Multirotor, multicopter and quadcopter discussion - The Drone thread

Caporegime
Joined
7 Nov 2004
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30,194
Location
Buckinghamshire
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.

Yeah LOS in rate is somewhat scary, hoping to build a naff crash resistant quad to do more of it.

Right okay, it could be the rates/PIDs you've got set I guess on the FC, makes a world of difference, that and Escs also. Assume you've flashed FC to stock and not changed anything?
 

GeX

GeX

Soldato
Joined
17 Dec 2002
Posts
6,869
Location
Manchester
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.

Bit of a vague question.

What do you want it to do, FPV racing, photography, freestyle?

Why do you think a 550 sized frame, I have a 225 that easily carries an FPV camera and a GoPro.

Have a read of https://quadquestions.com/blog/2017/02/22/choose-right-size-motors-drone/

http://www.drone-configurator.com/ might help too

https://oscarliang.com/

In short you'll need (my parts in brackets)
frame (Shendrones Krieger DTF 225)
motors (Emax RS2205S 2300KV "Red Bottom")
props (DALPROP T5045C Cyclone 5 Inch 3 Blade)
ESCs (Emax Bullet 30A D-SHOT BLHELI_S)
Flight Controller (SP Racing F4 EVO)
PDB ( Matek Systems PDB-XPW PDB W/ Current Sensor 140A & Dual BEC)
receiver (FrSky R-XSR)
battery (DroneLabs 1300mAh)

I don't have the VTX or Camera yet, so in brackets are what I'd likely buy
VTX (Tramp HV or TBS Unify Pro)
Camera (Runcam Swift 2)

Then the stuff that stays on the ground;
transmitter (Taranis X9D)
goggles (eachine EV800D)
charger (GoolRC SKYRC iMAX B6 Mini)
spare batteries
 
Soldato
Joined
15 Aug 2010
Posts
8,753
Location
N. Ireland
Bit of a vague question.

What do you want it to do, FPV racing, photography, freestyle?

Why do you think a 550 sized frame, I have a 225 that easily carries an FPV camera and a GoPro.

Have a read of https://quadquestions.com/blog/2017/02/22/choose-right-size-motors-drone/

http://www.drone-configurator.com/ might help too

https://oscarliang.com/

In short you'll need (my parts in brackets)
frame (Shendrones Krieger DTF 225)
motors (Emax RS2205S 2300KV "Red Bottom")
props (DALPROP T5045C Cyclone 5 Inch 3 Blade)
ESCs (Emax Bullet 30A D-SHOT BLHELI_S)
Flight Controller (SP Racing F4 EVO)
PDB ( Matek Systems PDB-XPW PDB W/ Current Sensor 140A & Dual BEC)
receiver (FrSky R-XSR)
battery (DroneLabs 1300mAh)

I don't have the VTX or Camera yet, so in brackets are what I'd likely buy
VTX (Tramp HV or TBS Unify Pro)
Camera (Runcam Swift 2)

Then the stuff that stays on the ground;
transmitter (Taranis X9D)
goggles (eachine EV800D)
charger (GoolRC SKYRC iMAX B6 Mini)
spare batteries
It'll be mainly for photography and the fact that I would like to fly a drone I built :)

What's the flight time of your drone with the GoPro?

The plan is to stagger the build so I'm only buying/building main parts at a time. Fly the drone and get used to it before purchasing the gimbal/action camera.
 
Caporegime
Joined
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Posts
30,194
Location
Buckinghamshire
It'll be mainly for photography and the fact that I would like to fly a drone I built :)

What's the flight time of your drone with the GoPro?

The plan is to stagger the build so I'm only buying/building main parts at a time. Fly the drone and get used to it before purchasing the gimbal/action camera.

Go pro will be useless for actual photography, it won't have a gimbal and you won't know where it is pointing. If you wanted to put a gimbal on it all the cheap ones are naff, then for the cost of a decent gimbal you may as well just purchase a second hand phantom.

Cant remember if the post was aimed at you earlier or not but you can pick up a Phantom 3 (models vary, take a google) for reasonably cheap now, lots of phantom 4s for sale also. Otherwise, a Dji spark could work and it's more 'quad' looking, pretty sure you could have a decent pootle about with it as well whilst not filming.

Then if you have money to burn the dji mavic is fantastic, greats vids/images, extremely portable as the arms fold in.

This is my 'racer' with a gopro on it:
 
Soldato
Joined
15 Aug 2010
Posts
8,753
Location
N. Ireland
Go pro will be useless for actual photography, it won't have a gimbal and you won't know where it is pointing. If you wanted to put a gimbal on it all the cheap ones are naff, then for the cost of a decent gimbal you may as well just purchase a second hand phantom.

Cant remember if the post was aimed at you earlier or not but you can pick up a Phantom 3 (models vary, take a google) for reasonably cheap now, lots of phantom 4s for sale also. Otherwise, a Dji spark could work and it's more 'quad' looking, pretty sure you could have a decent pootle about with it as well whilst not filming.

Then if you have money to burn the dji mavic is fantastic, greats vids/images, extremely portable as the arms fold in.

This is my 'racer' with a gopro on it:
Thanks for the suggestions.
Honestly, I'm not looking/expecting to take breath taking pictures, just something decent.
I'm the type of person that would prefer to build something than buying it prebuilt as I find it more fun. :p
 
Don
Joined
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22,748
Location
Wargrave, UK
I really wouldn't bother with building your own if it's for photography. By the time you've built it and spent twice what a decent Phantom costs, you've still got something that is worse than even the most basic Phantom because you cannot control the camera in the air.
If you want to build then build a 250 sized racer. Cheap and loads of fun.
If you want it for videography / photography buy a Phantom, Mavic, or Spark.
 
Caporegime
Joined
7 Nov 2004
Posts
30,194
Location
Buckinghamshire
As above

I wanted to build a cheap photography quad once, just isn't worth it u less you do t want a gimbal to control the camera.

Otherwise yes, you can build a 250+, stick a camera on it to view where the gopro is pointing, and either use a long range remote shutter for the gopro (if that's a thing) or have it taking shots every 15 secs or whatever.
 
Soldato
Joined
15 Aug 2010
Posts
8,753
Location
N. Ireland
As above

I wanted to build a cheap photography quad once, just isn't worth it u less you do t want a gimbal to control the camera.

Otherwise yes, you can build a 250+, stick a camera on it to view where the gopro is pointing, and either use a long range remote shutter for the gopro (if that's a thing) or have it taking shots every 15 secs or whatever.
Ok, seems like "photography" isn't viable to build from scratch then.
So, just get a 250 kit, attach a FPV + go pro?
 
Caporegime
Joined
7 Nov 2004
Posts
30,194
Location
Buckinghamshire
Ok, seems like "photography" isn't viable to build from scratch then.
So, just get a 250 kit, attach a FPV + go pro?

If you are happy with that yes.

You'll need to bear in mind that the quad will become slightly sluggish if the components aren't specced to carry the extra weight of the camera. This is kind of why photography quads a larger than 250s.
 
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