Quadcopter,Anybody have one?

Had a phantom here at my store that we played with a bit. Really cool and would be fun with a gopro...we destroyed it in less than 5 minutes

 

Is this one for sale at a discounted rate?

 

In the reviews I read alot of guys said they expericed no drop out rate? I also think it says it comes with a 2.4gh radio,which should be good enough for what I am wanting to do with it. Any other manufactors I should look at?

 

Im currently scratch building one with a friend, should have about 16lb lift and is about 600mm square ill post a pic later tonight

 

How do you like tha parrot?

 

These are badass.

 

Do not...I repeat...DO NOT use the Blade 350QX with your GoPro. Horizon Hobby advertises that their quads are GoPro compatible and even provide mounting hardware for the camera. However, Rf signals given off by the camera can (and in all likelihood will) interfere with transmitter signal and a fly-away is the result. Even with wi-fi turned off a fly-away can still happen. There have been many cases of this, just do your research.

My Blade 350QX quadcopter tookoff on me and just kept going taking my GoPro with it. I even had wi-fi off...as suggested by other hobbyists. Never found it. Bye-bye $900

From what I've read on a number of forums this issue has happened to the DJI Phantom too, just not nearly as many as the Blade.

They make for incredibly awesome aerial photos and videos but if you are budget minded and don't like knowing whether or not your copter will return home in one piece (if at all) DO NOT take the chance. Either that or send it up with a cheap-o camera.

Also, if given the choice opt for a quadcopter with brushless vs brushed motors.

 

With the Blade 350QX there's also been issues with props shearing during flight. Nothing sucks more than helplessly watching your quadcopter and GoPro come falling to the earth like a stone and shattering on impact....well....besides the fly-away. That sucks more.

 

I was looking at these, http://witespyquad.gostorego.com/quads.html. I'm also going to try and do a scratch build tri copter. You'll also need a decent transmitter.

 

Man, Madkaw. Glad you turned me on to that problem seeing lot of bad stories of guys losing there go pro and quads. Is it just on the copters that have gps hold?

 

Man shit. I saw the title of this thread and got excited as hell. I thought somebody had came out with a 4-wheeler that had a big rotor on it and could fly. I was all fuck yeah gotta have one.

 

took me 2 hours to get home last night after work and didnt feel like pulling the quad out for pictures after that.

the quad im building is gonna have full GPS waypointing, return to home and loiter capabilities, a telemetry feed and FPV video downlink. the telemetry will display as an on screen display on the pilots goggles or the bases station screen.

the biggest thing in using all the features is knowing what is broadcasting on what frequencies, for instance, for control we'll be using an older 72mhz airplane radio, the FPV camera will be sending on 2.4ghz and the telemetry is on 900mhz with those seperations there will be no chance of having the quad hardware interfering with itself. incase of control radio interference the GPS and the quad brain box will be set up with failsafe options where rather than a flyaway the quad will go into loiter mode and hold its position for a set time waiting for instructions, if it times out or the batteries are running low it can be programmed to return to home, since it knows where it is it knows how much energy it needs to get home too so the battery cutoff is a variable.

 

Wow, That sounds awesome,but that is waaayyy over my head. I just wanna film my boy and chase the ol lady around and watch her run and capture her big jugs bouncing on the go pro.

 

using a gopro on any quad that can safely lift it should be no problem, just use it as a stand alone camera rather than in broadcasting mode that the hero3 has. youll have a quad with a fixed aim camera.

WiFi control is neat but its also very short range, think of how far your wireless network extends usably around your house with a single router... you get less controllable range than that realistically to fly with.

im not fully up to speed on how the whole system works, my friend is handling the majority of the technical aspect and im focused more on building and how its laid out, helps to keep things from getting overwhelming for me

 

Yea, Thats all I want to do is just strap the gopro to the quad and go. Problem is finding a decent one that will lift the gopro and not have $500 bucks in one.

 

That would be Lee Fields (Expert #82)(Active Shooter Photography, also). And the one he has absolutely will not take off on its own. It uses GPS. I'll let him explain the specifics, but if it goes out of range of the controller, it uses GPS to go back to the last location it had signal. Also, you HAVE to land it, the only way it will fall out of the sky is if it runs out of battery power. You can completely let go of the controller and it will simply sit there and hover wherever its at. Damn thing is cool as hell, and by NO means is it cheap. The one he has i think was well over $1000 just for the copter itself.

 

It's a great toy. I've hardly used it though. Too much snow outside right now and it's not a great indoor flyer even with the indoor body that protects the walls from the blades. Biggest complaint I have is that the APP for the Iphone has more features than the Android one. It has some director features that allow you to pre-program the flight patterns. The Android software doesn't do that.

I think I'll bring it out tonight and terrify the dog and cats.

 

Just get a parrot a.r.

Way simpler

 

The 350QX has several features including GPS Hold. You can disable the GPS lock which is usually recommended when flying with a GoPro. However, with GPS not locked the quad will not hold its position. Where and how it flies as well as how to land it is all on you. It also has three modes to fly in: Smart Mode, Stability Mode, and Agility Mode. Each have their pros and cons. It also has the RTH or Return to Home feature which is really neat. If you send your quad out to the point where you either cannot determine which direction it's flying or if it goes out of sight just flip the RTH switch and it'll come back and land within' 5-8ft of where the motors were started(this feature will not work with GPS lock disabled). All these features work fine with the quadcopter by itself but if you attach your GoPro to it there are no guarantees that any of these features will work properly. I'm not an electronics expert and I certainly don't know anything about radio frequencies but if you decide to get into aerial photography/videography do your homework and take little steps before advancing to something expensive.

Horizon Hobby also has a smaller quad called the Blade 180QX. It's a smaller version of the 350QX at a fraction of the price. It comes with its own little camera unit. The quality is nowhere near as good as a GoPro but again, if you're just getting into this hobby this would be the perfect entry level quad for you.

Here's my fleet before I lost the 350QX

 

I have no idea what that is but damn I want one! It looks bad as hell. Look at all the lights and shit.