Multirotor, multicopter and quadcopter discussion - The Drone thread

Bradmax57 · 2 Nov 2017 at 20:24

got a spark fly more today, set it up and did all the updates etc, took off outside the warehouse at work, all was fine flew up and away stable as anything then all of a sudden it started to rotate by itself, odd I thought, so stupidly clicked sports mode and started to fly back towards myself (less than 100m away at this point) all of a sudden it just turned and shot off at full speed, immediately clicked RTH but nothing happened, looked at my ipad and all I could see it was heading for the river tyne........... then black screen and disconnected fortunately it had landed in a tree just next to the river and no damage done but boy it gave me a shock, I'm not sure if it was due to needing an IMU calibration etc but it didn't give me any warning about it. Tried it a few times indoors and seems ok now bit scared of flying it outside again now

GSXRMovistar · 2 Nov 2017 at 21:58

Did you calibrate the compass/gps?

Bradmax57 · 2 Nov 2017 at 22:07

I did the compass yes but oddly it came up with a warning on that but wouldn't let me calibrate it again, this evening I did the imu and then it asked me again to do it again which took ages so hopefully its all good

GeX · 3 Nov 2017 at 12:40

Rilot said:
Get that QX70. They're ace.
Don't worry about brushless for indoor use. No need and just adds to complexity. Brushed motors are fine.

I spent some time researching, and in the end.. bought https://newbeedrone.com/products/beebrain-v2-micro-fpv-flight-controller and various motors, frame, props etc from there

It's not here yet, but now I do need to buy some goggles. Thinking Eachine EV800D.

Bradmax57 · 3 Nov 2017 at 20:31

Emailed DJI about my spark flying off and they have recommended me sending it to them to investigate. Any ideas how long they take on average?

The_Abyss · 3 Nov 2017 at 22:05

They had my Mavic for about 10 days at the beginning of this year. However, that's tempered by quite a few other DJI customers moaning about months of delay. It needs to be done, so just get the process started and make sure you follow the return instructions carefully (they're not immediately intuitive).

grumpybeard · 4 Nov 2017 at 11:57

Finally gone and ordered a Mavic Pro Platinum as my first drone. Don't expect to have it until late Nov/early Dec, and there's no rush, just hoping to get a few good days in learning to fly it before holiday in sun in Feb.

Went for the fly more bundle, plus 2 extra batteries and 4 additional prop sets! Also ordered MavMount for ipad mini, plus hoodman. Also PolarPro filter 6-Pack.

Any additional accessories recommended - leg extenders, additional LED's (which ones if any?), GPS tracker necessary/recommended?

Starting to watch the beginners pre-flight videos to wisen up beforehand - started to get really excited!

Thanks for any input/advice

Yas786 · 4 Nov 2017 at 12:05

grumpybeard said:
Finally gone and ordered a Mavic Pro Platinum as my first drone. Don't expect to have it until late Nov/early Dec, and there's no rush, just hoping to get a few good days in learning to fly it before holiday in sun in Feb.

Went for the fly more bundle, plus 2 extra batteries and 4 additional prop sets! Also ordered MavMount for ipad mini, plus hoodman. Also some PolarPro ND filters.

Any additional accessories recommended - leg extenders, additional LED's (which ones if any?), GPS tracker necessary/recommended?

Starting to watch the beginners pre-flight videos to wisen up beforehand - started to get really excited!

Thanks for any input/advice

Strobeon lights for the mavic, I have 2 white ones and dear god they are bloody bright.

Landing gear?? I just picked up a cheap pair on amazon and they work great ie just clips onto the front 2 legs and makes it a little bit higher.

Kingwon Landing Legs Extender for DJI Mavic Pro Extended Heightened Landing Gear Protector Guard Accessories,Grey. I got them off amazon.

GPS trackers?? Not sure as I don’t use one. Haven’t had my mavic fly away and lose itself yet.

Saying that I haven’t even flown my mavic for past few mths, bad weather and work has got in the way of my flying.

Regy53 · 5 Nov 2017 at 10:56

Mavic pro went back to Maplins yesterday, no 2 motor failure so wouldn't take off.

only used it a handfull of times

SimonCHere · 6 Nov 2017 at 11:10

A question for you racing quad types.
I've had a few flights now with my self build and it's going well. I even managed to fly through some goal posts on the football field I was flying at.
However I was at risk of drifting into the left post and was having trouble correcting it.
*note, leaning your body and tilting your head does nothing for the trajectory of the quad, but does give onlookers a laugh*
So my question is how do you just go right (or left) a little bit. I don't have a very tilted camera so it's all relatively slow, up in the air I can turn large turns quite well, but small corrections are causing me issues.

I've been playing with the simulators and will go back there, but I'm missing something.
Yaw and you just carry on going in the same direction, just the view changes.
Roll and a little throttle and it doesn't seem to bank like plane would and doesn't doesn't move in quite the same way as my heli does.
Roll, yaw and throttle are fine for big turns when higher up but doesn't seem to work for small corrections.

In a plane I would either yaw turn or roll and give some up elevator to go round a turn. Up elevator in the quad just slows me down (and makes me climb if I forget to reduce the throttle enough)

Any very basic videos for small, forward flight corrections greatly appreciated.

Simon

Rilot · 6 Nov 2017 at 11:50

Roll in the direction you want to go and apply throttle.
Quads are all about vectors.

SimonCHere · 6 Nov 2017 at 12:50

Perhaps I'm just not applying enough throttle.

Thanks, back to the sim I go.

shadow_boxer · 7 Nov 2017 at 14:47

Been toying with the idea if getting my first quad drone for a few months. Never owned one before but have flown my brother in laws spark. Noticed that Argos are doing the DJI Phantom 3 Standard for what seems like a fairly reasonable £350. What are peoples thought?

I have been looking at the Mavic Pro but £1200 seems like a lot to spend on my first one. My thinking was go for the Phantom 3 and consider upgrading later if I really get into it. I'm not too fussed by the lack of 4K. Anything else major I'd be missing out on?

Delvis · 7 Nov 2017 at 16:06

SimonCHere said:
Perhaps I'm just not applying enough throttle.

Thanks, back to the sim I go.

Applying Yaw just changes the camera angle? It shouldn't?

If you are tilted forward so you are drifting forwards, then apply Yaw, you'll end up with a bit of tilt and either fly upwards or into the ground...You'd would either need to just tilt a little bit, OR tilt whilst applying Yaw.

Hard to explain in text form, best way is to have the quad in front of you, drift forwards then apply whatever you want to and LOOK at what it does, not through the camera

EDIT: what mode are you flying in?

Rilot · 7 Nov 2017 at 16:13

shadow_boxer said:
Been toying with the idea if getting my first quad drone for a few months. Never owned one before but have flown my brother in laws spark. Noticed that Argos are doing the DJI Phantom 3 Standard for what seems like a fairly reasonable £350. What are peoples thought?

I have been looking at the Mavic Pro but £1200 seems like a lot to spend on my first one. My thinking was go for the Phantom 3 and consider upgrading later if I really get into it. I'm not too fussed by the lack of 4K. Anything else major I'd be missing out on?

The P3 Standard is a great little thing and would be my first choice as a first toe in to the water of aerial photography.

GSXRMovistar · 7 Nov 2017 at 19:00

shadow_boxer said:
Been toying with the idea if getting my first quad drone for a few months. Never owned one before but have flown my brother in laws spark. Noticed that Argos are doing the DJI Phantom 3 Standard for what seems like a fairly reasonable £350. What are peoples thought?

I have been looking at the Mavic Pro but £1200 seems like a lot to spend on my first one. My thinking was go for the Phantom 3 and consider upgrading later if I really get into it. I'm not too fussed by the lack of 4K. Anything else major I'd be missing out on?

Maybe consider the Spark also? Good comparison with the P3 here https://www.halfchrome.com/spark-vs-phantom/

SimonCHere · 8 Nov 2017 at 10:24

Delvis said:
Applying Yaw just changes the camera angle? It shouldn't?

If you are tilted forward so you are drifting forwards, then apply Yaw, you'll end up with a bit of tilt and either fly upwards or into the ground...You'd would either need to just tilt a little bit, OR tilt whilst applying Yaw.

Hard to explain in text form, best way is to have the quad in front of you, drift forwards then apply whatever you want to and LOOK at what it does, not through the camera

EDIT: what mode are you flying in?

I'm flying in rate mode (except when I want to land!)

All assuming I get the throttle right and don't change altitude:
Yaw rotates the quad around the vertical axis of the quad, not the ground. So when I am tilted forward in normal flight, flying north, horizon level. If I yaw 90 degrees right, I'm still flying north, but my view is now of the tilted eastern horizon.
If I yaw another 90 degrees I'm staring at the south sky, but still traveling north.

If I complete the yaw 360 degrees I'm back to north with the horizontal horizon and I haven't changed path or direction.

If I want to turn right, I can yaw 90 degrees right to make the horizon tilt and then roll right until the horizon is level again and i'm flying that way.

I was playing on the sim last night (rotor rush and velocidrone) and was getting better, I still need a long way to make the adjustment before a gate/obstacle.

Jony27 · 8 Nov 2017 at 11:09

Is there some sort of shopping list if you want to build your own drone?
I want something that can carry an action camera so maybe a 550 frame?
After that I'm lost as to what motors/size of propellers/etec to get.

Delvis · 8 Nov 2017 at 12:43

SimonCHere said:
I'm flying in rate mode (except when I want to land!)

All assuming I get the throttle right and don't change altitude:
Yaw rotates the quad around the vertical axis of the quad, not the ground. So when I am tilted forward in normal flight, flying north, horizon level. If I yaw 90 degrees right, I'm still flying north, but my view is now of the tilted eastern horizon.
If I yaw another 90 degrees I'm staring at the south sky, but still traveling north.

If I complete the yaw 360 degrees I'm back to north with the horizontal horizon and I haven't changed path or direction.

If I want to turn right, I can yaw 90 degrees right to make the horizon tilt and then roll right until the horizon is level again and i'm flying that way.

I was playing on the sim last night (rotor rush and velocidrone) and was getting better, I still need a long way to make the adjustment before a gate/obstacle.

Your part in bold is basically what I was trying to say previously.

If you are tilted forward, say 30 degrees, when you YAW 90 degress to the left, the quad will follow the path of the Flight Controller (FC), if the FC is tilted 30 degrees forward YAWing right will do as you say tilt the camera up towards the sky a little, so you'll need to apply the necessary roll to fix the flight path.

Sorry if I've confused things somewhat but in your previous post you said you was having trouble? In essence, you want to be doing both at the same time.

Also, get off the simulators, they're generally naff and don't replicate properly what it actually feels like, so get out there and fly in a small space. Point to note is flying with goggles feels different than flying line of site, particularly in RATE mode.

SimonCHere · 8 Nov 2017 at 12:51

My trouble is with small corrections. I guess it will come in time with practice.
I'd love to get off the sims and fly for real, but sadly real life gets in the way of my fun.

I actually plugged my goggles into the PC last night for the sims. Wife thought I was mad!

I've not tried rate mode while flying LOS, I don't think I'll go back to LOS now unless I'm just testing something by hovering in the garden.