my quad evolution so far

sdtag

sdtag

Active Member
I am a total newbie to quads and this site so bear with me.
My wife got me a tiny quad from Radio Shack for my birthday in January. It lasted about an hour. I returned it and pooled that money with some other birthday money and went to Fry's. I ended up buying an UDI RC U829A. Quadcopter with video. It has a Styrofoam bumper around the rotors and man oh man I sure need it! I keep patching them up with elec tape. It works great, and I am having the time of my life learning this new hobby. When I get better I can take off the Styrofoam and fly without it but right now it is like a flying bumper car. The hardest part for me is when it is coming back to me and the controls are reversed. I suck at this but I am trying. I tried to fly it up to my second story window to see if I could spy inside. Man, I was hitting the walls, the roof, the window. I'm pretty bad and it was pretty funny. At least I can still laugh at myself.
NEXT... I bought a CX-11 nano quad. I broke the props off pretty quick and ordered some more. I got the new props on but it just doesn't fly like it used to. :(
NEXT... I bought but haven't received yet, (2) cx-10 nano quads. These seem to be more popular than the cx-11. Now I don't even know why I bought that little odd ball quad, cx-11. I bought spare props and crash guards too. It's cool that the controls pretty much match my U829A. I can practice in my house with the nano quads, then go outside with my big quad.
NEXT... I want to get into FPV. I have been scouring the internet, ebay, Amazon, Bang Good, etc.
I think I will eventually end up with a Cheerson CX-20 autopathfinder fpv, with all the bells and whistles, or something similar, but not yet. I am trying to learn how to crawl, walk, and run, before I spend that money to fly. And hover with GPS. That looks so cool.
NOW... I am looking at the Hubsan H107D FPV. It is a little bigger than a nano quad and had a hd camera and a viewing screen built into the transmitter. To me this seems like the logical next step but I want some advice here. Do you guys think I am on the right track? Or is there another step I should be looking at? Is there another quad I should be looking at? Or should I just jump in and buy the CX-20 and forget about the Hubsan? I realize the CX-20 does not come with a camera and that is another added expense. The Hubsan seems like a nice mid level quad and actually one of the cheapest quads with fpv. I think it gets pretty good reviews also. I think I can get the Hubsan on Bang Good for 150.00 plus a crash pack for 18.00 (thinking ahead).
What do you think?
Any help and advice will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

And here is the ironic/sad/kind of funny twist to all of this. My next door neighbor has been into rc planes since I have lived here, about ten years now. He was all into it. He had people stopping by constantly with their planes and stuff. Well he passed away last year and I never had any interest in any of that stuff while he was alive, until now. I know he could have helped me tremendously even though he was into planes, not quads.
His flying club got together and scattered some of his ashes over their flying field with a drone. It was his memorial service. Yes, everyone knows that is illegal, but that is what he wanted so they did it anyway. It was very moving. Emotionally, not the drone. :)
 
HI mate welcome ,well that was nice for the club to do that , Now I see you been spending loads on toys , well stop and spend on a hobby grade , If you want a nice quad to fly that is ready to fly out of the box , I would say get the DJI Phantom mark 1, ( thats old every one will say) yes but its cheaper to run ,the battery on the P1 is a normal 2200mah 3 cell £ 12 a battery ,for the P2 its £78 a battery and the inspire is £178 a battery , The Phantom 1 comes with a fixed gimbal , but you can add a power gimbal very easy just plugs into the NazaM and the transmitter has a gimbal stick on the back ( must be version 1.1.1) ,Its nice to fly it has IOC with means no matter what way the quad is facing forward is still forward etc , It also has return home, home lock,course lock,GPS , height hold ,position hold, and manual mode if you want it and in that is flies at a metre per second
max range ( standard) 2000m, max height 2000m, here is my wife its the first time she has ever flown any thing ,the last time she had my 700mm quad she crashed in 2 seconds so she cant fly but look how good the Phantom is
 
Hi mate all the DJI come mode 2 , so thats good for you , The phantom vision is new , you had the Phantom 1 then the Phantom FC40( dont make this any more) phantom 2 , Phantom 2 vision and the Phantom with the Zenmuse gimbal, then the Inspire
I like the Phantom 1 and I can then fit what camera I want to use , but if you want to go for the P2 vision then thats good , it will fly the same as the P1 well it has a longer flight time 25mins I think , but spare batteries are more in price , at this moment in time the P1 is a really good price but you know what you have to spend ,I just wanted you to stop looking at toys and make the next step which your more than ready for , you can even build your own DJI flame wheel and just add the DJI Naza M and transmitter , you can see in the video that its easy to fly we had it out today in strong wind and at one point it was left in a hover at 80 feet up at a 45 deg angle fighting the wind but it was just sitting there waiting ,as an camera platform its one of the best , watch these they are Phantom 1 but will show you what can be done with any of the Phantoms
 
Hi mate the flame wheel is this one 4 motor or 6 motors
http://www.dji.com/product/flame-wheel-arf
AS for flying the naza m does the flying so it will help you fly , your take it from the box set it up and fly like a pro you just need to turn on IOC
Intelligent Orientation Control , which is part of the home lock course lock watch these this will show you what i mean
 
Hi the nova is a clone from hobby king , they had a few problems when it came out, There is no question that the DJI Phantom is the best and they lead the way all the other are trying to catch up , I would spend the extra and have the DJI it will do more than you ask it to do , is well proven tested and all parts can be replaced as they wear out , The quad market is a massive money spinner and they all want part of it , but DJI have only ever made multirotor , most are heli and plane makers wanting in on this market place , If the Phantom 2 is to much money buy the Phantom 1 your wont be sorry
 
Its a bubble mate so its 10 feet bubble ,1200 Not if you get the Phantom1 , its well worth it your love it what ever one you go for , what did you think about the flame wheels
 
Hi ARF is like a PNF ( almost ready to fly ) then ( power and fly) , if you want to do the DJI flame wheel , they do a complete kit so you you have to do is pay for it and build it when it comes and enjoy flying , if you want to I will link you what you need , it will fly and work like the Phantom with the same spec and transmitter
 
Hi mate brushless quads will out fly you every time , so it sound like your wanting now to step , It sounds to me like the right time for you as your skill is greater than the quads can fly , So when you want to we are here to get you off in the right direction
 
I finally graduated.
There was a "drone fair" in Los Alamitos, CA yesterday.
I bought a P2V+.
It is amazing.
 
Good for you my friend , your love it and what it can do , will will go 2000 feet up hope you got good eye sight lol
 
I would get in trouble here in the states with the FAA.
They have an imposed ceiling of 400 feet, which is plenty high for me!
right now anyway.
Thanks again for all your help.
 
I've had my P2V+ for a week now.
300 feet may not be much to you guys but I was nervous as all hell.
still lots to learn
a pretty boring video really. I am looking for better places to fly now.
I ended it with a hand catch. Man the camera doesn't lie, I'm getting so old haha
 
Hey Neil,
Have you seen this?

what do you think?
I set my radius to 100 miles.
fly aways have been my biggest concern and I feel so much better about it now.
 
Hi mate, the guys is missing the BIG point , he has not once said power up Phantom and calibrate the gps and compass then wait for the all green fast flashing to say it has 6 and more sats locked in , Every time I fly I calibrate the phantom and will not fly if it does not get its full GPS lock , if it means I have to move 20 feet to get the GPS lock the Phantom needs for the systems to work , As I said right from the off, Fly aways are due to the pilot not setting up right and calibrating the Phantom and getting full GPS lock before flying , If you do this your be fine and it will know its home point and the GPS will work right and the fail safe will return it home
 
Thanks man.
I think that is a good idea. After it acquires gps pick it up and walk in a 20 foot diameter circle, then set it back down.
And double check the home position in find my phantom.
What are your thoughts on setting my radius to 100 miles? I realize I am taking away a safety limit, but I think the benefit of not having my drone fly off outweighs the risk. I like what he said towards the end, DJI could make a software fix for this. Ignore large changes in GPS in a very short time. It is impossible for the Phantom to fly 14 miles in 1 1/2 seconds, but the software doesn't know that.
 
Hi sdtag, I DONT walk my Phantom about , all you need to do is power everything up then go into calibration mode , so turn it 360 degs the right way up then when light goes from orange to green put it on its side and turn 360 degs then light will go out, place on the floor and wait till you get the fast flashing green lights , once you have this the phantom is now calibrated and has all its GPS signals , Now flick the the top left switch to CL the led will now flash green then orange this is now in course lock and has its home position set .
If at any time you get a RED flash in with the other light flashes this is an error and then move the quads home to another part of the field and start again
If I set up in my back yard and the Phantom is about 10 feet from my house I cant get full GPS lock , so I move it to the back of the yard so its now about 100 feet away from the house I can now get full GPS lock , This shows you that some times just moving the quads landing site about 10 feet or more will allow it to get full GPS lock ( if I cant get GPS lock I dont fly )
Its not miles( LOL) its in metres so you set it to 100 metres so thats 330 feet range did you leave it at 2000 m height which is 6000 feet , most Phantoms will only hit 1500 feet height(Transmitter is only rated to 1000 metres) but does go more depending on site your flying from
the Phantom will fly max of 10m/sec which is approx 33 feet a second so in 11 seconds it will cover 363 feet
TO sum up I think what he is saying is very misleading he totally missed the fact that the Phantom need to be calibrated every time you change its flying location as it will remember its last GPS lock and that can be miles away this is why I say YOU MUST CALIBRATE every time you fly or change the location even by 30 feet , this is a new location so home position will have changed
 
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ahhh I get it now. Thank you so much. I haven't been doing the compass dance because I have been flying at the same place. I figured it was good. I have seen other folks (Demunseed) say you don't need to calibrate the compass every time, only when you fly in a new spot. But you are saying to do the dance every time, this will help with GPS too. And the all important CL switch. Better safe than sorry. I get it. I trust your experience.

The program lets me choose meters, feet, or miles. I chose miles and entered 100. I went back to feet and made sure my ceiling was at 399.
300-400 feet is plenty high for me.

I'm just trying to have some fun and not piss anybody off. FAA, neighbors, school people, etc. It's very fun to learn this new hobby, but it is just a little bit more nerve racking than I had anticipated. Still loads of fun though. Again my biggest concern is watching $1200.00 fly off into the sunset. I am feeling better about it now.

There is a lot of information and a lot of mis-information out there. It's kind of hard for a newbie to pick my way through and know who to trust. I latched on to you (sorry) because you opened my eyes to DJI. Thanks again for all your help. And don't worry, if my Phantom disappears I won't blame you or anyone but me. I am not one of those people who are looking for someone to blame things on. I'm a big boy and I can carry my own.
haha getting bigger every year it seems. haha
 
Thanks man.
Thanks for all your help and advice, I appreciate it.
If you and your wife ever come to Southern California be sure to look me up.
We'll take you out to dinner and/or buy you a beer.
We drink our beer COLD over here, the colder the better. :)
 
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