[mbardeen]

Any other remote control afficionados out there?



I just built a quadcopter for use in a student project, but am interested in getting more into FPV (first person view) setups and doing some filming (I'm thinking specifically of motorsports and similar).



   



Here's my first, really quick, flight with a rudimentary camera setup (Canon sx210 P&S camera strapped to the bottom).

http://youtu.be/5yBWT5sz1j0

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[Bulti]

A friend of mine is a member of a model aircraft club. He just bought a thing similar to what you got. I believe he mentioned something about mounting a camera on it too.

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[Ryan]

Looks like you could start doing delivery for Amazon with that rig.

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[mbardeen]

Amazon's drone delivery system is great PR, but pretty far from reality for most places. To carry anything big, you need heaps of power, and heaps of power means hauling around some good sized batteries. Current flight times are about 9 to 15 minutes, depending on the setup of the multirotor.



Then there's the challenge of autonomous operation. GPS autonav is great when you've got wide open areas, but get into a city type setting where a couple meters one way or another means contact with trees/buildings/power lines and it's a recipe for disaster. Then there's the unexpected that you'd have to deal with -- bird strikes, dumb people throwing things/shooting at it.



I've got this one as a test bed for search and rescue/precision agriculture/forest fire location type applications, but I'll have to deal with many of the same problems. There are ways to deal with them, but they're mainly only good for a limited subset of situations that the copter might encounter. In short there's still lots of research to be done before Amazon's drone delivery system can take off.

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[mbardeen]

A year and a half later.. my job has morphed into developing quadcopters and other multirotor aircraft for agricultural applications, and has taken over my hobby time as well. My poor 968 hardly gets any loving (though it is finally back together after a head refresh and gasket replacement).

 

This is what I do now with my free time...  

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQv8gdpyjLA[/video]

 

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wF3nVp_vO7I[/video]

 

These videos are taken using FPV (first-person view) flying, I wear VR-type goggles that display what a camera on the quadcopter sees. To be honest, it's the biggest adrenaline rush I've found to date. Maybe flying acrobatics is like this, but I doubt it. The best thing is that there's little risk of death if you crash.. just a constant financial drain on the wallet (maybe even moreso than owning a 20 year old Porsche?).  And now, people are starting to race these things!

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[MLB]

Very cool Matt!

Is there a way I can point my dad to these YouTube videos? He's just getting started with the quad copter and these videos would probably blow his mind. :0)

Oh I just figured it out, you have to click on the text that says YouTube

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[WJH]

What flight restrictions (if any) do you have in Chile?

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[mbardeen]

Supposedly we need to ask for permission to fly 7 days in advance to fly RPAs (remote piloted aircraft), which includes drones. But they don't require that from the hobbyists. I try to keep to the same restrictions given by the AMA, as I find them sensible. Perhaps I'll break the height restriction from time to time, but only in places like the mountains.


For flights in public areas for public uses, there's a series of restrictions.. including carrying a parachute. Commercial flights fall under the RPA restrictions still.

 

For all practical purposes however, enforcement is extremely lax.

Very cool Matt!

Is there a way I can point my dad to these YouTube videos? He's just getting started with the quad copter and these videos would probably blow his mind. :0)

Oh I just figured it out, you have to click on the text that says YouTube

He should see some of the other pilots out there. I'm amateur compared to them!

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[lbpesq]

WOW! Beatiful videos. What's the range on one of these things? And what happens if it flies out of range?


Bill

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[mbardeen]

WOW! Beatiful videos. What's the range on one of these things? And what happens if it flies out of range?


Bill

Thanks Bill!

 

   It depends a lot on the radio system used, climatic conditions, solar flares, nearby radio sources, etc. In those videos I was using a 2.4ghz radio system which should be good up to around 1.5km. I'm now using a 433mhz radio system that can reach over 20km. I've not gone past 500 meters with any of my aircraft (yet). 


The videos were filmed with two different quadcopters - the first was with a 250mm quad (the distance diagonally between the motors), and the second was with a 540mm quad. They both have very different purposes and flight controllers. The first is a light weight, short range acrobatic quadcopter (600g), the second is a longer range heavier quad (2000g) that carries a camera gimbal. The small one will drop out of the sky if radio signal is lost (no GPS). The second has GPS enabled flight controller and will come back to its liftoff point when there's no radio signal. Additionally, it can fly fully autonomous missions -- take off, fly a predetermined route, and land, all on its own. It's pretty advanced stuff for a fairly low cost ($200 USD).

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[JWahlsten]

I have a colleague who uses his abilities with drones/quadcopters to supplement his income.  No financial drain as he uses the videos to promote businesses...  You're talented enough to do so as well... 

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[type968]

Thanks Bill!

 

   It depends a lot on the radio system used, climatic conditions, solar flares, nearby radio sources, etc. In those videos I was using a 2.4ghz radio system which should be good up to around 1.5km. I'm now using a 433mhz radio system that can reach over 20km. I've not gone past 500 meters with any of my aircraft (yet). 


The videos were filmed with two different quadcopters - the first was with a 250mm quad (the distance diagonally between the motors), and the second was with a 540mm quad. They both have very different purposes and flight controllers. The first is a light weight, short range acrobatic quadcopter (600g), the second is a longer range heavier quad (2000g) that carries a camera gimbal. The small one will drop out of the sky if radio signal is lost (no GPS). The second has GPS enabled flight controller and will come back to its liftoff point when there's no radio signal. Additionally, it can fly fully autonomous missions -- take off, fly a predetermined route, and land, all on its own. It's pretty advanced stuff for a fairly low cost ($200 USD).

 

I would love to see a build list, or if you point to a discussion board where you listed it.

 

English not required!

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[mbardeen]

> I have a colleague who uses his abilities with drones/quadcopters to supplement his income.  No financial drain as he uses the videos to promote businesses...  You're talented enough to do so as well...

Thanks for the encouragement. There's a rather large regulatory step to go through when moving from hobby to commercial use, and to be honest, I more enjoy the flying when I'm not worried about "getting the shot". So I perfer to keep the flying strictly non-pay. If someone wanted to pay to use my footage after I've flown, that'd be a different matter. So far, that hasn't happened.

 

<div>
I would love to see a build list, or if you point to a discussion board where you listed it.

 

English not required!


</div>

 

Most of the videos have a list of the components I've used in their long description, but I do have a blog at FPVLab (http://fpvlab.com/forums/showthread.php?...n-in-Chile) that you're welcome to check out.

 

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