Cumulus Support

So, in one of the other forums I note that as a youngster, my dad stoked my love of aviation by teaching me how to fly RC planes. This was back in the seventies, so it was rather rudimentary (gas engines, no FPV and the like).

Last year someone showed me one of these 'drones' (I'd rather they not be called that) so I bought a RTF one (ready to fly). DJI Phantom Vision 2.

Half of the fun in my youth was helping my dad build these. My brother liked it also, and nowadays, these UAVs (as they *should* be called) are all powered by big lithium polymer batteries instead of gasoline. Bought a kit and other parts for it, and over the course of about 10 months of weekends, we built a hexacopter (6 rotor) with an Arduino based flight controller.

Some links of her:

Initial flight last November (yes, this has been a journey)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-7_ZHnO8D4

Tuning flight back in May (sorry, my brother is in this video as he helped..he curses like a sailor so if you're easily offended by that sort of thing, please skip).

https://vimeo.com/126570995

And one from about a week ago after we put a camera rig on it.

https://vimeo.com/132168487

A work in progress...we will replace motor mounts next as the ones on it are..well...crap.

They are quite addictive, I have resisted, just flying a 'toy' X4 around, but one friend has gone down a similar route to you, another has big commercial rigs and runs a video production company- actually he bought a Phantom as a trainer when he started, and used it on a commercial shoot recently where the customer wanted a shot starting indoors and flying out of a window over a cricket ground. His big rigs were too large for that so the Phantom was pressed into service.

PS I hate the term drone too, the press loves it with all its negative conotations, but it really isn't applicable.

I've got an X4 to play with too. I've been considering a bigger one, a Phantom 3 or a 3DR Solo, or perhaps Yuneec Q500. Main problem here is the wind, so I'd be limited on when I could use it. I'm trying to work our which of the 'hobby' models has the best tolerance to wind.

I think all of them struggle to be stable in wind, a breeze is different. My friends big octocopter is remarkably stable, but it should be with the cost of the electronics in it That is a two man rig though, one to pilot and a camera man to control the 4k video camera.

I was surprised how well the x4 flew outdoors after I'd mastered it indoors. I thought the slightest breeze would be too much, but it copes much better than I thought - only problem is you can't see which way the thing is pointing once it gets too far away!

mcrossley wrote:I think all of them struggle to be stable in wind, a breeze is different. My friends big octocopter is remarkably stable, but it should be with the cost of the electronics in it That is a two man rig though, one to pilot and a camera man to control the 4k video camera.

I was surprised how well the x4 flew outdoors after I'd mastered it indoors. I thought the slightest breeze would be too much, but it copes much better than I thought - only problem is you can't see which way the thing is pointing once it gets too far away!

The hexacopter I built, all up weight including the biggest battery we have is a little over 3 kilos. It handles well in wind, but I haven't had enough flight time with it. The motor mounts I bought I had to order from Hong Kong. That's a task for sure. Hopefully we have it airborne again this weekend. It's 680 frame (max diameter at the tip of the motor mounts is about 680mm).

So over the course of the last month I've been tweaking and tweaking this and getting close. The vehicle itself flies great. The video I need to work on. Some microvibrations are apparent in the gimbal, so I changed the gains a little but haven't tested since this flight.

The Pixhawk Flight Controller is an amazing piece of work. It's not DJI's NAZA norf would I want it to be. It's open source and all based on Arduino hardware, using a NuTTX OS if my memory serves me correctly.

You can do completely autonomous flights with the software (called Mission Planner) and upload the mission to the flight controller. The Pixhawk is what the new 3DR Solo has on it.

Here's a flight we did over the weekend. It's only about 1.5 minutes in length, but it was my first fully autonomous 'mission'. Meaning from takeoff to landing, the software did it all. I only initiated the mission by moving the throttle up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95gRUf7Jf-M