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  • TennJeep1618

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    Does anyone have experience with FPV quadcopters? A friend of mine has gotten into it recently and it looks really cool.



    I have no desire to get into racing but it looks like a lot of fun to just fly around.

    Since I'm not sure how long this type of thing will hold my interest, I was thinking about following this video's advice and getting a pretty cheap setup that is still capable.

     

    3rdown110yds2go

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    I have been looking at these for a while and you can spend as much as you want on these..I mean thousands .....From what I have seen that looks to be extremely affordable... well made and a helluva lot of fun.....I started reading up on the regulations/laws/codes on operating a drone in public.....There are some crazy ass guidelines on being able to play with drones in any public areas....But I was looking at it from a business point of view.
    Isn't there a member on here who is really into this type stuff ? Isn't Sean well versed on a lot of RC stuff ?
    Get one and let us know how much fun it is !!!
     

    madeSICC88

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    The ones that shadow you would be cool to use for outdoor stuff, like sking or kayaking or other stuff like that that you would want to film.
    Just flying them around would be fun for a short time IMO, I have used those R/C helicopters a bunch, those are fun because they are so hard to fly good, those new ones basically fly themselves so I would get bored with that I think.
    I would like to try one though.

    Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk
     

    Seanpcola

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    Sean's well versed in RC but loathes these things. Kendive is the zen master of this stuff.

    I shall keep my opinion short:These things are fantastic, lots of fun and have proven to be very effective for certain tasks.

    However, just like thugs and total idiots bring scrutiny, dumb laws and a bad public view of gun owners, so has these things messed up my hobby. Altitude restrictions, location restrictions, people with bad attitudes about remote controlled aerial vehicles and government registration (of which I ignore openly as I would with gun registration) have come about because of the 1% of bad apples.

    As for business opportunities: I know many that are trying, very few have made much money but not even enough to cover expenses. Maybe at some point afew will make a paycheck but it's an old idea.
     

    TennJeep1618

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    FWIW, I'm not interested in the photography/videography type drones. I'm only interested in low altitude, FPV flying for recreation (like the first video above where you're wearing goggles so it looks/feels like you're flying). I know my interest in these things will not last, so i'm trying to decide if it's worth it to spend the $300 to play for a while.
     

    Seanpcola

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    I got a real cheap one last year to play with. It was actually a pretty decent sized setup. Flew it in the house a good bit. Finally I took it outside and flew about 20 minutes. Suddenly I lost radio link, it went uncommanded full throttle, climbed to a dot, then hovered till batteries shut off from low voltage. Went down in the woods about a block from my house. Never found it.

    As with anything you get what you pay for. Cheap motors run forever, decent batteries have good run times, props are a dime a dozen but the transmitter and receiver need to be rock solid. I never scrimp on my RC radio systems (for aircraft) and I don't fly more than maybe a half mile away and that's big easy to see stuff. Don't trust the range stated on the box on cheap stuff.

    Get on one of the quad copter forums and ask about brands and radio quality in whatever price range. You will find plenty of guys with info.
     

    oneshot

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    Tenn if your going to waste 300 just buy me 3K of 9mm bullets and have them sent to me. I'm running short. Need them for the up coming Glock match only got 100 from the last match. Just my 5 cents jj
     

    kendive

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    This thread reminds me Sean. We still need to get together and fly sometime... Just Saying. Ha ha
     

    3rdown110yds2go

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    Sean's well versed in RC but loathes these things. Kendive is the zen master of this stuff.

    I shall keep my opinion short:These things are fantastic, lots of fun and have proven to be very effective for certain tasks.

    However, just like thugs and total idiots bring scrutiny, dumb laws and a bad public view of gun owners, so has these things messed up my hobby. Altitude restrictions, location restrictions, people with bad attitudes about remote controlled aerial vehicles and government registration (of which I ignore openly as I would with gun registration) have come about because of the 1% of bad apples.

    As for business opportunities: I know many that are trying, very few have made much money but not even enough to cover expenses. Maybe at some point afew will make a paycheck but it's an old idea.

    Yep....That is what I figured out very quickly that had sorta come and gone....I try to stay a few years behind technology !!! But there were some that were amazing....Battery starts getting low and I guess it's GPS system or something knows to turn it around and head back to home base....

    Well as you can see I am easily impressed !!!
     

    Seanpcola

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    This thread reminds me Sean. We still need to get together and fly sometime... Just Saying. Ha ha

    Yep. I've been staying home and tinkering on my house the last few years and haven't done hardly any flying. I plan on it in 2017. Need to check batteries in some stuff. Been thinking about selling a bunch of things and upgrading.

    On the quad flying thing, that took some getting used to after flying airplanes so long. No matter how hard I try I can't get them to bank into a turn and yaw them around.......

    Also, never had a reverse before.
     

    Seanpcola

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    Yep....That is what I figured out very quickly that had sorta come and gone....I try to stay a few years behind technology !!! But there were some that were amazing....Battery starts getting low and I guess it's GPS system or something knows to turn it around and head back to home base....

    Well as you can see I am easily impressed !!!

    Yeah, they are impressive. I never did FPV. Guess you need to get into that to make it more fun. With the stabilization systems and such they're kind of boring after a while. Didn't like cars or boats for the same reason.
     

    kendive

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    Yep. I've been staying home and tinkering on my house the last few years and haven't done hardly any flying. I plan on it in 2017. Need to check batteries in some stuff. Been thinking about selling a bunch of things and upgrading.

    On the quad flying thing, that took some getting used to after flying airplanes so long. No matter how hard I try I can't get them to bank into a turn and yaw them around.......

    Also, never had a reverse before.

    Yea some day. I always have an extra pair of fatshark googles for FPV so I can let someone else sit in the cockpit while I am flying... I still have my custom built by me quad and the long range aircraft and lots of other RC toys.

    Here is the long range aircraft. 433Mhz for Control and 1280Mhz for video feed. Three Cameras on board and complete EagleTree flight control with autopilot.

    kcbabn.jpg




    .
    Here is the Quad with the dual camera setup for two pilots.

    300elvl.jpg
     

    TennJeep1618

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    Question: Can you connect 2 sets of FPV goggles to one camera, or do you need 2 cameras for someone else to "fly along" with you.
     

    TennJeep1618

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    A little update to my situation. I've been watching some videos over the last 2 days and I got my old RC simulator (Esky FMS) installed on my new computer yesterday morning. I can fly planes in FPV, but the helicopters and multi rotors never act quite right. I discovered an FPV simulator this morning (http://www.immersionrc.com/fpv-products/liftoff-drone-race-simulator/) and bought it for $13. It's been fun so far. FPV quad flying is MUCH more difficult than RC planes (at least when it comes to these simulators). I figured the $13 would be a good investment to see if I like it enough to spend more on the real thing.
     

    kendive

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    Question: Can you connect 2 sets of FPV goggles to one camera, or do you need 2 cameras for someone else to "fly along" with you.

    Yes two sets of googles can receive the same video feed. You just set them both to the same channel as the Video TX.
     

    Seanpcola

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    Yea that what the wife says if I leave that aircraft on the dinning room table. LOL But it's the only place big enough to work on it!!!

    When we first moved to our house from the old place my shop wasn't ready so the living room, dining room and breakfast nook was covered with RC fuselages and wings. Wife didn't care for it but I pointed out how nicely the earth toned walls, tile and stone fireplace looked contrasting with all the monokote colors, especially the florescent and transparent oranges and reds.

    She didn't agree.
     

    Seanpcola

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    A little update to my situation. I've been watching some videos over the last 2 days and I got my old RC simulator (Esky FMS) installed on my new computer yesterday morning. I can fly planes in FPV, but the helicopters and multi rotors never act quite right. I discovered an FPV simulator this morning (http://www.immersionrc.com/fpv-products/liftoff-drone-race-simulator/) and bought it for $13. It's been fun so far. FPV quad flying is MUCH more difficult than RC planes (at least when it comes to these simulators). I figured the $13 would be a good investment to see if I like it enough to spend more on the real thing.

    It must be the simulator. I can guarantee you flying a RC airplane (a real one, not the new foamies with on board stabilization) is a lot harder for a newbie.
     

    TennJeep1618

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    It must be the simulator. I can guarantee you flying a RC airplane (a real one, not the new foamies with on board stabilization) is a lot harder for a newbie.

    It may be the simulator, but I spent many hours on it before I was able to land a plane without crashing. Landing it on a runway in line of sight view is still nearly impossible, but I don't have much trouble if I'm using a first person or third person (behind the tail) view.

    These FPV quads are a whole other ballgame, though. Since these things fly with some degree of forward pitch, you've got to get the camera angle right and constantly adjust the throttle to maintain height whenever pitching or rolling.

    I spent a few hours on the simulator yesterday and noticed some improvements by the end of the day. I still can't fly through the normal courses with the small gates, but I can handle some of the beginner courses with only marginal difficulty. After talking to my friend, watching lots of videos, reading articles, and having my head spin around from all of the information, I think I'm going to stick with the simulator for a while. I'm just not sure how far (if at all) I want to go down the rabbit hole, so I'm going to defer my decision to a later date. I still want to get better at shooting, so I can't let this take up too much of my time.
     

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