Drones, not just for .gov surveillance anymore

Ratdog68

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RD, is that another one you had sent up there or did you find it local?
Wandering through Sportsman's Warehouse (a box store for hunting/fishing) today and found one on the shelf. Stopped by Anchorage House of Hobbies after that and found they had some in stock as well as all sorts of goodies !!! Got my spare batteries there.
 

Ratdog68

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Are you getting goggles? I feel intimidated by them somehow.
M'be later. For now... working on learning to fly LOS and stick control the old fashioned way.
 

RattlesnakeDan

San Antonio Texas
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Just seems odd. Like some virtual reality thing.
 

Oso Grande

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Just seems odd. Like some virtual reality thing.
It is, but in a fun way. You'll see. Well or you'll decide it's not for you. Though I'll be sure to have you sitting down or at least leaning against something. It can screw with people equilibrium at first since your eyes aren't doing what your body is.
 

Ratdog68

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Good practice today while hangin' out in my hotel room. Practicing my hover, and navigating to the coffee table to land. Take off and navigate to the sofa to land. Take off and navigate to luggage and land. Take off and navigate to the bed and land. Working on different angles of attack too, nose away, nose to, nose to left, nose to right. Not really good at it yet, but probably have a 50% + success rate with it thus far. I'll take it. Having a room with a living room and a bedroom (with a double wide doorway), I'm able to sit about mid point and swivel in the office chair at the desk and do LOS flying to each of the landing points.

Three rounds of three batteries' worth of flying in so far, getting my batteries charged up for more practice and watching some tube.
 

FrankT

Destin FL
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Now you just need a naked girl to land on and show her what you are made of!
 

Ratdog68

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RattlesnakeDan

San Antonio Texas
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You may as well get a big one and fly yourself home.
 

RattlesnakeDan

San Antonio Texas
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That thing has a strange sound, almost like low rpms and real torquey (sp)
 

Oso Grande

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Here's his setup:
- Blackout Mini H (6inch upgrade) http://www.minihquad.com/frames/mini-...
- Cleanflight 1.8.1 and PID controller 2
- Naze32 acro rev5 http://www.multirotorparts.nl/electro...
- DYS SN20
- Cobra 2204/32 2300kv http://www.multirotorparts.nl/motors/...
- HQProp 5x45 bullnose http://www.multirotorparts.nl/propell...
- Sony PZ0420 Sony SuperHAD 600 FPV camera
- 4S 1800mAh Nanotech
- Fatshark Dominator V2
- Immersion 5.8 600mW vtx http://www.immersionrc.com/
- Frsky Taranis w telemetry D4R-II http://www.multirotorparts.nl/electro...
- Gopro Hero4 Black


Still high RPM.
 

Ratdog68

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I'd get dizzy trying to do that with all those shadows looking like obstacles.
 

Ratdog68

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Tomorrow night !!! I get to pick-up my big quad copter and my DX6i radio !!! Probably go see a movie with my buddy too. They just got back from a cruise... his wife came down with the cruds after they got home. In fact, most of their extended family who went on the cruise has come down with bugs.
 

FrankT

Destin FL
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Never been on a cruise, they look like a bad petri dish to me.

FLY RD FLY!
 

Ratdog68

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LOL... I think I tend to agree with that. I've never been on one either... not so sure I wanna.

Yup, intend to do a little flying soon. Got some more yard work done today, after getting my lawn edger running. Been a couple of years since I used that tool, been doing the string trimmer thing mostly (lately).

Day after tomorrow, see about setting up the bird and radio, get the batteries all charged up and see how it does. The little one should fly "more gooder" with the full size radio as well.
 

RattlesnakeDan

San Antonio Texas
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I went on a cruise to Jamaica and some other place, swam with the stingrays, yippee, got a bad sinus infection from whoever used the mask first. yuck. Then got stung by a jelly fish in Jamiaca, thought I was drugged or something. Gained about 10 lbs too. Last cruise for me. lol
 

FrankT

Destin FL
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I went to Jamaica 1 time and never again, a real shite hole!
 

Ratdog68

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The Nano QX (palm sized unit) got dug out today, and I bound it to my new DX6i (full sized radio). Wow... big difference in how this little puppy flies when you have a full-sized controller. There definitely appears to be an upgrade in parts quality for the internals when you get away from the smaller controller radios.

It was also my first time being able to fly the little bird outside. The breeze was very light, and wasn't constant, so the fluctuations I noted appear to be wind drift affecting flight. Very manageable. The biggest mishap was when the wind drifted it out into the street and I lost directional orientation of the little bird as I was trying to correct and bring it back. It landed in a tree branch, and I had to walk across the street to pick it from the branch. I had one little gust of wind kick it over against the steps to the porch, and had to go right it. But, all in all, I burned through three batteries' charge to get in some flight time, and was very pleased with the results.
 

Ratdog68

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GoPro use with the Blade 350QX3.

In the process of doing my homework, I've learned that the original Blade 350QX had issues with radio interference when the GoPro cameras were turned on to record flight. The interference disrupted the GPS signal. I found one report of a guy losing two of the copters when they simply "flew away", one of them had his new GoPro camera on it. The camera was lost as well. This apparently has nothing to do with someone turning on the GoPro's wifi feature... this happens when the camera is initiated to record. One guy films, showing that as the camera's recording is stopped, the GPS signal locks again. Hit record, GPS signal lock is lost.

I found tutorials of people wrapping their GoPro with foil to block the signal interference. I found tutorials of someone who'd made a template from paper, you then cut out from the bottom of those heavy aluminum roasting pans you buy at the grocery store... and wrap the camera, cutting holes for the lens, switches, plug-in ports, etc. I also found tutorials of people who opened the copter's body and used the foil duct tape to fabricate a shield that was not visible. Good things appear to have come of those modifications. The poor soul who lost two birds and a camera... he upgraded to the Blade 350 QX3 (the unit I have). He hasn't had the nerve to mount a camera to that one as of yet.

I also found a Horizon Hobby tutorial video. They acknowledge the problem with the older model, and began including a two-piece copper foil tape solution. It's already cut to size/shape. The result is a copper shield around the camera (which also fits inside the water-proof case) which is then encased with the camera mount (sans the water-proof GoPro case) and mounted to the bird. This shields the signal from going UP into the electronics of the bird. The bottom is left unshielded, allowing the camera's signal to escape to the bottom.


Low and behold, I find a copper tape shield kit for a GoPro included with my Blade 350QX3 (the new model). Supposedly, the GPS antenna was moved atop a mast, addressing the matter. I haven't found anything reporting issues of the new model having GoPros mounted and used. However... I've made up the shield to wrap my GoPro in.
 

RattlesnakeDan

San Antonio Texas
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So all those people putting on tin foil hats weren't crazy after all?
 
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