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Post by lordverminaard on Apr 27, 2017 16:15:27 GMT -5
A while back niz76 mentioned he was in to drone flying and 90GTVert also mentioned an interest too I think, so not to hijack legitimate build threads, why not start a thread here on what you all are flying! I have been flying drones about 4 years now, I started on a Hubsan X4 very similar to this one:  It has been good to me, I have upgraded the props and tweaked the rates a little (factory programmable rates FTW) however the flight controller is showing it's age and after flying a newer drone, this one sorta feels archaic but I still enjoy flying it. I lost my first X4 a couple weeks after buying it and replaced it with another which has gone on strong for a few years now. After flying the X4 a while, I decided to get an even smaller drone to fly around the cubes at work (some of the other guys fly too so we had regular "drone race time" throughout the day) and picked up an Estes Proto X, which looks like this:  Only in Yellow and black color combo.  I also found out that I could use my Hubsan X4 controller with this drone, which was 100x better than the little micro controller it came with. I also had the added benefit of being able to program the rates and do flips which it could not do with the original controller. I had an extra X4 controller since I lost my first X4, so now the Proto had it's own dedicated controller too. I really like how this drone flies, not very useful outside really but it is very responsive and has really quick yaw performance. I also upgraded the props on this one too but other than that and the controller, it is stock. Finally, I decided to purchase a new drone about a month ago when a particular model was on sale at my local Micro Center. It is the UDI 818A-1, which looks just like this:  Also my first camera-equipped drone. I had wanted a larger-size drone like this for a while now and a couple of the guys at work got the Dromida Ominus which is a similar size. What impressed me about this one is what it came with: A decent controller, screwdriver for the props, an extra set of props, 2 batteries, a proper Sandisk 8gig SD card, and a usb adapter to plug the SD card into your PC. The camera is not great, but it does do 720p video and photo. It was on sale for $40.00 so I couldn't pass it up. It is fun to fly but I quickly found out that even in "fast" mode it is quite slow, and the wind carried off that big prop guard\canopy easily, so much that even a gentle breeze was enough to overpower full pitch\roll and it would get carried away quickly. I remedied that by snipping off the bladeguards and only leaving the front part with the light intact. After that it was a little more confident outside in a breeze. I think I will probably end up replacing the flight controller with a programmable one as soon as I get a hobby-grade transmitter as this isn't really as "sporty" as I would like it to be- upgrading motors would help but the flight controller is just too gentle. Good for beginners and getting nice steady pictures though! I recorded a video and posted it to youtube a couple weeks ago just flying over the neighborhood to try and get some decent video out of it. The camera angle is fixed and mounted kind of in a funny position, also while the image quality is decent and there is no jello, there was still a good bit of camera shake so I ran the video through an image stabilizing post-processor. Other than that, the video is in-doctored. Not bad for my first try, let me know what you guys think. Not exactly Phantom quality but we are talking about a $40 drone here.  Interesting to note, after the end of this video, I went to take it over a really high pass over a big tree and then do a nice sweeping turn around, but I got it high enough that it started to loose contact with the transmitter, not taking any inputs and when it did, there was about a 4 second delay. I ran underneath it to try and get it re-connected but it didn't really work, so I cut throttle and sort of mentally counted how far I thought it would fall then throttled it back up, and sure enough on about a 4 second delay, it tumbled down about 50 feet and then leveled back out, at which point I had control again. Whew! Time for a Tx upgrade! Thanks for reading, I hope others will post their drone adventures here. Brendan |
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Post by Senna1Rossi on Apr 27, 2017 16:50:22 GMT -5
Whoa, check oot the mini drone!!
Where's the best place to order drones??
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Post by pinkflames420 on Apr 28, 2017 2:59:18 GMT -5
Hey we had one of those mini drones.... not for long tho! It basically blew up into our brick fireplace lol.
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Post by lordverminaard on Apr 28, 2017 8:54:11 GMT -5
Whoa, check oot the mini drone!! Where's the best place to order drones?? I've had good experiences with banggood, (yeah, funny name) www.banggood.com/Wholesale-RC-Quadcopters-c-1848.htmlHowever all of the drones I have I have purchased locally at a hobby shop or Micro Center, as the local shop will price match almost anything online with stuff they have in stock. That being said, you can buy a lot of the really weird off-brand and clone quads at BangGood, which if you are already in the hobby, is sometimes a good way to save money but usually they require some tweaking or modifications to get the best performance out of them. BangGood is also a great place to buy parts for drones though, I have purchased most of my props from them. They also sell canopies, frames, flight controllers, replacement transmitters, etc... for just about any drone out there if you can find the right part number. I also am really wanting to build my own quad soon, but the most expensive part of that is buying a real hobby-grade transmitter. Good news is, you only really need one, and then you can fly as many drones as you can build. (and many off-the shelf drones can be flown with a hobby grade Tx as well with the right module) For Upgrade parts and DIY stuff, you can't beat Micro-Motor warehouse. Great staff there too, very knowledgeable and helpful people. micro-motor-warehouse.com/Fun hobby but just like everything else, gets expensive pretty fast too. Brendan |
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Post by Senna1Rossi on Apr 28, 2017 10:54:07 GMT -5
Hey we had one of those mini drones.... not for long tho! It basically blew up into our brick fireplace lol.
oh me gosh, CTTN (coffee through the nose)!!!
LOL
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Post by Senna1Rossi on Apr 28, 2017 10:55:48 GMT -5
Whoa, check oot the mini drone!! Where's the best place to order drones?? I've had good experiences with banggood, (yeah, funny name) www.banggood.com/Wholesale-RC-Quadcopters-c-1848.htmlHowever all of the drones I have I have purchased locally at a hobby shop or Micro Center, as the local shop will price match almost anything online with stuff they have in stock. That being said, you can buy a lot of the really weird off-brand and clone quads at BangGood, which if you are already in the hobby, is sometimes a good way to save money but usually they require some tweaking or modifications to get the best performance out of them. BangGood is also a great place to buy parts for drones though, I have purchased most of my props from them. They also sell canopies, frames, flight controllers, replacement transmitters, etc... for just about any drone out there if you can find the right part number. I also am really wanting to build my own quad soon, but the most expensive part of that is buying a real hobby-grade transmitter. Good news is, you only really need one, and then you can fly as many drones as you can build. (and many off-the shelf drones can be flown with a hobby grade Tx as well with the right module) For Upgrade parts and DIY stuff, you can't beat Micro-Motor warehouse. Great staff there too, very knowledgeable and helpful people. micro-motor-warehouse.com/Fun hobby but just like everything else, gets expensive pretty fast too. Brendan
Cool, thanks, Brendan!
I gonna shop there just because of the name! heh
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Post by knobby on Apr 28, 2017 12:28:38 GMT -5
My son has a toy store drone with a camera. It stripped the gears in a crash though. You gurus know if we can replace the motor assemblies on it to get it going again?
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Post by Deleted on Apr 28, 2017 13:21:37 GMT -5
That $40 dollar drone is going to end up costing you a lot more than $40 if you trust it enough to fly it over residential neighborhoods outside of your own property. I got out of RC heli's simply because the cost of safe equipment was too prohibitive and I had and saw one too many incidents with the cheaper gear, even the digital stuff.
At the very least, make sure your home owners policy covers your backside.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 28, 2017 13:30:30 GMT -5
My son has a toy store drone with a camera. It stripped the gears in a crash though. You gurus know if we can replace the motor assemblies on it to get it going again? Depends on the brand, a lot of the cheap store models are rubber stamped clones, there are websites dedicated to the chinese imports, you'd be surprised what parts you can buy if you can find the correct model. |
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Post by lordverminaard on Apr 28, 2017 13:59:15 GMT -5
That $40 dollar drone is going to end up costing you a lot more than $40 if you trust it enough to fly it over residential neighborhoods outside of your own property. I got out of RC heli's simply because the cost of safe equipment was too prohibitive and I had and saw one too many incidents with the cheaper gear, even the digital stuff. At the very least, make sure your home owners policy covers your backside. True, most of my flying is within my property, even in that video I posted I was "mostly" over my house, lol. If I want to do more aerobatic stuff I walk over to the local park so I don't accidentally crash it through someone's window. Thanks, Brendan |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 28, 2017 16:50:55 GMT -5
There are 3 pound heli's coming in from china that still have analog radios...
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Post by knobby on Apr 28, 2017 17:10:35 GMT -5
I almost lost my son's a few times flying the wrong way over neighbor's houses I have to admit. Also I had grab a neighbor's drone off of my roof once.
I'll pull the old motors off and see what size they are. I assume I'll have to buy a matched set of four new ones. Its pretty amazing how well a modern $60 drone can fly in the wind and take good quality video. My friend who has fancy $$$ drone got a FAA license to fly it, he was explaining to me why. I don't recall exactly but I think it allowed him to fly it legally in more circumstances than otherwise.
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Post by stepthrutuner on Apr 28, 2017 18:02:36 GMT -5
My boss is a droner. Our PC Anywhere/Team Viewer host laptop has a drone taken overhead grounds pic as wallpaper. He claims a top speed of 52 mph - wind aided, of course. Don't know brand. It cost $400 and is an amazing device at that price.
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Post by niz76 on Apr 29, 2017 10:49:40 GMT -5
Whoa, check oot the mini drone!! Where's the best place to order drones?? I've had good experiences with banggood, (yeah, funny name) www.banggood.com/Wholesale-RC-Quadcopters-c-1848.htmlHowever all of the drones I have I have purchased locally at a hobby shop or Micro Center, as the local shop will price match almost anything online with stuff they have in stock. That being said, you can buy a lot of the really weird off-brand and clone quads at BangGood, which if you are already in the hobby, is sometimes a good way to save money but usually they require some tweaking or modifications to get the best performance out of them. BangGood is also a great place to buy parts for drones though, I have purchased most of my props from them. They also sell canopies, frames, flight controllers, replacement transmitters, etc... for just about any drone out there if you can find the right part number. I also am really wanting to build my own quad soon, but the most expensive part of that is buying a real hobby-grade transmitter. Good news is, you only really need one, and then you can fly as many drones as you can build. (and many off-the shelf drones can be flown with a hobby grade Tx as well with the right module) For Upgrade parts and DIY stuff, you can't beat Micro-Motor warehouse. Great staff there too, very knowledgeable and helpful people. micro-motor-warehouse.com/Fun hobby but just like everything else, gets expensive pretty fast too. Brendan After hours and hours of eye-bleeding research I myself have settled on the Turnigy Evolution! I've gotten into FPV quads (I even have a set of FPV goggles now ) |
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Post by lordverminaard on Apr 29, 2017 15:06:54 GMT -5
I've had good experiences with banggood, (yeah, funny name) www.banggood.com/Wholesale-RC-Quadcopters-c-1848.htmlHowever all of the drones I have I have purchased locally at a hobby shop or Micro Center, as the local shop will price match almost anything online with stuff they have in stock. That being said, you can buy a lot of the really weird off-brand and clone quads at BangGood, which if you are already in the hobby, is sometimes a good way to save money but usually they require some tweaking or modifications to get the best performance out of them. BangGood is also a great place to buy parts for drones though, I have purchased most of my props from them. They also sell canopies, frames, flight controllers, replacement transmitters, etc... for just about any drone out there if you can find the right part number. I also am really wanting to build my own quad soon, but the most expensive part of that is buying a real hobby-grade transmitter. Good news is, you only really need one, and then you can fly as many drones as you can build. (and many off-the shelf drones can be flown with a hobby grade Tx as well with the right module) For Upgrade parts and DIY stuff, you can't beat Micro-Motor warehouse. Great staff there too, very knowledgeable and helpful people. micro-motor-warehouse.com/Fun hobby but just like everything else, gets expensive pretty fast too. Brendan After hours and hours of eye-bleeding research I myself have settled on the Turnigy Evolution! I've gotten into FPV quads (I even have a set of FPV goggles now ) DUDE! That is awesome! I haven't shopped around for Tx's for a while now and didn't know about the Evolution. I was pretty much set on a Turnigy 9x or Taranis but this looks a lot more appealing to me. I just wonder if it will eventually have the flexibility of the OpenTx firmware that the 9x or Taranis can run, it would be nice to be able to fly some of my off-the shelf quads too but still, for that price, seems like a really nice unit! I really want to build a "tiny whoop" or similar for my first FPV- I'm sure you have heard of it but for those that haven't: micro-motor-warehouse.com/collections/rambo-whoopThat looks like a great Tx for the price, thanks for posting. Can you share some pics of your FPV setup? Brendan |
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