Quadcopter anyone own one?

[rob4001]

I am succumbing to the quadcopter bug. It maybe a fad for me but I love the great footage you see from some.

I was thinking of getting a DJ phantom 3 pro or and Autel X-Star Drone (better customer service).

Anyone flown or experienced with quadcopter love to hear your thoughts on ownership or after a few times will it just collect dust in the garage!?

[peterb]

I have a hexacopter. There are severe limitations on where you can legally fly, particularly if you have a camera, and you cannot sell the images unless you have permission for commercial work from the CAA.

They are good fun, but it might be worth joining a model flying club (although not all are friendly towards multi-rotor flyer) or join the British Model Flying Association which will also give you insurance cover and give the latest legal position.

www.bmfa.org

[Jonj1611]

If their location is correct Peter, they maybe subject to different laws.

[peterb]

If their location is correct Peter, they maybe subject to different laws.

Whoops, yes, as a U.K. based site...

I am succumbing to the quadcopter bug. It maybe a fad for me but I love the great footage you see from some.

I was thinking of getting a DJ phantom 3 pro or and Autel X-Star Drone (better customer service).

Anyone flown or experienced with quadcopter love to hear your thoughts on ownership or after a few times will it just collect dust in the garage!?

The FAA (Federal Aviation Authority) are the body responsible for controlling airspace and the associated regulations in the US.

This may help, but I haven't researched it fully.

https://www.faa.gov/uas/

[jimborae]

I have a hexacopter. There are severe limitations on where you can legally fly, particularly if you have a camera, and you cannot sell the images unless you have permission for commercial work from the CAA.

They are good fun, but it might be worth joining a model flying club (although not all are friendly towards multi-rotor flyer) or join the British Model Flying Association which will also give you insurance cover and give the latest legal position.

www.bmfa.org

I would hardly call those severe limitations, try flying in Sweden or Holland, under those rules there are plenty of places I can fly my drone as long as I dont fly too high & keep in visual contact. Personally I really dont like the look of Phantoms , which is silly I know, but for me the real pleasure is in building them rather flying I think. I own a DJI 450, 550 and Tarot 650. Although I'll shortly be adding a Tarot FY680 Pro to the collection.

[peterb]

I would hardly call those severe limitations, try flying in Sweden or Holland, under those rules there are plenty of places I can fly my drone as long as I dont fly too high & keep in visual contact. Personally I really dont like the look of Phantoms , which is silly I know, but for me the real pleasure is in building them rather flying I think. I own a DJI 450, 550 and Tarot 650. Although I'll shortly be adding a Tarot FY680 Pro to the collection.

I have the 550. I was trying to emphasise that you can't just buy one and launch it from your suburban back garden, or any old bit of land. At the very least you need the landowners permission, and be aware of the minimum safety distances from people 'not under your control'.

That said, I do like the look of the Mavic!

[jimborae]

I have the 550. I was trying to emphasise that you can't just buy one and launch it from your suburban back garden, or any old bit of land. At the very least you need the landowners permission, and be aware of the minimum safety distances from people 'not under your control'.

That said, I do like the look of the Mavic!

Yeah I like the look of the Mavic as well...........just not the price!!! I seem to just hoover up cheap parts from Ebay & China and love building my own. By the way thanks for the link to www.bmfa.org, using that sight I've found a multi-rotor club just down the road from me so I'll check it out and the BMFA's insurance would be an added bonus too.

Roger that about launching from your back garden or any old bit of land, thankfully for me Greenham Common is just up the road and there are loads of place in the country side around me that I can fly from (I know one or two friendly farmers or rather friends or friends do so it's not usually a problem).

[jimborae]

The other thing for the OP to consider is if you buy a Phantom or one of the other more expensive DJI's, in particular, is how easy they are to repair........They aren't. The Inspires & Mavics cost a fortune & are virtually impossible for the novice to repair, DJI do not sell the parts and insist you go through them or their dealer network. So for someone beginning, like I am where a crash & subsequent damage, are inevitable then the DIY drone route is the best I think. It's cheaper, virtually all damage is repairable and you really get to know how a drone works if you build it yourself and their are masses of guides available if you go for a popular model.

[Saracen]

I wouldn't say crashes are inevitable, especially if whatever you get has some sort of 'stability-mode' flight assist. If you want inevitable crashes, try learning collective pitch helicopters.

[jimborae]

Ok maybe not inevitable but should be expected then. I don't know many dronel pilots, experienced or not, who haven't crashed at some point.

Drones with stability mode flight assist can and will still crash for a variety of reasons, many not user error. Apart from pilot error I've had engines fail, batteries fail, self tightening props come off, flight controller software errors, GPS lock failures etc all off which have caused crashes to some degree. The question is what do you do when this happens? Can you control the crash and get away with it or is it catastrophic failure and it's going to be a very heavy impact. This is when a repairable drone is a god send.

As for collective pitch copters, well they're just a dark art as far as I'm concerned! And that's why I don't and won't ever consider myself to be a proper model pilot if I don't learn to fly something like that or RC plane. Drones allow anyone to take to the air with little or no skill and that's what makes them so popular and conversely so dangerous. The flight controller with its GPS, stability control, RTH and different flight modes etc can remove all the skill from the pilot but when things go wrong then what?

[Saracen]

Oh, I agree. I was being a bit facetious. I've got a few small multi's, but my main interest is heli's. Any electric model can fail for a variety of reasons, including battery.

One friend proudly told me he was taking up boating "because you can't crash one if the battery fails".

He's right of course. But then, you're much less likely to get your heli/quad stranded 50 yards from shore in a deep lake, when the battery fails. Oh, did I laugh.

What I was really suggesting is that, with assist on, and with many drones, they're inherently stable, and relatively easy even for a complete novice. A CP heli, however, is about as easy is balancing a marble on an oiled bowling ball, while riding a monocycle, drunk out of your skull. They are actively trying to tip off balance (excepting those with similar flight assist) and require very fast, delicate continuous adjustments. That said, it's just a matter of practice, and some CP heli's are ideal for learning, like the Blade Nano. Not 'cos it's easy to fly (it ain't) but because it's so small and light that it survives the inevitable tumult of crashes remarkable well.

But that Nano is incredibly fast and agile. It's a bit like a hummingbird high on speed. It bears a similar relationship to a 'full size' model heli, as a pro-grade racing quad does to Phoenix. And those racing quads intimidate the the brown stuff outta me.


My point, obliquely, to the OP was that quads aren't really hard to fly, in as much as avoiding crashes. They are a fair bit harder to get to do exactly what you want.

Will you play with it for a few days then stick it in a cupboard as a dust-collector? Dunno. It depends on you. If the bug bites, you won't.

So .... instead of spending hundreds on a large quad, or thousands on a pro model, why not buy one of the tiny little "toy" quads. My first one cost me about £30, including the radio Tx. It has no camera, but is great fun zipping round the house, in and out of furniture. And about £15 more gets you the same basic quad with a very simple, modest-res camera.

A couple of weeks with that may well be enough to tell you that either, you've got the bug, or alternatively, get it out of your system.

Just be warned, if you do get the bug, it can get nut-shrivellingly expensive, all-consuming of spare time, and anything from immense fun to a change of profession.

It's a bit like staring into the abyss .... the abyss stares back, and has a hypnotic gaze.

[rob4001]

This is all great advice. I do live in the US and there is a no fly zone app you can get on your phone. As for FAA regs they are mostly common sense fly under 400 feet not over private property/people etc.

As for drone I'm not so much as a hobbyist as a consumer. Kind of like a console owner than building my own PC! I looked into dj 450 and 550 and I appreciate they will be easy fixes. I am considering but once add all the kit they are also similar price to DJ phantom/autel. Also I don't have any tools to build one (soldering iron etc)

I more interested in the video/photo aspects drones with gimbals than racing around. I was looking at the Autel https://www.autelrobotics.com/x-star-premium/ as they have good customer support and repair kits unlike DJ phantom.

The sensible thing to do would be to pick up a syma x 5c drone which is $50 and good for learning to fly so I have read sadly they don't have gimballed cameras and I'm not sensible!!

[Saracen]

Well, then perhaps approach from the other direction.

If the intention is airborn video/photography, what sort of subject matter, and what does that tell you about the camera you'll need? If you can get away wiypth something GoPro-ish, then that implies one level, size and cost of quad/multi, but if you want a full-size SLR, then that dictates the gimbal, which (with camera/lens weight) dictates the quad/multi.

Also, don't forget the extras. As you'll probably get 15-20mins max with most quads, you'll likely want several batteries, and they can be expensive. So can chargers, etc, if you want to charge multiple batteries at one time. The cost starts, not stops, with the bird and radio.

And, if course, like any tech hobby, the costs start ti go up exponentially after a certain point, so unless you're well-off enough to be 'cost-no-object', think the system costs through, not just the obvious bits.

[Spud1]

I have far too many . I started buying a Blade nano CPX (assuming that's the one you reference Saracen) and a spektum transmitter..and that got me well and truly hooked on helis and quads. You might say I took the hard way in to it..CP helis being generally hard to fly and the CPX being a twitchy wasp even with the rates right down, but when you learn to fly one of those (after many many hours of practice - around 10 just to be able to take off and hover) flying quads is easy as pie.

I'm just getting into flipping it now but you need a very calm day or a lot of indoor space both of which are rare in the UK! I do intend to move up to a bigger cp heli at some point. It I don't have the space ATM.

Since then I moved on to building my own quads and now I have too many..currently building an FPV racer (based on a turnigy frame), looking forward to finishing it! Building the quads is actually very cheap - £50-£70 for the parts in most cases with the cost going to motors and ESCs. Most of my initial outlay was for the battery charger/Batteries and then the goggles/camera for the fpv quad. You can keep the rest of the cost down by shopping at hobbyking, where a KK2 clone can be had for £10, orangeRX for the receiver at about £6, batteries for 5-6£ a go etc..you get the picture. They are great for the US too and shipping is reasonable.

If you are just starting out though I'd strongly recommend getting a Husban X4 mini quad (£40/$45) to try out quads - they are superbly built ready to fly quads that will take a lot of crashes, fly well indoors or out and can get you used to the concepts before you shell out on a very expensive pre built quad ( not recommended tbh you pay a huge premium) or get the bug and start to self build. Self building is not that hard if you are ok with a bit of soldering and a screwdriver . There are plenty of helpful communities too.

Best of luck with the hobby it's a great one to get in to!

[Saracen]

Yes, Spud, I was referring to the Nano CPX (superceded now by CPS). And it is an agile little b.... beggar, isn't it. Also, when I mentioned the cheap £30 quad, it was the Hubsan X4 I was thinking off .... just couldn't remember the name.

Mind you, even that X4 can be a bit of a handful if you put the controller in expert mode.

@Rob .... One of the things you'll find is that the radios most (except very basic) models use are programmable, to varying extents, and that's something I find almost as tricky to get my head around as actual flying. But it means you can, among other things, set the response rate and limits on control surfaces, or blade speeds for quads. If you 'detune' for lack of a better word, the sticks then the clumsy, clutsy, over-compensating moves you'll likely make when learning can be compensated for and have less effect on how the bird reacts. If you set limits, you can also go a long way to preventing getting the model into a situation you can't handle .... like inverted flight. Of course, that also limits what flying you can intentionally do.

You can also set a switch to flip controls between two or three different response profiles, like a 'safe' setting for standard flight, and a zero limit mode for acrobatics. As YOU set what you want the curves and limits to be, you have a huge range of control over how tge bird responds to control inputs, so you can start out fairly safe, and gradually turn the responsiveness up as you get the feel for the controls.

@Spud1 .... to be honest, if you can handle a Nano, bigger models are (IMHO) easier. I think it's a mass thing. My biggest is a 450 size, though. And while easier, it's MUCH less forgiving than the Nano, and MUCH more expensive to fix when you prang it.

And MUCH more dangerous, too. To really hurt yourself with the Nano, you'd pretty much have to hit yourself in the eye with blades. Anywhere else and it stings, and you may get a cut, but nothing serious. But with a 450, let along bigger, getting hit by a carbon fibre rotor blade 14" long, moving at 200mph, or faster, is not a good idea. Stay well clear of inexperienced or novice pilots.

[Zak33]

got a Husban X4

corrrection.. my 10 year old has one.. Grandpa gave it to him as a birthday present last year.

We're just charging it now as it goes. The camera is really very good...

we've got a few extra batteries now so it's a good hour of fun in the fields nearby

ZakJunior is pretty good now.... neither of us are great but it's a proper good laugh