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

[Kennchris]

Thanks for your replies, I was thinking the DJI Phantom Professional but wouldn't some advice first, I will have a look at the others.

[terravista]

Ok, so there's a million pages her about flying things, and I don't really have the time to read through them so I hope this query is not a repeat.
I did what seems to be recommended and bought a basic quadcopter, a Syma X5C-1.
I tried it inside for nearly 1 minute before crashing into the TV, trinkets and other assorted crap, and was banished from further indoor use.
I took it out to the back yard which is an acre with a small dam and a river as a back boundary.
All went well for about 60 seconds,then when I went reasonably high and zoomed around a bit, I lost sight of it, even with flashing red and green lights.
Longish story short, it is now parked in the top of a 25m high Camphor Laurel tree near the river bank and unless a few lengths of conduit joined reach it, I will need a new quad (or hex or octo).
This Syma has a camera but I did not have a chance to use it.
If they are available, what sort of price range/brand/model of these things have the camera view in real time to the hand control or to a smart phone/tablet?
At the current rate my new hobby is costing over $2 500 per hour so I need to get better or give up.
Cheers
Ian

[CBRK]

Longish story short, it is now parked in the top of a 25m high Camphor Laurel tree near the river bank and unless a few lengths of conduit joined reach it, I will need a new quad (or hex or octo).
This Syma has a camera but I did not have a chance to use it.
If they are available, what sort of price range/brand/model of these things have the camera view in real time to the hand control or to a smart phone/tablet?
At the current rate my new hobby is costing over $2 500 per hour so I need to get better or give up.
Cheers
Ian

Hi Ian,

That is a bit of a bugger.  Depends on what you want to use the camera and multicopter for?  Is it only for FPV?  Or do you want to be able to film something in particular?

There are lot of RTF in the sub $500 mark that would do most of what I can see above, there are some nice RTF in the between $1200+ range too.  What environment do you wish to fly in?  How windy is it where you fly?

This is why I started off simple and built from there, I started with a few motors, some plywood, some pine squares, a few ESC's, transmitter, receiver, and a basic flight controller.  I was flying for under $200.  Of course I have now spend a lot more on more advanced stuff as I've wanted to do more and more.

Regards,

Chris

[terravista]

Thanks Chris, it looks like more information is needed.
No real interest in high quality filming, just junky home use, not windy conditions, and generally open areas, hopefully with short trees.
The write up of the Syma looked good at first but I did wonder how you know when to use the photo button when you can be 80 metres away and just guessing where the camera is looking.
Cheers

[Darcy7]

Thanks Chris, it looks like more information is needed.
No real interest in high quality filming, just junky home use, not windy conditions, and generally open areas, hopefully with short trees.
The write up of the Syma looked good at first but I did wonder how you know when to use the photo button when you can be 80 metres away and just guessing where the camera is looking.
Cheers

I'm having heaps of fun with a Parrot Bebop.  Despite what some of the expert reviews are saying, its brilliant and heaps of fun.  The images captured by the camera, particularly the video, are incredible considering the lower cost of the unit.  Extremely stable and more than good enough for a home hack like me.

Its not perfect.  Battery life is a bit ordinary but you get 2 batteries.  They are also continuously updating the firmware and the control app. Third party accessories is growing too.

Its not as good as say a Phantom with a GoPro but its not as expensive either.

[Crisp Image]

Ok, so there's a million pages her about flying things, and I don't really have the time to read through them so I hope this query is not a repeat.
I did what seems to be recommended and bought a basic quadcopter, a Syma X5C-1.
I tried it inside for nearly 1 minute before crashing into the TV, trinkets and other assorted crap, and was banished from further indoor use.
I took it out to the back yard which is an acre with a small dam and a river as a back boundary.
All went well for about 60 seconds,then when I went reasonably high and zoomed around a bit, I lost sight of it, even with flashing red and green lights.
Longish story short, it is now parked in the top of a 25m high Camphor Laurel tree near the river bank and unless a few lengths of conduit joined reach it, I will need a new quad (or hex or octo).
This Syma has a camera but I did not have a chance to use it.
If they are available, what sort of price range/brand/model of these things have the camera view in real time to the hand control or to a smart phone/tablet?
At the current rate my new hobby is costing over $2 500 per hour so I need to get better or give up.
Cheers
Ian

Can you climb trees? I have put mine up there a couple of times but have been able to get them back. Once an arborist climbed the tree cause i could not get near it. No cost as it was the local shire bloke and it was in a tree in the local park.
Have fun but be safe.
Regards
Crispy

[terravista]

Can you climb trees? I have put mine up there a couple of times but have been able to get them back. Once an arborist climbed the tree cause i could not get near it. No cost as it was the local shire bloke and it was in a tree in the local park.
Have fun but be safe.
Regards
Crispyd

Hi Crispy
My tree climbing days are long past, but I wouldnt have climbed this sucker for the $80 the Syma cost. If I cant poke it down it can stay there. The tree is considered a pest so the Council would want it dropped.
Cheers
Ian

[GGV8Cruza]

Some good shots

http://www.news.com.au/national/incredible-images-from-international-drone-photography-contest/story-e6frfkp9-1227437248001

GG

[terravista]

i went down to the tree to recover my Syma, and it is gone.
I has not fallen down and there is no sign of damage to the flora under the tree so no one has climbed up the tree to recover it. It could not fly off by itself.
The tree in only 10 metres from the Logan River which is tidal and in an area frequented by birds resembling sea eagles.
At a guess, I am thinking the nice white shape could have been seen by the local bird life to be injured prey and took it, but I have no real idea whether that is even feasible.
It's now a toss-up whether to get a replacement cheapie or spend a few more dollars and get one with FPV so I can at least steer it properly.
Back to the searches.
Cheers.

[Darcy7]

i went down to the tree to recover my Syma, and it is gone.
I has not fallen down and there is no sign of damage to the flora under the tree so no one has climbed up the tree to recover it. It could not fly off by itself.
The tree in only 10 metres from the Logan River which is tidal and in an area frequented by birds resembling sea eagles.
At a guess, I am thinking the nice white shape could have been seen by the local bird life to be injured prey and took it, but I have no real idea whether that is even feasible.
It's now a toss-up whether to get a replacement cheapie or spend a few more dollars and get one with FPV so I can at least steer it properly.
Back to the searches.
Cheers.

That sucks...!! 

Have to say though, the thought of some bird taking it back to its nest and realising WTF...??   That would be quite funny.

Little comfort to you though

[terravista]

That sucks...!! 

Have to say though, the thought of some bird taking it back to its nest and realising WTF...??   That would be quite funny.

Little comfort to you though

It would be a shock to sink the beak into it and have the LED's start flashing.

[Mandrake]

Just received this today - Hope I can get the Hex to lift it !!! 10,000mah - 649 gms ... USD 56.22 - http://www.aliexpress.com/item/ZOP-Li-poly-Li-on-Lipo-Battery-10000mAh-11-1V-25C-3S-XT60-Plug-For-RC/32309908579.html

Steve

[Marschy]

Just received this today - Hope I can get the Hex to lift it !!! 10,000mah - 649 gms ...

Steve

Looking forward to seeing this in September Steve. What sort of flight times are you expecting with it? There must be some sort of payoff with 6 motors. Some of the guys on the Alien560 thread on rcgroups are getting close to 30 minutes with similar sized flight batteries with motors around the 600 kv mark.

Cheers, Mark

[Mandrake]

I think if I configure the Naza cutoff voltages properly I should get 20 minutes minimum .. But flight test will tell when the wind stops ( hahahahahahaha !!! )

Edit - Added URL and price above and here  - http://www.aliexpress.com/item/ZOP-Li-poly-Li-on-Lipo-Battery-10000mAh-11-1V-25C-3S-XT60-Plug-For-RC/32309908579.html

[edz]

Ok who on here is going to try it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqN2DqKyKtw

[Darcy7]

Ok who on here is going to try it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqN2DqKyKtw

hmmmm.......I'd give it a go but I'd be wearing some body armour...!

[CBRK]

I think if I configure the Naza cutoff voltages properly I should get 20 minutes minimum .. But flight test will tell when the wind stops ( hahahahahahaha !!! )

Edit - Added URL and price above and here  - http://www.aliexpress.com/item/ZOP-Li-poly-Li-on-Lipo-Battery-10000mAh-11-1V-25C-3S-XT60-Plug-For-RC/32309908579.html

Hi Steve,

Looks good, do you have something that measures internal resistance?  If you do can you take a reading for me, otherwise if you dont mind when you come to the meet up can I run it through the IR measurement on my charger?  Depending on the results I might see what they have in the 4s range......  Just be careful, if you are using the XT60's check that they are decent quality version (see how strong the thin part of the plastic is), just that if you have high current draw their have been lots of failures of the low quality connectors.  I ordered some from ebay and they were bad.

I got a 4s 10,000mah (only 10c though - 10cx10 = 100Amps) battery the other day, still waiting to take it for a spin in the tricopter (sits at 15A draw on the 15" props).......  HK was having a sale and i thought I'd try one - first order since they stuffed me around.  10Ah @ 20A draw (I figure an additional 5A is extremely conservative for the weight difference of the batt) so I'm hoping to hit high 20's for flight times.  5.8A batteries I'm getting 18 mins of flight (with normal 20% reserve)....

Annoying thing is between Work, SES, Family and the weather I haven't been able to take it for a spin.  My last flights were on the 15" props, huge amount of vibrations.  I've balanced them - they were bad.  Now for a test flight, this weekends weather appears to be good.  I also received my 30cc petrol motor for the fixed wing but work has asked me to work the 4 weeks before the meet up so I may not have it ready for that.  So now financially better off but time poor again, grrrr.

Chris

[CBRK]

hmmmm.......I'd give it a go but I'd be wearing some body armour...!

Given the reliability of most of the gear, I'd give it a miss till it's working a bit better (and then I'd still wear body armour).  See the movement on some of those motor mounts......  Doesn't inspire confidence.  I'd prefer a X8 or should that be an X10 config.....

Good on him though, although to actually sit in it will require a whole host of legal things to meet (experimental ac - depending which country it's from).

[Mandrake]

Chris

Simplified ( ie NOT TOO SCIENTIFIC  --- used one of my wattmeters )
18 degrees centigrade ...
Unloaded 12.46 , loaded 12.33 - ( load was a 12V bulb at 71 watts ) - registered 5.78 Amps ...

So the IR is 12.46 - 12.33 / 5.78A x1000 = 22.5 milliohms ...

I believe that's pretty good ...

Going to make my tester a bit safer and test all the batteries and see what's watt and watt is resisting - LOL

Steve

[CBRK]

Chris

Simplified ( ie NOT TOO SCIENTIFIC  --- used one of my wattmeters )
18 degrees centigrade ...
Unloaded 12.46 , loaded 12.33 - ( load was a 12V bulb at 71 watts ) - registered 5.78 Amps ...

So the IR is 12.46 - 12.33 / 5.78A x1000 = 22.5 milliohms ...

I believe that's pretty good ...

Going to make my tester a bit safer and test all the batteries and see what's watt and watt is resisting - LOL

Steve

Hi Steve,

Thanks for that, it is exactly the way to do it!  I went the easier route and bought a charger that does it for me, i looked at doing that way and urgh, maths.....   22.5 is on the high side of low, so I'd say for the money spend that is a good outcome.  For most of my batteries I'm getting about 3 to 4 milliohms per cell (so for 3s around 9 to 12).  I havent put my 10Ah 4s batt on the IR tester yet, so can't compare it yet.

I'd recommend investing in a charger that can do it per cell, that way you know when your battery is on the way out.  You can cycle them to the non critical ground duties over the important spin the props job......  Batt's tend to start to get a dodgy cell, and if one goes it might be masked by the other two (I had a 2, 15, 3 - Cell 2 was dying - ground duties for it - even though total was just 20millohms).  Another way to see it is after a flight see if one of the cells voltage is much lower than the others.  I only check my batts once every 4 to 6 weeks or if it suffers a hard impact from an IR perspective.

Chris

[Mandrake]

Bloke on Youtube I copied his tester idea ... says between 20 and 40 for 3S batteries is OK .. after 50 he retires them - over 100 they get recycled...

So if I get a chance I'll solder up the test lamp with a nice battery XT60 on it and start ( as he did ) a spread sheet to keep track of the IRs on all my batteries ...

As I now have 28 of them it'll be a big spreadsheet !!

[CBRK]

Bloke on Youtube I copied his tester idea ... says between 20 and 40 for 3S batteries is OK .. after 50 he retires them - over 100 they get recycled...

So if I get a chance I'll solder up the test lamp with a nice battery XT60 on it and start ( as he did ) a spread sheet to keep track of the IRs on all my batteries ...

As I now have 28 of them it'll be a big spreadsheet !!

I too keep a spreadsheet to see when they start to go, I have the original values written in perm marker on the side of the battery just in case.  I have about 20 to keep track of and the list grows far too quickly.  I've retired 1 battery so far, 2 are not far off it.  I haven't included my transmitter or VRX batts, that would be just a nightmare but something I will add soon.

I use a slightly different rule, as long as the cells are similar in value I'm not as concerned but certainly for a 3s if it gets to 40 it would be ground use only.  The one I mentioned earlier that was 2, 15, 3 is ground use only for light loads of non critical items - the difference between cells is large, if the middle cell was 10 I still be using it in the air.  The one I retired had a dead cell (under 2V) - was in a crash a long time ago, didn't even bother to measure IR on it, I tried a charge (outside in an area where things were less likely to catch alight if it went wrong) but it didn't work.

Chris

[Mandrake]

Oh dear - Oh me Oh my - Oh gosh ....
Just tested all my batteries (18 ) and only 1 is OK  - Most are between 80 and 110 !!!
Looks like I need to get some new ones for the Phantoms ....

Good job I don't fly them much !!

Steve

[CBRK]

Oh dear - Oh me Oh my - Oh gosh ....
Just tested all my batteries (18 ) and only 1 is OK  - Most are between 80 and 110 !!!
Looks like I need to get some new ones for the Phantoms ....

Good job I don't fly them much !!

Steve

Hi Steve,

Ouch, that is high.  Can I suggest you bring one or two along on the trip in Sept, I'll chuck them on my charger that measures IR values, just to see compare the two methods.

I'm wondering if they have been over discharged, might want to shorten the flight time by a few minutes on the newer batteries to give them a longer life (unless of course those 18 batteries are all very old ones :-) ).

Regards,

Chris

[Mandrake]

Most of them were the one I bought off the guy when I bought my Phantom 1 ---

I'll give a couple of them a complete discharge / recharge / conditioning and see if that does any good -

My charger does all that if i can work out the right sequence of button presses !! LOL