Hi. I have never flown a drone. I am going to be making my first drone purchase. I don't know whether to buy a drone that I will be satisfied with ( like a DJI Mavic Pro) or a lesser cheaper drone (like the Hubscan H501S) . I am wondering if the flight controls (the 2 joysticks on the controller) are pretty much the same for different type drones or if they may be different (specifically controlling the up and down altitude of the drone, pitch, yaw etc) . I would like to feel confident when trying to control a more expensive drone and if I could learn the control method on a lesser drone that might be advisable or is the learning curve not too steep on a drone like the Mavic Pro where I could start out with the Mavic without much difficulty? I want to eventually get a drone with a 4k camera that has at least a one mile range capability. Your input is valuable and much appreciated.
Newbie Question on Initial Drone Purchase
- Thread starter Ronflynow
- Start date
wafflejock
Well-Known Member
Hiya Ron. In general there are two different flight modes on most standard transmitters, called mode 1 and mode 2. In most cases you can modify the transmitters or request them be one mode or the other and I believe mode 2 is the default in the US if you don't ask otherwise. Can see some explanation of what is controlled by which stick with each mode here:
http://www.spektrumrc.com/Articles/Article.aspx?ArticleID=2105
For people who build their own quad we can configure the settings to map the controls from any input to any value we want really but most people still just stick with mode 2 setup.
Anyhow long story short they are mostly the same, with DJI or other GPS enabled drones you're likely to have extra buttons or control through an app to do the 'go to home' or 'set waypoints' type features but the transmitter/joystick will essentially act the same for manual control.
I would suggest getting some sort of small cheap option you can even pick up ones without a camera or anything for like $20-30 at a local big box store or from the Amazon and just get the basic gist of how the thing flies and what the controls do without sinking a lot of money into it right away or worrying much about the purchase. This will obviously not be a long term thing expect it to break in a week but at least will give you a feel for what does what... only down side I see with this is the tiny cheap ones aren't going to have anything near the sensor capability (ultrasound, GPS, barometer, gyro etc.) that a more premium product will have so you can expect the cheap option will be much more wily than a fully sensor packed professional product.
You can also find lots of free demos of simulators that you can try a few quads on a few different levels, velocidrone is one, or "fpv freerider", or "lift off", lots of them out there. I personally use velocidrone and it helped me a lot with learning to fly acrobatic mode but if your goal is just to have a really nice camera on a gimbal in the sky then you probably don't need to spend the time learning to really control the quad directly. I use my DX6i with a USB receiver for the simulators so it's the same transmitter for flying as simulator and can get used to stick feel, the QX7 is a nice transmitter with USB connection built in but both of those are really more for the DIY crowd.
http://www.spektrumrc.com/Articles/Article.aspx?ArticleID=2105
For people who build their own quad we can configure the settings to map the controls from any input to any value we want really but most people still just stick with mode 2 setup.
Anyhow long story short they are mostly the same, with DJI or other GPS enabled drones you're likely to have extra buttons or control through an app to do the 'go to home' or 'set waypoints' type features but the transmitter/joystick will essentially act the same for manual control.
I would suggest getting some sort of small cheap option you can even pick up ones without a camera or anything for like $20-30 at a local big box store or from the Amazon and just get the basic gist of how the thing flies and what the controls do without sinking a lot of money into it right away or worrying much about the purchase. This will obviously not be a long term thing expect it to break in a week but at least will give you a feel for what does what... only down side I see with this is the tiny cheap ones aren't going to have anything near the sensor capability (ultrasound, GPS, barometer, gyro etc.) that a more premium product will have so you can expect the cheap option will be much more wily than a fully sensor packed professional product.
You can also find lots of free demos of simulators that you can try a few quads on a few different levels, velocidrone is one, or "fpv freerider", or "lift off", lots of them out there. I personally use velocidrone and it helped me a lot with learning to fly acrobatic mode but if your goal is just to have a really nice camera on a gimbal in the sky then you probably don't need to spend the time learning to really control the quad directly. I use my DX6i with a USB receiver for the simulators so it's the same transmitter for flying as simulator and can get used to stick feel, the QX7 is a nice transmitter with USB connection built in but both of those are really more for the DIY crowd.
natnatroswell22
Well-Known Member
Hi. Thanks very much for your help. I have gathered that the flight simulators you mentioned all require you to actually have a drone already or am I wrong? I preferably would like to become somewhat accustomed to drone piloting controls before I buy one. I am leaning to buying a fairly expensive drone like a DJI Mavic Pro to start out with. Great flying to everyone!
wafflejock
Well-Known Member
The simulators don't really require you to have anything but in most cases you'd want to learn to fly the simulator using a controller/transmitter that you're planning to fly with but for very basics any sort of controller will do really. For DJI I'm not sure what the options are for getting the signal into the computer, spektrum or frsky have USB connections or receivers to make them work as game/simulator controllers. Hopefully someone with experience with those can chime in.