Transmitter/Receiver understanding needed

W

WRN

New Member
Hello. I finally signed up here to get some help.
Like so many others, my story is the same. I've looked at Quadcopters for a long time, but finally decided to take the plunge. Based on some great advice, I decided against my original idea of buying a $500 Phantom 3 and instead I bought a couple small, inexpensive quads.
My first purchase was the UDI U818A. After some crazy 'slight wind' episodes, I decided to cut off the plastic protector rings, and I also added a wire to the very, short transmitter antenna. I think I've got better range with it, but I understand it's pretty basic - I paid around $50 with camera option included.
Next I bought a Syma X11 - no camera, again - really inexpensive.
So - I've been flying both of these for about a month now. Not every day, but pretty regularly.
I can fly away from my spot, turn it to look at me, and fly it back with a little bit of stunbling.
Lately I've been doing the turns using both right and left sticks - all from instructions on YouTube videos. I'm not great at turning that way yet but I can easily head it out, fly around, and come back and land if I don't try the crazy turns that screw up your orientation.

My son's got a Domidia and he's doing much better than I am, not a surprise. :)

So at this point, I'm getting confused at what to do next, and I have a lot of questions.
Let me explain.
Although I've had both quads for about a month, I have not had to repair either one of them due to a caatastrophic crash, and I have never lost them. Maybe dumb luck, I don't know.
But I do think that the 2 cotrollers (transmitters) that came with these two quads are probably worth $10 if I'm lucky. It really surprises me that they work as well at they do, but still, it's difficult for me to hover at 4 or 5 feet off the ground and move around like that. I know that throttle control is the most difficult thing to master, but I'm wondering.
Is there a better transmitter I could buy to fly the UDI quad I already have, or is that quad just too darn 'cheap'?

I had thought that the next quad I buy is the Syma X8. It's larger, same size as the DJI's, and it's in my price budget. I'm still not convinced I'm ready to strap a $500 bill onto a quad and send it up and out of sight, like the DJI, so I'm still looking for a low cost alternative.

If Bought the Syma X8, is there an aftermarket controller/transmitter that I can link up to it with? As I understand it, you need to buy a 'receiver' too, but I'm at a loss as to how to make it all work.

So the transmitter is my first question. Just want to know if I can buy a better aftermarket one, and install it into the lower cost quads that I'm buying.

Secondly, many of you might be thinking that there's a good 'Quad' that I should consider if I've got the UDI and the Syma X11 already. Feel free to offer suggestions.

Finally, I've read about battery chargers that are much better than the basic ones that come in the ready to fly kits that I've been buying. I don't know much about that either.

Thanks for reading, I'm happy to be a member.
 
ArmyVet

ArmyVet

Well-Known Member
Jackson said:
I'd avoid it, I bought one on special last Xmas and just don't like it.

This may be a better choice, and it's brushless motors make for a much more powerful machine. Although still new folks seem to like it.
http://www.gearbest.com/rc-quadcopters/pp_355354.html


Lotsa vids out there to peruse.
Click to expand...

You have to stop showing that Quad! Its starting to grow on me and pay day is tomorrow LOL

Keep chanting Phantom.....Phantom............Save money for Phantom hahahah.
 
GlassKnees

GlassKnees

Well-Known Member
I'll offer a different perspective by briefly describing my journey which has been just over a year:

When I finally decided to take the plunge, I decided I wanted to build my own, thinking that the state of the art is about where personal computers was back in the late 80's. I didn't build my own computer though I wanted to.... So I started by buying a little Hubsan quad at Radio Shack. And I bought a book "Build Your Own Quadcopter", which basically was a pitch for buying the Elev-8 kit from a California-based company called Parallax.

I decided to take the plunge - the kit was $500, plus I had to buy an R/C transmitter/receiver and lipo battery. Putting the kit was pretty simple (as long as you pay attention to the instructions and don't jump ahead by making stupid assumptions), and I soon had mine flying. But the flight controller was pretty basic - it only had one flight mode: Acro. I had some skill from flying my little Hubsan, but soon I got cocky and let it get away from me - got too high, too far - lost orientation and well, it wasn't pretty. I learned to repair it!

I wanted something that offered more advanced flight modes in order to help me learn to fly without risking crashes. One day, I leared about the APM flight controller from 3D Robotics and decided that's what I wanted. It had Altitude Hold, Loiter, Return To Launch (RTL), and other flight modes, but in order for them to work I needed a compass, GPS. Also, each flight controller makes assumptions about how the motors are numbered and the Hoverfly controller on the Elev-8 and APM assumed different configurations (no swapping flight controllers!). So I bought a second kit, without the flight controller and ordered an APM, GPS, telemetry transceivers, etc.

It didn't take long before I had my APM ship ready to fly. The APM has a lot of flexibility but that makes it a lot more complicated - lots of software parameters. I accidentally set the wrong value for the parameter that tells the APM how the compass is oriented with respect to the aircraft. Consequently, when I put it in Loiter mode, it took off and flew away! I eventually recovered the aircraft and repaired it. Afterwards, it flew nicely and I really enjoyed it!

Meanwhile, my other Elev-8 was relegated to the closet - it just wasn't as much fun to fly. So one day I decided to replace the flight controller. Now I have two Elev-8's using APM's and both fly great! But the story doesn't end there. I wanted to shoot aerial videos, so I mounted a sport camera on one aircraft - fixed mounted. As you can imagine, after the initial novelty wore off, I wanted to go with stabilized video, so I bought a Tarot 2 axis gimbal, assembled it and installed it along with a video transmitter. Using a GoPro camera and a video monitor mounted on a small camera tripod, I could shoot much nicer aerial video.

Now, I have three aircraft - two Elev-8's (one has undergone significant modifications - Tarot 2 axis gimbal, larger motors and 4S lipo), and a Tarot FY680 Pro hexcopter. Here is a pict:
Three%20Copters_zps0of0uekx.jpg


Here is an example of videos I've shot - this is a montage made from pieces of older videos plus some recent scenes:


While this is probably my best, I don't like the yaw jitter, so I've ordered a 3 axis gimbal which I'll install on the hexcopter. The evolution goes on. Meanwhile I've learned so much - way more than I would if I bought an RTF ship.
 
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