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Thread: Ready to fly Quadcopters- anyone know about them? (Xmas present advice)

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    Now with added sobriety Rave's Avatar
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    Ready to fly Quadcopters- anyone know about them? (Xmas present advice)

    My Uncle is coming down to visit us this Christmas. He's quite well off, and emailed me a week ago with details of a (very nice sounding) beauty spa treatment that he's booked for my wife and my sister-in-law as a Christmas present. Today he emailed me to say that with a budget of ~£150 each he's struggling to buy presents for my two brothers and I. They're both round mine tomorrow for a Christmas dinner with my Mum (his sister), who's home from Africa for 2 weeks but who will be off again on Christmas Eve. I'll tap my brothers for suggestions tomorrow- me, I'm going to ask for a Nexus 7- can't really justify one with my own money, but if someone else is paying...

    However, it puts me/us in the position of needing to buy him a reasonably pukka present. He's a retired engineer. I initially toyed with the idea of getting him one of those little Stirling Engines that'll run from the heat of your palm- or go like the clappers when put on a mug of tea. But the good ones are 90 quid on ebay, with uncertain delivery dates.

    So, thinking about what else he might like, I thought a pre-built quadcopter might tickle his fancy. I generally scan Ebuyer's ad emails, and I'm sure I've seen them advertising them, but I can't find much on their site apart from crappy IR indoor model helis.

    So- what I think would be ideal is a quadcopter that can be flown outdoors and which has a built in camera of reasonable if not stellar quality- because I think being able to see aerial footage would add immeasurably to the fun. Budget is anything from 80 to 150 quid- I'll be seeking contributions from Mum and my soon-to-be-blessed siblings.

    Any suggestions? Grateful for your help Hexites. If I'm in the wrong forum, my apologies.

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    The late but legendary peterb - Onward and Upward peterb's Avatar
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    Re: Ready to fly Quadcopters- anyone know about them? (Xmas present advice)

    There are a number of kits around, in various stated of completeness, many using the Arduino microcontroller to look after flight stability.

    You might want to start looking here

    http://www.hobbytronics.co.uk/projects/multicopter

    But I think your budget is a little low for what you describe, an outdoor model with a camera, and presumably a real time down link.
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    Re: Ready to fly Quadcopters- anyone know about them? (Xmas present advice)

    I wouldnt get anything RC from a general electronics shop, main problem is that you cant get spares and anything that is RC and flies will need them at some point, normally quiet quickly.

    I have had good dealings with Heliguy RC, he rebadges standard imports stuff, holds spares, or you can generally find out what the original model is and get spares online. He has just started doing a quadcopter, but its a bit small, and well under budget.



    http://www.heliguy.com/Electric-RC-H...er/Main-Group/

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    Studmuffin Flibb's Avatar
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    Re: Ready to fly Quadcopters- anyone know about them? (Xmas present advice)

    Another option that would leave a bit of modding scope is the Blade MQX, its a bit bigger, , more expensive, a bit more poweful, and some owners have managed to add a camera


    http://quadcopter.heliguy.com/Extras...ers/Blade-mQX/

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    Re: Ready to fly Quadcopters- anyone know about them? (Xmas present advice)

    Hubsan X4 - might be tough to try to find as they're selling out all over the place - very stable, and will happily fly outdoors too, tiny and around £35-55 depending on the shop.

    Edit, the first video Flibb posted is the Hubsan
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    Re: Ready to fly Quadcopters- anyone know about them? (Xmas present advice)

    Thanks all. In the end I went with the Hubsan- it seems a fun little thing, and it seems a bit silly to spend a lot of money on something that he may not use much. If he does like it I can always buy him a better one next year!

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    Re: Ready to fly Quadcopters- anyone know about them? (Xmas present advice)

    I'm going to build my own one next, based on an arduino flight controller and FreeIMU sensor set, it's around about the same size as the MQX, but is much more powerful and a lot stronger:

    See the Nanoquad videos here:

    http://vimeo.com/warthox

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