, buy a BNF whoop (TBS nano unless there is better out there) and dabble in the custom foam wing (Flite Test type) down the line.

Any reason not to find a DX9 SE or is the QX7S more than enough?
 
Either radios are perfectly good, As for tiny whoops there's an endless list of models available now, betafpv do a range, there's the emax tinyhawk and the countless Chinese versions available on gearbest and banggood.

Maybe have a read of this article to get an idea, bare in mind allot of new stuff has come out since the start of the year but it gives you an idea.

https://oscarliang.com/best-tiny-whoop/
 
I'm a long time Taranis (X9D) user. I got mine in 2014, including an aluminium carry case for £160 from T9hobbysport. Mine's so old it pre-dates the Taranis Plus.

However, if I were buying today, I'd have no qualms about getting the Jumper T16. Someone brought one to the club field a couple of weeks ago, and it's just so much radio for the money. It makes the QX7 look like a rip-off, never mind the X9D and X10. Of course it helps that they ripped off Futaba's ergonomics, but hey, FrSky stole their X9D shell design from the JR X9303 so it's all good.
 
Thanks @MadMossy, useful guide. Still not sure what I'll go for, depends on stock and relative price.

@Bigpops - after much deliberation I think I'll go for the T16 actually. I'm not afraid of a bit of modding, maybe do some inbuilt charging down the line etc. But for cost, availability and the fact it's new it makes a lot of sense, especially if a gimbal upgrade comes along. The community is all over it too and the FrSky spat is clearly bolstering this. Seems like money well spent to get into the hobby and have some longevity. QX7s is nice, but still needs battery and charger etc like the T16 so the costs aren't competitive.

Just need to get my order in as stock is short supply and they're not due for another couple weeks at least.
 
T16 is a great radio, my only gripe is the lack of an internal module, means having to swap modules over when using crossfire. If they released a special edition with hall gimbals and an internal module, freeing up the module bay for crossfire, it would sell out in seconds.
 
I think the external module is how it's so cheap as that's already certified etc where the radio would need its own associated certification and testing otherwise and increase cost.

What I can't figure out is if the T16 is EU LBT locked. I want to get the Eachine Trashcan but the FrSky RX with telemetry only works with non-eu locked transmitters. I'd rather not have to bodge about to get it working, but would like decent range and telemetry. Anyone know?
 
Been thinking about snagging a drone, right now i'm looking at the fimi x8 se or the parrot anafi. The parrot has some interesting gimmicks like the camera being able to pivot up and that weird vertigo effect it can do, seems to have a pretty dumb sd card retainer though, instead of a slot its like an old sim card slot. The fimi is a bit bigger but about £100 cheaper, in range tests the fimi seems to have the upperhand by quite a margin but that seems to be more down to whats in the area you're flying it in that can affect range.

Been trawling through youtube vids and reviews of both and the video they record is impressive as well. One annoying thing about the anafi is the software has a few "pay to unlock" features which is a bit of an eyebrow raiser, seems like they're taking a hint from the mobile gaming apps.

Undecided at the mo.
 
If I was in the market for my first photography based UAV I'd be looking at a good, used DJI Mavic Pro. I have been using one for a year or so now and I'm still amazed by its performance. It just 'works' and does what it says on the tin, very, very well indeed. And because of the Mavic 2 release, you can pick a decent used Mavic Pro up for around £500-£600 nowadays for a FlyMore combo.
 
Draeger said:
If I was in the market for my first photography based UAV I'd be looking at a good, used DJI Mavic Pro. I have been using one for a year or so now and I'm still amazed by its performance. It just 'works' and does what it says on the tin, very, very well indeed. And because of the Mavic 2 release, you can pick a decent used Mavic Pro up for around £500-£600 nowadays for a FlyMore combo.
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Was thinking about one of those, more in the 600 to 700 range going by Ebay for the most part. A bit wary of spending that much on a used drone.
 
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I picked my Mavic up last year from a m8 in our local drone club. He hardly flew it much at all, it was essentially brand new with hardly any hours flight time under its belt. Got it for £700, FlyMore combo with a few extras like extended landing gear, camera/gimbal shroud, spare props etc. Don't go by eBay prices, they are generally always inflated. Rather, have a look on Facebook marketplace and in your local drone club forums. There are definitely bargains to be had if you look. A m8 of mine picked up one recently for £450, came with a spare battery and a hard carry case. It had 6 hours flight time - the owner had got bored and went back to FPV drones. Bargain.
 
Well after trawling Ebay and a few sites I ended up with the one I thought I wouldn't bother with, the Parrot Anafi. Had my eye on a couple of mavic pros but sellers weren't budging on price for the most part(minimum of 650 with a single battery, even a few local sales I found were asking too much). Seen a phantom 3 today for around the £380 mark but those things to me always look like a flying cost hanger so wasnt overly fussed with it. Was really considering the fimi se but returns for it could be a pain if anything went wrong.

One of the gripes I see about the parrot was the "gate" style sd retainer, though having plonked in a new 64 gig card with no probs it seems like it could be a bit of an overblown issue, though I could see fatigue setting into it if you are constantly swapping cards as its pretty thin metal.

Spent an hour last night setting it up and getting the firmware updated, was going to take it for a test today but been ******* it down all day. :(

Really surprised at just how thin the rotor blades are on this, though i suppose when they're spinning up that helps makes them more rigid. Looking forward to testing it out, meant to be pretty low key in terms of sound so isn't annoying to people that might be nearby, (around 40-50 feet up it's s mean to to be practically inaudible), the mavics are meant to be much louder in that respect.
 
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