Remote controlled flying things-Quads, Hex, Octo or anything

[Marschy]

Excellent Crispy. Did you have to do any post-processing, i.e deshake?

[Crisp Image]

Excellent Crispy. Did you have to do any post-processing, i.e deshake?

No it was all just cut and splice. There was one section that I zoomed to get rid of the landing gear in the frame.
The brushless gimbal that holds the camera is a great bit of kit.
Regards
Crispy

[Marschy]

Hobby king 10x4.5 SP props arrived in the mail today. Much better than the kit supplied props. At least the leading and trailing edges on the new props have been cleaned up out of the injection mold. The kit props were pretty rough

[Marschy]

Doing a bit of reading up on canopies led me to a thread on rcgroups where a guy is talking about using the plastic dome from an immitation security camera. Did a bit more reading, bit of surfing looking for dimensions, couldn't find any consistent dimensions from one seller to another or non-existant dimensions more often. Looked at prices on ebay, which were really cheap @ 4 x fake cameras for around $20.

So took a punt and bought one of these from Bunnings to see if was worth spending another $20 bucks and getting another 4 from ebay.

Swann Dome Imitation Camera With Flashing Light $15.87

Now the Bunnings is a 200% markup on the ebay ones but probably pumped out of the same factory. But the good news is, they fit like a bloody glove.

A bit of trimming on the flange where it overlaps the top plate on the quad



And a bit of velcro stuck onto the flange and the top plate and you'll have one schmick looking canopy.



Now the bad news.

They are made out of ABS plastic (read brittle). So my solution will be to use this one as a mold by filling it with fibreglass resin. Then making a vacuum forming platform out of a heap of mdf I have sitting in the shed and molding my own canopies using 2mm acrylic plastic (perspex)

[Crisp Image]

Looks good. I took my toys out to play today and crashed one early in the flight and broke a couple off cable ties on one motor. I didn't have any spares with me so packed that one away and then played with the dji quad. Took it up to the legal height of about 400 feet or 122m and took some photos of the scope pitch for a friend so he could ask the council to water it. 10:22 flight time on 3650mah and not much hover time in there. He was very impressed with the results. Not to exciting so no video posting.
On another note the caravan park managers were so impressed with the video I made of the park they offered us a couple of nights free. Might just have to take them up on the offer.
Regards
Crispy
PS  Marschy when is that bird found to take flight. It is a bit like D4Ds camper at the moment.

Sent from my GT-I9210T using Tapatalk

[Marschy]

At the mercy of international mail while I wait for the flashing tool to arrive then it shouldn't be long after that. The building phase can be just as additive as the flying stage.

[Sawed-Off]

Took it up to the legal height of about 400 feet or 122m

Were you in controlled airspace, or does your quad weigh more than 1500g?

[Crisp Image]

Were you in controlled airspace, or does your quad weigh more than 1500g?

I understand that controlled or not the celling height for a domestic "toy" is 400ft.
My AUW is 2.1kg
I could be wrong but that is what I have read
Regards
Crispy

[Marschy]

This link may help

Civil Aviation Safety Authority - Model Aircraft

Edit: Go to the download section and download volume 3. Basically any flight above 400 ft above ground level requires permission for a UAV.

[Sawed-Off]

I think Note 1 of 101.235 along with 101.400 says you can fly as high as you like, with a couple of small provisos. 

Edit: I meant to add, I've been flying model rockets for years (which is why I had 1500g in my head). You'd be surprised how many people think you can't fly above 400' AGL anywhere, anytime, under any circumstances. CASA are pretty easy going with us non-commercial hobbiests, so long as we're aware of and follow the rules.

Edit 2: Also see Advisory Circular 101-3(0), section 7.2.1.

[Marschy]

I see where your coming from. Many moons ago when I flew fixed wing, the guys with electric gliders used to motor on up to a bloody good height that would easily beat 400 feet then just glide on down with no power.

[Marschy]

Found where it states height restrictions, most capital cities. Read here

http://www.casa.gov.au/wcmswr/_assets/main/lib100071/flying_with_control_model.pdf

[Sawed-Off]

Yep, it's good advice, in a general rule-of-thumb, make-it-easy-for-the-punters-to-understand way (they made one for us rocket guys, too). You can find out the boundaries of controlled airspace by grabbing a Visual Terminal Chart (VTC) from Air Services Australia. It's a great $10 investment for those of us that like to poke things into the air without being part of a club.

https://www.airservicesaustralia.com/store/html.asp?/bookweb/catalog.cgi?stype=c&stext=VT

In a nutshell, controlled airspace has different classes that you can think of as layers. Here's a guide that explains it a bit.

https://www.airservicesaustralia.com/store/html.asp?/bookweb/catalog.cgi?stype=c&stext=VT

The layers are usually designated by a lower limit (LL on the VTC). Basically, they start at the airport with the LL of the surface (SFC). They radiate outwards, with the LL lifting in a series of steps, in a sort-of upside-down cone shape. The airspace underneath the steps is not controlled airspace, and you can fly in it. Obviously, you'd avoid designated corridors and such. For example, from the Cairns Airport, if I head towards the south west, the steps go from C LL SFC (ie class C, Lower Limit Surface), to C LL 3500 (ie 3500'), to C LL 4500, to C LL 6500, to C LL 8500, to C LL FL125. This last one is nearly 150kms from the airport. These aren't concentric rings either, so it's worth having the chart.

Hopefully I'm not teaching you guys to suck eggs. I just hate that folks think they're restricted to 400' AGL, when with a little extra knowledge, the sky is the limit.

[bussoboy]

Our sales people sell the high end stuff and it was fun watching this fly around the office

[D4D]

This stuff is catching on

http://www.news.com.au/technology/design/renault-concept-comes-with-a-drone-to-help-find-a-parking-space/story-fnjwucvh-1226821130439

[Marschy]

Still waiting for flashing tool to arrive. I have a heap of 5050 LED's lying around, so I made some flashing LED's to help with orientation.

Led Flasher

This will go on the end of the front legs and some coloured non-flashing LED's will go on the rear legs.

[GGV8Cruza]

Looks like the copters are  supplying footage for the winter Olympics, can see them flying in the background as well

GG

[Sawed-Off]

Looks like the copters are  supplying footage for the winter Olympics, can see them flying in the background as well

GG

Yeah, there's been some awesome footage. Very stable, too. Great work by the operators.

It looks like my quad has shipped from banggood. Hopefully see it in a couple of weeks.

[Crisp Image]

With the fires in my mine in Latrobe Valley the MFB have brought their UAV's down to see if they are useful.
I am now the Hazelwood UAV liaison officer. A nice title.
Any brain is all smoked out so I think I need a and a good rest. so far I have done 4 12+hr days and I still have some  more to do. I think our fire will go for more than 2 weeks.
When I get the photos off my phone I will post up.
Regards
Crispy

[Andrew_C]

I have been looking at a few different options,
Would a kit like this cut it to start with or should I look at separate parts?http://www.aliexpress.com/item/F02192-A-RC-4Axis-Multi-QuadCopter-UFO-RTF-ARF-KK-V2-3-Circuit-board-1000KV-Motor/632297151.html
If you were starting off, with a plan to run a go pro or fpv eventually,are they a good platform, or would I be looking to upgrade remote, motors etc. early in the piece?
If you wouldn't recommend the above, what would you recommend as a sensible starter.

[Marschy]

I have been looking at a few different options,
Would a kit like this cut it to start with or should I look at separate parts?http://www.aliexpress.com/item/F02192-A-RC-4Axis-Multi-QuadCopter-UFO-RTF-ARF-KK-V2-3-Circuit-board-1000KV-Motor/632297151.html
If you were starting off, with a plan to run a go pro or fpv eventually,are they a good platform, or would I be looking to upgrade remote, motors etc. early in the piece?
If you wouldn't recommend the above, what would you recommend as a sensible starter.

Hello Andrew,
Yes the kit is a good platform to run a gopro or fpv. This kit is the same as mine (same store as well), with the addition of a 6 channel radio. Heads up, the second photo is more representative of what you are getting, not the first photo which has a picture of a DJI flamewheel frame. The frame you are getting is in the second picture.

For FPV you are going to need a kit similar to this from Hobbyking

FatShark Teleporter V3 RTF FPV Headset System w/Camera and 5.8G TX

I would suggest upgrading the flight control board in the kit. The KK board that comes with the kit needs to be hooked up to a computer to change the settings, whereas a hobbyking kk2.1 board you can program on board (in the field) with the LCD display and four buttons for around $30.

I haven't had mine in the air yet, but the motors as they are should be sufficient for the supplied kit. But as you add more weight, you will need to look at different motor options for additional thrust. Crispy has done this already with his DJI, and has upgraded his motors to t-motors. Similarly, the speed controllers work fine, I just decided to flash mine with new software which is causing me delays at the moment.

If you have any other questions, fire away.

Cheers, Marschy

[cm4x4nut]

For FPV you are going to need a kit similar to this from Hobbyking

FatShark Teleporter V3 RTF FPV Headset System w/Camera and 5.8G TX

Marschy, what sort of costs are you paying for these. I have often thought as an exercise it would be interesting to put the camera in the drivers seat of the 1/10 truck and see how the off roading experience goes.

Cheers,

[Andrew_C]

So what sort of range do you get out of the radio control and FPV. Is spending more going to get more RC range.

[Marschy]

So what sort of range do you get out of the radio control and FPV. Is spending more going to get more RC range.

Apparently 2.4ghz radio is pretty much line of sight, so it doesn't matter really how much you spend on these types of radio's they have around the same range. The older crystal radio's had better range.

The 5.8ghz fpv transmitter gives about 1.5 miles range (apparently)

[Marschy]

Marschy, what sort of costs are you paying for these. I have often thought as an exercise it would be interesting to put the camera in the drivers seat of the 1/10 truck and see how the off roading experience goes.

Cheers,

$199 US from hobbyking, plus delivery, no reason why you can't use them in a car, other people do.