Quadcopter Suggestion

Daniel Jalkut

New Member
I teach engineering and I need a quadcopter that can do the following:

1) hover at various altitudes at least 30 feet off of the ground.
2) take pictures
3) carry a load of at least 350 g.

If you know the quadcopter I am looking for, please send recommendations. Someone suggested the Xiro Xplorer Standard Model and told me to get a backup battery. I am not sure if this drone meets my specifications.

Thank you.
 
I teach engineering and I need a quadcopter that can do the following:

1) hover at various altitudes at least 30 feet off of the ground.
2) take pictures
3) carry a load of at least 350 g.

If you know the quadcopter I am looking for, please send recommendations. Someone suggested the Xiro Xplorer Standard Model and told me to get a backup battery. I am not sure if this drone meets my specifications.

Thank you.


More constraints would be better lots of quads will fit that list especially if you look at building your own rig. The one you were suggested should work fine but things you want are basically GPS and barometer hooked to the flight controller so it can maintain position and altitude and almost all quads above $100 will have some sort of camera attached. What kind of images are you looking to capture though and do you need live video feed FPV or just looking to recover higher quality images or video after the fact? What is the monetary budget and time constraints for completing is there any interest in building from scratch?
 
I do not leed live video feed, just higher quality images/video recovered after the fact. Unfortunately no interest to build from scratch. Looking to keep it in under $400. I will most likely be buying a backup battery to ensure it can be used intermittently over the course of a 60 minute class.
 
I just deleted a super long post. Long story short I don't have an answer. Long story long if you want the details I'm retyping to try and keep it focused:

There is no clear answer to this from most toy and hobby grade quadcopters. The ones that are rated for lifting capacity are all well above the monetary budget unfortunately (they are ludicrously expensive). An example of one that has an actual lift rating in the specifications:

https://www.dji.com/matrice100/info

That's a $3200 quadcopter but it is rated to lift 500g or even a bit over 1kg and has rated flight time with those payloads (20min with 500g).

From my other research into this it appears the Phantom 4 can lift over 500g and from a test I saw using a fishing scale with a Mavic it can pull 2.3lbs at max throttle but that probably means it can carry about half of that and still ascend and have some semblance of control. Therein lies the problem with anything that isn't "industrial grade" they just aren't rated or configured to handle heavy payloads and aren't 'rated' for it at all probably in part to save the mfg from liability.

All that said my first quad was a 3d printed frame using 1804 motors (new one uses 2206) and it could lug around a GoPro Hero, video transmitter and extra security cam for the live analog feed. If you took those parts out and added a GPS module and ran iNav software you could have GPS lock or waypoints setup for the quad to fly itself.

Regarding the Xiro it appears hit or miss with regard to the reviews for the product and their website leaves a lot to be desired with regard to putting specs and details on the quads up front. The manual looks well done but aside from that there isn't much information to be had about details of the motors or other hardware that's included.

To wrap up for now the price is going to be tough to hit with either DIY or buying something off the shelf. I believe my little race quad could easily lift the 500g capacity but how well or how long it will fly are another matter. My guess is you'll either need to increase budget to get something larger that won't have any trouble with the extra payload or go with something small like a race quad or DJI type product and just keep extra batteries on hand. Bigger batteries to get longer flight time doesn't really work out since you're adding more weight to the quad and it takes more power to lift that weight (energy density of batteries isn't anywhere near gasoline so 'just add a bigger tank' doesn't really work out if you need to keep the motors running at peak just to get off the ground), in general it's much easier to have more batteries so the quad doesn't need to carry all that extra weight the whole time it flies. On the plus side a few minute demo with a quad will take some setup and tear down time and will be exciting enough to feel longer... usually.

Couple resources to help with technical details if you want to get into that:

https://www.ecalc.ch/xcoptercalc.php
https://quadquestions.com/blog/2017/02/22/choose-right-size-motors-drone/

PS if the weather wasn't so crappy I'd do some testing with my 'racing' setup and see how stable it stays with various weight attached to it and where the limit is really but it's pouring out so I'm stuck inside working on an MPCNC :|
 

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