Another newbie but with a twist
- Thread starter ShenandoahValley
- Start date
Spork
There is no spoon
Not stupid at all, but if it's not clear from Steve's explanation - you download a quad simulator program to your computer (think flight simulator type game). Then plug your radio (controller) into your computer. Then you can practice flying without actually using your quad.
Maybe I can help explain the "muscle memory" comment like this. As I mentioned, I'm still a rank beginner quad pilot. When I first began, I simply could not control the quad well unless I was oriented the same way as the quad. In other words, the front of the quad is facing the same way as me. Whenever I would yaw, even a little, it just confused the hell out me and I'd lose control and end up crashing or stuck in a tree. In my little week of practice, I can now fly fairly well as long as I can visually see the orientation of the quad, but I still make errors like "should I roll left or right" when I want the quad to turn right with respect to my orientation. Having said all that, once the quad gets farther away from me, I lose most of my flying ability (and confidence) and that's where my crashes come in at the moment.
I'll definitely be looking more into this for developing my line-of-sight piloting skills. I'd really like to get to the point where I feel very confident flying LOS before jumping off into FPV or buying other drones.
Spork
There is no spoon
I always mod my "toy" radios and quads
Put "Honest to God" antennas on my X101's radio and quad which almost tripled the range ! It was originally just a small piece of wire
hot glued in the bottom of the radio (the stock "antenna" was just an empty protrusion for looks !) and another snip of wire in the belly of the quad.
Damned thing still flew away from me never to be seen again though.
I really like this in conjunction with your advice on a using a nicer radio to control all of my quads, rather than having a bunch of "left-over" controllers that only work with one specific quad. On top of the fact of getting really used to one radio instead of a bunch of them. Thanks for this!
mozquito1
Well-Known Member
Damned thing still flew away from me never to be seen again though.
mozquito1
Well-Known Member
I paid kids @ the park b4 today.
That sounds bad, doesn't it, to climb a tree. Little monkey's they was.
But I did spend 2 hrs kicking through nettles once. Simonk esc didn't beep back then so it was only when it went dark, I spotted it about 15' the other side of this huge patch of nettles. Luckily there was enough battery I could see the led's in the dark or I never would have found it.
So I learned my lesson & put a buzzer on my quad. I was my first build, so you just want to fly. Who needs a buzzer when you got this throttle stick.
Gyro Doctor
Electronics Tech for over 45 years
I've made an incredibly useful tool for Quad retrieval.
It's an aluminum walking cane (even just a short section of broomstick would do) with a "Wrist Rocket" slingshot for the handle and an open face
reel (a.k.a. Spinning Reel) mounted to it. I tied a small sinker to the end of the line. You just shoot over the quad and let the line (clear low strength
monofilament fishing line) drop onto it or the branch it's stuck in. Gently reel in the line until there's only a few feet of it dangling from the branch
or quad, then by gently pulling rhythmically on the line you can get the sinker swinging enough to wrap the line around the quad or branch enough to
be relatively secured/anchored.
After the sinker/line is secured you can then rock that branch enough to dislodge the quad or, if you've "hooked" the quad, just pull it down.
If the branch is too large to get swinging well enough with the light line (the trick is to not pull too hard but use a repeated rhythm to build up the motion)
just try until the line breaks and repeat the firing process BUT before securing the lightweight line, after you've landed the line across the branch, cut it
and tie a heavier line or rope to it. DO NOT try to secure/anchor the rope to the branch, just pull it up and over the branch until you've got hold of both ends of it and rock that branch vigorously. Then you can let go of one end of the rope and pull it back out of the tree.
Works like a charm ! I've gotten my quads out of 150 ft tall pine trees with this method.
It's an aluminum walking cane (even just a short section of broomstick would do) with a "Wrist Rocket" slingshot for the handle and an open face
reel (a.k.a. Spinning Reel) mounted to it. I tied a small sinker to the end of the line. You just shoot over the quad and let the line (clear low strength
monofilament fishing line) drop onto it or the branch it's stuck in. Gently reel in the line until there's only a few feet of it dangling from the branch
or quad, then by gently pulling rhythmically on the line you can get the sinker swinging enough to wrap the line around the quad or branch enough to
be relatively secured/anchored.
After the sinker/line is secured you can then rock that branch enough to dislodge the quad or, if you've "hooked" the quad, just pull it down.
If the branch is too large to get swinging well enough with the light line (the trick is to not pull too hard but use a repeated rhythm to build up the motion)
just try until the line breaks and repeat the firing process BUT before securing the lightweight line, after you've landed the line across the branch, cut it
and tie a heavier line or rope to it. DO NOT try to secure/anchor the rope to the branch, just pull it up and over the branch until you've got hold of both ends of it and rock that branch vigorously. Then you can let go of one end of the rope and pull it back out of the tree.
Works like a charm ! I've gotten my quads out of 150 ft tall pine trees with this method.
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LHazleton
Bugs 2C, Future 1(Q333B), some nano's
Damn, Spork. It sounds like we were separated at birth
My 1st "big" quad was a q333b (dji Inspire wannabe). My 1st day with it, I got it stuck 70 ft. up in an oak tree. Ordered another that night, so now I've got 2. One for flight, one for parts. No idea how many times I've crashed, but I've gone through several props. Just got my MJX Bugs2 and love it. Great flyer & no damage yet.I can second that about the Holy Stone. I’m just starting in this since Christmas and I’ve already purchased six of them. I
i bought the Hs 400 and returned it after flying it. It wouldn’t do flips when I was in headless mode. Don’t know if that’s normal but when I took it out of headless mode it did flip, but it crashed itself onto the road. Never had that happen. Granted I’ve only been flying since Christmas but I now have 6 quads and they all flip in either mode and didn’t crash afterwards. I was not even close to the ground when I did it so it had plenty of altitude to recover. It flew like a brick. I was hoping a big drone would cut through the wind and fly like a dream but it’s smaller brother, the Holy Stone 181w flies way better for me. I was disappointed but oh well. Glad you had better luck .
I was just saying how a buzzer would have perhaps saved my lost drone. Or maybe put a sticker on it with my phone #, but that’s assuming it landed on the ground and not in a tree. So tell me about this buzzer? I would like to know how to do that.I paid kids @ the park b4 today.
That sounds bad, doesn't it, to climb a tree. Little monkey's they was.
But I did spend 2 hrs kicking through nettles once. Simonk esc didn't beep back then so it was only when it went dark, I spotted it about 15' the other side of this huge patch of nettles. Luckily there was enough battery I could see the led's in the dark or I never would have found it.
So I learned my lesson & put a buzzer on my quad. I was my first build, so you just want to fly. Who needs a buzzer when you got this throttle stick.
Gyro Doctor
Electronics Tech for over 45 years
... There's basically two types:One is just a buzzer that you turn on with your radio when looking for a lost quad.
These are generally used on hobby grade quads flown by hobby grade radios.
The other has an numerical led display and usually two loud piezo elements that automatically starts sounding off when the battery
voltage drops below a set point and warns you it's time to land. The bonus of this type is that it doubles as a battery checker too for
determining how well charged a pack is or if it's dead etc, etc.
These are used on toy grade quads and aren't triggered by the radio, just by low bat voltages. If a quad flies away, after some time
spent searching in vain, the bat will more than likely already be sounding the buzzer. They are pretty loud and very cheap
( I buy them by the handful) yet extremely accurate (+/- o.o1 VDC). They get plugged into the balance charging plug of the bat and
yes they work for single cells too. "Never leave home without it"
https://www.banggood.com/Wholesale-...m-p-26049.html?rmmds=search&cur_warehouse=USA
Thanks a lot for the info. I think the first one is what I’m talking about. The buzzer you turn on when looking for a lost quad. Do you have the link for that?
One is just a buzzer that you turn on with your radio when looking for a lost quad.
These are generally used on hobby grade quads flown by hobby grade radios.
The other has an numerical led display and usually two loud piezo elements that automatically starts sounding off when the battery
voltage drops below a set point and warns you it's time to land. The bonus of this type is that it doubles as a battery checker too for
determining how well charged a pack is or if it's dead etc, etc.
These are used on toy grade quads and aren't triggered by the radio, just by low bat voltages. If a quad flies away, after some time
spent searching in vain, the bat will more than likely already be sounding the buzzer. They are pretty loud and very cheap
( I buy them by the handful) yet extremely accurate (+/- o.o1 VDC). They get plugged into the balance charging plug of the bat and
yes they work for single cells too. "Never leave home without it"
https://www.banggood.com/Wholesale-...m-p-26049.html?rmmds=search&cur_warehouse=USA
Thanks again,
pdmike
Extremely Popular Member
Get a Phantom 4. Bite the bullet and spend the bucks. Anything less is not going to hold up in the wind. A Phantom 4 will.
pdmike
Extremely Popular Member
jbordetas
Member
Well I wish I would have read this thread before ordering my expensive drone lol. I just finished my first couple of flights with My Halo Drone Pro. I did however order a Syma X5C-1 today and will start to practice with that before I use the Halo. BTW, it was smooth, scary the first time and i got less apprehensive as I flew it. This is going to be a problem, like I needed something else to obsess about hahaha